Brain responses to symptom provocation and trauma-related short-term memory recall in coal mining accident survivors with acute severe PTSD

Hydrocortisone reduces emotional distracter interference in working memory

“…For instance, PTSD is associated with prefrontal dysfunction (Beckham et al, 1998;Bremner, 2002Bremner, , 2006Hou et al, 2007) and activation abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during WM performance (Galletly et al, 2001;Clark et al, 2003;Veltmeyer et al, 2005;Moores et al, 2008). Patients with stress-related disorders are also very susceptible to emotional distraction and poor at suppressing trauma-related or other (emotionally arousing) thoughts and feelings, possibly due to impaired prefrontal functioning (McNally, 1998;Elzinga and Bremner, 2002;Williams and Moulds, 2007).…”

Abnormal Brain Density in Victims of Rape with PTSD in Mainland China: A Voxel-Based Analysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

“…This finding, if replicated in larger patient samples, may serve as a marker of brain dysfunction in PTSD, and thus allows for the study of cerebellum pathophysiology before and throughout the course and treatment of PTSD. It should be noted that whilst the sample size (11 VoR with PTSD) of this study meets the threshold of research reported in the literature Jatzko et al, 2006a;Hou et al, 2007 , it was nevertheless limited in terms of its statistical power. A further limitation is the potential for selection bias in both the VoR Group and HC.…”

“…Because we are particularly interested in exploring increases/decreases in GMD in VoR with PTSD compared to VoR without PTSD and HC, two-sample t-tests were performed in the VBM analysis in a voxel-by-voxel manner. Consistent with previous studies (Liberzon et al, 2007;Hou et al, 2007), the significance threshold was set to p < 0.005 corrected for multiple comparisons with a minimal cluster size of >50 voxels. The significant regions were superimposed onto SPM2's standard T 1 -weighted brain images.…”

Religion, Violence, and Emotion: Modes of Religiosity in the Neolithic and Bronze Age of Northern China

“…Recent neuroscience studies of PTSD patients using brain imaging techniques and psychological testing suggest that PTSD (with its 'unwanted memories') affects only a certain percentage of people who experience a traumatic event, and that the likelihood of developing PTSD may also decrease with age. In a study of a traumatic coal mining disaster in Hunan, China in 2005, Hou et al (2007) found that only 50 per cent of individuals developed the condition after two months. Moreover, only 38 per cent of people older than 37 developed it, while 61.1 per cent of those under 37 developed it.…”