Configural Cue Performance in Identical Twins Discordant for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Theoretical Implications for the Role of Hippocampal Function

Gilbertson, Mark W.; Williston, Stephanie K.; Paulus, Lynn A.; Lasko, Natasha B.; Gurvits, Tamara V.; Shenton, Martha E.; Pitman, Roger K.; Orr, Scott P.

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.12.023

Cited by 100 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Hippocampal reduction may also be a preexisting vulnerability factor rather than a general consequence of PTSD. 54 As previously noted, 12 the convergent structural neuroimaging findings in patients with PTSD and those with depression raise issues about whether models of the neurocircuitry of PTSD 55 reflect common vulnerabilities to different types of psychopathology. Similar models have also been put forward to account for mood alterations in patients with depression.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Structural brain abnormalities common to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression

Kroes

Rugg

Whalley

et al. 2011

jpn

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IntroductionStructural brain abnormalities in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression show a marked overlap, Thus, meta-analyses of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies on individuals with both PTSD and unipolar depression have consistently identified reductions in hippocampal size relative to healthy controls. [1][2][3] This overlap is hard to interpret since PTSD and depression have a number of symptoms in common and are frequently comorbid. 4 For example, in one study, reduced hippocampal size was found only in depressed individuals if they also reported early childhood trauma, but two-thirds of this group had comorbid PTSD. 5 For these reasons, it is not known at present to what extent structural changes found in patients with PTSD are accounted for by comorbid depression. The present study used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to test directly to what extent there are commonalities in brain volume reductions and whether there is evidence for structural changes that are unique to one or the other disorder.In addition to reduced hippocampal size, PTSD has been associated with reductions in the dorsal anterior cingulate Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression are reliably associated with reductions in brain volume in markedly similar areas. To our knowledge, no volumetric studies have directly contrasted these conditions. We investigated which, if any, grey matter reductions would be uniquely associated with each disorder. We also investigated more subtle independent effects: specifically, correlations between brain volume and self-report measures of psychopathology. Methods: We obtained structural magnetic resonance imaging scans from participants with PTSD, major depression and healthy controls exposed to trauma. Participants completed standardized self-report measures of anxiety and depression. We used voxel-based morphometry, applying the DARTEL algorithm within SPM5 to identify associated volumetric changes. Results: We enrolled 24 patients with PTSD, 29 with major depression and 29 controls in our study. The clinical groups had regions of markedly smaller volume compared with the control group, particularly in prefrontal areas, but did not differ from each other. Greater self-reported anxiety was inversely related to volume in several areas, particu larly the inferior temporal cortex, among patients with PTSD, but was associated with some volume increases in patients with major depression. Greater self-reported depression showed similar but weaker effects, being inversely related to brain volume in patients with PTSD but positively related to volume in the cuneus and precuneus of those with major depression. Limitations: To maintain the representativeness of the sample, patients with PTSD were not excluded if they had typical comorbid conditions, such as depression. Patients were not all medication-free, but we controlled for group differences in antidepressant use in the analyses. Conclusion: We identified commonalities in area...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Structural brain abnormalities common to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression

Kroes

Rugg

Whalley

et al. 2011

jpn

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Hippocampal volume and declarative memory function in combat-related PTSD Hippocampal volume and declarative memory in PTSD 831 et al, 2008 ;Lang et al, 2009 ) and perhaps subservient to these, confi gural cue processing (Gilbertson et al, 2007 ). There is a danger that such alternative avenues for understanding the hippocampus in PTSD could be under-researched to the extent that a declarative memory framework is overvalued.…”

Section: Symposiummentioning

confidence: 99%

Hippocampal volume and declarative memory function in combat-related PTSD

Woodward

Kaloupek

Grande

et al. 2009

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

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The proposition that declarative memory defi cits are systematically related to smaller hippocampal volume was tested in a relatively large sample ( n = 95) of U.S. military veterans with and without combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder. This correlative analysis was extended by including multiple measures of verbal and visual declarative memory and multiple memory-relevant regional brain volumes that had been shown to exhibit main effects of PTSD in prior work. Small-to-moderate effects were observed on verbal declarative memory in line with a recent meta-analysis; nevertheless, little or no evidence of systematic linear covariation between memory measures and brain volumes was observed. ( JINS , 2009, 15, 830-839. )

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“…To date, the most direct evidence in support of the dualrepresentation model comes from two studies that assessed individual differences in visuospatial processing abilities and related them to PTSD symptoms (Bisby, King, Brewin, Burgess, & Curran, 2010;Gilbertson et al, 2007). In an elegant twin study, Gilbertson et al showed that PTSD was marked by impaired allocentric visuospatial processing, as measured with a 20-item multiple-choice task in which participants had to rotate cubes in their minds or visualize how papers would be folded.…”

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confidence: 99%

Individual differences in spatial configuration learning predict the occurrence of intrusive memories

Meyer

Smeets

Giesbrecht

et al. 2012

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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The dual-representation model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Brewin, Gregory, Lipton, & Burgess, Psychological Review, 117, 210-232 2010) argues that intrusions occur when people fail to construct context-based representations during adverse experiences. The present study tested a specific prediction flowing from this model. In particular, we investigated whether the efficiency of temporal-lobe-based spatial configuration learning would account for individual differences in intrusive experiences and physiological reactivity in the laboratory. Participants (N 0 82) completed the contextual cuing paradigm, which assesses spatial configuration learning that is believed to depend on associative encoding in the parahippocampus. They were then shown a trauma film. Afterward, startle responses were quantified during presentation of trauma reminder pictures versus unrelated neutral and emotional pictures. PTSD symptoms were recorded in the week following participation. Better configuration learning performance was associated with fewer perceptual intrusions, r 0 −.33, p < .01, but was unrelated to physiological responses to trauma reminder images (ps > .46) and had no direct effect on intrusion-related distress and overall PTSD symptoms, rs > −.12, ps > .29. However, configuration learning performance tended to be associated with reduced physiological responses to unrelated negative images, r 0 −.20, p 0 .07. Thus, while spatial configuration learning appears to be unrelated to affective responding to trauma reminders, our overall findings support the idea that the context-based memory system helps to reduce intrusions.

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Configural Cue Performance in Identical Twins Discordant for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Theoretical Implications for the Role of Hippocampal Function

Cited by 100 publications

References 78 publications

Structural brain abnormalities common to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression

Structural brain abnormalities common to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression

Hippocampal volume and declarative memory function in combat-related PTSD

Individual differences in spatial configuration learning predict the occurrence of intrusive memories

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