Parahippocampal activation evoked by masked traumatic images in posttraumatic stress disorder: A functional MRI study

Sakamoto, Hideshi; Fukuda, Ryouichi; Okuaki, Tomoyuki; Rogers, Mark A.; Kasai, Kiyoto; Machida, Tatsuya; Shirouzu, Ichiro; Yamasue, Hidenori; Akiyama, Tsuyoshi; Kato, Nobuo

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.02.032

Cited by 106 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The increased regional activity and reduced functional connectivity in frontolimbic and striatal regions occurred in areas known to be important for emotion processing (22). Atypical function in these areas has been implicated in previous studies of patients with chronic stress- related disorders (5,6,8,12,23) and was related to the reported level of emotional distress in our sample. Thus, the present investigation expands understanding of stress-related changes of brain function in humans in two important ways.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

High-field MRI reveals an acute impact on brain function in survivors of the magnitude 8.0 earthquake in China

Lui¹,

Huang

Chen³

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

129

112

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Besides the enormous medical and economic consequences, national disasters, such as the Wenchuan 8.0 earthquake, also pose a risk to the mental health of survivors. In this context, a better understanding is needed of how functional brain systems adapt to severe emotional stress. Previous animal studies have demonstrated the importance of limbic, paralimbic, striatal, and prefrontal structures in stress and fear responses. Human studies, which have focused primarily on patients with clinically established posttraumatic stress disorders, have reported abnormalities in similar brain structures. At present, little is known about potential alterations of brain function in trauma survivors shortly after traumatic events. Here, we show alteration of brain function in a cohort of healthy survivors within 25 days after the Wenchuan earthquake by a recently discovered method known as ''restingstate'' functional MRI. The current investigation demonstrates that regional activity in frontolimbic and striatal areas increased significantly and connectivity among limbic and striatal networks was attenuated in our participants who had recently experienced severe emotional trauma. Trauma victims also had a reduced temporal synchronization within the ''default mode'' of restingstate brain function, which has been characterized in humans and other species. Taken together, our findings provide evidence that significant alterations in brain function, similar in many ways to those observed in posttraumatic stress disorders, can be seen shortly after major traumatic experiences, highlighting the need for early evaluation and intervention for trauma survivors.neuroimaging ͉ stress ͉ anxiety ͉ depression ͉ posttraumatic stress disorder I n the afternoon on May 12, 2008, the epicenter of a devastating earthquake occurred in Wenchuan, in the Sichuan Province of China. It measured 8.0 on the Richter scale. The most severely affected geographical regions were Yingxiu, Wenchuan, Dujiangyan, and Shifang, where 45 million people were directly affected. Among them, 69,146 people were confirmed dead, 374,131 were seriously injured, and 17,516 are missing. A significant proportion of the survivors (Ϸ20%) (1) are likely to develop stress-related disorders, such as acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Given the serious and persistent impact of these highly prevalent psychiatric disorders, it is vital to develop a better understanding of the alterations of cerebral function evident in the early stages of adaptation to trauma. Such knowledge may lead to a better understanding of posttraumatic responses and the development of more effective early interventions.Studies of animal models of acute and chronic stress have provided evidence of physiological and morphological changes in several brain regions, including the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex (2, 3). Human studies (4-12) have focused primarily on patients who already have an established psychiatric disorder, such as ASD and PTSD. Despite some inconsis...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

High-field MRI reveals an acute impact on brain function in survivors of the magnitude 8.0 earthquake in China

Lui¹,

Huang

Chen³

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

129

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Previous findings for the amygdala are discordant. Most studies report greater amygdalar activation associated with PTSD (Shin et al, 1997;Rauch et al, 2000;Semple et al, 2000;Hendler et al, 2003;Shin et al, 2004;Shin et al, 2005;Williams et al, 2006), but there are contradictory reports of greater activation in controls (Britton et al, 2005;Phan et al, 2006), and numerous studies lack amygdalar findings entirely (Bremner et al, 1999a;Bremner et al, 1999b;Lanius et al, 2001;Shin et al, 2001;Lanius et al, 2002;Lanius et al, 2003b;Sakamoto et al, 2005). Quantitative analysis of signal-to-noise in this region showed poor signal quality using our standard echoplanar imaging sequence at 3T.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 77%

Neural systems for executive and emotional processing are modulated by symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in Iraq War veterans

Morey

Petty

Cooper

et al. 2008

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging

112

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The symptom provocation paradigms generally used in neuroimaging studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have placed high demands on emotion processing but lacked cognitive processing, thereby limiting the ability to assess alterations in neural systems that subserve executive functions and their interactions with emotion processing. Thirty-nine veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan underwent functional MR imaging while exposed to emotional combat-related and neutral civilian scenes interleaved with an executive processing task. Contrast activation maps were regressed against PTSD symptoms as measured by the Davidson Trauma Scale. Activation for emotional compared to neutral stimuli was highly positively correlated with level of PTSD symptoms in ventral frontolimbic regions, notably the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and ventral anterior cingulate gyrus. Conversely, activation for the executive task was negatively correlated with PTSD symptoms in the dorsal executive network, notably the middle frontal gyrus, dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule. Thus, there is a strong link between the subjectivelyassessed behavioral phenomenology of PTSD and objective neurobiological markers. These findings extend the largely symptom provocation-based functional neuroanatomy to provide evidence that interrelated executive and emotional processing systems of the brain are differentially affected by PTSD symptomatology in recently deployed war veterans.

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“…47 In patients with PTSD structural and functional alterations of the hippocampus have consistently been demonstrated. [48][49][50][51] Benzodiazepine agonists enhance GABA A Abbreviations: BA, Brodmann area; PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Statistical parametric mapping analysis revealed that veterans with PTSD showed reduced [ 11 C]flumazenil-binding potential compared to control veterans without PTSD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced GABAA benzodiazepine receptor binding in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

et al. 2007

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c-Aminobutyric acid (GABA A ) receptors are thought to play an important role in modulating the central nervous system in response to stress. Animal data have shown alterations in the GABA A receptor complex by uncontrollable stressors. SPECT imaging with benzodiazepine ligands showed lower distribution volumes of the benzodiazepine-GABA A receptor in the prefrontal cortex of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in one, but not in another study. The objective of the present study was to assess differences in the benzodiazepine-GABA A receptor complex in veterans with and without PTSD using [ 11 C]flumazenil and positron emission tomography (PET). Nine drug naive male Dutch veterans with deployment related PTSD and seven male Dutch veterans without PTSD were recruited, and matched for age, region and year of deployment. Each subject received a [ 11 C]flumazenil PET scan and a structural magnetic resonance imaging scan. Dynamic 3D PET scans with a total duration of 60 min were acquired, and binding in template based and manually defined regions of interest (ROI) was quantified using validated plasma input and reference tissue models. In addition, parametric binding potential images were compared on a voxel-by-voxel basis using statistical parametric mapping (SPM2). ROI analyses using both template based and manual ROIs showed significantly reduced [ 11 C]flumazenil binding in PTSD subjects throughout the cortex, hippocampus and thalamus. SPM analysis confirmed these results. The observed global reduction of [ 11 C]flumazenil binding in patients with PTSD provides circumstantial evidence for the role of the benzodiazepine-GABA A receptor in the pathophysiology of PTSD and is consistent with previous animal research and clinical psychopharmacological studies.

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Parahippocampal activation evoked by masked traumatic images in posttraumatic stress disorder: A functional MRI study

Cited by 106 publications

References 40 publications

High-field MRI reveals an acute impact on brain function in survivors of the magnitude 8.0 earthquake in China

High-field MRI reveals an acute impact on brain function in survivors of the magnitude 8.0 earthquake in China

Neural systems for executive and emotional processing are modulated by symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in Iraq War veterans

Reduced GABAA benzodiazepine receptor binding in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

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