Abstract
Background: Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated exaggerated amygdala responses to negative stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The time course of this amygdala response is largely unstudied and is relevant to questions of habituation and sensitization in PTSD exposure therapy. Methods: We applied blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and statistical parametric mapping to study amygdala responses to trauma-related and nontrauma-related emotional words in sexual/physical abuse PTSD and normal control subjects. We examined the time course of this response by separate analysis of early and late epochs. Results: PTSD versus normal control subjects have a relatively increased initial amygdala response to trauma-related negative, but not nontrauma-related negative, versus neutral stimuli. Patients also fail to show the normal patterns of sensitization and habituation to different categories of negative stimuli. These findings correlate with measured PTSD symptom severity. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate differential time courses and specificity of amygdala response to emotional and control stimuli in PTSD and normal control subjects. This has implications for pathophysiologic models of PTSD and treatment response. The results also extend previous neuroimaging studies demonstrating relatively increased amygdala response in PTSD and expand these results to a largely female patient population probed with emotionally valenced words.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 464-473 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Biological Psychiatry |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2005 |
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Keywords
- Amygdala
- Emotion
- fMRI
- Neuroimaging
- PTSD
- Yime course
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biological Psychiatry
Cite this
Differential time courses and specificity of amygdala activity in posttraumatic stress disorder subjects and normal control subjects. / Protopopescu, Xenia; Pan, Hong; Tuescher, Oliver; Cloitre, Marylene; Goldstein, Martin; Engelien, Wolfgang; Epstein, Jane; Yang, Yihong; Gorman, Jack; Ledoux, Joseph; Silbersweig, David; Stern, Emily.
In: Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 57, No. 5, 01.03.2005, p. 464-473.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential time courses and specificity of amygdala activity in posttraumatic stress disorder subjects and normal control subjects
AU - Protopopescu, Xenia
AU - Pan, Hong
AU - Tuescher, Oliver
AU - Cloitre, Marylene
AU - Goldstein, Martin
AU - Engelien, Wolfgang
AU - Epstein, Jane
AU - Yang, Yihong
AU - Gorman, Jack
AU - Ledoux, Joseph
AU - Silbersweig, David
AU - Stern, Emily
PY - 2005/3/1
Y1 - 2005/3/1
N2 - Background: Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated exaggerated amygdala responses to negative stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The time course of this amygdala response is largely unstudied and is relevant to questions of habituation and sensitization in PTSD exposure therapy. Methods: We applied blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and statistical parametric mapping to study amygdala responses to trauma-related and nontrauma-related emotional words in sexual/physical abuse PTSD and normal control subjects. We examined the time course of this response by separate analysis of early and late epochs. Results: PTSD versus normal control subjects have a relatively increased initial amygdala response to trauma-related negative, but not nontrauma-related negative, versus neutral stimuli. Patients also fail to show the normal patterns of sensitization and habituation to different categories of negative stimuli. These findings correlate with measured PTSD symptom severity. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate differential time courses and specificity of amygdala response to emotional and control stimuli in PTSD and normal control subjects. This has implications for pathophysiologic models of PTSD and treatment response. The results also extend previous neuroimaging studies demonstrating relatively increased amygdala response in PTSD and expand these results to a largely female patient population probed with emotionally valenced words.
AB - Background: Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated exaggerated amygdala responses to negative stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The time course of this amygdala response is largely unstudied and is relevant to questions of habituation and sensitization in PTSD exposure therapy. Methods: We applied blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and statistical parametric mapping to study amygdala responses to trauma-related and nontrauma-related emotional words in sexual/physical abuse PTSD and normal control subjects. We examined the time course of this response by separate analysis of early and late epochs. Results: PTSD versus normal control subjects have a relatively increased initial amygdala response to trauma-related negative, but not nontrauma-related negative, versus neutral stimuli. Patients also fail to show the normal patterns of sensitization and habituation to different categories of negative stimuli. These findings correlate with measured PTSD symptom severity. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate differential time courses and specificity of amygdala response to emotional and control stimuli in PTSD and normal control subjects. This has implications for pathophysiologic models of PTSD and treatment response. The results also extend previous neuroimaging studies demonstrating relatively increased amygdala response in PTSD and expand these results to a largely female patient population probed with emotionally valenced words.
KW - Amygdala
KW - Emotion
KW - fMRI
KW - Neuroimaging
KW - PTSD
KW - Yime course
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=20044390363&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=20044390363&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.12.026
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.12.026
M3 - Article
C2 - 15737660
AN - SCOPUS:20044390363
VL - 57
SP - 464
EP - 473
JO - Biological Psychiatry
JF - Biological Psychiatry
SN - 0006-3223
IS - 5
ER -