Cited by 9Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ResearchTraumatic Brain Injury ResearchNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Posttraumatic stress symptomatology and abnormal neural responding during emotion regulation under cognitive demands: mediating effects of personality

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Sun, Michael, Marquardt, Craig A., Disner, Seth G., Burton, Philip C., Davenport, Nicholas D., Lissek, Shmuel, Sponheim, Scott R.·2020·Personality Neuroscience

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often complicated by the after-effects of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The mixture of brain conditions results in abnormal affective and cognitive functioning, as well as maladaptive behavior. To better understand how brain activity explains cognitive and emotional processes in these conditions, we used an emotional N-back task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study neural responses in US military veterans after deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, we sought to examine whether hierarchical dimensional models of maladaptive personality could account for the relationship between combat-related brain conditions and fMRI responses under cognitive and affective challenge. FMRI data, measures of PTSD symptomatology (PTSS), blast-induced mTBI (bmTBI) severity, and maladaptive personality (MMPI-2-RF) were gathered from 93 veterans. Brain regions central to emotion regulation were selected for analysis, and consisted of bilateral amygdala, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal (dlPFC), and ventromedial prefrontal/subgenual anterior cingulate (vmPFC-sgACC). Cognitive load increased activity in dlPFC and reduced activity in emotional responding brain regions. However, individuals with greater PTSS showed blunted deactivations in bilateral amygdala and vmPFC-sgACC, and weaker responses in right dlPFC. Additionally, we found that elevated emotional/internalizing dysfunction (EID), specifically low positive emotionality (RC2), accounted for PTSS-related changes in bilateral amygdala under increased cognitive load. Findings suggest that PTSS might result in amygdala and vmPFC-sgACC activity resistant to moderation by cognitive demands, reflecting emotion dysregulation despite a need to marshal cognitive resources. Anhedonia may be an important target for interventions that improve the affective and cognitive functioning of individuals with PTSD.

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  1. Tellegen, A., & Ben-Porath, Y. S. (2011). MMPI-2-RF: Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory-2 restructured form: Technical manual. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

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Authors
Sun, M., Marquardt, C. A., Disner, S. G., Burton, P. C., Davenport, N. D., Lissek, S., & Sponheim, S. R.
Affiliations
  • Dartmouth College (US)
  • University of Minnesota (US)
Corresponding author
Sponheim, Scott R.
Venue
Personality Neuroscience
Published
2020
Volume
3
Pages
e9-e9
ISSN
2513-9886 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3046589685
Cited by
9
References
79
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
FWCI
0.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Personality Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (IK2 RX002922)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Traumatic Brain Injury Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
post-traumatic stress disorder, mild traumatic brain injury, blast-induced traumatic brain injury, military veterans, emotion regulation, cognitive load, amygdala, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, maladaptive personality, positive affectivity, anhedonia, neural deactivation, combat exposure

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