Cited by 36Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ResearchTraumatic Brain Injury ResearchPsychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research

Neural correlates of trauma-unrelated emotional processing in war veterans with PTSD

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van Rooij, S. J. H., Rademaker, A. R., Kennis, M., Vink, M., Kahn, R. S., Geuze, E.·2015·Psychological Medicine

Abstract

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is thought to be characterized by general heightened amygdala activation. However, this hypothesis is mainly based on specific studies presenting fear or trauma-related stimuli, hence, a thorough investigation of trauma-unrelated emotional processing in PTSD is needed. Methods: In this study, 31 male medication-naive veterans with PTSD, 28 male control veterans (combat controls; CC) and 25 non-military men (healthy controls; HC) were included. Participants underwent functional MRI while trauma-unrelated neutral, negative and positive emotional pictures were presented. In addition to the group analyses, PTSD patients with and without major depressive disorder (MDD) were compared. Results: All groups showed an increased amygdala response to negative and positive contrasts, but amygdala activation did not differ between groups. However, a heightened dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) response for negative contrasts was observed in PTSD patients compared to HC. The medial superior frontal gyrus was deactivated in the negative contrast in HC, but not in veterans. PTSD+MDD patients showed decreased subgenual ACC (sgACC) activation to all pictures compared to PTSD–MDD. Conclusion: Our findings do not support the hypothesis that increased amygdala activation in PTSD generalizes to trauma-unrelated emotional processing. Instead, the increased dACC response found in PTSD patients implicates an attentional bias that extends to trauma-unrelated negative stimuli. Only HC showed decreased medial superior frontal gyrus activation. Finally, decreased sgACC activation was related to MDD status within the PTSD group.

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Crossref · 10.1017/s0033291714001706

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  • Amygdala hyperactivity in PTSD may only become apparent during presentation of trauma-related stimuli and not during processing of non-trauma-related stimuli.

    “Alternatively, amygdala hyperactivity in PTSD may only become apparent during presentation of trauma-related stimuli and not during processing of non-trauma-related stimuli (van Rooij et al, 2014), such as the emotional faces used in the present study.”

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Authors
van Rooij, S. J. H., Rademaker, A. R., Kennis, M., Vink, M., Kahn, R. S., & Geuze, E.
Affiliations
  • Ministry of Defence (NL)
  • University Medical Center Utrecht (NL)
Venue
Psychological Medicine
Published
2014-07-18
Volume
45
Issue
3
Pages
575-587
ISSN
  • 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-8978
OpenAlex
W2134464723
Cited by
36
References
79
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4
FWCI
3.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Ministerie van Defensie
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Traumatic Brain Injury Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
Keywords
post-traumatic stress disorder, war veterans, amygdala activation, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, medial superior frontal gyrus, major depressive disorder, attentional bias, emotional picture processing, combat exposure
MeSH terms
War Exposure, Adult, Amygdala, Major Depressive Disorder, Emotions, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Veterans, Case-Control Studies

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