Limbic brain responses in mothers with post-traumatic stress disorder and comorbid dissociation to video clips of their children
Open accessAbstract
Maternal dissociative symptoms which can be comorbid with interpersonal violence-related post-traumatic stress disorder (IPV-PTSD) have been linked to decreased sensitivity and responsiveness to children's emotional communication. This study examined the influence of dissociation on neural activation independently of IPV-PTSD symptom severity when mothers watch video-stimuli of their children during stressful and non-stressful mother-child interactions. Based on previous observations in related fields, we hypothesized that more severe comorbid dissociation in IPV-PTSD would be associated with lower limbic system activation and greater neural activity in regions of the emotion regulation circuit such as the medial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Twenty mothers (of children aged 12-42 months), with and without IPV-PTSD watched epochs showing their child during separation and play while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Multiple regression indicated that when mothers diagnosed with IPV-PTSD watched their children during separation compared to play, dissociative symptom severity was indeed linked to lowered activation within the limbic system, while greater IPV-PTSD symptom severity was associated with heightened limbic activity. Concerning emotion regulation areas, there was activation associated to dissociation in the right dlPFC. Our results are likely a neural correlate of affected mothers' reduced capacity for sensitive responsiveness to their young child following exposure to interpersonal stress, situations that are common in day-to-day parenting.
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Dissociative symptoms, when present with or without PTSD, were associated with increased emotion regulation cortical regions in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and decreased limbic activity in perirhinal cortex, hippocampus, and insula to separation versus play videos.
“A further analysis with the same dataset demonstrated that dissociative symptoms, when present with or without PTSD, were associated with increased emotion regulation cortical regions (right dorsolateral PFC) and decreased limbic activity (perirhinal cortex, hippocampus, insula) to separation versus play videos (Moser et al., 2013).”
From The maternal brain and its plasticity in humans (2016) · cites this paper as Moser et al., 2013
A follow-up study reported correlation between limbic brain activations in response to own-child video vignettes and dissociative symptoms (Moser et al., 2013).
“A follow-up study of the same subjects reported correlation between limbic brain activations in response to own-child video vignettes and dissociative symptoms (Moser et al., 2013)”
From Approaching the biology of human parental attachment: Brain imaging, oxytocin and coordinated assessments of mothers and fathers (2014) · cites this paper as Moser et al., 2013
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- Authors
- Moser, D. A., Aue, T., Wang, Z., Rusconi Serpa, S., Favez, N., Peterson, B. S., & Schechter, D. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Geneva (CH)
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Geneva Hospitals
- Corresponding author
- Moser, Dominik Andreas
- ORCID
- Venue
- Stress
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-07-23
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 493-502
- ISSN
- 1025-3890 (ISSN-L)
- 1607-8888
- OpenAlex
- W2067603229
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 3.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Stress (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (submittedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- International Psychoanalytical Association
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH068405)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, interpersonal violence, dissociation, limbic system activation, emotion regulation, medial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, mother-child interaction, separation stress, sensitive responsiveness, parenting, neural correlates
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Anxiety, Separation, Brain Mapping, Child, Preschool, Dissociative Disorders, Emotions, Female, Humans, Infant, Limbic System, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Video Recording, Violence, Prefrontal Cortex
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