Enhanced amygdala and medial prefrontal activation during nonconscious processing of fear in posttraumatic stress disorder: an fMRI study.

Full Abstract

Biological models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suggest that patients will display heightened amygdala but decreased medial prefrontal activity during processing of fear stimuli. However, a rapid and automatic alerting mechanism for responding to nonconscious signals of fear suggests that PTSD may display heightened rather than decreased MPFC under nonconscious processing of fear stimuli. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine blood oxygenation level-dependent signal changes during nonconscious presentation (16.7 ms, masked) of fearful and neutral faces in 15 participants with PTSD and 15 age and sex-matched healthy control participants. Results indicate that PTSD participants display increased amygdala and MPFC activity during nonconscious processing of fearful faces. These data extend existing models by suggesting that the impaired MPFC activation in PTSD may be limited to conscious fear processing. Hum Brain Mapp, 2008. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.(Copyright) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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Author information

Author/s: Bryant, Richard A (RA); Kemp, Andrew H (AH); Felmingham, Kim L (KL); Liddell, Belinda (B); Olivieri, Gloria (G); Peduto, Anthony (A); Gordon, Evian (E); Williams, Leanne M (LM);

Affiliation: Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Sydeny, New South Wales, Australia. r.bryant@unsw.edu.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Human brain mapping (Hum Brain Mapp), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-May; vol 29 (issue 5) : pp 517-23

Dates: Created 2008/04/17; Completed 2008/07/22;

PMID: 17525984, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Amygdala - metabolism
Fear - physiology
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted

Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Prefrontal Cortex - metabolism
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - physiopathology
Unconscious (Psychology)

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