Poster No:
455
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Sunyoung Choi1, CHANGJIN JUNG1, Hyungjun Kim1
Institutions:
1Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
First Author:
Sunyoung Choi
Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM)
Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Co-Author(s):
CHANGJIN JUNG
Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM)
Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Hyungjun Kim
Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM)
Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Introduction:
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition characterized by persistent emotional dysregulation and heightened fear responses following exposure to traumatic events. Previous neuroimaging studies have identified significant structural and functional alterations in key brain regions implicated in emotion regulation and sensory processing, including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), thalamus, and amygdala. These regions are thought to play pivotal roles in the development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms (Hatnett et al., 2020; Yoshii et al., 2021; Xiao et al., 2022). In this study, using resting-state fMRI data from 30 PTSD patients and 30 healthy controls, a Seed-to-Voxel analysis with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted to explore the functional brain network patterns of PTSD patients in a pre-treatment resting state.
Methods:
We selected the bilateral thalamus, mPFC, and amygdala as the seed regions for the Seed-to-Voxel analysis, as these are key regions associated with PTSD symptoms. First, we compared functional connectivity between PTSD patients and healthy controls. Then, we performed a functional connectivity analysis to investigate the correlations between the severity of PTSD symptoms, as measured by the CAPS score, and the connectivity in each seed region.
Results:
In the first analysis, functional connectivity was compared between PTSD patients and healthy controls, with significant differences observed in several seed regions. The connectivity between the mPFC and the left precuneus was significantly stronger in healthy controls (FWE p<0.05, k>100)., and lower mPFC-precuneus connectivity correlated with higher CAPS scores in PTSD patients (p<0.05). This suggests that PTSD patients show reduced connectivity between emotion-regulating mPFC and cognitive regions like the precuneus, with stronger reductions in more severe cases. Both the mPFC and precuneus are key parts of the Default Mode Network (DMN), and previous studies also reported reduced DMN connectivity in PTSD. For the thalamus seed region, the functional connectivity with the left frontal pole was stronger in healthy controls (FWE p<0.05, k>100), but no significant correlation with CAPS scores was observed in PTSD patients (p>0.05). The frontal pole is essential for high-level cognitive functions, and its dysfunction in PTSD is linked to difficulties in emotion regulation and problem-solving. The decreased connectivity between the thalamus and frontal pole in PTSD suggests impaired regulation of sensory processing and cognitive control, which contributes to PTSD pathophysiology. The second analysis examined correlations between PTSD severity (CAPS scores) and connectivity in each seed region. The results showed negative connectivity between the left amygdala and both the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the right posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) in PTSD patients (FWE p<0.05, k>100). Higher CAPS scores were associated with stronger negative connectivity in these regions. The PCC-amygdala connectivity is crucial for emotional memory and fear regulation, and alterations in this connectivity are linked to heightened fear and traumatic memory re-experiencing in PTSD. Similarly, changes in pMTG-amygdala connectivity impair emotional and social processing, leading to exaggerated emotional responses, poor social cue recognition, and negative self-perception, all of which can exacerbate PTSD symptoms.
Conclusions:
This study explored functional connectivity in PTSD using resting-state fMRI, focusing on the thalamus, mPFC, and amygdala. Reduced connectivity between the mPFC and precuneus, as well as the thalamus and frontal pole, was linked to more severe PTSD symptoms, reflecting disruptions in emotional regulation and sensory processing. These findings underscore the importance of targeting these brain networks in future PTSD treatments.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural) 2
Keywords:
FUNCTIONAL MRI
MRI
Psychiatric Disorders
Thalamus
Trauma
Other - mPFC, Amygdala, PTSD
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Resting state
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Patients
Was this research conducted in the United States?
No
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
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Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
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Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Functional MRI
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
SPM
Provide references using APA citation style.
Harnett, N. G., Goodman, A. M., & Knight, D. C. (2020). PTSD-related neuroimaging abnormalities in brain function, structure, and biochemistry. Experimental neurology, 330, 113331.
Nutt, D. J., & Malizia, A. L. (2004). Structural and functional brain changes in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 65, 11-17.
Xiao, S., Yang, Z., Su, T., Gong, J., Huang, L., & Wang, Y. (2022). Functional and structural brain abnormalities in posttraumatic stress disorder: A multimodal meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 155, 153-162.
Yoshii, T. (2021). The role of the thalamus in post-traumatic stress disorder. International journal of molecular sciences, 22(4), 1730.
Tu, J. W. (2021). Resting-state functional network models for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Neurophysiology, 125(3), 824-827.
No