The neural correlates of trauma‐related autobiographical memory in posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

Background Autobiographical memory (AM) refers to memories of events that are personally relevant and are remembered from one's own past. The AM network is a distributed brain network comprised largely by prefrontal medial and posteromedial cortical brain regions, which together facilitate AM. Autobiographical memories with high arousal and negatively valenced emotional states are thought to be retrieved more readily and re‐experienced more vividly. This is critical in the case of trauma‐related AMs, which are related to altered phenomenological experiences as well as aberrations to the underlying neural systems in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Critically, these alterations to the AM network have not been explored recently and have never been analyzed with consideration to the different processes of AM, them being retrieval and re‐experiencing. Methods We conducted a series of effect‐size signed differential mapping meta‐analyses across twenty‐eight studies investigating the neural correlates of trauma‐related AMs in participants with PTSD as compared with controls. Studies included either trauma‐related scripts or trauma‐related materials (i.e., sounds, images, pictures) implemented to evoke the recollection of a trauma‐related memory. Results The meta‐analyses revealed that control and PTSD participants displayed greater common brain activation of prefrontal medial and posteromedial cortices, respectively. Whereby the prefrontal medial cortices are suggested to facilitate retrieval monitoring, the posteromedial cortices are thought to enable the visual imagery processes of AM. Conclusions Taken together, reduced common activation of prefrontal cortices may be interpreted as a bias toward greater re‐experiencing, where the more salient elements of the traumatic memory are relived as opposed to retrieved in a controlled manner in PTSD.

The hijacked self: Disrupted functional connectivity between the periaqueductal gray and the default mode network in posttraumatic stress disorder using dynamic causal modeling

“…Trauma-related stimulus conditions are used often to re-establish certain elements of a trauma memory ( Elsesser et al, 2005 , Liberzon et al, 1999 , Halligan et al, 2006 ), where the PCN and the mPFC are thought to contribute to self-related (as well as visual imagery) processes and memory-related construction, respectively (for a review, see Cabeza and St Jacques, 2007 , Svoboda et al, 2006 ). In PTSD as compared to controls, the PCN and the mPFC display stronger and lesser activity during trauma-related stimulus conditions, respectively (for a review, see Sartory et al, 2013 , Thome et al, 2019 ). Enhanced activity in the PCN (as well as the posterior parietal cortices more generally) support reliving experiences during trauma-related stimulus processing in participants with PTSD (for a review, see Brewin, 2015 ).…”

A Randomized Sham-controlled Trial of 1-Hz and 10-Hz Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) of the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Civilian Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Un essai randomisé contrôlé simulé de stimulation magnétique transcrânienne repetitive (SMTr) de 1 Hz et 10 Hz du cortex préfrontal dorsolatéral droit dans le trouble de stress post-traumatique chez des civils

“…Although the neuroimaging literature in PTSD has repeatedly identified the PFC as an important node in PTSD, these studies have highlighted the medial PFC (mPFC), [13][14][15][40][41][42] consistent with data suggesting that the mPFC interacts with key emotional nodes implicated in PTSD including the hippocampus and amygdala. Studies examining the predictive utility of functional magnetic resonance imaging have similarly highlighted the importance of DMPFC, temporoparietal junction, and limbic connectivity in predicting outcomes to theta-burst stimulation, 25 as well as the subgenual cingulate and decreased connectivity with the default mode network with high-frequency rTMS.…”

Neural vulnerability and hurricane-related media predict posttraumatic stress in youth

“…Disaster exposure is also shown to be sufficient to modify this circuit. Thus, attenuation of OFC activation in response to visual presentation of disaster events (e.g., earthquakes) occurs in people with PTSD relative to controls 32 , and this attenuation is consistently associated with symptom severity 30 . Hyperactivity of the parahippocampal gyrus is also a consistent finding in people with PTSD 33 .…”

“…In this characterization, the OFC directly interacts with amygdala to modulate the threat or stress response 29 , down-regulating amygdala in a top-down fashion 30 . Thus, differences in OFC-amygdala interactions can, in part, account for individual differences in emotion regulation 31 and stress response 30 . In people with disorders of stress and anxiety, this modulation is atypical.…”

“…In that research, conducted with children who were the same age as those studied here, there was an effect of “dose,” such that children who experienced high exposure were most susceptible to changes in neural reactivity. This shows that disaster-related stress has a persistent impact on brain functioning, and further suggests that these effects may snowball with increasing exposure “dose.” Indeed, negatively valenced arousal is known to increase attention to emotional stimuli and experiences 30 , and altered neural reactivity to negative emotional information following disasters may confer particular vulnerability to later stressors in adulthood 37 . Our results indicate that specific pre-existing features of a child’s brain-based emotional reactivity may make them more or less susceptible to the negative influence of repeated exposure to disaster threat, even through media, elevating risk for the development of subsequent PTS.…”