Astur Robert S, St Germain Sarah A, Tolin David, Ford Julian, Russell David, Stevens Mike
Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, Connecticut 06106, USA.
Cyberpsychol Behav. 2006 Apr;9(2):234-40. doi: 10.1089/cpb.2006.9.234.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often accompanied by memory problems and abnormal brain structure, particularly within the hippocampus. We implemented a cross-species, hippocampal-dependent task--the virtual Morris Water task--to assess hippocampal function in people with PTSD and age-matched controls during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Performance on the task was equivalent between the groups. However, when correlating fMRI-derived hippocampal activity during this task with PTSD severity, we observe a -0.84 correlation, indicating that those with reduced hippocampal activity show more severe PTSD symptoms. This correlation is not explained by differences in task performance, IQ, duration since trauma, nor time with PTSD. Hence, PTSD severity is predicted by functionally assessing the hippocampus using the virtual Morris water task, suggesting that this task may be used to identify those at risk for developing PTSD following a trauma.
创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）常伴有记忆问题和大脑结构异常，尤其是在海马体中。我们实施了一项跨物种、依赖海马体的任务——虚拟莫里斯水迷宫任务，以在功能磁共振成像（fMRI）期间评估PTSD患者和年龄匹配的对照组的海马体功能。两组在任务表现上相当。然而，当将此任务期间fMRI得出的海马体活动与PTSD严重程度进行关联时，我们观察到相关性为-0.84，这表明海马体活动减少的人表现出更严重的PTSD症状。这种相关性无法用任务表现、智商、创伤后的时长或患PTSD的时间差异来解释。因此，通过使用虚拟莫里斯水迷宫任务对海马体进行功能评估可以预测PTSD的严重程度，这表明该任务可用于识别创伤后有患PTSD风险的人群。
