New Antonia S, Fan Jin, Murrough James W, Liu Xun, Liebman Rachel E, Guise Kevin G, Tang Cheuk Y, Charney Dennis S
Mental Health Care Center, James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, New York, New York 10468, USA.
Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Oct 1;66(7):656-64. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.05.020. Epub 2009 Jul 9.
Sexual violence is an important public health problem in the United States, with 13% to 26% of women reporting a history of sexual assault. While unfortunately common, there is substantial individual variability in response to sexual assault. Approximately half of rape victims develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while others develop no psychopathology (e.g., trauma-exposed non-PTSD). In this project, we examined the neural mechanisms underlying differences in response to sexual violence, focusing specifically on the deliberate modification of emotional responses to negative stimuli.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response, we examined the neural circuitry underlying effortful modification of emotional responses to negative pictures in 42 women: 14 with PTSD after sexual trauma, 14 with no psychiatric diagnosis after sexual trauma, and 14 nontraumatized control subjects.
In response to deliberate attempts to downregulate emotional responses, nontraumatized healthy control subjects were more successful than either trauma-exposed group (PTSD or non-PTSD) in downregulating responses to the negative pictures as measured by subjective rating and BOLD response in regions of prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, after deliberate attempts to upregulate emotional responses, regions of PFC were activated by trauma-exposed non-PTSD subjects more than by healthy control subjects or PTSD subjects.
Successful downregulation of emotional responses to negative stimuli appears to be impaired by trauma exposure. In contrast, the ability to upregulate emotional responses to negative stimuli may be a protective factor in the face of trauma exposure and associated with resilience.
性暴力在美国是一个重要的公共卫生问题，有13%至26%的女性报告有性侵犯史。虽然不幸的是很常见，但对性侵犯的反应存在很大的个体差异。大约一半的强奸受害者会患上创伤后应激障碍（PTSD），而其他人则没有精神病理学问题（例如，暴露于创伤但未患PTSD）。在这个项目中，我们研究了对性暴力反应差异背后的神经机制，特别关注对负面刺激的情绪反应的刻意调节。
使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）反应，我们研究了42名女性对负面图片情绪反应进行刻意调节的神经回路：14名在性创伤后患有PTSD，14名在性创伤后没有精神疾病诊断，以及14名未受创伤的对照受试者。
在刻意尝试下调情绪反应时，通过主观评分和前额叶皮层（PFC）区域的BOLD反应测量，未受创伤的健康对照受试者在下调对负面图片的反应方面比任何一组受创伤的受试者（PTSD或未患PTSD）都更成功。相比之下，在刻意尝试上调情绪反应后，受创伤但未患PTSD的受试者激活PFC区域的程度比健康对照受试者或PTSD受试者更高。
对负面刺激的情绪反应的成功下调似乎因创伤暴露而受损。相比之下，上调对负面刺激的情绪反应的能力可能是面对创伤暴露时的一个保护因素，并与恢复力相关。
