Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Institute of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Psychophysiology. 2020 Jan;57(1):e13354. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13354. Epub 2019 Mar 2.
Intrusive memories are a key symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They emerge early after trauma exposure and are predictive for PTSD development. There is a high relevance in evaluating the neurobiological mechanisms of early stages of intrusive symptom development to provide a further understanding of PTSD. In the present study, we explore structural differences in healthy young female subjects preceding experimental trauma exposure and their relationship to early intrusive memory development using a traumatic film paradigm. With voxel-based morphometry, we demonstrate that smaller insular volume was associated with an increased number of early intrusive film memories. Moreover, larger lingual gyrus/cerebellar and inferior frontal gyrus/precentral gyrus volumes were also related to an increased number of early intrusive film memories. Our results identify unique brain areas associated with early experimental trauma memory processing and highlight the necessity of evaluating early symptom stages relevant for personalized PTSD prevention and treatment.
侵入性记忆是创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的一个关键症状。它们在创伤暴露后早期出现，并可预测 PTSD 的发展。评估侵入性症状发展早期的神经生物学机制具有重要意义，有助于进一步了解 PTSD。在本研究中，我们使用创伤影片范式，探讨了健康年轻女性在经历实验性创伤暴露前的结构差异及其与早期侵入性记忆发展的关系。通过基于体素的形态计量学，我们证明了岛叶体积较小与早期侵入性影片记忆数量增加有关。此外，舌回/小脑和额下回/中央前回体积较大也与早期侵入性影片记忆数量增加有关。我们的研究结果确定了与早期实验性创伤记忆处理相关的独特脑区，并强调了评估与个性化 PTSD 预防和治疗相关的早期症状阶段的必要性。
