Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2020 Oct;5(10):991-1001. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.05.014. Epub 2019 Jun 5.
Survival requires effective shifting of attention from one stimulus to another as goals change. It has been consistently demonstrated that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with both faster orienting of attention toward and slower disengagement of attention from affective stimuli. Prior work, however, suggests that attention abnormalities in PTSD may extend beyond the affective domain.
We used the Attention Network Test-modified to include invalid spatial cues-in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neurocognitive underpinnings of visuospatial attention in participants with PTSD (n = 31) and control participants who were (n = 20) and were not (n = 21) exposed to trauma.
We observed deficits in the utilization of spatial information in the group with PTSD. Specifically, compared with the non-trauma-exposed group, participants with PTSD showed a smaller reaction time difference between invalidly and validly cued targets, demonstrating that they were less likely to use spatial cues to inform subsequent behavior. We also found that in both the PTSD and trauma-exposed control groups, utilization of spatial information was positively associated with activation of attentional control regions (e.g., right precentral gyrus, inferior and middle frontal gyri) and negatively associated with activation in salience processing regions (e.g., right insula).
This pattern suggests that both trauma exposure and psychopathology may be associated with alterations of spatial attention. Overall, our findings suggest that both attention- and salience-network abnormalities may be related to altered attention in trauma-exposed populations. Treatments that target these neural networks could therefore be a new avenue for PTSD research.
生存需要有效地将注意力从一个刺激转移到另一个刺激，因为目标会发生变化。一致的研究表明，创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）与注意力对情感刺激的更快定向以及更慢的脱离有关。然而，之前的研究表明，PTSD 中的注意力异常可能不仅限于情感领域。
我们使用了经修改的注意网络测试，其中包括无效的空间线索，并结合功能磁共振成像，来研究 PTSD 患者（n=31）和控制参与者（n=20）和未暴露于创伤的控制参与者（n=21）的视空间注意力的神经认知基础。
我们观察到 PTSD 组在利用空间信息方面存在缺陷。具体来说，与未暴露于创伤的组相比，PTSD 患者在无效和有效提示目标之间的反应时间差异较小，表明他们不太可能利用空间提示来指导后续行为。我们还发现，在 PTSD 组和创伤暴露的对照组中，利用空间信息与注意力控制区域（例如右侧中央前回、中下额回）的激活呈正相关，与突显处理区域（例如右侧脑岛）的激活呈负相关。
这种模式表明，创伤暴露和精神病理学都可能与空间注意力的改变有关。总的来说，我们的发现表明，注意网络和突显网络的异常可能与创伤暴露人群中注意力的改变有关。因此，针对这些神经网络的治疗可能是 PTSD 研究的新途径。
