Department of Radiology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Transl Psychiatry. 2020 Aug 17;10(1):288. doi: 10.1038/s41398-020-00974-4.
The amygdala is a core component in neurobiological models of stress and stress-related pathologies, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While numerous studies have reported increased amygdala activity following traumatic stress exposure and in PTSD, the findings regarding amygdala volume have been mixed. One reason for these mixed findings may be that the amygdala has been considered as a homogenous entity, while it in fact consists of several nuclei with unique cellular and connectivity profiles. Here, we investigated amygdala nuclei volumes of the basolateral and the centrocorticomedial complex in relation to PTSD symptom severity in 47 young survivors from the 2011 Norwegian terror attack 24-36 months post-trauma. PTSD symptoms were assessed 4-5, 14-15 and 24-36 months following the trauma. We found that increased PTSD symptom severity 24-36 months post-trauma was associated with volumetric reductions of all basolateral as well as the central and the medial nuclei. However, only the lateral nucleus was associated with longitudinal symptom development, and mediated the association between 4-5 months and 24-36 months post-trauma symptoms. The results suggest that the amygdala nuclei may be differentially associated with cross-sectional and longitudinal measures of PTSD symptom severity. As such, investigations of amygdala total volume may not provide an adequate index of the association between amygdala and stress-related mental illness.
杏仁核是应激和应激相关病理学（包括创伤后应激障碍（PTSD））的神经生物学模型的核心组成部分。虽然许多研究报告了创伤后应激暴露和 PTSD 后杏仁核活性增加，但关于杏仁核体积的发现却存在差异。造成这些混合结果的原因之一可能是杏仁核被视为同质实体，而实际上它由几个具有独特细胞和连接特性的核组成。在这里，我们研究了 47 名年轻幸存者在创伤后 24-36 个月与 PTSD 症状严重程度相关的基底外侧和中央皮质内侧复合体的杏仁核核体积，这些幸存者来自 2011 年挪威恐怖袭击。在创伤后 4-5、14-15 和 24-36 个月评估 PTSD 症状。我们发现，创伤后 24-36 个月时 PTSD 症状严重程度增加与所有基底外侧以及中央和内侧核的体积减少有关。然而，只有外侧核与纵向症状发展有关，并介导了 4-5 个月和 24-36 个月后症状之间的关联。结果表明，杏仁核核可能与 PTSD 症状严重程度的横断面和纵向测量有不同的关联。因此，对杏仁核总体积的研究可能无法充分反映杏仁核与应激相关精神疾病之间的关联。
