Morris Kierra R, Jaeb Michael, Dunsmoor Joseph E, Stowe Zachary N, Cisler Josh M
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78701, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Madison, WI, 53719, USA.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2025 Feb;50(3):568-575. doi: 10.1038/s41386-024-02028-5. Epub 2024 Nov 19.
The neurocircuitry mechanisms underlying recall of traumatic memories remain unclear. This study investigated whether traumatic memory recall engages neurocircuitry representations that mirror activity patterns engaged during generalized threat stimulus processing in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Multivariate pattern analysis was used to train 3 decoders. A "trauma" decoder was trained on fMRI patterns during idiographic trauma versus neutral narratives in a sample of 73 adult women with PTSD. A separate cohort of 125 adult participants completed a reward and threat learning task, from which "shock" and "reward loss" decoders were trained on neural patterns during threat or reward outcome delivery, respectively. These decoders were then cross-tested on the alternative datasets, allowing analyses of the degree to which traumatic memory recall engaged neurocircuitry representations that overlap with more general aversive stimuli. Decoders were trained and tested in four networks related to salience processing as well bilateral amygdala and hippocampal masks. The shock decoder trained in a midcingulate / posterior insula network demonstrated elevated predictions for shock during traumatic versus neutral memory recall. Similarly, the trauma decoder made elevated predictions about trauma recall during shock versus no shock delivery across multiple networks related to salience processing. There was no overlap between reward loss decoder predictions and trauma memory recall or vice versa. PTSD participants with elevated re-experiencing symptoms demonstrated the highest engagement of shock activity patterns during trauma memory recall. These results suggest that trauma memory recall engages neurocircuitry representations that overlap with threat, specifically painful, stimulus delivery.
创伤性记忆回忆背后的神经回路机制仍不清楚。本研究调查了创伤性记忆回忆是否涉及神经回路表征，这些表征反映了创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）中一般威胁刺激处理过程中所涉及的活动模式。采用多变量模式分析来训练3个解码器。一个“创伤”解码器在73名患有PTSD的成年女性样本中，根据个人创伤与中性叙述期间的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）模式进行训练。另一组125名成年参与者完成了一项奖励和威胁学习任务，从中分别根据威胁或奖励结果传递期间的神经模式训练“电击”和“奖励损失”解码器。然后在替代数据集上对这些解码器进行交叉测试，从而能够分析创伤性记忆回忆涉及与更一般厌恶刺激重叠的神经回路表征的程度。解码器在与显著性处理相关的四个网络以及双侧杏仁核和海马体掩码中进行训练和测试。在中扣带回/后岛叶网络中训练的电击解码器在创伤性记忆与中性记忆回忆期间对电击的预测升高。同样，创伤解码器在与显著性处理相关的多个网络中，在电击与无电击传递期间对创伤回忆的预测升高。奖励损失解码器预测与创伤记忆回忆之间没有重叠，反之亦然。具有较高再体验症状的PTSD参与者在创伤记忆回忆期间表现出最高程度的电击活动模式参与。这些结果表明，创伤性记忆回忆涉及与威胁，特别是疼痛刺激传递重叠的神经回路表征。
