Abstract
BackgroundSeveral task-based functional MRI (fMRI) studies have highlighted abnormal activation in specific regions involving the low-level perceptual (auditory, visual, and somato-motor) network in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients. However, little is known about whether the functional connectivity of the low-level perceptual and higher-order cognitive (attention, central-execution, and default-mode) networks change in medication-naïve PTSD patients during the resting state.MethodsWe investigated the resting state networks (RSNs) using independent component analysis (ICA) in 18 chronic Wenchuan earthquake-related PTSD patients versus 20 healthy survivors (HSs).ResultsCompared to the HSs, PTSD patients displayed both increased and decreased functional connectivity within the salience network (SN), central executive network (CEN), default mode network (DMN), somato-motor network (SMN), auditory network (AN), and visual network (VN). Furthermore, strengthened connectivity involving the inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) and supplementary motor area (SMA) was negatively correlated with clinical severity in PTSD patients.LimitationsGiven the absence of a healthy control group that never experienced the earthquake, our results cannot be used to compare alterations between the PTSD patients, physically healthy trauma survivors, and healthy controls. In addition, the breathing and heart rates were not monitored in our small sample size of subjects. In future studies, specific task paradigms should be used to reveal perceptual impairments.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that PTSD patients have widespread deficits in both the low-level perceptual and higher-order cognitive networks. Decreased connectivity within the low-level perceptual networks was related to clinical symptoms, which may be associated with traumatic reminders causing attentional bias to negative emotion in response to threatening stimuli and resulting in emotional dysregulation.
Highlights
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders [1]
These findings suggest that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients have widespread deficits in both the low-level perceptual and higher-order cognitive networks
Decreased connectivity within the low-level perceptual networks was related to clinical symptoms, which may be associated with traumatic reminders causing attentional bias to negative emotion in response to threatening stimuli and resulting in emotional dysregulation
Summary
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders [1]. PTSD has a growing and serious impact on the population, little is known about the mechanisms by which this disorder develops. One hypothesis regarding the development of PTSD is the aberrant organization or dysfunction of distributed neural networks involving a triple network model correlation with cognition, including the salience network (SN), central executive network (CEN), and default mode network (DMN) [5]; this hypothesis is supported by previous studies [6,7]. Several task-based functional MRI (fMRI) studies have highlighted abnormal activation in specific regions involving the low-level perceptual (auditory, visual, and somato-motor) network in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients. Little is known about whether the functional connectivity of the low-level perceptual and higher-order cognitive (attention, central-execution, and default-mode) networks change in medication-naıve PTSD patients during the resting state
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