Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Sep;40(10):2317-26.
doi: 10.1038/npp.2015.79. Epub 2015 Mar 19.

The Dissociative Subtype of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Unique Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Basolateral and Centromedial Amygdala Complexes

Andrew A Nicholson  1 , Maria Densmore  2 , Paul A Frewen  3 , Jean Théberge  4 , Richard Wj Neufeld  5 , Margaret C McKinnon  6 , Ruth A Lanius  3
Affiliations

The Dissociative Subtype of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Unique Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Basolateral and Centromedial Amygdala Complexes

Andrew A Nicholson et al. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2015 Sep.

Abstract

Previous studies point towards differential connectivity patterns among basolateral (BLA) and centromedial (CMA) amygdala regions in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as compared with controls. Here we describe the first study to compare directly connectivity patterns of the BLA and CMA complexes between PTSD patients with and without the dissociative subtype (PTSD+DS and PTSD-DS, respectively). Amygdala connectivity to regulatory prefrontal regions and parietal regions involved in consciousness and proprioception were expected to differ between these two groups based on differential limbic regulation and behavioral symptoms. PTSD patients (n=49) with (n=13) and without (n=36) the dissociative subtype and age-matched healthy controls (n=40) underwent resting-state fMRI. Bilateral BLA and CMA connectivity patterns were compared using a seed-based approach via SPM Anatomy Toolbox. Among patients with PTSD, the PTSD+DS group exhibited greater amygdala functional connectivity to prefrontal regions involved in emotion regulation (bilateral BLA and left CMA to the middle frontal gyrus and bilateral CMA to the medial frontal gyrus) as compared with the PTSD-DS group. In addition, the PTSD+DS group showed greater amygdala connectivity to regions involved in consciousness, awareness, and proprioception-implicated in depersonalization and derealization (left BLA to superior parietal lobe and cerebellar culmen; left CMA to dorsal posterior cingulate and precuneus). Differences in amygdala complex connectivity to specific brain regions parallel the unique symptom profiles of the PTSD subgroups and point towards unique biological markers of the dissociative subtype of PTSD.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Brain areas representing greater connectivity to the left basolateral amygdala within PTSD+DS as compared with PTSD−DS; (b) brain areas representing greater connectivity to the right basolateral amygdala within the PTSD+DS as compared with PTSD−DS; (c) brain areas representing greater connectivity to the left centromedial amygdala within PTSD+DS, as compared with PTSD−DS; (d) brain areas representing greater connectivity to the right centromedial amygdala within PTSD+DS as compared with PTSD−DS. Statistical threshold p<0.005 uncorrected, k=10 for all two-sample t-tests. BLA, basolateral amygdala; CMA, centromedial amygdala; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; PTSD+DS, dissociative subtype posttraumatic stress disorder group; PTSD−DS, non-dissociative posttraumatic stress disorder group. *Indicates the a-priori region-of-interest analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association 2013Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders5th edn. American Psychiatric Publishing: Washington, DC, USA
    1. Banks SJ, Eddy KT, Angstadt M, Nathan PJ, Phan KL. Amygdala-frontal connectivity during emotion regulation. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2007;2:303–312. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beck AT, Guth D, Steer RA, Ball R. Screening for major depression disorders in medical inpatients with the beck depression inventory for primary care. Behav Res Ther. 1997;35:785–791. - PubMed
    1. Bernstein DP, Stein JA, Newcomb MD, Walker E, Pogge D, Ahluvalia T, et al. Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Truama Questionnaire. Child Abuse Neglect. 2003;27:169–190. - PubMed
    1. Birn RM. The role of physiological noise in resting-state functional connectivity. Neuroimage. 2012;62:864–870. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms