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. 2019 Jan-Dec:3:2470547019829035.
doi: 10.1177/2470547019829035. Epub 2019 Feb 25.

A Review of fMRI Affective Processing Paradigms Used in the Neurobiological Study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Alyson M Negreira  1   2 , Chadi G Abdallah  1   2
Affiliations

A Review of fMRI Affective Processing Paradigms Used in the Neurobiological Study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Alyson M Negreira et al. Chronic Stress (Thousand Oaks). 2019 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and debilitating psychiatric disorder with a complex clinical presentation. The last two decades have seen a proliferation of literature on the neurobiological mechanisms subserving affective processing in PTSD. The current review will summarize the neuroimaging results of the most common experimental designs used to elucidate the affective signature of PTSD. From this summary, we will provide a heuristic to organize the various paradigms discussed and report neural patterns of activations using this heuristic as a framework. Next, we will compare these results to the traditional functional neurocircuitry model of PTSD and discuss biological and analytic variables which may account for the heterogeneity within this literature. We hope that this approach may elucidate the role of experimental parameters in influencing neuroimaging findings.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests Alyson Negreira declares that she has no conflicts of interest. Chadi G. Abdallah has served as a consultant and/or on advisory boards for Genentech, Janssen and FSV7, and editor of Chronic Stress for Sage Publications, Inc.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Patterns of hyper and hypoactivation in individuals with PTSD compared to TEC and NTC across studies using symptom provocation stimuli. Patterns of hyperactivation are denoted by up arrows, whereas hypoactivation are illustrated by down arrows. These patterns of activation are overlaid upon a right sagittal view of the brain, with colored areas representing brain regions commonly recruited during the neurobiological study of PTSD. Ins: Insula; dPFC: dorsol prefrontal cortex; rPFC: rostral prefrontal cortex; vPFC: ventral prefrontal cortex; PCC: posterior cingulate cortex; MCC: mid-line cingulate; dACC: dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; rACC: rostral anterior cingulate cortex; sgACC: subgenual anterior cingulate cortex; HPC: hippocampus; AG: amygdala; NAc: nucleus accumbens; Thal: thalamus; HTH: hypothalamus; FX: fornix; OB: olfactory bulb; HB: habenula.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Patterns of hyper and hypoactivation in individuals with PTSD compared to TEC and NTC across studies using conscious trauma unrelated stimuli. Patterns of hyperactivation are denoted by up arrows, whereas hypoactivation are illustrated by down arrows. These patterns of activation are overlaid upon a right sagittal view of the brain, with colored areas representing brain regions commonly recruited during the neurobiological study of PTSD. Ins: Insula; dPFC: dorsol prefrontal cortex; rPFC: rostral prefrontal cortex; vPFC: ventral prefrontal cortex; PCC: posterior cingulate cortex; MCC: mid-line cingulate; dACC: dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; rACC: rostral anterior cingulate cortex; sgACC: subgenual anterior cingulate cortex; HPC: hippocampus; AG: amygdala; NAc: nucleus accumbens; Thal: thalamus; HTH: hypothalamus; FX: fornix; OB: olfactory bulb; HB: habenula.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Patterns of hyper and hypoactivation in individuals with PTSD compared to TEC and NTC across studies using unconscious trauma related and unrelated stimuli. Patterns of hyperactivation are denoted by up arrows, whereas hypoactivation are illustrated by down arrows. These patterns of activation are overlaid upon a right sagittal view of the brain, with colored areas representing brain regions commonly recruited during the neurobiological study of PTSD. Ins: Insula; dPFC: dorsol prefrontal cortex; rPFC: rostral prefrontal cortex; vPFC: ventral prefrontal cortex; PCC: posterior cingulate cortex; MCC: mid-line cingulate; dACC: dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; rACC: rostral anterior cingulate cortex; sgACC: subgenual anterior cingulate cortex; HPC: hippocampus; AG: amygdala; NAc: nucleus accumbens; Thal: thalamus; HTH: hypothalamus; FX: fornix; OB: olfactory bulb; HB: habenula.
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