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. 2023 Jul;53(10):4666-4674.
doi: 10.1017/S003329172200157X. Epub 2022 Jun 2.

Attention allocation to negatively-valenced stimuli in PTSD is associated with reward-related neural pathways

Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez  1 , Amit Lazarov  2   3 , Xi Zhu  4 , Daniel S Pine  5 , Yair Bar-Haim  6 , Yuval Neria  7
Affiliations

Attention allocation to negatively-valenced stimuli in PTSD is associated with reward-related neural pathways

Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez et al. Psychol Med. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Background: In a recent eye-tracking study we found a differential dwell time pattern for negatively-valenced and neutral faces among patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma-exposed healthy control (TEHCs), and healthy control (HC) participants. Here, we explored whether these group differences relate to resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) patterns of brain areas previously linked to both attention processes and PTSD. These encompass the amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), and nucleus accumbens (NAcc).

Methods: Ten minutes magnetic resonance imaging rsFC scans were recorded in 17 PTSD patients, 21 TEHCs, and 16 HCs. Participants then completed a free-viewing eye-tracking task assessing attention allocation outside the scanner. Dwell time on negatively-valenced stimuli (DT%) were assessed relative to functional connectivity in the aforementioned seed regions of interest (amygdala, dACC, dlPFC, vlPFC, and NAcc) to whole-brain voxel-wise rsFC.

Results: As previously reported, group differences occurred in attention allocation to negative-valence stimuli, with longer dwell time on negatively valence stimuli in the PTSD and TEHC groups than the HC group. Higher DT% correlated with weaker NAcc-orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) connectivity in patients with PTSD. Conversely, a positive association emerged in the HC group between DT% and NAcc-OFC connectivity.

Conclusions: While exploratory in nature, present findings may suggest that reward-related brain areas are involved in disengaging attention from negative-valenced stimuli, and possibly in regulating ensuing negative emotions.

Keywords: Attention allocation; PTSD; eye-tracking; resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC); reward functioning; trauma-exposure.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
An example of a single matrix for (a) the anger-neutral block; (b) the fear-neutral block; and (c) the sad-neutral block. In each block the eight emotional faces comprise the anger/fear/sad area of interest (AOI) and the eight neutral faces comprise the neutral AOI.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
The NAcc-OFC pathway [−9, 24, −28].
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
NAcc-OFC resting-state connectivity associated with (demeaned) dwell time percent (DT%) on negative-valenced stimuli by group. NAcc, nucleus accumbens; OFC, orbitofrontal cortex; HC, healthy controls; PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder; TEHC, trauma-exposed healthy control.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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