This is a preprint.

It has not yet been peer reviewed by a journal.

The National Library of Medicine is running a pilot to include preprints that result from research funded by NIH in PMC and PubMed.

[Preprint]. 2025 Mar 19:2025.03.18.25324188.

doi: 10.1101/2025.03.18.25324188.

Structural covariance of early visual cortex is negatively associated with PTSD symptoms: A Mega-Analysis from the ENIGMA PTSD workgroup

Nathaniel G Harnett^{1

2}, Soumyaa Joshi¹, Poornima Kumar^{1

2}, Courtney Russell^{3

4}, Daniel G Dillon⁵, Justin T Baker^{2

6}, Diego A Pizzagalli^{7

8}, Milissa L Kaufman², Lisa N Nickerson^{2

9}, Neda Jahanshad¹⁰, Lauren E Salminen¹⁰, Sophia I Thomopoulos¹⁰, Jessie L Frijling^{11

12}, Dick J Veltman^{12

13}, Saskia B J Koch^{12

14}, Laura Nawijn^{12

15}, Mirjam van Zuiden^{12

16}, Ye Zhu^{17

18}, Gen Li^{17

18}, Jonathan Ipser¹⁹, Xi Zhu^{20

21}, Orren Ravid²¹, Sigal Zilcha-Mano²², Amit Lazarov^{23

24}, Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez²⁵, Delin Sun^{26

3

4}, Ahmed Hussain^{3

4}, Ashley A Huggins²⁷, Tanja Jovanovic^{28

29}, Sanne J H van Rooij²⁹, Negar Fani²⁹, Anna R Hudson³⁰, Anika Sierk³¹, Antje Manthey³¹, Henrik Walter³¹, Nic J A van der Wee^{32

33}, Steven J A van der Werff^{32

33}, Robert R J M Vermeiren³⁴, Pavel Říha^{35

36

37}, Lauren A M Lebois^{2

38}, Isabelle M Rosso^{2

39}, Elizabeth A Olson^{40

39}, Israel Liberzon⁴¹, Mike Angstadt^{42

43}, Seth G Disner^{44

43}, Scott R Sponheim⁴⁴, Sheri-Michelle Koopowitz¹⁹, David Hofmann⁴⁵, Rongfeng Qi⁴⁶, Adi Maron-Katz⁴⁷, Austin Kunch⁴⁸, Hong Xie⁴⁸, Wissam El-Hage⁴⁹, Hannah Berg⁵⁰, Steven E Bruce⁵¹, Katie A McLaughlin⁵², Matthew Peverill⁵³, Kelly Sambrook⁵⁴, Marisa Ross⁵⁵, Ryan J Herringa⁵⁶, Jack B Nitschke⁵⁷, Richard J Davidson^{58

57

59}, Terri A deRoon-Cassini^{60

61}, Carissa W Tomas^{62

61}, Jacklynn M Fitzgerald⁶³, Jennifer Urbano Blackford⁶⁴, Bunmi O Olatunji⁶⁵, Steven M Nelson^{66

67

68

69}, Evan M Gordon⁷⁰, Maria Densmore⁷¹, Jean Théberge⁷¹, Richard W J Neufeld⁷¹, Miranda Olff^{12

72}, Li Wang^{73

18}, Dan J Stein¹⁹, Yuval Neria^{24

21}, Jennifer S Stevens²⁹, Sven C Mueller³⁰, Judith K Daniels^{74

75}, Ivan Rektor³⁶, Anthony King⁴², Nicholas D Davenport⁴⁴, Thomas Straube⁴⁵, Guangming Lu⁴⁶, Amit Etkin^{47

76}, Xin Wang⁴⁸, Yann Quidé^{77

78}, Shmuel Lissek⁵⁰, Josh Cisler⁷⁹, Daniel W Grupe⁵⁸, Christine Larson⁸⁰, Brandee Feola⁸¹, Geoffrey May^{68

67

66}, Chadi G Abdallah^{82

83}, Ruth Lanius^{84

71}, Paul M Thompson¹⁰, Rajendra A Morey³, Kerry Ressler^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
² Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁴ Department of Veteran Affairs Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
⁵ Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont MA, USA Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA.
⁶ Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
⁷ Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁸ Noel Drury, M.D. Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries, University of California, CA, USA.
⁹ Applied Neuroimaging Statistics Research Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Imaging Genetics Center, Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging & Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Marina del Rey, CA, USA.
¹¹ De Viersprong mental health specialist in personality disorders, family and behavior, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹² Amsterdam UMC University of Amsterdam, Psychiatry, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹³ Amsterdam UMC Vrije Universiteit, Psychiatry, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹⁴ Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
¹⁵ Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
¹⁶ Department of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
¹⁷ Laboratory for Traumatic Stress Studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹⁹ SA MRC Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
²⁰ Department of Bioengineering, The University of Texas at Arlington, TX, USA.
²¹ New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
²² University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
²³ Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
²⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
²⁵ Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA.
²⁶ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
²⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
²⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA.
²⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
³⁰ Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
³¹ University Medical Centre Charité, Berlin, Germany.
³² Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
³³ Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
³⁴ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
³⁵ First Department of Neurology, St. Anne's University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
³⁶ CEITEC-Central European Institute of Technology, Multimodal and Functional Neuroimaging Research Group, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
³⁷ Division of Womens Mental Health, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
³⁸ Division of Depression and Anxiety Disorders, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
³⁹ Center for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Harvard University, Belmont, MA, USA.
⁴⁰ Crisis Text Line.
⁴¹ Department of Psychiatry, Texas A&M University, Bryan, TX, USA.
⁴² Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
⁴³ Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁴⁴ Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁴⁵ Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Mu nster, Mu nster, Germany.
⁴⁶ Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
⁴⁷ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
⁴⁸ Department of Neurosciences and Psychiatry, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA.
⁴⁹ Université de Tours, INSERM, Imaging Brain & Neuropsychiatry iBraiN U1253, 37032, Tours, France.
⁵⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁵¹ University of Missouri-St. Louis, Department of Psychological Sciences, Center for Trauma Recovery, St. Louis, MO, USA.
⁵² Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁵³ Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁵⁴ Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁵⁵ Northwestern Neighborhood and Network Initiative, Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research, Evanston, IL, USA.
⁵⁶ School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁵⁷ Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁵⁸ Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁵⁹ Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA, Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
⁶⁰ Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, WI, USA.
⁶¹ Comprehensive Injury Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, WI, USA.
⁶² Division of Epidemiology and Social Sciences, Institute of Health and Equity, Medical College of Wisconsin, WI, USA.
⁶³ Department of Psychology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA, VISUAL PATHWAY STRUCTURE AND PTSD.
⁶⁴ Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁶⁵ Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, TN, USA.
⁶⁶ Veterans Integrated Service Network-17 Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans, Waco, TX, USA.
⁶⁷ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
⁶⁸ Center for Vital Longevity, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA.
⁶⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Bryan, TX, USA.
⁷⁰ Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
⁷¹ Department of Psychiatry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
⁷² ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre, Diemen, The Netherlands.
⁷³ State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁷⁴ Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
⁷⁵ GGZ Drenthe Mental Health Institute, Department Trauma Center,.
⁷⁶ VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
⁷⁷ School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁷⁸ Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
⁷⁹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
⁸⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
⁸¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁸² Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
⁸³ Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁸⁴ Department of Neuroscience, Western University, London, ON, Canada.

PMID: 40166540
PMCID: PMC11957098
DOI: 10.1101/2025.03.18.25324188

Structural covariance of early visual cortex is negatively associated with PTSD symptoms: A Mega-Analysis from the ENIGMA PTSD workgroup

Nathaniel G Harnett et al. medRxiv. 2025.

[Preprint]. 2025 Mar 19:2025.03.18.25324188.

doi: 10.1101/2025.03.18.25324188.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
² Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁴ Department of Veteran Affairs Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
⁵ Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont MA, USA Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA.
⁶ Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
⁷ Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁸ Noel Drury, M.D. Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries, University of California, CA, USA.
⁹ Applied Neuroimaging Statistics Research Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Imaging Genetics Center, Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging & Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Marina del Rey, CA, USA.
¹¹ De Viersprong mental health specialist in personality disorders, family and behavior, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹² Amsterdam UMC University of Amsterdam, Psychiatry, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹³ Amsterdam UMC Vrije Universiteit, Psychiatry, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹⁴ Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
¹⁵ Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
¹⁶ Department of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
¹⁷ Laboratory for Traumatic Stress Studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹⁹ SA MRC Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
²⁰ Department of Bioengineering, The University of Texas at Arlington, TX, USA.
²¹ New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
²² University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
²³ Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
²⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
²⁵ Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA.
²⁶ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
²⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
²⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA.
²⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
³⁰ Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
³¹ University Medical Centre Charité, Berlin, Germany.
³² Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
³³ Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
³⁴ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
³⁵ First Department of Neurology, St. Anne's University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
³⁶ CEITEC-Central European Institute of Technology, Multimodal and Functional Neuroimaging Research Group, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
³⁷ Division of Womens Mental Health, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
³⁸ Division of Depression and Anxiety Disorders, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
³⁹ Center for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Harvard University, Belmont, MA, USA.
⁴⁰ Crisis Text Line.
⁴¹ Department of Psychiatry, Texas A&M University, Bryan, TX, USA.
⁴² Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
⁴³ Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁴⁴ Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁴⁵ Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Mu nster, Mu nster, Germany.
⁴⁶ Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
⁴⁷ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
⁴⁸ Department of Neurosciences and Psychiatry, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA.
⁴⁹ Université de Tours, INSERM, Imaging Brain & Neuropsychiatry iBraiN U1253, 37032, Tours, France.
⁵⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁵¹ University of Missouri-St. Louis, Department of Psychological Sciences, Center for Trauma Recovery, St. Louis, MO, USA.
⁵² Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁵³ Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁵⁴ Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁵⁵ Northwestern Neighborhood and Network Initiative, Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research, Evanston, IL, USA.
⁵⁶ School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁵⁷ Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁵⁸ Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁵⁹ Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA, Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
⁶⁰ Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, WI, USA.
⁶¹ Comprehensive Injury Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, WI, USA.
⁶² Division of Epidemiology and Social Sciences, Institute of Health and Equity, Medical College of Wisconsin, WI, USA.
⁶³ Department of Psychology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA, VISUAL PATHWAY STRUCTURE AND PTSD.
⁶⁴ Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁶⁵ Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, TN, USA.
⁶⁶ Veterans Integrated Service Network-17 Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans, Waco, TX, USA.
⁶⁷ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
⁶⁸ Center for Vital Longevity, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA.
⁶⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Bryan, TX, USA.
⁷⁰ Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
⁷¹ Department of Psychiatry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
⁷² ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre, Diemen, The Netherlands.
⁷³ State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁷⁴ Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
⁷⁵ GGZ Drenthe Mental Health Institute, Department Trauma Center,.
⁷⁶ VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
⁷⁷ School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁷⁸ Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
⁷⁹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
⁸⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
⁸¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁸² Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
⁸³ Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁸⁴ Department of Neuroscience, Western University, London, ON, Canada.

PMID: 40166540
PMCID: PMC11957098
DOI: 10.1101/2025.03.18.25324188

Update in

Structural covariance of early visual cortex is negatively associated with PTSD symptoms: A Mega-Analysis from the ENIGMA PTSD workgroup.
Harnett NG, Joshi S, Kumar P, Russell C, Dillon DG, Baker JT, Pizzagalli DA, Kaufman ML, Nickerson LN, Jahanshad N, Salminen LE, Thomopoulos SI, Frijling JL, Veltman DJ, Koch SBJ, Nawijn L, van Zuiden M, Zhu Y, Li G, Ipser J, Zhu X, Ravid O, Zilcha-Mano S, Lazarov A, Suarez-Jimenez B, Sun D, Hussain A, Huggins AA, Jovanovic T, van Rooij SJH, Fani N, Hudson AR, Sierk A, Manthey A, Walter H, van der Wee NJA, van der Werff SJA, Vermeiren RRJM, Říha P, Lebois LAM, Rosso IM, Olson EA, Liberzon I, Angstadt M, Disner SG, Sponheim SR, Koopowitz SM, Hofmann D, Qi R, Maron-Katz A, Kunch A, Xie H, El-Hage W, Berg H, Bruce SE, McLaughlin KA, Peverill M, Sambrook K, Ross M, Herringa RJ, Nitschke JB, Davidson RJ, deRoon-Cassini TA, Tomas CW, Fitzgerald JM, Blackford JU, Olatunji BO, Nelson SM, Gordon EM, Densmore M, Théberge J, Neufeld RWJ, Olff M, Wang L, Stein DJ, Neria Y, Stevens JS, Mueller SC, Daniels JK, Rektor I, King A, Davenport ND, Straube T, Lu G, Etkin A, Wang X, Quidé Y, Lissek S, Cisler J, Grupe DW, Larson C, Feola B, May G, Abdallah CG, Lanius R, Thompson PM, Morey RA, Ressler K. Harnett NG, et al. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2025 Jul 23:S2451-9022(25)00221-6. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2025.07.005. Online ahead of print. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2025. PMID: 40712699

Abstract

Background: Identifying robust neural signatures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms is important to facilitate precision psychiatry and help in understanding and treatment of the disorder. Emergent research suggests structural covariance of early visual regions is associated with later PTSD development. However, large-scale analyses are needed - in heterogeneous samples of trauma-exposed and trauma naive individuals - to determine if such a neural signature is a robust - and potentially a pretrauma - marker of vulnerability.

Methods: We analyzed data from the ENIGMA-PTSD dataset (n = 2,814) and the Human Connectome Project - Young Adult (HCP-YA) dataset (n = 890) to investigate whether structural covariance of early visual cortex is associated with either PTSD symptoms or perceived stress. Structural covariance was derived from a multimodal pattern previously identified in recent trauma survivors, and participant loadings on the profile were included in linear mixed effects models to evaluate associations with stress.

Results: Early visual cortex covariance loadings were negatively associated with PTSD symptoms in the ENIGMA-PTSD dataset. The relationship persisted when accounting for prior childhood maltreatment; supporting PTSD symptom specificity, no relationship was observed with depressive symptoms and no association was observed between loadings and perceived stress measures in the HCP-YA dataset.

Conclusion: Structural covariance of early visual cortex was robustly associated with PTSD symptoms across an international, heterogeneous sample of trauma survivors. Future studies should aim to identify specific mechanisms that underlie structural alterations in the visual cortex to better understand posttrauma psychopathology.

Keywords: PTSD; Structural MRI; Trauma; Ventral visual stream.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

**Figure 1.**
Early visual structural covariance is associated with PTSD symptoms in the ENIGMA-PGC cohort. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and pial surface area (PSA) features of a previously identified multimodal structural covariance network (SCN) [12] were projected onto data from the ENIGMA-PTSD and HCP-YA (A). Within the ENIGMA-PTSD dataset, individual participant loadings for the SCN were negatively correlated with PTSD symptoms (B), however no relationship was observed between loadings and perceived stress in the HCP-YA dataset (C). Graphs represent the partial plots from linear mixed effects models. Solid lines represent the unique association from the model and the shaded bars represent the confidence intervals.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Hinojosa CA, George GC, Ben-Zion Z. Neuroimaging of posttraumatic stress disorder in adults and youth: progress over the last decade on three leading questions of the field. Molecular Psychiatry 2024 29:10. 2024;29:3223–3244. - PMC - PubMed
1. Ben-Zion Z, Spiller TR, Keynan JN, Admon R, Levy I, Liberzon I, et al. Evaluating the Evidence for Brain-Based Biotypes of Psychiatric Vulnerability in the Acute Aftermath of Trauma. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2023;180:146–154. - PMC - PubMed
1. Stevens JS, Harnett NG, Lebois LAM, Van Rooij JH, Ely TD, Roeckner A, et al. Brain-Based Biotypes of Psychiatric Vulnerability in the Acute Aftermath of Trauma. Am J Psychiatry. 2021;178:1037–1049. - PMC - PubMed
1. Harnett NG, Fleming LL, Clancy KJ, Ressler KJ, Rosso IM. Affective visual circuit dysfunction in trauma and stress-related disorders. Biol Psychiatry. 2024. 10 July 2024. 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCH.2024.07.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Long B, Yu CP, Konkle T. Mid-level visual features underlie the high-level categorical organization of the ventral stream. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018;115:E9015–E9024. - PMC - PubMed

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

This is a preprint.

Structural covariance of early visual cortex is negatively associated with PTSD symptoms: A Mega-Analysis from the ENIGMA PTSD workgroup

Affiliations

Structural covariance of early visual cortex is negatively associated with PTSD symptoms: A Mega-Analysis from the ENIGMA PTSD workgroup

Authors

Affiliations

Update in

Abstract

Figures

References

Publication types

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Miscellaneous