Chronic StressPub Date : 2020-05-04eCollection Date: 2020-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2470547020917623
Sigurd W Uldall, Kristoffer H Madsen, Hartwig R Siebner, Ruth Lanius, Paul Frewen, Elvira Fischer, Camilla G Madsen, Anne-Mette Leffers, Egill Rostrup, Jessica L Carlsson, Ayna B Nejad
{"title":"Processing of Positive Visual Stimuli Before and After Symptoms Provocation in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Trauma-Affected Male Refugees.","authors":"Sigurd W Uldall, Kristoffer H Madsen, Hartwig R Siebner, Ruth Lanius, Paul Frewen, Elvira Fischer, Camilla G Madsen, Anne-Mette Leffers, Egill Rostrup, Jessica L Carlsson, Ayna B Nejad","doi":"10.1177/2470547020917623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547020917623","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Symptoms of anhedonia are often central to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it is unclear how anhedonia is affected by processes induced by reliving past traumatic memories.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Sixty-nine male refugees (PTSD = 38) were interviewed and scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewing positive, neutral and Scrambled Pictures after being read personalized scripts evoking an emotionally neutral memory and a traumatic memory. We further measured postprovocation state symptoms, physiological measures and PTSD symptoms. We tested whether neural activity associated with positive picture viewing in participants with PTSD was differentially affected by symptom provocation compared to controls.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>For the pictures > scrambled contrast (Positive contrast), PTSD participants had significantly less activity than controls in fusiform gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus and left middle occipital gyrus. The Positive contrast activity in fusiform gyrus scaled negatively with anhedonia symptoms in PTSD participants after controlling for total PTSD severity. Relative to the emotionally Neutral Script, the Trauma Script decreased positive picture viewing activity in posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus and left calcarine gyrus, but there was no difference between PTSD participants and controls.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We found reduced responsiveness of higher visual processing of emotionally positive pictures in PTSD. The significant correlation found between positive picture viewing activity and anhedonia suggests the reduced responsiveness to be due to the severity of anhedonia.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":"2470547020917623"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2470547020917623","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38027492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chronic StressPub Date : 2020-04-01eCollection Date: 2020-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2470547020912504
Khushwant Dhaliwal, Ayala Danzig, Sarah K Fineberg
{"title":"Improving Research Practice for Studying Borderline Personality Disorder: Lessons From the Clinic.","authors":"Khushwant Dhaliwal, Ayala Danzig, Sarah K Fineberg","doi":"10.1177/2470547020912504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547020912504","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Borderline personality disorder is an often misunderstood and underdiagnosed mental illness characterized in part by affective lability. Clinicians' unique understanding of the disorder has allowed them to develop disorder-specific approaches to treatment. In this review, we highlight how borderline personality disorder research can benefit from greater engagement with key disorder-specific features, including symptom variability and interpersonal sensitivity. In addition, we propose that research which employs interactive tasks will be more reflective of the kinds of volatility found in the real-life situations. Finally, we discuss how mixed-methodology can serve as a way for recovery-oriented research to practice the very ideals and recommendations it suggests. We use a patient case to contextualize each section. As interest in borderline personality disorder continues to grow, an intentional emphasis on a person-centered, recovery-focused, and disorder-specific approach to research is needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":"2470547020912504"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2470547020912504","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38027494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chronic StressPub Date : 2020-02-26eCollection Date: 2020-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2470547020906799
Savannah N Gosnell, Matthew J Meyer, Cassandra Jennings, Danna Ramirez, Jake Schmidt, John Oldham, Ramiro Salas
{"title":"Hippocampal Volume in Psychiatric Diagnoses: Should Psychiatry Biomarker Research Account for Comorbidities?","authors":"Savannah N Gosnell, Matthew J Meyer, Cassandra Jennings, Danna Ramirez, Jake Schmidt, John Oldham, Ramiro Salas","doi":"10.1177/2470547020906799","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547020906799","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Many research papers claim that patients with specific psychiatric disorders (major depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, alcohol use disorder, and others) have smaller hippocampi, but most of those reports compared patients to healthy controls. We hypothesized that if psychiatrically matched controls (psychiatric control, matched for demographics and psychiatric comorbidities) were used, much of the biomarker literature in psychiatric research would not replicate. We used hippocampus and amygdala volume only as examples, as these are very commonly replicated results in psychiatry biomarker research. We propose that psychiatry biomarker research could benefit from using psychiatric controls, as the use of healthy controls results in data that are not disorder-specific.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Hippocampus/amygdala volumes were compared between major depressive disorder, sex-/age-/race-matched healthy control, and psychiatric control (N = 126/group). Similar comparisons were performed for posttraumatic stress disorder (N = 67), borderline personality disorder (N = 111), and alcohol use disorder (N = 136).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Major depressive disorder patients had smaller left (p = 8.79 × 10<sup>-3</sup>) and right (p = 3.13 × 10<sup>-3</sup>) hippocampal volumes than healthy control. Posttraumatic stress disorder had smaller left (p = 0.018) and right (p = 8.64 × 10<sup>-4</sup>) hippocampi than healthy control. Borderline personality disorder had smaller right hippocampus (p = 7.90 × 10<sup>-3</sup>) and amygdala (p = 1.49 × 10<sup>-3</sup>) than healthy control. Alcohol use disorder had smaller right hippocampus (p = 0.034) and amygdala (p = .024) than healthy control. No differences were found between any of the four diagnostic groups and psychiatric control.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>When psychiatric controls were used, there was no difference in hippocampal or amygdalar volume between any of the diagnoses studied and controls. This strategy (keeping all possible relevant variables matched between experimental groups) has been used to advance science for hundreds of years, and we propose should also be used in biomarker psychiatry research.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":"2470547020906799"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2470547020906799","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37962551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chronic StressPub Date : 2020-01-01Epub Date: 2020-01-14DOI: 10.1177/2470547019899962
Samaneh Nemati, Chadi G Abdallah
{"title":"Increased Cortical Thickness in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder Following Antidepressant Treatment.","authors":"Samaneh Nemati, Chadi G Abdallah","doi":"10.1177/2470547019899962","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547019899962","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Considering the slow-acting properties of traditional antidepressants, an important challenge in the field is the identification of early treatment response biomarkers. Reduced cortical thickness has been reported in neuroimaging studies of depression. However, little is known whether antidepressants reverse this abnormality. In this brief report, we investigated early cortical thickness changes following treatment with sertraline compared to placebo.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Participants (n=215) with major depressive disorder were randomized to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, sertraline, or to placebo. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired at baseline and one week following treatment. Response was defined as at least 50% improvement in Hamilton rating scale for depression score at week 8. In a vertex-wise approach, we examined the effects of treatment, response, and treatment×response.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Following correction for multiple comparisons, we found a significant effect of treatment, with widespread increase in cortical thickness following sertraline compared to placebo. Clusters with increased thickness were found in the left medial prefrontal cortex, right medial and lateral prefrontal cortex, and within the right parieto-temporal lobes. There were no sertraline-induced cortical thinning, and no significant response effects or treatment×response interactions.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our findings suggest that cortical thickness abnormalities may be responsive to antidepressant treatment. However, a relationship between these early cortical changes and later treatment response was not demonstrated. Future studies would be needed to investigate whether those early effects are maintained at eight weeks and are associated with enhanced response.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2470547019899962","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37542991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chronic StressPub Date : 2019-12-30eCollection Date: 2019-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2470547019896547
Milou S C Sep, Rosalie Gorter, Vanessa A van Ast, Marian Joëls, Elbert Geuze
{"title":"No Time-Dependent Effects of Psychosocial Stress on Fear Contextualization and Generalization: A Randomized-Controlled Study With Healthy Participants.","authors":"Milou S C Sep, Rosalie Gorter, Vanessa A van Ast, Marian Joëls, Elbert Geuze","doi":"10.1177/2470547019896547","DOIUrl":"10.1177/2470547019896547","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The formation of context-dependent fear memories (fear contextualization) can aid the recognition of danger in new, similar, situations. Overgeneralization of fear is often seen as hallmark of anxiety and trauma-related disorders. In this randomized-controlled study, we investigated whether exposure to a psychosocial stressor influences retention of fear contextualization and generalization in a time-dependent manner. The Trier Social Stress Test was used to induce psychosocial stress. Healthy male participants (n = 117) were randomly divided into three experimental groups that were subjected to the acquisition phase of the Fear Generalization Task: (1) without stress, (2) immediately after acute stress, or (3) 2 h after acute stress. In this task, a male with neutral facial expression (conditioned stimuli) was depicted in two different contexts that modulated the conditioned stimuli-unconditioned stimuli (=shock) association (threat, safe). Salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol levels were measured throughout the experiment. After a 24-h delay, context-dependency of fear memory was investigated with an unannounced memory test consisting of the threat and safe contexts alternated with a novel context (the generalization context). Multilevel analyses revealed that participants showed increased fear-potentiated startle responses to the conditioned stimuli in the threat compared to the safe context, at the end of the acquisition phase, indicating adequate fear contextualization. Directly after acquisition, there were no time-dependent effects of psychosocial stress on fear contextualization. Context-dependency of fear memories was retained 24 h later, as fear-potentiated startle responding was modulated by context (threat > safe or novel). At that time, the context-dependency of fear memories was also not influenced by the early or late effects of the endogenous stress response during acquisition. These results with experimental stress deviate in some aspects from those earlier obtained with exogenous hydrocortisone administration, suggesting a distinct role for stress mediators other than cortisol.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":"2470547019896547"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2470547019896547","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37962549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chronic StressPub Date : 2019-09-27eCollection Date: 2019-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2470547019873663
Janine Thome, Maria Densmore, Georgia Koppe, Braeden Terpou, Jean Théberge, Margaret C McKinnon, Ruth A Lanius
{"title":"Back to the Basics: Resting State Functional Connectivity of the Reticular Activation System in PTSD and its Dissociative Subtype.","authors":"Janine Thome, Maria Densmore, Georgia Koppe, Braeden Terpou, Jean Théberge, Margaret C McKinnon, Ruth A Lanius","doi":"10.1177/2470547019873663","DOIUrl":"10.1177/2470547019873663","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Brainstem and midbrain neuronal circuits that control innate, reflexive responses and arousal are increasingly recognized as central to the neurobiological framework of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The reticular activation system represents a fundamental neuronal circuit that plays a critical role not only in generating arousal but also in coordinating innate, reflexive responding. Accordingly, the present investigation aims to characterize the resting state functional connectivity of the reticular activation system in PTSD and its dissociative subtype.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We investigated patterns of resting state functional connectivity of a central node of the reticular activation system, namely, the pedunculopontine nuclei, among individuals with PTSD (n = 77), its dissociative subtype (PTSD+DS; n = 48), and healthy controls (n = 51).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Participants with PTSD and PTSD+DS were characterized by within-group pedunculopontine nuclei resting state functional connectivity to brain regions involved in innate threat processing and arousal modulation (i.e., midbrain, amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Critically, this pattern was most pronounced in individuals with PTSD+DS, as compared to both control and PTSD groups. As compared to participants with PTSD and controls, individuals with PTSD+DS showed enhanced pedunculopontine nuclei resting state functional connectivity to the amygdala and the parahippocampal gyrus as well as to the anterior cingulate and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. No group differences emerged between PTSD and control groups. In individuals with PTSD+DS, state derealization/depersonalization was associated with reduced resting state functional connectivity between the left pedunculopontine nuclei and the anterior nucleus of the thalamus. Altered connectivity in these regions may restrict the thalamo-cortical transmission necessary to integrate internal and external signals at a cortical level and underlie, in part, experiences of depersonalization and derealization.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The present findings extend the current neurobiological model of PTSD and provide emerging evidence for the need to incorporate brainstem structures, including the reticular activation system, into current conceptualizations of PTSD and its dissociative subtype.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":"2470547019873663"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219926/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37962548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chronic StressPub Date : 2019-09-18eCollection Date: 2019-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2470547019877880
Megan M Hoch, Gaelle E Doucet, Dominik A Moser, Won Hee Lee, Katherine A Collins, Kathryn M Huryk, Kaitlin E DeWilde, Lazar Fleysher, Dan V Iosifescu, James W Murrough, Dennis S Charney, Sophia Frangou, Brian M Iacoviello
{"title":"Initial Evidence for Brain Plasticity Following a Digital Therapeutic Intervention for Depression.","authors":"Megan M Hoch, Gaelle E Doucet, Dominik A Moser, Won Hee Lee, Katherine A Collins, Kathryn M Huryk, Kaitlin E DeWilde, Lazar Fleysher, Dan V Iosifescu, James W Murrough, Dennis S Charney, Sophia Frangou, Brian M Iacoviello","doi":"10.1177/2470547019877880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547019877880","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Digital therapeutics such as cognitive-emotional training have begun to show promise for the treatment of major depressive disorder. Available clinical trial data suggest that monotherapy with cognitive-emotional training using the Emotional Faces Memory Task is beneficial in reducing depressive symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate whether Emotional Faces Memory Task training for major depressive disorder is associated with changes in brain connectivity and whether changes in connectivity parameters are related to symptomatic improvement.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Fourteen major depressive disorder patients received Emotional Faces Memory Task training as monotherapy over a six-week period. Patients were scanned at baseline and posttreatment to identify changes in resting-state functional connectivity and effective connectivity during emotional working memory processing.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Compared to baseline, patients showed posttreatment reduced connectivity within resting-state networks involved in self-referential and salience processing and greater integration across the functional connectome at rest. Moreover, we observed a posttreatment increase in the Emotional Faces Memory Task-induced modulation of connectivity between cortical control and limbic brain regions, which was associated with clinical improvement.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>These findings provide initial evidence that cognitive-emotional training may be associated with changes in short-term plasticity of brain networks implicated in major depressive disorder.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our findings pave the way for the principled design of large clinical and neuroimaging studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":"2470547019877880"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2470547019877880","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37962550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chronic StressPub Date : 2019-09-09eCollection Date: 2019-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2470547019875116
Emily Kornelsen, M Claire Buchan, Andrea Gonzalez, Mark A Ferro
{"title":"Hair Cortisol Concentration and Mental Disorder in Children With Chronic Physical Illness.","authors":"Emily Kornelsen, M Claire Buchan, Andrea Gonzalez, Mark A Ferro","doi":"10.1177/2470547019875116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547019875116","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>To examine changes in hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) in children with chronic physical illness and identify patterns of association between HCC and mental comorbidity.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A sample of 50 children aged 6 to 16 years were recruited within six months of being diagnosed with a chronic physical illness. Data were collected via hair samples, structured interviews, and behavioral checklists.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There was no change in HCC over six months. Baseline HCC was associated with internalizing-odds ratio (OR) = 1.29 (90% confidence interval (CI): 1.01-1.66)-and externalizing disorders-OR = 1.32 (90% CI: 1.07-1.64). Externalizing disorder at six months was associated with elevated baseline-OR = 1.25 (90% CI: 1.02-1.53)-and six-month HCC-OR = 1.25 (90% CI: 1.02-1.54). Associations between HCC and mental disorder weakened over time, and for internalizing disorders, changed direction (i.e., inverse association), albeit not significantly.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Results provide preliminary evidence that physiological stress, measured using HCC, may be implicated in the relationship between physical and mental illness, and these associations align with attenuated stress responses over time.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":"2470547019875116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2470547019875116","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37962136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chronic StressPub Date : 2019-09-05eCollection Date: 2019-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2470547019871369
Braeden A Terpou, Maria Densmore, Jean Théberge, Janine Thome, Paul Frewen, Margaret C McKinnon, Ruth A Lanius
{"title":"The Threatful Self: Midbrain Functional Connectivity to Cortical Midline and Parietal Regions During Subliminal Trauma-Related Processing in PTSD.","authors":"Braeden A Terpou, Maria Densmore, Jean Théberge, Janine Thome, Paul Frewen, Margaret C McKinnon, Ruth A Lanius","doi":"10.1177/2470547019871369","DOIUrl":"10.1177/2470547019871369","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The innate alarm system consists of a subcortical network of interconnected midbrain, lower brainstem, and thalamic nuclei, which together mediate the detection of evolutionarily-relevant stimuli. The periaqueductal gray is a midbrain structure innervated by the innate alarm system that coordinates the expression of defensive states following threat detection. In participants with post-traumatic stress disorder, the periaqueductal gray displays overactivation during the subliminal presentation of trauma-related stimuli as well as altered resting-state functional connectivity. Aberrant functional connectivity is also reported in post-traumatic stress disorder for the default-mode network, a large-scale brain network recruited during self-referential processing and autobiographical memory. Here, research lacks investigation on the extent to which functional interactions are displayed between the midbrain and the large-scale cortical networks in post-traumatic stress disorder.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using a subliminal threat presentation paradigm, we investigated psycho-physiological interactions during functional neuroimaging in participants with post-traumatic stress disorder (n = 26) and healthy control subjects (n = 20). Functional connectivity of the periaqueductal gray was investigated across the whole-brain of each participant during subliminal exposure to trauma-related and neutral word stimuli.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>As compared to controls during subliminal threat presentation, the post-traumatic stress disorder group showed significantly greater periaqueductal gray functional connectivity with regions of the default-mode network (i.e., angular gyrus, precuneus, superior frontal gyrus). Moreover, multiple regression analyses revealed that the functional connectivity between the periaqueductal gray and the regions of the default-mode network correlated positively to symptoms of avoidance and state dissociation in post-traumatic stress disorder.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Given that the periaqueductal gray engages the expression of defensive states, stronger midbrain functional coupling with the default-mode network may have clinical implications to self-referential and trauma-related processing in participants with post-traumatic stress disorder.</p>","PeriodicalId":52315,"journal":{"name":"Chronic Stress","volume":" ","pages":"2470547019871369"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219912/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37962134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}