Military deployment correlates with smaller prefrontal gray matter volume and psychological symptoms in a subclinical population.
Military deployment correlates with smaller prefrontal gray matter volume and psychological symptoms in a subclinical population.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/tp.2016.288
复制
发表时间：
2017-02-14
影响因子：
6.8
通讯作者：
Kühn S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Butler O;Adolf J;Gleich T;Willmund G;Zimmermann P;Lindenberger U;Gallinat J;Kühn S
研究创伤暴露对成人大脑结构和功能的影响主要集中在创伤后应激障碍（PTSD），而没有临床诊断的创伤暴露个体通常作为对照。然而，这假设了临床和亚临床人群之间的二分法，这在神经水平上可能不受支持。在当前的研究中，我们研究了亚临床样本中重复或长期的压力暴露对大脑结构的影响是否与之前的 PTSD 神经影像学发现相似。我们通过 3T 磁共振成像扫描的全脑体素形态测定法对 27 名遭受战斗创伤的个体进行了评估，发现军事部署持续时间与腹内侧前额叶皮层 (vmPFC) 和背侧前扣带皮层 (ACC) 灰质体积之间存在负相关。我们还发现与部署相关的灰质体积和心理症状之间存在负相关关系，但军事部署和心理症状之间没有负相关关系。据我们所知，这是第一个全脑分析，表明在没有创伤后应激障碍的经历过战斗的个体中，较长的军事部署与较小的区域脑体积有关。值得注意的是，观察到的灰质关联与之前在 PTSD 人群中发现的灰质关联相似，并且涉及涉及情绪调节和恐惧消退的区域。这些发现对目前 PTSD 神经影像学研究中临床和亚临床人群之间的二分法提出了质疑。相反，在连续水平上研究压力暴露和创伤后应激障碍症状的神经相关性可能更有意义。
Research investigating the effects of trauma exposure on brain structure and function in adults has mainly focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), whereas trauma-exposed individuals without a clinical diagnoses often serve as controls. However, this assumes a dichotomy between clinical and subclinical populations that may not be supported at the neural level. In the current study we investigate whether the effects of repeated or long-term stress exposure on brain structure in a subclinical sample are similar to previous PTSD neuroimaging findings. We assessed 27 combat trauma-exposed individuals by means of whole-brain voxel-based morphometry on 3 T magnetic resonance imaging scans and identified a negative association between duration of military deployment and gray matter volumes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We also found a negative relationship between deployment-related gray matter volumes and psychological symptoms, but not between military deployment and psychological symptoms. To our knowledge, this is the first whole-brain analysis showing that longer military deployment is associated with smaller regional brain volumes in combat-exposed individuals without PTSD. Notably, the observed gray matter associations resemble those previously identified in PTSD populations, and concern regions involved in emotional regulation and fear extinction. These findings question the current dichotomy between clinical and subclinical populations in PTSD neuroimaging research. Instead, neural correlates of both stress exposure and PTSD symptomatology may be more meaningfully investigated at a continuous level.