MEMORY AND EMOTION IN PTSD PATIENTS AND CONTROLS

几项行为研究表明，记忆力经常被增强 正常情况下的情绪刺激。与正常人相比，患有 创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)表现为选择性增强 召回与创伤相关的材料。但在回忆中显示出缺陷 中性刺激。这表明 创伤后应激障碍的情绪记忆系统。以前的神经成像和 神经生物研究表明，杏仁核，海马体， 后扣带回、脾后皮质和前额叶皮质 参与情绪性情景记忆的获得和提取。 这项研究使用功能磁共振成像来研究神经功能的差异 创伤后应激障碍患者和对照组在情绪和情绪方面的表现 中性刺激。随后对刺激的回忆和识别将 描述个人和群体在记忆表现上的差异。我们 假设创伤后应激障碍患者与对照组相比，将表现出 杏仁核和后扣带回皮质激活增强 对威胁性刺激，但降低了海马体的激活反应 对中性刺激。此外，召回任务的绩效将是 与杏仁核和海马区的激活程度有关。 这些研究将有助于理解大脑是如何 增强对情绪刺激的记忆，以及这种情绪记忆是如何 中性刺激在创伤后应激障碍中可能发生改变。这些数据将提供 年临床神经科学研究系统计划的基础 创伤后应激障碍。

Several behavioral studies have shown that memory is often enhanced for emotional stimuli in normals. Compared to normals, patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) exhibit selectively enhanced recall for trauma-related material. but show deficits in recall of neutral stimuli. This suggests a functional abnormality of the emotional memory system in PTSD. Previous neuroimaging and neurobioligical studies have suggested that the amygdala, hippocampus, posterior cingulate, retrosplenial cortex, and prefrontal cortex are involved in the acquisition and retrieval of emotional episodic memory. This study uses fMRI to investigate neurofunctional differences between patients with PTSD and controls during the presentation of emotional and neutral stimuli. Subsequent recall and recognition of the stimuli will describe individual and group differences in memory performance. We hypothesize that PTSD subjects, compared to controls, will show increased amygdala and posterior cingulate cortex activation in response to threatening stimuli, but decreased hippocampus activation in response to neutral stimuli. Also, performance on the recall task will be related to the degree of activation in the amygdala and hippocampus. These studies will contribute to the understanding of how the brain enhances memory of emotional stimuli and how this memory for emotional and neutral stimuli may be altered in PTSD. These data will provide the foundation for a systematic program of clinical neuroscience research in PTSD.