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Reduced ventral anterior cingulate (vACC) activity to threat is thought to reflect an impairment in regulating arousal networks in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and skin conductance response (SCR) recording were used to examine neural functioning when arousal networks are engaged. Eleven participants with PTSD and 11 age- and sex-matched non-traumatized controls performed an oddball task that required responding to salient, non-trauma-related auditory target tones embedded in lower frequency background tones. Averaged target-background analyses revealed significantly greater dorsal ACC, supramarginal gyrus, and hippocampal activity in PTSD relative to control participants.With- SCR target responses resulted in increased vACC activity in controls, and dorsal ACC activity in PTSD. PTSD participants had reduced vACC activity relative to controls to target toneswhen SCR responseswere present. This reduction in vACC in PTSD relative to controlswas not apparent inwithout-SCR responses. These findings suggest that a reduction in vACC in PTSD occurs specifically when arousal networks are engaged.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Functional MRI; Skin conductance responses; Oddball; Anterior cingulate; PTSD; Arousal
Research Division:	Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
Research Group:	Psychology
Research Field:	Biological Psychology (Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, Physiological Psychology)
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions)
Objective Field:	Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions) not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Felmingham, KL (Professor Kim Felmingham)
ID Code:	71974
Year Published:	2009
Web of Science® Times Cited:	41
Deposited By:	Psychology
Deposited On:	2011-08-17
Last Modified:	2014-11-27
Downloads:	0