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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2014

Open Access 01-12-2014 | Research article

Rapid emotional processing in relation to trauma-related symptoms as revealed by magnetic source imaging

Authors: Inga Schalinski, James Moran, Maggie Schauer, Thomas Elbert

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2014

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Abstract

Background

Traumatic stress leads to functional reorganization in the brain and may trigger an alarm response. However, when the traumatic event produces severe helplessness, the predominant peri-traumatic response may instead be marked by a dissociative shutdown reaction. The neural correlates of this dissociative shutdown were investigated by presenting rapidly presented affective pictures to female participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and comparing responses to a Non-PTSD control group.

Methods

Event-related-magnetic-fields were recorded during rapid visual serial presentation of emotionally arousing stimuli (unpleasant or pleasant), which alternated with pictures with low affective content (neutral). Neural sources, based on the L2-surface-minimum-norm, correlated with the severity of the symptom clusters: PTSD, depression and shutdown dissociation.

Results

For the early cortical response (60 to 110 ms), dissociation and PTSD symptom severity show similar spatial distributions of correlates for unpleasant stimuli. Cortical networks that could be involved in the relationships seem to be widespread.

Conclusion

We conclude that shutdown dissociation, PTSD and depression all have distinct effects on early processing of emotional stimuli.
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Metadata
Title
Rapid emotional processing in relation to trauma-related symptoms as revealed by magnetic source imaging
Authors
Inga Schalinski
James Moran
Maggie Schauer
Thomas Elbert
Publication date
01-12-2014
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-193

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