[Posttraumatic stress disorder and trauma memory--a psychobiological perspective].
We postulate that posttraumatic stress disorder is maintained by learnt cortical and subcortical plastic changes. Specifically, we assume that classical conditioning leads to an intense emotional memory of the trauma that is mainly implicit and related to plastic changes in subcortical structures such as the amygdala. At the same time an insufficient explicit trauma memory is formed that manifests itself in insufficient cortical processing of trauma content. This dissociation of implicit and explicit memory prevents the extinction of the emotional response to the trauma and perpetuates the disorder. First empirical results based on this model confirm the main hypotheses.
Wessa
Michèle
M
Lehrstuhl für Neuropsychologie an der Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit, J 5, D-68159 Mannheim, Germany. wessa@as200.zi-mannheim.de
Flor
Herta
H
D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology