title: Brain Activity in Response to Trauma-specific, Negative, and Neutral Stimuli. A fMRI Study of Recent Road Traffic Accident Survivors.
abstract: Most studies of neuro-functional patterns in trauma-exposed individuals have been conducted considerable time after the traumatic event. Hence little is known about neuro-functional processing shortly after trauma-exposure. We investigated brain activity patterns in response to trauma reminders as well as neutral and negative stimuli in individuals who had recently (within 3 weeks) been involved in a road traffic accident (RTA). Twenty-three RTA survivors and 17 non-trauma-exposed healthy controls (HCs) underwent functional MRI while viewing Trauma-specific, Negative, and Neutral pictures. Data were analyzed from four a priori regions of interest, including bilateral amygdala, subcallosal cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex. In addition, we performed a whole brain analysis and functional connectivity analysis during stimulus presentation. For both groups, Negative stimuli elicited more activity in the amygdala bilaterally than did Neutral and Trauma-specific stimuli. The whole brain analysis revealed higher activation in sensory processing related areas (bilateral occipital and temporal cortices and thalamus) as well as frontal and superior parietal areas, for the RTA group compared to HC, for Trauma-specific stimuli contrasted with Neutral stimuli. We also observed higher functional connectivity for Trauma-specific stimuli, between bilateral amygdala and somatosensory areas, for the RTA group compared to controls, when contrasted with Neutral stimuli. We argue that these results might indicate an attentional sensory processing bias toward Trauma-specific stimuli for trauma exposed individuals, a result in line with findings from the post-traumatic stress disorder literature.
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress StudiesOslo, Norway; Center for the Study of Human Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of OsloOslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Andre S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Nilsen
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Blix
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Human Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of OsloOslo, Norway; The Intervention Centre, Oslo University HospitalOslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Siri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leknes
authors.affiliation: Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University HospitalOslo, Norway; Department of Behavioral Sciences in Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of OsloOslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Øivind
authors.initials: Ø
authors.lastname: Ekeberg
authors.affiliation: Research and Development, Department of Acute Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Laila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Skogstad
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Human Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Tor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Endestad
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London London, UK.
authors.forename: Bjørn C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Østberg
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress StudiesOslo, Norway; Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of OsloOslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Trond
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Heir
keywords: amygdala; attentional bias; functional connectivity; occipital cortex; road traffic accident; trauma-exposure; traumatic stress; visual cortex