Page 275 - MEGIN Book Of Abstracts - 2023

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

MEG neural signature of sexual trauma in women Keywords: Biomarker, Magnetoencephalography, Post-
veterans with PTSD (2022) traumatic stress disorder, Sexual trauma

James, Lisa M; Leuthold, Arthur F; Georgopoulos, Experimental brain research (2022), Vol. 240, No. 7-8
Apostolos P (35786746) (2 citations)

Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, MN, USA. [email protected]; Department of Neural oscillations while remembering traumatic
Neuroscience, University of Minnesota Medical School, Min- memories in post-traumatic stress disorder (2022)
neapolis, MN, USA; Department of Neurology, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA Reuveni, Inbal; Herz, Noa; Peri, Tuvia; Schreiber, Shaul;
Harpaz, Yuval; Geisser, Ruth; Bonne, Omer; Goldstein,
ABSTRACT Previous research has documented the Abraham
utility of synchronous neural interactions (SNI) in clas-
sifying women veterans with and without posttrau- Department of Psychiatry, Hadassah University Hospital,
matic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan Univer-
outcomes based on functional connectivity using sity, Ramat Gan, Israel; Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan
magnetoencephalography (MEG). Here, we extend that University, Ramat Gan, Israel; Department of Psychiatry, Tel
line of research to evaluate trauma-specific PTSD neural Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; Department of
signatures with MEG in women veterans. Participants Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel; Gonda
completed diagnostic interviews and underwent a Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
task-free MEG scan from which SNI was computed. Electronic address: [email protected]
Thirty-five women veterans were diagnosed with PTSD
due to sexual trauma and sixteen with PTSD due to OBJECTIVE The current study investigated the oscil-
non-sexual trauma. Strength of SNI was compared in latory brain activity of PTSD patients during directed
women with and without sexual trauma, and linear and imaginal exposure to the traumatic memory using
discriminant analysis was used to classify the brain magnetoencephalography (MEG), in a paradigm resem-
patterns of women with PTSD due to sexual trauma bling exposure therapy.
and non-sexual trauma. Comparison of SNI strength be-
tween the two groups revealed widespread hypercor- METHODS Brain activity of healthy trauma-exposed
relation in women with sexual trauma relative to those controls and PTSD participants was measured with
without sexual trauma. Furthermore, using SNI, the MEG as they listened to individualized trauma narra-
brains of participants were classified as sexual trauma tives as well as to a neutral narrative and as they imag-
or non-sexual trauma with 100% accuracy. These find- ined the narrative in detail. Source localization analysis
ings bolster evidence supporting the utility of task-free by frequency bands was conducted in order to map
SNI and suggest that neural signatures of PTSD are neural generators of oscillatory activity.
trauma-specific.
RESULTS Elicitation of traumatic memories resulted
in a distinct neural pattern in PTSD patients compared
to healthy trauma-exposed individuals. In response to

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