Veterans with PTSD demonstrate amygdala hyperactivity while viewing threatening faces: A MEG study

Amy Badura-Brack; Timothy J McDermott; Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham; Tara J Ryan; Maya M Khanna; Daniel S Pine; Yair Bar-Haim; Tony W Wilson

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.01.005

Veterans with PTSD demonstrate amygdala hyperactivity while viewing threatening faces: A MEG study

Biol Psychol. 2018 Feb:132:228-232. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.01.005. Epub 2018 Jan 5.

Authors

Amy Badura-Brack¹, Timothy J McDermott², Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham³, Tara J Ryan⁴, Maya M Khanna⁵, Daniel S Pine⁶, Yair Bar-Haim⁷, Tony W Wilson³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA. Electronic address: abadura@creighton.edu.
² Department of Psychology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA; Center for Magnetoencephalography (MEG), University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Omaha, NE, USA.
³ Center for Magnetoencephalography (MEG), University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Omaha, NE, USA; Department of Neurological Sciences, UNMC, Omaha, NE, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA; Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA.
⁶ Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁷ School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; The Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a major psychiatric disorder that is prevalent in combat veterans. Previous neuroimaging studies have found elevated amygdala activity in PTSD in response to threatening stimuli, but previous work has lacked the temporal specificity to study fast bottom-up fear responses involving the amygdala. Forty-four combat veterans, 28 with PTSD and 16 without, completed psychological testing and then a face-processing task during magnetoencephalography (MEG). The resulting MEG data were pre-processed, transformed into the time-frequency domain, and then imaged using a beamforming approach. We found that veterans with PTSD exhibited significantly stronger oscillatory activity from 50 to 450 ms in the left amygdala compared to veterans without PTSD while processing threatening faces. This group difference was not present while viewing neutral faces. The current study shows that amygdala hyperactivity in response to threatening cues begins quickly in PTSD, which makes theoretical sense as an adaptive bottom-up fear response.

Keywords: Bottom-up; Fear; Magnetoencephalography; Military; Oscillatory activity; Posttraumatic stress.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Adult
Amygdala / diagnostic imaging
Amygdala / physiopathology*
Cues
Facial Recognition / physiology*
Humans
Magnetoencephalography / methods*
Male
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / diagnostic imaging
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / physiopathology*
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / psychology
Veterans / psychology*

Grants and funding

R01 MH103220/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States