Altered frontolimbic activity during virtual reality-based contextual fear learning in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Deficiency in contextual and enhanced responding in cued fear learning may contribute to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We examined the responses to aversive Pavlovian conditioning with an unpredictable spatial context as conditioned stimulus compared to a predictable context. We hypothesized that the PTSD group would demonstrate less hippocampal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activation during acquisition and extinction of unpredictable contexts and an over-reactive amygdala response in the predictable contexts compared to controls.

Methods

A novel combined differential cue-context conditioning paradigm was applied using virtual reality with spatial contexts that required configural and cue processing. We assessed 20 patients

SUBMITTER: Siehl S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10520602 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature