Estradiol Modulates Neural and Behavioral Arousal in Women With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder During a Fear Learning and Extinction Task.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Fear responding in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is sexually heterogeneous and varies with hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle. While research suggests that estrogen levels affect PTSD symptoms among women, there is a dearth of research on modulatory effects of estrogen on fear responding among women with PTSD, and neural outcome measures are lacking.

Methods

A sample of 42 women with PTSD underwent 2 consecutive alternating blocks of fear conditioning and extinction training, during which a CS+ conditioned stimulus, but not a CS-, predicted the occurrence of an electric shock in an acquisition context but not in an extinction context. Assayed saliva determined estradiol levels. Skin conductance response and whole-brain voxelwise activity d

SUBMITTER: Sartin-Tarm A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7606348 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature