Neural correlates of attention bias to threat in post-traumatic stress disorder

• Published in: Biological psychology Vol. 90; no. 2; pp. 134 - 142
• Main Authors: Fani, Negar, Jovanovic, Tanja, Ely, Timothy D., Bradley, Bekh, Gutman, David, Tone, Erin B., Ressler, Kerry J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.05.2012; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Analysis of Variance; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Attention; Attention bias; Behavioral psychophysiology; Bias; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; Cerebral Cortex - pathology; Facial Expression; Fear - psychology; Female; fMRI; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Oxygen - blood; Photic Stimulation; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Prefrontal cortex; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; PTSD; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - pathology; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - physiopathology; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; Threat; Young Adult; PTSD; Neuroimaging; fMRI; Prefrontal cortex; Attention bias; Threat; Central nervous system; Anxiety disorder; Attention; Posttraumatic stress disorder; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Stress; Encephalon; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Cognitive bias; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 0301-0511; 1873-6246
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.03.001

► Behavioral and neuroimaging methods were combined to examine attention bias in a traumatized sample. ► PTSD+ individuals demonstrated increased activation to threat in a cognitive control brain region. ► Threat cue avoidance corresponded with increased activation in an emotion processing region in PTSD. ► Disproportional allocation of cognitive control resources to trauma cues may perpetuate PTSD. Attentional biases have been proposed to contribute to symptom maintenance in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although the neural correlates of these processes have not been well defined; this was the goal of the present study. We administered an attention bias task, the dot probe, to a sample of 37 (19 control, 18 PTSD+) traumatized African-American adults during fMRI. Compared to controls, PTSD+ participants demonstrated increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in response to threat cue trials. In addition, attentional avoidance of threat corresponded with increased ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activation in the PTSD group, a pattern that was not observed in controls. These data provide evidence to suggest that relative increases in dlPFC, dACC and vlPFC activation represent neural markers of attentional bias for threat in individuals with PTSD, reflecting selective disruptions in attentional control and emotion processing networks in this disorder.