Trauma science progress; make trauma reacting memories to normal memories.
A new study in patients with PTSD, published Thursday (Nov. 30) in the journal Nature Neuroscience, revealed a new finding about memory processing.
Sad, (non-traumatic) memories are processed in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, while the traumatic memories associated with PTSD activate a region above it known as the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC).
Although both brain regions are involved in memory and emotional processing, the PCC is more focused on internally directed thought, such as daydreaming or being aware of one's thoughts and feelings.
By comparison, the hippocampus is responsible for organizing and contextualizing memories.
Patients who had sad, (non-traumatic) memories that were about the same topic had similar levels of activation in the hippocampus to each other. "What it tells us is that the hippocampus cares or is involved because it is sensitive to these degrees of similarity," Schiller said.
However, the same wasn't the case for traumatic memories, which instead activated the PCC. The more severe a patient's PTSD symptoms were, the greater the PCC activity was.
Using a machine learning algorithm, the researchers determined whether a pattern of brain activation corresponded to a sad or a traumatic memory — meaning they could predict what type of memory a patient was experiencing based on activity in their brain.
"If we find that sad memories are in the hippocampus and these are memories that are not disruptive to you, treatment could aim to make these traumatic memories more like regular memories," Schiller said.
Sad, (non-traumatic) memories are processed in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, while the traumatic memories associated with PTSD activate a region above it known as the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC).
Although both brain regions are involved in memory and emotional processing, the PCC is more focused on internally directed thought, such as daydreaming or being aware of one's thoughts and feelings.
By comparison, the hippocampus is responsible for organizing and contextualizing memories.
Patients who had sad, (non-traumatic) memories that were about the same topic had similar levels of activation in the hippocampus to each other. "What it tells us is that the hippocampus cares or is involved because it is sensitive to these degrees of similarity," Schiller said.
However, the same wasn't the case for traumatic memories, which instead activated the PCC. The more severe a patient's PTSD symptoms were, the greater the PCC activity was.
Using a machine learning algorithm, the researchers determined whether a pattern of brain activation corresponded to a sad or a traumatic memory — meaning they could predict what type of memory a patient was experiencing based on activity in their brain.
"If we find that sad memories are in the hippocampus and these are memories that are not disruptive to you, treatment could aim to make these traumatic memories more like regular memories," Schiller said.
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