new paper in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience
makes some exciting claims about the neurobiology of PTSD - but are the methods solid? Canadian researchers Mišić et al. used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure neural activity in four groups: traumatized Canadian soldiers, non-traumatized soldiers, civilians with mild traumatic brain injury, and healthy civilians. They found that
Soldiers with PTSD display inter-regional hypersynchrony at high frequencies (80–150 Hz), as well as a concomitant decrease in signal variability. The two patterns are spatially correlated and most pronounced in a left temporal subnetwork, including the hippocampus and amygdala. We hypothesize that the observed hypersynchrony may effectively constrain the expression of local dynamics, resulting in... functional networks becoming “stuck” in configurations reflecting memories, emotions, and thoughts originating from the traumatizing experience.
Here's some of the results. In this image, we see the effect of exposure to "triggering" war-related stimuli on the soldiers' brains. The ...
