Unique brain activity brought forth by traumatic recollections

People who experience unique traumatic events such as brutal conflict, sexual assault, or domestic violence commonly develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including intense anxiety, uncontrolled thoughts about the occurrence, and horrifying flashbacks.

The Unique Brain Activity of PTSD: Distinguishing Trauma from Everyday Memories

Traumatic events like conflict, assault, or violence can cause PTSD, leading to intense anxiety, uncontrolled thoughts, and flashbacks. But when PTSD sufferers think back on these unique and horrific experiences, what really is going on in their brains? Are they recalled like a peaceful beach walk or the death of a beloved pet, or differently?

According to a recent study co-led by Yale researchers, people with PTSD really experience quite different brain activity when recalling traumatic memories than when recalling happy or “neutral” life events.

When participants in the study, which comprised 28 people with PTSD diagnoses, recalled more commonplace life events, researchers discovered that all participants’ brain patterns remained the same.

However, each person’s brain reactions differed notably when reminded of painful past experiences.

Fragmented Memories: Unraveling the Brain’s Response to Trauma

“When people recall sad or neutral events from their past experiences, the brain exhibits highly synchronous activity among all PTSD patients,” stated Ilan Harpaz-Rotem, a Yale professor of psychology and psychiatry and the paper’s co-senior author.

The 28 participants answered questions about traumatic events, sad experiences like losing a family member, and calming moments.

During fMRI scans, patients listened to written accounts of their experiences, monitoring blood flow and brain activity.

During calm or sad recollections, the hippocampus displayed consistent, normal memory patterns across participants, indicating typical memory formation.

However, when the researchers presented tales about their traumatic experiences, the parallels in hippocampus activity vanished.

Instead of synchronized brain activity during normal memory formation, each subject’s hippocampus displayed unique and fragmented activity.

Researchers suggest PTSD sufferers struggle to recall traumatic events coherently, which may lead to incapacitating symptoms.

Harpaz-Rotem suggests these insights could help psychotherapists aid PTSD patients in reframing trauma as non-immediate threats.