Abstract
Previous research has documented the utility of synchronous neural interactions (SNI) in classifying women veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related outcomes based on functional connectivity using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Here, we extend that line of research to evaluate trauma-specific PTSD neural signatures with MEG in women veterans. Participants completed diagnostic interviews and underwent a task-free MEG scan from which SNI was computed. Thirty-five women veterans were diagnosed with PTSD due to sexual trauma and sixteen with PTSD due to non-sexual trauma. Strength of SNI was compared in women with and without sexual trauma, and linear discriminant analysis was used to classify the brain patterns of women with PTSD due to sexual trauma and non-sexual trauma. Comparison of SNI strength between the two groups revealed widespread hypercorrelation in women with sexual trauma relative to those without sexual trauma. Furthermore, using SNI, the brains of participants were classified as sexual trauma or non-sexual trauma with 100% accuracy. These findings bolster evidence supporting the utility of task-free SNI and suggest that neural signatures of PTSD are trauma-specific.
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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request pending local IRB approval.
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Funding
This work was supported by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VACSR&D Merit Review Award (I01-CX001045). The sponsors had no role in the current study design, analysis or interpretation, or in the writing of this paper. The contents do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government.
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LMJ, AFL contributed to data collection. APG, LMJ contributed to data analysis. LMJ, APG wrote the paper. All authors contributed to editing the paper.
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Communicated by Melvyn A. Goodale.
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James, L.M., Leuthold, A.F. & Georgopoulos, A.P. MEG neural signature of sexual trauma in women veterans with PTSD. Exp Brain Res 240, 2135–2142 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06405-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06405-8