Understanding neural mechanisms that confer risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is critical for earlier intervention, yet longitudinal work has been sparse. The amygdala is part of a core network consistently implicated in PTSD symptomology. Most neural models of PTSD have focused on the amygdala's interactions with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. However, an increasing number of studies have linked PTSD symptoms to aberrations in amygdala functional connections with other brain regions involved in emotional information processing, self-referential processing, somatosensory processing, visual processing, and motor control. In the current study, trauma-exposed individuals (N = 54) recruited from the emergency department completed a resting state fMRI scan as well as a script-driven trauma recall fMRI task scan two-weeks post-trauma along with demographic, PTSD, and other clinical symptom questionnaires two-weeks and six-months post-trauma. We examined whether amygdala-whole brain functional connectivity (FC) during rest and task could predict six-month post-trauma PTSD symptoms. More negative amygdala-cerebellum and amygdala-postcentral gyrus FC during rest as well as more negative amygdala-postcentral gyrus and amygdala-midcingulate cortex during recall of the trauma memory predicted six-month post-trauma PTSD after controlling for scanner type. Follow-up multiple regression sensitivity analyses controlling for several other relevant predictors of PTSD symptoms, revealed that amygdala-cerebellum FC during rest and amygdala-postcentral gyrus FC during trauma recall were particularly robust predictors of six-month PTSD symptoms. The results extend cross-sectional studies implicating abnormal FC of the amygdala with other brain regions involved in somatosensory processing, motor control, and emotional information processing in PTSD, to the prospective prediction of risk for chronic PTSD. This work may contribute to earlier identification of at-risk individuals and elucidate potential intervention targets.

理解赋予创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）风险的神经机制对于早期干预至关重要，但纵向工作却很少。杏仁核是始终与PTSD症状有关的核心网络的一部分。PTSD的大多数神经模型都集中在杏仁核与背前扣带回皮层，腹侧前额叶皮层和海马的相互作用上。但是，越来越多的研究已将PTSD症状与杏仁核功能连接的异常联系起来，杏仁核与涉及情感信息处理，自我参照处理，体感处理，视觉处理和运动控制的其他大脑区域相关。在当前的研究中，受过创伤的人（N = 54）从急诊科招募的患者在创伤后两周完成了静息状态fMRI扫描以及脚本驱动的创伤回忆fMRI任务扫描，以及两周零六个月的人口统计学，PTSD和其他临床症状调查表创伤后。我们检查了休息和任务期间杏仁核-全脑功能连接（FC）是否可以预测创伤后六个月的PTSD症状。休息记忆期间更多的杏仁核-小脑和杏仁核-中央后回FC阴性，以及在记忆创伤记忆期间更多的杏仁核-中枢回和杏仁核-中枢皮层阴性，预测在控制扫描仪类型后创伤后六个月的PTSD。后续多重回归敏感性分析可控制PTSD症状的其他几个相关预测因素，揭示休息期间的杏仁核-小脑FC和创伤回忆中的杏仁核-中央后回FC是六个月PTSD症状的特别有力的预测因子。该结果将涉及杏仁核的异常FC与参与PTSD的体感处理，运动控制和情绪信息处理的其他大脑区域的横断面研究扩展到了慢性PTSD风险的前瞻性预测中。这项工作可能有助于及早识别高危人群并阐明潜在的干预目标。和PTSD中的情感信息处理，以预测慢性PTSD的风险。这项工作可能有助于及早识别高危人群并阐明潜在的干预目标。和PTSD中的情感信息处理，以预测慢性PTSD的风险。这项工作可能有助于及早识别高危人群并阐明潜在的干预目标。