Emotion 4 - PTSD/Too much emotion

Question 1

What is PTSD?

Answer 1

Post-traumatic stress disorder, a type of trauma and stress-related disorder.

Question 2

What are the potential causes of PTSD?

Answer 2

• Exposure to threatened or actual death, serious injury or sexual violation.

Question 3

What are the main symptoms of PTSD?

Answer 3

4 diagnostic clusters:

• Re-experiencing
• Avoidance behaviour
• Negative cognitions
• Arousal

Question 4

What is the evidence that implicates over-activity of the amygdala in PTSD patients?

Answer 4

• Greater activation of the amygdala in response to fearful faces in PTSD patients.
• Positive correlation between the activation of the amygdala and the extent to which the patient is suffering from PTSD.

Question 5

What is a possible cause of PTSD?

Answer 5

Impaired ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity, which leads to increase in amygdala activity as it is inhibited less. Amygdala and PFC activity are negatively correlated.

Question 6

What technique was used to show that PTSD patients had a lower activation of the PFC?

Answer 6

Script driven imagery.

Question 7

What is a possible mechanism by which PTSD thrives?

Answer 7

Low levels of cortisol, stress hormone (counter-intuitively). Could be that the PTSD-causing event lowers cortisol levels, or the lowered levels are innate/already present.

Question 8

What does low levels of cortisol cause?

Answer 8

High levels of noradrenalin

Question 9

What do high levels of noradrenalin cause?

Answer 9

Enhanced memory.

Question 10

What could be used to decrease levels of noradrenalin to treat PTSD patients?

Answer 10

Beta blockers. Which impair the reconsolidation process.

Question 11

PFC is responsible for inhibitory memory. Why, therefore, may the PFC be implicated in PTSD?

Answer 11

PFC does not increase the strength of the inhibitory fear memory, nor decrease the strength of the original one. Impaired PFC activity results in impaired extinction.