An electrocortical investigation of emotional face processing in military-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

J Psychiatr Res

Mental Health Service Line, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, 820 S. Damen Ave., Chicago, IL 60612, United States; Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1747 Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60608, United States; Departments of Psychology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 808 S. Wood St., Chicago, IL 60612, United States.

Published: September 2017

PTSD is a disorder of emotion dysregulation. Although much work has intended to elucidate the neural underpinnings of the disorder, much remains unknown about the neurobiological substrates of emotion dysregulation in PTSD. In order to assess the relationship between a neural measure of attention to emotion (i.e. the late positive potential; LPP) and PTSD symptoms, EEG was recorded and examined as a potential predictor of military-related PTSD symptoms in a sample of 73 OEF/OIF/OND veterans. Results revealed that higher PTSD symptoms were related to an attenuated LPP response to angry facial expressions. This finding was not observed for happy or fearful faces. The current study provides initial evidence that, in a relatively young, mostly male sample of OEF/OIF/OND veterans, hyporeactivity to angry faces at the neural level may provide phenotypic data to characterize individual differences in PTSD symptom severity. This work may assist in future studies that seek to examine useful psychophysiologic targets for treatment and early interventions.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.03.013DOI Listing

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