Basic Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Self-Appraisals in PTSD
Abstract
This proposal seeks to employ theories and paradigms from cognitive neuroscience to identify cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the relation between changes in self-efficacy (a core feature of self-identity) and combat-related PTSD. The discovery of such mechanisms will offer a novel means for conceptualizing PTSD, and will ultimately provide information that drives future research and therapeutic innovations informed directly by basic science, which in turn, may help to mitigate negative outcomes associated with PTSD. Changes in self-identity are associated with a greater risk of PTSD,1 poor treatment prognosis,2 and suicidal ideation.3 Combat appears to have a lasting impact on the identity of individuals deployed to war zones. This proposal seeks to employ theories and paradigms from cognitive neuroscience to identify cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the relation between changes in self-efficacy (a core feature of self-identity) and combat-related PTSD. The substantial number of individuals with PTSD that remain symptomatic post-treatment indicates the presence of pathological mechanisms that have yet to be examined or fully understood. Therefore, studies targeting the basic cognitive mechanisms and neurobiology of PTSD are a necessary first step in clarifying factors associated with risk in the onset and maintenance of PTSD. This study includes an analog and clinical phase (Phase 1 and Phase 2 respectively). In Phase 1, 120 healthy, civilian participants receive a self-efficacy induction, after which their affective responses to a trauma-film paradigm are monitored and their fear circuitry activation is examined using fMRI. Phase 2 consists of 4 experiments with 300 OEF/OIF veterans examining their self-efficacy, autobiographical remembering, future imagining, anticipatory fear and emotional expression using both behavioral and neuroimaging paradigms. These findings have the potential to deliver information that drives futur
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA600461
Entities
People
- Charles R. Marmar
Organizations
- New York University