SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
For decades, neuroscientists and physicians have tried to get to the bottom of the age-old mystery of post-traumatic stress disorder, to explain why only some people are vulnerable and why they experience so many symptoms and so much disability.
All experts in the field now agree that PTSD indeed has its roots in very real, physical processes within the brain – and not in some sort of psychological "weakness". But no clear consensus has emerged about what exactly has gone "wrong" in the brain.
In a Perspective article published this week in Neuron , a pair of University of Michigan Medical School professors — who have studied PTSD from many angles for many years — put forth a theory of PTSD that draws from and integrates decades of prior research. They hope to stimulate interest in the theory and invite others in the field to test it.
The bottom line, they say, is that people with PTSD appear to suffer from disrupted context processing. That's a core brain function that allows people and animals to recognize that a particular stimulus may require different responses depending on the context in which it is encountered. It's what allows us to call upon the "right" emotional or physical response to the current encounter.
[Continues...]
A simple example, they write, is recognizing that a mountain lion seen in the zoo does not require a fear or "flight" response, while the same lion unexpectedly encountered in the backyard probably does.
For someone with PTSD, a stimulus associated with the trauma they previously experienced – such as a loud noise or a particular smell — triggers a fear response even when the context is very safe. That's why they react even if the noise came from the front door being slammed, or the smell comes from dinner being accidentally burned on the stove.
Context processing involves a brain region called the hippocampus, and its connections to two other regions called the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. Research has shown that activity in these brain areas is disrupted in PTSD patients. The U-M team thinks their theory can unify wide-ranging evidence by showing how a disruption in this circuit can interfere with context processing and can explain most of the symptoms and much of the biology of PTSD.
"We hope to put some order to all the information that's been gathered about PTSD from studies of human patients, and of animal models of the condition," says Israel Liberzon, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at U-M and a researcher at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System who also treats veterans with PTSD. "We hope to create a testable hypothesis, which isn't as common in mental health research as it should be. If this hypothesis proves true, maybe we can unravel some of the underlying pathophysiological processes, and offer better treatments."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 15 2016, @11:09PM
Was married to someone with PTSD, who worked in medical field in US military. She experienced some on-the-job things that, well, left some pretty strong impressions...
What seems to happen, at least from interpreting her experiences from what she told me about (not much), it's not a mental weakness like the troll indicates. The troll can go fuck itself with a red hot poker, and then self-select and stop wasting oxygen for everyone else.
Our brains seem to have numerous conscious and subconscious networks of processing circuits and pathways, feedback loops, etc. Something happens along the way with overstimulation of some of those circuits during a highly stressful situation (rape and assault, combat, trauma, bad accident, etc), and some circuits either get shorted out (like, negative feedback loops that could put some limits on the recalled experience), normal circuit breakers get blown out, or signal filters get blasted away. We're all different, and have different levels of filtering, etc.
From other research, as we recall events our brains rebuild the memories. Thus, those memories do change over time. But the memories recalled from PTSD can get recalled all the time, intrusively, or are extremely powerful when they're remembered, and thus don't dampen out over time like normal memories do, as they can rebuild themselves at a high degree of fidelity and intensity, because they're recalled at such high degree of fidelity and intensity.
That seems to be a big part what PTSD is.
A bad analogy, our consciousness and memories can be like Silly Putty. Malleable, moldable, able to take imprints off a newspaper, etc. But if you pull a blob of Silly Putty rapidly enough, it'll break.
So, laugh at it, scoff at it, whatever. But hopefully you don't have to deal with it (walking away is not dealing with it). Be thankful you don't get to experience it, either directly or second-hand.
I liken it to some experiences I've had... falling off scaffolding, running into a car recently on my bike, cycling and car accidents. When I think about them, there is some strong pucker-factor that comes with those recollections, and I remember them vividly (but less so over time). But those thoughts do go away when I stop thinking about them. Someone with PTSD, the pucker-factor does not go away quickly or easily...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 15 2016, @11:21PM
If what you say is true, then shouldn't anyone with photographic memory be panicking all the time from any number of bad experiences. Or is that the problem in a nutshell. PTSD is like photographic memory for that one bad experience that just won't fade. Whereas someone with photographic memory for everything can just recall a pleasant experience on demand.
It's like that one time a troll insulted me and I was so traumatized I couldn't forget the experience and the memory came flooding back every time I thought about using the internet and so I became a luddite because that one memory of being trolled ruined the internet for me forever and I couldn't ever use it again because the bad memory was too intense.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday October 16 2016, @12:10AM
I've known sadists in the military who were kept by the military from returning to duty in Iraq because they were known to have enjoyed the battlefield (and the killing). My dad is a Vietnam vet who was shot-at plenty of times in the Vietnamese sticks and, although not a badass, has no PTSD and never showed signs of it. I've had some short-lived PTSD following a few car accidents, which made me afraid to even ride in cars for a good week after the accidents.
One thing I'm wondering, though, is if experiencing early childhood trauma is the root (or at least a very strong correlating factor) of PTSD later in life. You experience or witness something so crazy or violent as a kid that the rug of reality is pulled out from under you and nothing makes sense (there is no context), and oftentimes the mind blocks it out, only for those same symptoms to rear their ugly head later in life when coaxed out by another traumatic situation or trigger. A lot of military personnel are there because, frankly, they were born into less-than-ideal conditions. It would make sense to compare it to a survival instinct kicking in, where any stimulus regardless of context could indicate a danger and there is a heightened sense of awareness. That rustle in your neighborhood tree means nothing, but if I kidnapped you and dropped you in the middle of a jungle, you would likely (if not immedately, after a certain period of time) treat every rustle in a tree as a potential threat to your life. Your brain has defaulted to survival-mode.
Yeah, I went through a psychology phase trying to understand why my momma went nutso.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @12:18AM
Yeah, I went through a psychology phase trying to understand why my momma went nutso.
It's all your fault; don't you remember how you raped your mother?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday October 16 2016, @12:27AM
If you saw her you'd know that's impossible, unless you have a fetish for Wayne Gretsky.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @12:43AM
So you don't remember how you raped your mother... I can see we still have much work to do.
(Score: 1) by Myfyr on Sunday October 16 2016, @12:00PM
I recall reading somewhere (can't find it now, unfortunately) that childhood trauma is indeed highly correlated with later PTSD, suggesting increased susceptibility. Which yeah, certainly makes sense.
Also, having a parent with PTSD seems to be a risk factor, due to epigenetic effects (although I imagine there are additional correlations). There is a little information on (possible?) mechanisms for both on wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics_of_posttraumatic_stress_disorder#Epigenetics [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Sunday October 16 2016, @10:48AM
Someone with PTSD, the pucker-factor does not go away quickly or easily...
I only have second hand experience as well. I think what happens is the pucker-factor gets stuck in some kind of microphone feedback loop. The production of fear hormones doesn't get shut off but is stuck in a similar loop during a PTSD attack.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @09:18PM
A modest request: if you're going to not reply to somebody, could you please post your not reply as a response to them instead of a top comment?