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Neural Correlates of Emotional Face Processing in Colombian Children with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Wed, April 7, 4:30 to 5:30pm EDT (4:30 to 5:30pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Objective: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a neuropsychological condition induced by experiencing a catastrophic situation or traumatic event. Research has shown that individuals with PTSD exhibit difficulties with emotion processing (Carrion & Weems, 2017), particularly when identifying and processing negative emotions (Calderon et al., 2019). Resulting abnormalities in mood and behavior associated with PTSD may be due in part to the disruption or dysfunction of frontal cortical regions. However, emotional processing difficulties and their underlying patterns of brain activation have not been explored in Colombian children exposed to socio-political violence. For the current study, we expected to find difficulties in the processing of emotional faces and differences in the degree and location of brain regions engaged between control children and those diagnosed with PTSD.
Method: Twenty-two children from Medellín, Colombia, South America (Mage=11.4 years; 20 females) with PTSD and 23 (Mage=12.6 years; 12 females) neurotypical controls (NT) underwent fMRI scanning while making emotion judgments of human faces. All participants were right-handed, with no prior history of psychiatric disorders, head injuries, or learning disabilities. The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Kids (MINI Kids, Sheehan et al., 1998) was utilized to screen for any comorbid conditions (e, g., anxiety; depression) within the PTSD group. Behavioral data were measured for each participant regarding the time and accuracy to identify the emotional valence of a human face.
Results: For the behavioral data, accuracy of emotion identification varied by facial type (Positive=Neutral>Negative) but not by group. Reaction times for face responses differed by facial type and by group, with the NT being significantly slower at processing negative as compared to neutral faces. The PTSD children, however, were equally slow when processing either negative or neutral faces. For the neuroimaging data, the NT group showed differences in the activation maps when processing neutral versus negative faces, with the latter engaging brain regions typically associated with detecting and evaluating facial emotions (e.g., precentral and middle frontal gyri; cingulate gyrus). For the PTSD group, however, both neutral and negative faces activated similar brain areas, those typically reserved only for the processing of emotional face stimuli (e.g., fusiform gyrus).
Conclusion: The equivalently slow processing of negative and neutral faces, along with the similarity of brain activation patterns engaged by both negative and neutral face types suggests that PTSD children are more “uncertain” of the valence expressed by a neutral face. Thus, PTSD children spend more time analyzing neutral faces than NT controls and seem to carry out active emotion (negative) processing even for neutral faces, as if to overly scrutinize them for any signs of negative affect. Implications for clinical interventions with PTSD children may include designing interventions to counteract their implicit negativity bias that occurs when trying to identify facial emotions. This would assist the child with PTSD in learning the difference between neutral cues and those facial characteristics that represent a genuine potential threat.

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