People with post-traumatic stress disorder appear to evoke traumatic memories via different networks in the brain than do people without the disorder.

Using magnetic resonance imaging techniques, a research team from the University of Western Ontario noted subjects' brain activity as they heard scripts describing traumatic and neutral events they had experienced.

The study involved 24 people who had suffered a sexual assault or car accident; 11 had developed post-traumatic stress disorder. The patients with post-traumatic stress said their traumatic memories arose as flashbacks, mentally returning them to the trauma scene. Other subjects simply recalled the event.

Subjects with post-traumatic stress showed a nonverbal pattern of memory retrieval, involving areas on the right side of the brain, the scientists report this month in the American Journal of Psychiatry. In comparison subjects, activity was greater on the left side.

“These variations may account for the differences in the nature of traumatic memory recall between PTSD subjects and comparison subjects,” the scientists wrote.

Last Revised: 12 January 2004 
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These Trauma Pages focus primarily on emotional trauma and traumatic stress, including PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder), whether following individual traumatic experience(s) or a large-scale disaster. The purpose of this award winning site is to provide information for clinicians and researchers in the traumatic-stress field. Specifically, my interests here include both clinical and research aspects of trauma responses and their resolution. For example: 

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