Emotional Face Expressions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) occurs following a severely traumatic event and is characterized by: re-experiencing, avoidance, emotional blunting and reactivity. Of particular interest to this study are emotional blunting, which is the reduced responsiveness to cues unrelated to the traumatic experience, and reactivity which is an increased sensitivity to eventrelated cues. In two studies, the N170 was recorded in response to emotional faces (happy, sad, angry, surprised, neutral) and objects. In each study, high and low scorers on the PTSD checklist formed two companion groups. Angry faces are considered a generalized threat and it was expected that the clinical group would show larger N170 (hyper-reactive) to these emotional expressions, while responses to the other emotions would be reduced (emotional blunting). Preliminary analysis suggests that both of these processes are present. Results will be discussed in terms of possible deficits in processing emotional information in PTSD as well as the development of a clinical tool to aid the diagnosis of PTSD.