Hippocampal Functional Connectivity Mediates the Impact of Acceptance on Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Severity

Abstract

Investigation in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) shows a negative association between patients' degrees of acceptance (the willingness to face unwanted private experiences while pursuing one's values and goals) and those of clinical symptom severity, suggesting that experiential acceptance is a protective factor of symptoms or an early indicator of resilience after trauma. However, neural mechanisms involved in the relationship between these two variables have yet to be elucidated. Thus, we here investigate whether there are neural mechanisms mediating such relationship using whole-brain voxel-level mediation analysis with seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) maps generated by hippocampal subregion seeds in accident survivors (n = 33). We found that the correlation between patients' acceptance and symptom severity was mediated by the RSFC strength between left hippocampal body and left lateral occipital cortex adjacent to superior parietal cortex, the areas related to flashbacks. Our result provides novel evidence that hippocampal RSFC mediates the effect of experiential acceptance on posttraumatic stress symptom severity. If further refined and validated, the finding may aid to the identification of biomarkers to intervention and prevention programs for patients with PTSD.

Altered Resting-State functional connectivity in the anterior and posterior hippocampus in Post-traumatic stress disorder: The central role of the anterior hippocampus

“…Unfortunately, this study was limited by the relatively small sample size of the PTSD group (17 participants). Finally, the fourth study did not include a control group ( Jung & Kim, 2020 ), limiting its ability to detect PTSD-linked functional connectivity changes relative to healthy controls. To resolve the above discrepant findings in the literature, a follow-up study is warranted, incorporating a control group and a much larger sample size, utilizing a data-driven approach to assess whole-brain differences in anterior vs. posterior hippocampal functional connectivity in those with PTSD.…”

Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity in the Anterior Versus Posterior Hippocampus in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: The Central Role of the Anterior Hippocampus

“…Unfortunately, this study was limited by the relatively small sample size of the PTSD group ( N = 17). Finally, the fourth study did not include a control group [96], limiting its ability to detect PTSD-linked functional connectivity changes relative to healthy controls. To resolve the above discrepant findings in the literature, a follow-up study is warranted, incorporating a control group and a much larger sample size, utilizing a data-driven approach to assess whole-brain differences in anterior vs. posterior hippocampal functional connectivity in those with PTSD.…”