Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 109, Issue 38, Pages 15508-15513Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1206330109
Keywords
functional MRI; working memory; prospective; posttraumatic stress disorder; dopamine
Categories
Funding
- Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research [916.11.037, 918.66.613]
- Dutch Ministry of Defense
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Prolonged stress can have long-lasting effects on cognition. Animal models suggest that deficits in executive functioning could result from alterations within the mesofrontal circuit. We investigated this hypothesis in soldiers before and after deployment to Afghanistan and a control group using functional and diffusion tensor imaging. Combat stress reduced midbrain activity and integrity, which was associated to compromised sustained attention. Longterm follow-up showed that the functional and structural changes had normalized within 1.5 y. In contrast, combat stress induced a persistent reduction in functional connectivity between the midbrain and prefrontal cortex. These results demonstrate that combat stress has adverse effects on the human mesofrontal circuit and suggests that these alterations are partially reversible.
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