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Brain Imaging Studies of PTSD

  • Chapter
International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Stress and Coping ((SSSO))

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Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a major transformation in the concepts of mental function and behavior. Dualistic models, such as mental versus physical or psychological versus biological, are giving way to more integrative views of the functional organism, where function and structure are interrelated and affect each other. New concepts of neuroplasticity and improved tools of visualization have both provided a conceptual frame and demonstrated this structure-function interaction. These developments also offer a new conceptualization of psychiatric disorders, which were traditionally seen as psychological or functional in nature. In traditional dualistic terms, post-traumatic stress disorder has been considered a preeminently functional disorder. However, in 1987 Lawrence Kolb (1987) proposed a neuropsychological hypothesis for PTSD, suggesting that neuroanatomical changes as a result of stress and stress-related neuroendocrine changes might underlie symptoms of PTSD. Since then, multiple lines of evidence have demonstrated stress-related neurobiological changes and neuroanatomical sequelae of traumatic exposure. Accordingly, an increasing number of investigators are actively pursuing possible structural or functional neuroanatomical abnormalities that are associated with PTSD or that underlie PTSD symptomatology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor VAMC,, 48105, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Israel Liberzon & Stephan F. Taylor

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  1. Israel Liberzon
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  2. Stephan F. Taylor
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel

    Arieh Y. Shalev

  2. Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA

    Rachel Yehuda

  3. Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville, South Australia, Australia

    Alexander C. McFarlane

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Liberzon, I., Taylor, S.F. (2000). Brain Imaging Studies of PTSD. In: Shalev, A.Y., Yehuda, R., McFarlane, A.C. (eds) International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma. Springer Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4177-6_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4177-6_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6873-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-4177-6

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