Emotion Processing
- DOI:
- 10.1093/med/9780190201968.003.0003
Prolonged difficulty identifying and regulating emotions is another essential symptom of PTSD, and has been associated with hormonal dysregulation, social and academic difficulties, and structural and functional brain deficits in youth and adults. Individual subject variance in personality, disposition, sex, and genotype has been shown to uniquely modulate the prefrontal and limbic brain regions associated with emotion processing. The current chapter examines how the component processes of emotion regulation, such as fear conditioning, can be dysregulated by the experience of traumatic stress, by which the brain centers that manage reactions to emotionally charged stimuli are over- or underactivated. The preclinical literature that serves as the basis for our understanding of these systems is reviewed, as well as studies of adults and children who have experienced trauma. Future directions, such as clinical care based on neuroendocrine research, are also discussed.
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