BSC researchers discover PTSD biomarkers

(from "Altered neural interactions assessed by magnetoencephalography (MEG) in veterans with PTSD." by Georgopoulos A, Tan H, Lewis S, Leuthold A, Winskowski A, Engdahl B., presented at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ annual meeting in Atlanta, GA on November 5th, 2009)

"We have identified what we believe is among the first biological markers for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to compare a large sample of veterans with PTSD to people without PTSD, we measured their Synchronous Neural Interactions (SNIs), the functional connections among groups of brain cells. The SNIs for veterans with PTSD were much more prominent on the right side of the brain, an area called the parieto-temporal region. This shows a strong miscommunication pattern of this area with the rest of the brain. It is possibly related to PTSD’s characteristic permanent and painful memories. Veterans who have recovered from PTSD still show this pattern, but not as strongly."
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