ABSTRACT
The neural and cognitive components of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are embedded in impairment of the overall stress management system of the brain. Maintaining emotional and neuroendocrine function following trauma exposure may require a careful balance of acute and long-term brain responses. PTSD patients experience intrusive thoughts about the traumatic event and have emotional responses to re-experiences and trauma-related stimuli that provoke anxiety and negative mood. The cognitive characteristics of individuals with PTSD can be explained in the dorsal and ventral of the brain system model of emotion regulation. The ventral system includes ventromedial pre-frontal cortex and orbito-frontal cortex OFC and amygdala. The stress exposure model suggests that affect/anxiety disruption is the result of a biological vulnerability combined with the trigger of stressful life events. Altered stress responses, and abnormal function of the brain regions important to the stress response, have been consistently found in individuals with PTSD and depression.
