ABSTRACT
Only since the last 10 years a model of PTSD could start to be validated with the newer neuroimaging methods. The imaging facilities and also the studies that have contributed to the model have improved over the past decade, mostly due to technical and software enhancements. Spatial and temporal resolution of neuroimaging methods have improved much (Dickerson, 2007) that promise to reveal novel insights into the function of fine-scale neural circuitry of the stress response. However, the findings of the various studies, research designs, methodologies, and techniques that will be discussed in this chapter vary to a great extent, show incoherence, or sometimes opposite results. Repeated studies across centers are an important prerequisite to generate consensus for a model. The lack of coherency of findings between studies may be accounted for by a large variety of parameters, among which standardization of the study protocol, and imaging parameters are of key importance. This review first focuses on the basic structures involved in the stress response and then moves on to discussing the compromised neural circuits in PTSD that were revealed through functional neuroimaging research. It covers various techniques (single positron emitted tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), and functional neuroimaging (fMRI) that use different paradigms (resting, active tasks, stimulus presentation) and provides a global overview of the current findings of these studies. New developments in the field are also discussed briefly in the last section.
