In the aftermath of highly distressing and shocking events such as combat, genocide, and rape, a subset of individuals develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is characterized by distressing memories of the event, physiological hyperarousal, and impairment in daily functioning. With the growing interest in PTSD due in part to its high prevalence among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, there is an urgency to understand the neural pathogenesis of the disorder. Neuroimaging studies have been conducted to examine brain regions involved in PTSD 1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526. Based on these findings and the non-human animal literature, the prevailing neurocircuitry model of PTSD suggests that PTSD can be understood in terms of circuits involved in fear conditioning in the brain. Specifically, this model suggests that heightened amygdala activity gives privileged status to feared and threatening stimuli. Whereas the ventromedial prefrontal cortex would normally temper amygdala activity, abnormal function of this region reduces regulation of amygdala output 27. Furthermore, altered hippocampal function may result in impaired ability to discern safe from dangerous contexts.

The aforementioned brain regions, which play a key role in nonhuman animal fear conditioning 28, likely play an important role in PTSD. PTSD is more likely to develop following highly fear-provoking and life-threatening events than less intense events 29. Influential psychological theories of PTSD have emphasized the role of fear structures and fear conditioning in the development and maintenance of the disorder 3031. Furthermore, exposure therapy, which involves the principles of extinction learning 30, is one of the most effective therapeutic interventions for PTSD.

However, fear conditioning models are limited in their ability to explain the full range of human experience and emotion. Fear conditioning can occur outside of conscious awareness, yet conscious processes such as voluntary and effortful avoidance of thoughts and memories of the trauma play a vital role in the development and maintenance of the disorder 32. This has led to growing supposition that fear-circuitry models are unable to fully account for the heterogeneity of symptoms following a traumatic event 33 and that anxiety and fear may not be the central components in explaining PTSD symptomatology as previously believed 34. Accordingly, the proposed revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) may now recognize negative cognitions and persistent negative mood states as key symptoms of the diagnosis 35, suggesting that other emotions such as dysphoria are important in the development and maintenance of the disorder in addition to fear. Therefore, a primary goal of the present study was to examine patterns of brain activation in neuroimaging studies of PTSD that may provide a more complete understanding of the neural circuitry of PTSD.

In the present study, we performed a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies in PTSD using activation likelihood estimation (ALE). This method calculates the probability that a given voxel is activated consistently across studies rather than a single study 36 and therefore provides a more objective measure of brain activity in PTSD than qualitative reviews. Although there have been two prior functional neuroimaging meta-analyses in PTSD 3738, the present study includes more recent studies, focuses solely on adult PTSD, and considers separately the effects of study type (symptom provocation versus cognitive-emotional) and neuroimaging analysis type (whole-brain voxel-wise analysis versus region-of-interest [ROI] analysis). Symptom provocation studies are designed to elicit trauma-related symptoms whereas cognitive-emotional studies include emotional stimuli (e.g., fearful face) but do not explicitly cue the patient to their traumatic event. In contrast to previous meta-analyses in PTSD, the current study separates symptom provocation and cognitive-emotional studies to examine the neural correlates of two primary characteristics of PTSD: specific recall of a traumatic event (symptom provocation) and emotional response generalization (cognitive-emotional studies). Furthermore, examining results from whole-brain voxel-wise analyses separately from ROI analyses may provide greater insight whether the regions typically targeted in ROI studies (e.g., the amygdala) are also robustly active when taking into account all voxels in the brain. ROI analyses restrict statistical analysis to the small number of a priori defined voxels, reducing the need for more stringent correction for multiple comparisons; thus, ROI studies are not entirely comparable to studies employing whole-brain voxel-wise statistics. In the present study, we examined the results from ROI studies as they comprise a significant proportion of imaging studies in PTSD, with the recognition that whole brain voxel-wise analyses represent a less biased statistical approach. Finally, we performed a separate meta-analysis to test the fear-model hypothesis that hypoactivity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is associated with hyperactivity in the amygdala, reflecting insufficient inhibition of prefrontal cortex over the amygdala.

Separate meta-analyses were run to examine the neural activity across and within symptom provocation and cognitive-emotional tasks in PTSD. Because of the variability in naming conventions of medial prefrontal cortex regions across different studies, activated regions are listed in the text and tables both by their structure specific name (e.g., medial frontal gyrus) and a general name signifying their contribution to a broader, less defined area (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex which broadly includes the pregenual and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, medial orbitofrontal cortex, and the ventral part of the medial prefrontal cortex).

The present study used quantitative meta-analysis to examine the pathophysiology of PTSD. The results confirmed involvement of a subset of regions implicated in fear-circuitry models of PTSD, including robust hyperactivity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, hypoactivity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in PTSD, and an inverse relationship between activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala. However, additional regions were found to be hyper- and hypoactive in PTSD, suggesting that a broader view of the neural circuitry of PTSD should be considered. Collapsing across symptom provocation and cognitive-emotional studies, the whole-brain voxel-wise analysis revealed hyperactivation of the mid/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area, and superior temporal gyrus in PTSD. These regions have been previously shown to be part of a putative ‘salience network’ that processes autonomic, interoceptive, homeostatic, and cognitive information of personal relevance 4243. Ultimately, the salience network helps an organism evaluate whether stimuli in the environment should be approached or avoided. Importantly, activity in this salience network is positively correlated with anxiety 43. We propose that in PTSD, the behavioral manifestation of increased output of the salience network may provide privileged cognitive resources to a broad range of salient stimuli leading to hypervigilance and disruption of goal-directed activity. This notion is consistent with observations in PTSD patients of deficits in working memory for not only trauma-related negative distractors, but also neutral distractors 44, suggesting that a variety of stimuli become potentially salient for patients with PTSD. From this viewpoint, negative emotions other than fear can be associated with the disorder, as long as they are salient and associated with a stress response.

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex is a key node in the salience network. Earlier conceptualizations of the region suggested that its role was primarily in “cold” cognitive processes, in contrast to the ventral aspects of the anterior cingulate cortex that were thought to be involved in affective processing 45. However, more recent data have not corroborated a cognitive versus affective dissociation. Recent reviews have called attention to the involvement of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in PTSD 4647, which may subserve learned fear, fear appraisal and expression, and sympathetic activity 48. More broadly, dorsomedial prefrontal regions (including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) have been associated with appraisal and evaluation whereas ventromedial prefrontal regions are associated with regulatory functions. This dissociation is consistent with the findings reported here, where more dorsal prefrontal regions, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and mid/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex were active in patients with PTSD and may suggest heightened appraisals of potential threats in the environment, whereas hypoactivity in ventromedial prefrontal regions may reflect dysfunction in emotion regulation.

Interestingly, the present results highlight the contribution of the mid-cingulate in PTSD, adding to the growing evidence that this region plays an important role in this disorder 495051 and may be important for fear conditioning 52. The dorsal anterior cingulate spans a large area, encompassing BAs 24, 32, and 33. Whereas a more anterior portion of the dorsal anterior cingulate was activated in both PTSD patients and control subjects in the present meta-analysis, a more posterior region was hyperactivated only in PTSD. A previous study demonstrated that individuals with severe PTSD symptomatology activated the mid/dorsal anterior cingulate to a greater extent than controls during an emotional oddball task, suggesting that distracting stimuli are given attentional preference at the expense of a goal-relevant task in PTSD 49. These findings provide converging evidence for the role of the mid/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in salience processing. Another region in the salience network, the amygdala, was observed only when using a less stringent spatial extent in the whole-brain analysis or when considering ROI analyses. The amygdala is notoriously difficult to image due to vulnerability to susceptibility artifact and its relatively small volume, which could account for lack of robust findings in the whole-brain analysis. Alternatively, it is possible that the amygdala is not as central of a region in PTSD as current neurocircuitry models suggest, consistent with previous meta-analysis data showing that the amygdala is more frequently active in patients with social anxiety disorder and specific phobia than PTSD 37.

With the addition of ROI analyses, amygdala activity was observed for cognitive-emotional tasks but not symptom provocation tasks, suggesting that the type of task employed within a study influences amygdala activity in PTSD. There is emerging recognition that the amygdala may play a more general role in processing ambiguous and salient stimuli in the environment 535455, of which fear may be one particularly potent instance. The amygdala, which is composed of several distinct but highly interconnected nuclei, is not specific to fear states but is also activated for unusual and novel stimuli 56 and unpredictability 57. Therefore, the stimuli and study designs employed during cognitive-emotional studies of PTSD, which often present novel and ambiguous stimuli intermittently, may evoke more central involvement of the amygdala than autobiographical trauma scripts, which were often familiar and unambiguous from the start. Other explanations for the lack of amygdala activity in symptom provocation designs are less likely. Both the symptom provocation designs and the cognitive-emotional ROI studies (in which amygdala activity was observed most robustly) were block designs; therefore, the results are unlikely to be attributable to differences in neuroimaging experimental design (i.e., event-related vs. block designs). Furthermore, the majority of both symptom provocation and cognitive-emotional studies were fMRI rather than PET, suggesting that the difference is not due to imaging modality. The discrepancy in amygdala activity for cognitive-emotional and symptom provocation studies underscores the importance of considering the cognitive task when interpreting activation differences (or lack thereof) in the amygdala in PTSD and control participants.

In the present study, widespread hypoactivity in prefrontal cortex in PTSD was observed, including both medial and lateral regions. Notably, hypoactivity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was present in both symptom provocation and cognitive-emotional study designs. To examine the relationship between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, we performed a meta-analysis that identified regions of hyperactivity within a subset of studies that showed a decrease in ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity in PTSD patients. We reasoned that under conditions of diminished ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity, which may signify reduced top-down governance of interconnected regions, we would observe greater amygdala activity. The results showed that when the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was hypoactive, the amygdala, putamen, and temporal cortex were hyperactivated. These results support the notion that a consequence of hypoactivity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex may be greater responsivity of the amygdala in the face of negative information. Although the direction of this effect cannot be determined conclusively because the neural connections between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex are bidirectional, there is a well-established literature showing the involvement of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in regulatory control across species 58. It is important to note that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is not a single entity, but rather is composed of multiple distinct regions (i.e., subgenual and pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, medial portions of orbitofrontal gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus) that subserve a variety of functions. For instance, the non-human animal literature suggests that bordering divisions within ventromedial prefrontal cortex may be responsible for both inhibition and facilitation of autonomic arousal 58. This may help to explain why some studies of PTSD show increased activation in this region 59 and suggests that a more fine-grained analysis is required to better elucidate the various functions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Nevertheless, the results of the current meta-analysis show robust hypoactivation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex consistent across task type, underscoring its hypothesized role in regulatory control.

Importantly, additional prefrontal cortex regions such as the inferior frontal gyrus were hypoactivated in PTSD. This finding is notable as previous work has implicated the role of inferior frontal gyrus in emotion regulation, including inhibition from emotional distraction 60 and emotional thought suppression 61. Moreover, the inferior frontal gyrus is purported to be involved in a network of lateral prefrontal cortex regions involved in changing one’s negative thoughts to reduce the impact of negative feelings (i.e., cognitive reappraisal) 62. Although speculative, it is possible that decreased activity in lateral prefrontal cortex may reflect PTSD patients’ difficulty challenging negative thoughts to cope with emotional stimuli. Contemporary psychological models of PTSD highlight the role of negative appraisals and emotion regulation in the etiology and maintenance of PTSD. One of the most successful psychosocial interventions for PTSD, cognitive processing therapy, is based upon the notion that faulty cognitions and interpretation surrounding the traumatic event interferes with the natural recovery process after a trauma 63. For example, a female rape victim who misattributes blame to herself for attending a party where the rape occurred may then mistrust her decisions in every aspect of her life, leading to experiential avoidance and withdrawal from social relationships. Research has supported the notion that negative self-appraisals are associated with PTSD symptom maintenance 64 and therefore the DSM-V may now include the presence of negative cognitions as a core feature of the disorder 35. Cognitive processing therapy encourages the patient to adopt a more balanced view of the circumstances surrounding the traumatic event, as well as current personal events by challenging negative thoughts. Given the present results, future studies should examine whether individuals who benefitted from cognitive processing therapy recruit the inferior frontal gyrus to a greater extent compared to pre-therapy, as well as compared to individuals who did not benefit from therapy.

The goal of the present meta-analysis was to examine the neurocircuitry of PTSD by considering a set of studies that were diverse in terms of functional imaging modality, study design, and PTSD trauma type. The results provide evidence for hyperactivation of regions important for vigilance and salience detection, and hypoactivation of regulatory networks engaged in regulation of autonomic arousal and cognition. The key salience network regions that appear to be important in PTSD include the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (including mid/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex), supplementary motor area, and superior temporal gyrus.

Furthermore, regulatory control regions include two primary networks that appear to be dysfunctional in PTSD, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex control over the amygdala and lateral prefrontal regions putatively involved in modification of thought and inhibition of distracting emotions. This model is consistent with the findings that therapies designed to both extinguish fear responses and promote emotion regulation through challenging negative cognitions are helpful for the treatment of PTSD.

The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.

Ms. Amanda Mikedis conducted a literature review, performed data analysis, and assisted in writing the Methods section. Dr. Jasmeet Hayes and Dr. Scott Hayes helped with the literature review and data analysis, and wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.