Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 58, Issue 2, 15 July 2005, Pages 119-124
Biological Psychiatry

Original article
Size Versus Shape Differences: Contrasting Voxel-Based and Volumetric Analyses of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Individuals with Acute Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.02.032Get rights and content

Background

Two studies found morphological differences in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of individuals with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We sought to replicate and extend these findings in a sample of individuals with acute PTSD.

Methods

The ACCs of individuals with acute PTSD (n = 14) and matched healthy control subjects (n = 14) were compared using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), semi-automated volumetric analyses, and probabilistic maps. Posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis was ascertained by a psychologist using a structured interview.

Results

Voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed significantly less gray-matter density in the right pregenual ACC and in the left insula of the PTSD group. However, volumetric analyses of the ACC revealed no significant differences between groups. Probabilistic maps of the labels of the pregenual ACC indicated that the difference between groups in gray matter density was due to shape differences.

Conclusions

Although there are no volumetric differences in the ACC of acute PTSD individuals compared with normal control subjects, significant shape differences exist, which might indicate volumetric differences in the surrounding structures.

Section snippets

Subjects and Procedure

Trauma-exposed participants (n = 14) were recruited in the emergency department of three hospitals from the greater Montreal area. Nurses from these departments approached individuals who had suffered a traumatic experience and invited these individuals to call our team. It was thus the victim’s choice to contact our research team for further information. Although we had planned to use a three-group design (trauma-exposed individuals with and without PTSD and control subjects with a negative

Sociodemographic

More than 50% of the participants were motor vehicle accident victims. As can be seen in Table 1, participants from the trauma-exposed group reported high levels of peritraumatic distress and peritraumatic dissociation, consistent with what others have found (see Brunet et al 2001) and were highly symptomatic in terms of PTSD symptoms. The ratios of male to female (6 to 8) and right-handed to left-handed (11 to 3) were the same in both groups. As expected, the groups differed on depressive

Discussion

This study investigated possible morphological differences in the ACC of normal control subjects compared with individuals with acute PTSD using voxel-based morphometry, manual segmentation, and probabilistic maps. Our VBM finding of a reduced gray matter density in the dorsal ACC in PTSD individuals is consistent with the results of Yamasue et al (2003), although they were found in opposite hemispheres. In addition, our VBM analyses also detected a significant difference in the left insula, a

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