Lonely in the Dark: Trauma Memory and Sex‐Specific Dysregulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Fear Signals
Abstract Loneliness exacerbates psychological distress and increases the risk of psychopathology after trauma exposure. However, it is still unclear whether a lack of social connectedness affects trauma‐related intrusions and the neural processing of fear signals. Moreover, it is uncertain, whether...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Advanced Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202105336 |
| _version_ | 1811255735879729152 |
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| author | Mitjan Morr Jeanine Noell Daphne Sassin Jule Daniels Alexandra Philipsen Benjamin Becker Birgit Stoffel‐Wagner René Hurlemann Dirk Scheele |
| author_facet | Mitjan Morr Jeanine Noell Daphne Sassin Jule Daniels Alexandra Philipsen Benjamin Becker Birgit Stoffel‐Wagner René Hurlemann Dirk Scheele |
| author_sort | Mitjan Morr |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Loneliness exacerbates psychological distress and increases the risk of psychopathology after trauma exposure. However, it is still unclear whether a lack of social connectedness affects trauma‐related intrusions and the neural processing of fear signals. Moreover, it is uncertain, whether loneliness plays a different role in women and men. A prestratification strategy is used and n = 47 (n = 20 women) healthy lonely individuals and n = 35 controls (n = 18 women) are recruited. Participants are exposed to an experimental trauma and evoked intrusive thoughts in daily life are monitored for three consecutive days. Functional magnetic resonance imaging is used to assess neural habituation to fearful faces and fear learning (conditioning and extinction) prior to trauma exposure. The results reveal a significant interaction between loneliness and sex such that loneliness is associated with more intrusions in men, but not in women. A similar pattern emerges at the neural level, with both reduced amygdala habituation to repeated fearful faces and amygdala hyperreactivity during the conditioning of fear signals in lonely men. The findings indicate that loneliness may confer vulnerability to intrusive memories after trauma exposure in healthy men and that this phenotype relates to altered limbic processing of fear signals. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:29:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-89176cb25055436a9c9fc7a4f573ff4f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2198-3844 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:29:15Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advanced Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-89176cb25055436a9c9fc7a4f573ff4f2022-12-22T03:23:11ZengWileyAdvanced Science2198-38442022-05-01915n/an/a10.1002/advs.202105336Lonely in the Dark: Trauma Memory and Sex‐Specific Dysregulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Fear SignalsMitjan Morr0Jeanine Noell1Daphne Sassin2Jule Daniels3Alexandra Philipsen4Benjamin Becker5Birgit Stoffel‐Wagner6René Hurlemann7Dirk Scheele8Research Section Medical Psychology Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy University Hospital Bonn Bonn 53127 GermanyResearch Section Medical Psychology Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy University Hospital Bonn Bonn 53127 GermanyResearch Section Medical Psychology Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy University Hospital Bonn Bonn 53127 GermanyResearch Section Medical Psychology Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy University Hospital Bonn Bonn 53127 GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy University Hospital Bonn Bonn 53127 GermanyClinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute School of Life Science and Technology University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Chengdu 610054 ChinaInstitute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology University Hospital Bonn Bonn 53127 GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry School of Medicine and Health Sciences University of Oldenburg Oldenburg 26129 GermanyResearch Section Medical Psychology Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy University Hospital Bonn Bonn 53127 GermanyAbstract Loneliness exacerbates psychological distress and increases the risk of psychopathology after trauma exposure. However, it is still unclear whether a lack of social connectedness affects trauma‐related intrusions and the neural processing of fear signals. Moreover, it is uncertain, whether loneliness plays a different role in women and men. A prestratification strategy is used and n = 47 (n = 20 women) healthy lonely individuals and n = 35 controls (n = 18 women) are recruited. Participants are exposed to an experimental trauma and evoked intrusive thoughts in daily life are monitored for three consecutive days. Functional magnetic resonance imaging is used to assess neural habituation to fearful faces and fear learning (conditioning and extinction) prior to trauma exposure. The results reveal a significant interaction between loneliness and sex such that loneliness is associated with more intrusions in men, but not in women. A similar pattern emerges at the neural level, with both reduced amygdala habituation to repeated fearful faces and amygdala hyperreactivity during the conditioning of fear signals in lonely men. The findings indicate that loneliness may confer vulnerability to intrusive memories after trauma exposure in healthy men and that this phenotype relates to altered limbic processing of fear signals.https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202105336amygdalafear conditioningfear habituationlonelinesstrauma memory |
| spellingShingle | Mitjan Morr Jeanine Noell Daphne Sassin Jule Daniels Alexandra Philipsen Benjamin Becker Birgit Stoffel‐Wagner René Hurlemann Dirk Scheele Lonely in the Dark: Trauma Memory and Sex‐Specific Dysregulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Fear Signals Advanced Science amygdala fear conditioning fear habituation loneliness trauma memory |
| title | Lonely in the Dark: Trauma Memory and Sex‐Specific Dysregulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Fear Signals |
| title_full | Lonely in the Dark: Trauma Memory and Sex‐Specific Dysregulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Fear Signals |
| title_fullStr | Lonely in the Dark: Trauma Memory and Sex‐Specific Dysregulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Fear Signals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lonely in the Dark: Trauma Memory and Sex‐Specific Dysregulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Fear Signals |
| title_short | Lonely in the Dark: Trauma Memory and Sex‐Specific Dysregulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Fear Signals |
| title_sort | lonely in the dark trauma memory and sex specific dysregulation of amygdala reactivity to fear signals |
| topic | amygdala fear conditioning fear habituation loneliness trauma memory |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202105336 |
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