Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system?
Background: Early life maltreatment is a risk factor for psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe and heterogeneous disorder with fluctuating states of emotional over- and undermodulation, including hypervigilance, dissociatio...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2021-01-01
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| Series: | European Journal of Psychotraumatology |
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1987686 |
| _version_ | 1797844566769926144 |
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| author | Marius Schmitz Laura E. Müller Katja I. Seitz André Schulz Sylvia Steinmann Sabine C. Herpertz Katja Bertsch |
| author_facet | Marius Schmitz Laura E. Müller Katja I. Seitz André Schulz Sylvia Steinmann Sabine C. Herpertz Katja Bertsch |
| author_sort | Marius Schmitz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Early life maltreatment is a risk factor for psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe and heterogeneous disorder with fluctuating states of emotional over- and undermodulation, including hypervigilance, dissociation, and emotion regulation deficits. The perception and regulation of emotions have been linked to interoception, the cortical representation and sensing of inner bodily processes. Although first therapeutic approaches targeting bodily sensations have been found effective in patients with PTSD, and deficits in interoceptive signal representation have been reported in other trauma-related disorders, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD), the role of interoception remains largely unexplored for PTSD. Objective: The objective was to investigate the cortical representation of cardiac interoceptive signals in patients with PTSD and its associations with early life maltreatment, trait dissociation, and emotion dysregulation. Methods: Twenty-four medication-free patients with PTSD and 31 healthy controls (HC) completed a 5-min resting electrocardiogram (ECG) with parallel electroencephalogram (EEG). Heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) amplitudes as a measure for cortical representation of cardiac interoceptive signals were compared between groups and correlated with self-report questionnaires. Results: We did not find significantly different mean HEP amplitudes in patients with PTSD compared to HC, although HEPs of patients with PTSD were descriptively higher. No significant associations between mean HEP amplitudes and early life maltreatment, trait dissociation or emotion dysregulation were obtained within the groups. Conclusion: The current finding does not indicate deficits in interoceptive signal representation at rest in individuals with PTSD. Whether patients with PTSD show altered HEP modulations during emotion regulation tasks and might benefit from therapeutic approaches aiming at changing the perception of bodily signals, needs to be investigated in future studies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T17:24:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f8a901d1085f4e088fd2ebf63ec4b16d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2000-8066 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T17:24:24Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of Psychotraumatology |
| spelling | doaj.art-f8a901d1085f4e088fd2ebf63ec4b16d2023-04-18T14:59:10ZengTaylor & Francis GroupEuropean Journal of Psychotraumatology2000-80662021-01-0112110.1080/20008198.2021.19876861987686Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system?Marius Schmitz0Laura E. Müller1Katja I. Seitz2André Schulz3Sylvia Steinmann4Sabine C. Herpertz5Katja Bertsch6University of HeidelbergClinic DarmstadtUniversity of HeidelbergUniversity of LuxembourgHeidelberg UniversityUniversity of HeidelbergUniversity of HeidelbergBackground: Early life maltreatment is a risk factor for psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe and heterogeneous disorder with fluctuating states of emotional over- and undermodulation, including hypervigilance, dissociation, and emotion regulation deficits. The perception and regulation of emotions have been linked to interoception, the cortical representation and sensing of inner bodily processes. Although first therapeutic approaches targeting bodily sensations have been found effective in patients with PTSD, and deficits in interoceptive signal representation have been reported in other trauma-related disorders, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD), the role of interoception remains largely unexplored for PTSD. Objective: The objective was to investigate the cortical representation of cardiac interoceptive signals in patients with PTSD and its associations with early life maltreatment, trait dissociation, and emotion dysregulation. Methods: Twenty-four medication-free patients with PTSD and 31 healthy controls (HC) completed a 5-min resting electrocardiogram (ECG) with parallel electroencephalogram (EEG). Heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) amplitudes as a measure for cortical representation of cardiac interoceptive signals were compared between groups and correlated with self-report questionnaires. Results: We did not find significantly different mean HEP amplitudes in patients with PTSD compared to HC, although HEPs of patients with PTSD were descriptively higher. No significant associations between mean HEP amplitudes and early life maltreatment, trait dissociation or emotion dysregulation were obtained within the groups. Conclusion: The current finding does not indicate deficits in interoceptive signal representation at rest in individuals with PTSD. Whether patients with PTSD show altered HEP modulations during emotion regulation tasks and might benefit from therapeutic approaches aiming at changing the perception of bodily signals, needs to be investigated in future studies.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1987686early life maltreatmentpost-traumatic stress disorderinteroceptiondissociationmindfulness |
| spellingShingle | Marius Schmitz Laura E. Müller Katja I. Seitz André Schulz Sylvia Steinmann Sabine C. Herpertz Katja Bertsch Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system? European Journal of Psychotraumatology early life maltreatment post-traumatic stress disorder interoception dissociation mindfulness |
| title | Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system? |
| title_full | Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system? |
| title_fullStr | Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system? |
| title_short | Heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an unaltered neurobiological regulation system? |
| title_sort | heartbeat evoked potentials in patients with post traumatic stress disorder an unaltered neurobiological regulation system |
| topic | early life maltreatment post-traumatic stress disorder interoception dissociation mindfulness |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1987686 |
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