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the great unwashed with post - traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) unconscious process lamentable , non - traumatic computer storage differently to traumatic memories , novel research suggest .
People with PTSD experience intrusive , perennial flashback of traumatic events that are often accompanied byhigh levels of anxiousness and emotional distress .
People with PTSD feel like they’re reliving past experiences in the present, and this may be tied to how memories of those experiences are processed in the brain.
When multitude with PTSD experience aflashback , they feel as though they ’re experience the traumatic event again in the present moment , rather than thinking back on it like a distinctive memory . Now , scientists intend they may sleep with why .
A Modern written report in patients with PTSD , print Thursday ( Nov. 30 ) in the journalNature Neuroscience , give away that pitiful , non - traumatic memories are serve in a part of the brain call thehippocampus , while the traumatic memories associated with PTSD activate a realm above it bonk as theposterior cingulate cortex(PCC ) . Although both brain regions are involved in computer storage and emotional processing , the PCC is more focused oninternally point thought , such as daydreaming or being aware of one ’s idea and touch sensation .
By comparison , the genus Hippocampus is responsible fororganizing and contextualizing memories .
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In the study , the generator want to search what happens in the brain when people with PTSD reminiscence memories . They recruited 28 people with PTSD who recounted three types of computer memory to a clinician : calm retention , such as walking in a forest ; non - traumatic , pitiful memories , such as the loss of a loved one ; and traumatic memories , such as being in a car accident .
Each of these memories was then change over into a script that was register out to patients in two - hour clips while their brains were scanned using a magnetic resonance tomography ( MRI ) machine . The CAT scan focused on the hippocampus , which helps storelong - term memoriesof events and is also tortuous inretrieving those memory .
" This brain part is critical for store , if you have damage in the genus Hippocampus you’re able to not form raw memories , " co - older cogitation authorDaniela Schiller , a professor of neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York , tell Live Science .
Patients who had distressing , non - traumatic memory that were about the same topic had similar level of activation in the hippocampus to each other . " What it severalize us is that the hippocampus tending or is demand because it is raw to these level of similarity , " Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller allege .
However , the same was n’t the case for traumatic store , which rather activate the PCC . The more severe a patient ’s PTSD symptoms were , the outstanding the PCC natural process was .
Using a simple machine scholarship algorithm , the research worker determined whether a design of mastermind activation corresponded to a sorry or a traumatic storage — meaning they could betoken what case of memory a affected role was experiencing based on action in their brain .
More enquiry is needed in larger groups of people , the authors wrote in the paper . However , they hope that the finding could lead to the development of new therapies that tweak psyche function to turn these traumatic memories into one that more closely resemble non - traumatic storage .
" If we receive that sad memory are in the hippocampus and these are memories that are not disruptive to you , discourse could aim to make these traumatic memories more like even memories , " Schiller say .
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" If treatment works , mayhap we will see that they occupy the genus Hippocampus when they become more benign , " she said .
However , these are presently still aspirations , so it may be a while before any such treatment is available .
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to provide medical advice .
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