Trauma and the default mode network: review and exploratory study
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience December 23, 2024 Aldrich Chan, Philip D. Harvey, R Hernandez-Cardenache et al. 9 citations
Traumatic responses outside a PTSD diagnosis are linked to changes in default mode network (DMN) functioning. In a study of 27 participants (16 trauma-exposed, 11 non-trauma-exposed), with 15 completing neuroimaging, the trauma-exposed group showed reduced self-referential processing, social cognition, autobiographical recall, and prospection, alongside increased mind-wandering. Correlations between cognitive findings and brain volume were observed, but volumetric differences between groups were insignificant. This suggests that preserved DMN structural integrity may support resilience, and that reduced hippocampal volume may be a pre-existing vulnerability to PTSD rather than a consequence, with DMN-related cognitive reductions being functionally mediated.