TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2023//
TI  - Civilian moral injury and amygdala functional connectivity during attention to threat
JO  - Biological psychiatry: cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
A1  - Fulton, Travis
A1  - Lathan, Emma C.
A1  - Karkare, Maya C.
A1  - Guelfo, Alfonsina
A1  - Eghbalzad, Leyla
A1  - Ahluwalia, Vishwadeep
A1  - Ely, Timothy D.
A1  - Turner, Jessica A.
A1  - Turner, Matthew D.
A1  - Currier, Joseph M.
A1  - Mekawi, Yara
A1  - Fani, Negar
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Moral injury references emotional and spiritual/existential suffering that may emerge following psychological trauma. Despite being linked to adverse mental health outcomes, little is known about the neurophysiological mechanisms of this phenomenon. In this study, we examined neural correlates of moral injury exposure and distress using the Moral Injury Events and Symptom Scale for Civilians (MIESS-C). We also examined potential moderation of these effects by race (Black vs White individuals), given the likely intersection of race-related stress with moral injury. <br><br>METHODS: Forty-eight adults aged 18-65 (M(age)=30.56, SD=11.93) completed the MIESS-C and an affective attentional control measure, the affective Stroop task (AS), during fMRI; the AS includes presentation of threat-relevant and neutral distractor stimuli. Voxel-wise functional connectivity of the bilateral amygdala was examined in response to threat-relevant vs neutral AS distractor trials. <br><br>RESULTS: Functional connectivity between the right amygdala and left postcentral gyrus/primary somatosensory cortex was positively correlated with MIESS-C exposure score (voxel-wise p<.001, cluster false discovery rate-corrected p<.05) in response to threat vs neutral AS distractor trials. Follow-up analyses revealed significant effects of race; Black but not White participants demonstrated this significant pattern of amygdala-left SSC connectivity. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Increased exposure to potentially morally injurious events may lead to emotion-somatosensory pathway disruptions during attention to threat-relevant stimuli. These effects may be most potent for individuals who have experienced multilayered exposure to morally injurious events, including racial trauma. Moral injury appears to have a distinct neurobiological signature that involves abnormalities in connectivity of emotion-somatosensory paths, which may be amplified by race-related stress.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 2451-9030
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2023.07.006
ID  - ref1
ER  -