(1)I need some mri's of the human brain illurstrating how different
parts of the brain appear to be active when trauma is being recalled,
as opposed to images during normal functioning.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 20 Apr 2003 18:12 PDT

I have found two sets of MRIs, comparing the brain generally (with a
focus on the amygdala), or the hippocampus particularly, in persons
with or without post-traumatic stress disorder.  The images are
somewhat fuzzy and not very detailed, but do show differences.  Would
these images be sufficient?

Hi Liz123!

Thanks for posting this question!  Recent advances in brain-imaging
techniques have give us great insight into the workings of the mind,
and also, are just “super-cool!”

The images you are requesting are the results of what is called
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, as opposed to just a
regular MRI scan.  fMRI scans work in a similar manner, however they
measure the metabolic requirements of neurons and the result is that a
quantified amount of neural activity can be measured.  You can read
more about how fMRI’s work at:
[ http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/~mmeyer/fMRI/fMRI.htm ]

or more about its applications here:
[ http://www.fmri.org/fmri.htm ]

While searching, I came upon the name of Dr. Ruth Lanius, who
conducted a study of exactly the nature you described.
“Patients in the study are asked to read a script that they’ve written
describing their traumatic event while the fMRI captures images of
their brain activity.”
An article about the study and from which this quote was taken can be
found at the University of Western Ontario’s website (that university
hosted the study):
[ http://comms.uwo.ca/wnews/stories/2001/nov/26-30/lanius.htm ]

The actual paper can be found at [
http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/Psychology/psych3l03/ReviewPapers/ptsd.paper.pdf
] which also happens to contain the images you requested, if you
scroll down to Page 5.

You’ll notice that there are not separate images for a comparison
labeled “control” or “during normal function” as described in your
question.  This is because fMRI scans are displayed with this
information already encoded- the grayscale background of the images is
representative of normal brain activity levels, with no particular
stimuli being processed.  The multi-colored areas represent a value
for the increase in activity, not the absolute activity level.

If this is relevant, a similar study was conducted in which patients
viewed “unpleasant” stimuli.  Certainly not the same as the
recollection of trauma, but similar and fairly interesting.  The
document can be found here (the pictures are on page 6):

[ http://courses.brown.edu/Rebecca_Burwell-PY0103_F02/sassigadd1.pdf ]

I hope these images satisfy your needs!

Regards,
Andrewxmp


Search terms used:
fmri images recall memories
fmri images traumatic
fmri lanius images

If you don't have it, you will need to dowload the free Adobe Acrobat 
Reader in order to view the following that Andrewxmp referenced.

http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/Psychology/psych3l03/ReviewPapers/ptsd.paper.pdf
http://courses.brown.edu/Rebecca_Burwell-PY0103_F02/sassigadd1.pdf

You can get the free Adobe Acrobat Reader from:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Looking Forward, denco-ga

Ahh, thanks a lot Denco, I should have included that initially.

Thanks!
-Andrewxmp

Not a problem; my pleasure Andrewxmp!

denco-ga