Electrophysiological correlates of executive and affective processing in veterans with PTSD/TBI (2014)

Undergraduates: Danielle Rogers, Bhavika Kumar Alana Campbell Ashley Creese

Faculty Advisor: Ayse Belger
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Estimates show that up to half of recent combat veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) also meet criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Both TBI and PTSD are characterized by deficits in executive functions, such as poor attention, cognitive control, and inhibition. TBI and PTSD also share symptoms related to affective processing, particularly affective control, hyperarousal, irritability, anger, and anxiety. The goal of the current project is to examine electrophysiological correlates of executive and affective functions in PTSD/TBI patients and compare these correlates to clinical symptoms. The P3 event-related potential is an electrophysiological component elicited in oddball tasks and related to executive functions. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded while Patients completed an oddball task in which they responded to an infrequent target amid frequent standard stimuli. In one task version we introduced emotional stimuli to distract from target detection. We examined the P3 response to the target stimuli in both tasks to assess their relationship to severity of clinical symptoms in PTSD and TBI. The results suggest that affective information diminishes executive responses. These results provide information regarding the neural underpinnings of executive functions, affective processing, and PTSD/TBI.