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Genetics of PTSD: Fear Conditioning as a Model for Future Research.

ABSTRACT: In the last decade, the number of publications in psychiatric genetics has nearly tripled but little attention has been paid to the role of genetic factors in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present review summarizes the current state of genetic research on PTSD. First, we outline information regarding genetic influences provided by family investigations and by twin studies. Second, we propose the fear-conditioning model of PTSD as a framework for the nomination of candidate genes that may be related to the disorder. Third, we review lines of evidence from three neurobiological systems involved in fear conditioning, and we summarize published investigations of genetic variants studied in association with PTSD in these three systems. Finally, we review gene-by-environment interaction research, a promising novel approach to genetic research in PTSD.

SUBMITTER: Amstadter AB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2749314 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Genetics of PTSD: Fear Conditioning as a Model for Future Research.

Amstadter Ananda B AB Nugent Nicole R NR Koenen Karestan C KC

Psychiatric annals 20090601 6

In the last decade, the number of publications in psychiatric genetics has nearly tripled but little attention has been paid to the role of genetic factors in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present review summarizes the current state of genetic research on PTSD. First, we outline information regarding genetic influences provided by family investigations and by twin studies. Second, we propose the fear-conditioning model of PTSD as a framework for the nomination of cand ...[more]

PMID: 19779593

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Project description:The extinction of contextual fear is commonly an essential requirement for successful exposure therapy for fear disorders. However, experimental work on extinction of contextual fear is limited, and there little or no directly relevant theoretical work. Here, we extend BACON, a neurocomputational model of context fear conditioning that provides plausible explanations for a number of aspects of context fear conditioning, to deal with extinction (calling the model BaconX). In this model, contextual representations are formed in the hippocampus and association of fear to them occurs in the amygdala. Representation creation, conditionability, and development of between-session extinction are controlled by degree of confidence (assessed by the Bayesian weight of evidence) that an active contextual representation is in fact that of the current context (i.e., is "valid"). The model predicts that: (1) extinction which persists between sessions will occur only if at a sessions end there is high confidence that the active representation is valid. It follows that the shorter the context placement-to-US (shock) interval ("PSI") and the less is therefore learned about context, the longer extinction sessions must be for enduring extinction to occur, while too short PSIs will preclude successful extinction. (2) Short-PSI deficits can be rescued by contextual exposure even after conditioning has occurred. (3) Learning to discriminate well between a conditioned and similar safe context requires representations of each to form, which may not occur if PSI was too short. (4) Extinction-causing inhibition must be applied downstream of the conditioning locus for reasonable generalization properties to be generated. (5) Context change tends to cause return of extinguished contextual fear. (6). Extinction carried out in the conditioning context generalizes better than extinction executed in contexts to which fear has generalized (as done in exposure therapy). (7) BaconX suggests novel approaches to exposure therapy.

Dataset Information

Genetics of PTSD: Fear Conditioning as a Model for Future Research.

Publications

Genetics of PTSD: Fear Conditioning as a Model for Future Research.

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