ORIGINAL ARTICLE A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Amygdala and Medial Prefrontal Cortex Responses to Overtly Presented Fearful Faces in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

ies have demonstrated exaggerated amygdala responses and diminished medial prefrontal cortex responses dur-ing the symptomatic state in posttraumatic stress disor-der (PTSD). Objectives: To determine whether these abnormali-ties also occur in response to overtly presented affective stimuli unrelated to trauma; to examine the functional relationship between the amygdala and medial prefron-tal cortex and their relationship to PTSD symptom se-verity in response to these stimuli; and to determine whether responsivity of these regions habituates nor-mally across repeated stimulus presentations in PTSD. Design: Case-control study