Psychological trauma

Question 1

role of the limbic system

Answer 1

Regulates and controls:
• Emotions
• Memory attention and learning
• Self-preservations (fight or flight)

Question 2

amygdala function

Answer 2

Integral part of fear circuitry
• Receives inputs (visual and auditory)
• Efferent and afferent pathways
• Release of cortisol
• Modulation of autonomic nervous system
• Learning (e.g. acquisition of conditioned fear)

Question 3

relationship between amygdala and pre-frontal cortex

Answer 3

• Inter-connected structurally and functionally
• Work together to ‘tune’ response to threatening stimuli
• Amygdala will recognise the threat and sound the alarm
• PFC will temper this response and signal whether the extent of the response is justified
• (braking system)
• Reciprocal relationship
• In PTSD – amygdala hyperactive and PFC hypoactive

Question 4

physical presentation of psychological trauma

Answer 4

• Emotions – depression, anger, lability of mood
• Memory – flashbacks, triggered by sounds/smells, amnesia
• Self-preservation (fight or flight) – anxiety, panic attacks, autonomic over-arousal, hypervigilance

Question 5

complex PTSD

Answer 5

• Repeated or prolonged traumas (abuse, loss, separation, illness)
• Developmental trauma and adverse childhood events (ACEs)
• Community-based trauma