Abstract #3429

Thalamic Connectivity and its Role in Resilience to Trauma: Insights from Ultra-High-Field MRI at 7T

Nibal Khudeish^1,2, Ravichandran Rajkumar^1,2,3, Shukti Ramkiran^1,2, Abdulrahman S. Sawalma^1,2, Tanja Veselinović^1,2, Jon Shah^1,3,4,5, and Irene Neuner^1,2,3,6

¹Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany INM-4, Jülich, Germany, ²Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, Aachen, Germany, ³JARA – BRAIN – Translational Medicine, Aachen, Germany, Aachen, Germany, ⁴Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, INM-11, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany, Aachen, Germany, ⁵Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, Aachen, Germany, ⁶Center for Computational Life Sciences, RWTH Aachen, Germany, Aachen, Germany

Synopsis

Keywords: Functional Connectivity, fMRI (resting state), Resilience, Trauma, PTSD, Thalamus, UHF-MRI

Motivation: To discern why some individuals develop stress-related disorders post-trauma while others don't, focusing on the role of thalamus in emotional regulation and resilience.

Goal(s): Investigate thalamic functional connectivity differences in trauma-exposed individuals to identify neural mechanisms of resilience.

Approach: Acquired MRI data from 35 Syrian refugees using a 7T scanner, analyzed for trauma-related connectivity differences via seed-to-voxel thalamic analysis with the CONN toolbox, informed by RS-25 and HTQ questionnaires to distinguish between asymptomatic and symptomatic groups.

Results: Significant right thalamic connectivity differences were found, indicating potential neural resilience correlates and adaptive changes in sensory-motor processing related to PTSD symptom severity.

Impact: This study enhances our understanding of trauma's neural basis and resilience, potentially directing new therapeutic strategies targeting thalamic connectivity to prevent stress-related disorders, thereby improving trauma care and mental health outcomes. Ref.

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