A study from Hospital Clínic de Barcelona found that over half of women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a recent sexual assault show nearly complete disconnection between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, key areas for regulating emotions and fear. The findings, presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in Amsterdam, suggest this alteration could serve as a biomarker to personalize treatments. Experts praise the research's solidity and relevance for sexual violence victims.
The team led by Lydia Fortea from Hospital Clínic de Barcelona examined the brains of 40 women with PTSD resulting from a sexual assault in the past year using functional magnetic resonance imaging. They compared these images to those of 45 control volunteers. The results show that in 22 of the 40 assaulted women, communication between the amygdala—which processes emotions like fear—and the prefrontal cortex—which regulates those emotions—had nearly completely disappeared.
“This is one of the first, and undoubtedly the largest, connectivity study analyzing PTSD from sexual assault in adolescents and adult women,” Fortea states. “This supports the idea that PTSD after sexual assault is linked to problems in brain circuits that regulate emotions and fear.”
Globally, 17% to 25% of women suffer sexual assault, and around 70% develop PTSD afterward. Fortea emphasizes that “PTSD after sexual assault tends to be particularly severe and is often accompanied by higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.” The authors plan to investigate if these connectivity disruptions predict treatment response, enabling personalized interventions.
Marin Jukić, researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and co-author, adds: “These connectivity deficits could serve more as a biological signature of the disorder than as a state-dependent marker.” Experts call for larger longitudinal studies, as most prior PTSD research focused on traumas like war.
César San Juan Guillén, Psychology professor at the University of the Basque Country, describes the result as “extraordinarily remarkable,” aligning with previous PTSD findings but novel in the sexual assault context. Manuela Costa from the Autonomous University of Madrid notes that the study complements research on traumatic memories, providing deeper insight into frontolimbic circuit alterations.