Braeden Terpou

McMaster University | McMaster · Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences

Neural representations of sensory percepts and motor responses constitute key elements of autobiographical memory. However, these representations may remain as unintegrated sensory and motor fragments in traumatic memory, thus contributing toward re-experiencing and reliving symptoms in trauma-related conditions such as post-traumatic stress disord...

Background Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been found to be associated with emotion under-modulation from the prefrontal cortex and a breakdown of the top-down control of cognition and emotion. Novel adjunct therapies such as neurofeedback (NFB) have been shown to normalize aberrant neural circuits that underlie PTSD psychopathology at res...

The dissociative subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a distinct PTSD phenotype characterized by trauma-related dissociation, alongside unique patterns of small and large-scale functional connectivity. However, disparate findings across these various scales of investigation have highlighted the need for a cohesive understanding of di...

Background: In 2012, a dissociative subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was introduced into the DSM based on emerging clinical and neurobiological evidence of a distinct PTSD phenotype characterized by trauma-related dissociation. Ten years later, considerable research has demonstrated unique small-scale (i.e., node-based) and large-sc...

Microstates offer a promising framework to study fast-scale brain dynamics in the resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG). However, microstate dynamics have yet to be investigated in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), despite research demonstrating resting-state alterations in PTSD. We performed microstate-based segmentation of resting-state E...

Background Increasing evidence points toward the need to extend the neurobiological conceptualization of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to include evolutionarily conserved neurocircuitries centered on the brainstem and the midbrain. The reticular activating system (RAS) helps to shape the arousal state of the brain, acting as a bridge between...

Background: A moral injury occurs when a deeply held moral code has been violated, and it can lead to the development of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the neural correlates that differentiate moral injury and PTSD remain largely unknown. Intrinsic connectivity networks such as the default mode network (DMN) appear to b...

Microstates offer a promising framework to study whole-brain dynamics in the resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG). However, microstate dynamics have yet to be investigated in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), despite research demonstrating resting-state alterations in PTSD. We performed microstate-based segmentation of resting-state EEG in...

Trauma can profoundly affect the sense of self, where both cognitive and somatic disturbances to the sense of self are reported clinically by individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These disturbances are captured eloquently by clinical accounts, such as, ‘I do not know myself anymore,’ ‘I will never be able to experience normal emot...

Self-related processes define assorted self-relevant or social-cognitive functions that allow us to gather insight and to draw inferences related to our own mental conditions. Self-related processes are mediated by the default mode network (DMN), which, critically, shows altered functionality in participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD...

Slides from my oral presentation at the International Trauma Conference (virtual platform).

Background: In 2012, a dissociative subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was introduced into the DSM based on emerging clinical and neurobiological evidence of a distinct PTSD phenotype characterized by trauma-related dissociation. Ten years later, considerable research has demonstrated unique small-scale (i.e., node-based) and large-sc...

Autobiographical memory (AM) refers to memories of events that are personally relevant and are remembered from one's own past. The AM network is a distributed brain network comprised largely by prefrontal medial and posteromedial cortical brain regions, which together facilitate AM. Autobiographical memories with high arousal and negatively valence...

Background: Brainstem and midbrain neuronal circuits that control innate, reflexive responses and arousal are increasingly recognized as central to the neurobiological framework of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The reticular activation system represents a fundamental neuronal circuit that plays a critical role not only in generating arous...

Background: The innate alarm system consists of a subcortical network of interconnected midbrain, lower brainstem, and thalamic nuclei, which together mediate the detection of evolutionarily-relevant stimuli. The periaqueductal gray is a midbrain structure innervated by the innate alarm system that coordinates the expression of defensive states fo...

Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis that may follow the experience of trauma, has multiple symptomatic phenotypes. Generally, individuals with PTSD display symptoms of hyperarousal and of hyperemotionality in the presence of fearful stimuli. A subset of individuals with PTSD; however, elicit dissociative symptomatology (i.e., deperso...

The innate alarm system (IAS) is a subcortical network of inter connected midbrain, brainstem, and thalamic nuclei, which mediate the detection of evolutionarily-relevant stimuli in the environment. The periaqueductal gray (PAG) is a midbrain structure innervated by the IAS that coordinates the expression of defensive behavioural states following t...

Background: The innate alarm system, a network of interconnected midbrain, other brainstem, and thalamic structures, serves to rapidly detect stimuli in the environment prior to the onset of conscious awareness. This system is sensitive to threatening stimuli and has evolved to process these stimuli subliminally for hastened responding. Despite th...

Neurofeedback has long been proposed as a promising form of adjunctive non-pharmaceutical treatment for a variety of neuropsychological disorders. However, there is much debate over its efficacy and specificity. Many suggest that specificity can only be achieved when a specially trained clinician manually updates reward thresholds, which indicate t...

Key evidence points toward alterations in the neurocircuitry of large‐scale networks among patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The pulvinar is a thalamic region displaying reciprocal connectivity with the cortex and has been shown to modulate alpha synchrony to facilitate network communication. During rest, the pulvinar displays fun...

Evidence points towards alterations in the neurocircuitry of large-scale intrinsic connectivity networks among patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 1,9. Indeed, alterations in connectivity within and between anticorrelated networks may underlie pathophysiological differences between PTSD and the dissociative subtype (+ DS) of the diso...