Criticality is Associated with Future Psychotherapy Response in Patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-A Pilot...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Complex Systems

Background:

• Trauma-focused psychotherapy is a primary treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Approximately 50% of patients do not achieve full remission with current treatments.
• Brain criticality, the dynamic balance between order and disorder, is increasingly studied for its role in information processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between brain criticality and treatment response in individuals with PTSD.
• To test the hypothesis that individuals who respond to psychotherapy exhibit brain activity closer to criticality.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) resting-state scans were obtained from 46 male veterans diagnosed with PTSD.
• Treatment involved trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or a combination.
• Brain criticality was quantified using an Ising temperature approach across seven canonical brain networks.

Main Results:

• Individuals who responded to psychotherapy demonstrated brain activity closer to criticality compared to non-responders (P=0.017).
• A significant correlation was found between average criticality across all networks and future treatment response (P=0.028).
• No significant interaction effect was observed between patient group (responder vs. non-responder) and specific brain networks (P=0.486).

Conclusions:

• The findings indicate that successful PTSD psychotherapy is associated with brain activity operating nearer to a critical state.
• This proximity to criticality appears to be a whole-brain phenomenon rather than network-specific.
• Brain criticality may serve as a biomarker for predicting treatment outcomes in PTSD psychotherapy.