A Connectome-Wide Functional Characteristic of Visual Working Memory in Earthquake Survivors

Previous studies have shown that trauma exposure could affect visual working memory function in trauma survivors, regardless of psychopathological symptoms. However, the impact of psychological trauma on the brain function underlying working memory is unclear. To investigate this, a connectome-wide association (CWAS) study was conducted on visual working memory (VWM) in a spectrum of trauma-exposed individuals. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to scan 93 earthquake survivors, 44 of whom met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 49 did not. Fifteen participants with PTSD also had a comorbid major depressive disorder. The Wechsler Memory Scale-IV and clinical assessments were used to examine participants. A CWAS was conducted to search for a whole-brain multivariate connectome profile related to VWM performance. The results showed that VWM performance was robustly associated with the connectome profile of the left inferior parietal cortex (IPC). A post-hoc seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis using the left IPC as a seed revealed that the bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), posterior cingulate (PCC), and precuneus correlated positively with the IPC after correction. The correlations between the mean connectivity of the left IPC and the regions mentioned above and VWM scores further underscored the role of these connections in VWM performance in trauma survivors. These findings demonstrate a more comprehensive picture of the neural correlates of VWM performance in trauma survivors and suggest that modulating the functional connectivity between the IPC, insula, and dmPFC could shift attention bias and improve VWM performance in trauma-exposed survivors.