In nine veterans and first-responders with chronic PTSD, MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) did not significantly increase amygdala-hippocampus resting-state functional connectivity as hypothesized, showing only a trend. After treatment, brain activation during trauma memory recall decreased in the cuneus. Recovery from PTSD correlated with changes in four functional connections during autobiographical memory recall: left amygdala with left and right posterior cingulate cortex and left insula, and left isthmus cingulate with left posterior hippocampus. These findings suggest that amygdala, hippocampus, and insula functional connectivity may be a target of MDMA-AT, highlighting regions involved in memory processes.
In nine veterans and first-responders with chronic PTSD, MDMA-assisted therapy did not significantly increase amygdala-hippocampus resting-state functional connectivity as hypothesized, only showing a trend. After treatment, activation in the cuneus decreased when recalling traumatic versus neutral memories. The amount of PTSD recovery correlated with changes in four functional connections during autobiographical memory recall: left amygdala with left and right posterior cingulate cortex and left insula, and left isthmus cingulate with left posterior hippocampus. These findings suggest that MDMA-AT may alter functional connectivity in brain regions involved in memory and fear processing, but more research is needed to determine if these effects are specific to MDMA-AT compared to other PTSD treatments.
Long-term heavy cannabis users who are not acutely intoxicated show diminished brain responses in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) when consciously evaluating emotional images, compared to non-users. Both groups judged the same stimuli as emotional and had similar activations in visual, midbrain, and middle cingulate cortices. However, controls showed additional amygdalar and inferior frontal gyrus activations, while cannabis users showed mPFC deactivations during emotional evaluation. Between-group comparisons found mPFC activity during positive and negative evaluation was significantly hypoactive in cannabis users. This abnormal neural processing of affective content extends to conscious evaluation and resembles attenuated mPFC responses found during increased non-affective cognitive load.