How PTSD Affects the Brain

Your alarm system…

Your amygdala triggers your natural alarm system. Your amygdala is part of the brain that’s wired to ensure survival. So when it’s overactive, it’s hard to think rationally.

Your brake system…

Your prefrontal cortex helps you think through decisions, observe how you’re thinking, and puts on the brakes when you realize something you first feared isn’t actually a threat after all.
Your prefrontal cortex helps regulate emotional responses triggered by the amygdala.

A bad combination…

An overactive amygdala combined with an underactive prefrontal cortex create a perfect storm. It’s like stomping on your car’s accelerator, even when you don’t need to, only to discover the brakes don’t work.

System recall errors…

Other, ptsd experiences – such as unwanted feelings that pop out of nowhere or always being on the lookout for threats that could lead to more trauma – seem to be related to the hippocampus, the memory center of your brain. Your hippocampus is a lot like your computer’s memory that writes files to its hard drive. After a trauma, your hippocampus works to remember the event accurately to make sense of it. But because a trauma is typically overwhelming, all the information doent get coded correctly. This means that you might have trouble remembering important details of the event.

Your amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus all contribute to the feelings and actions associated with fear, clear thinking, decision-making, and memory.