PTSD Risk Factors: Why Some Are More Vulnerable
- Individuals with heightened activity in the amygdala, a brain region crucial for threat processing, face a greater risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms following traumatic experiences.
- De Voogd noted the difficulty in pinpointing why some individuals develop PTSD symptoms after trauma while others do not.
- During the study, police trainees underwent a shooting simulation inside an MRI scanner.
amygdala Activity Linked to PTSD Risk in Police Officers
Updated June 7, 2025
Individuals with heightened activity in the amygdala, a brain region crucial for threat processing, face a greater risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms following traumatic experiences. This finding comes from a study of police officers led by Karin Roelofs at Radboud University, with contributions from neuroscientist Linda de Voogd, now at Leiden University.
De Voogd noted the difficulty in pinpointing why some individuals develop PTSD symptoms after trauma while others do not. The “Police in Action” study, conducted with the National Police, aimed to address this by examining officers at the start of their training, before potential exposure to traumatic events.
During the study, police trainees underwent a shooting simulation inside an MRI scanner. Participants were tasked with reacting to an avatar in a parking lot who would either pull out a gun or a cell phone. Trainees had to quickly decide weather to shoot. Incorrectly shooting the avatar when it held a phone resulted in a mild electric shock.
Researchers followed up with the officers about 18 months later, inquiring about their experiences and any PTSD symptoms. The results indicated a correlation between pre-trauma amygdala activity during the shooting task and the development of PTSD symptoms after experiencing a traumatic event.
The reasons behind varying amygdala responses to threats remain unclear.De Voogd suggests that some individuals might process more data under threat, leading to heightened awareness in crisis situations. Further research is needed to explore this.
We saw that people who had a more active amygdala before a trauma when performing the shooting task experienced more PTSD symptoms after a trauma.
What’s next
Identifying factors that increase trauma susceptibility could pave the way for interventions aimed at bolstering resilience. Calming the amygdala,according to De Voogd,might reduce the likelihood of developing PTSD symptoms.