Rumination, defined as repetitive, negative, self-focused thinking, is hypothesized to be a transdiagnostic factor that is associated with depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Theory has suggested that in individuals with PTSD, rumination serves as a cognitive avoidance factor that contributes to the maintenance of symptoms by inhibiting the cognitive and emotional processing of the traumatic event, subsequently interfering with treatment engagement and outcome. Little is known about the neural correlates of rumination in women with PTSD. The current study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural correlates during an emotion interference task of self-reported rumination in women with PTSD. Women with PTSD (39 participants) were recruited at a university-based trauma clinic and completed a clinical evaluation that included measures of PTSD symptoms, rumination, and depressive symptoms, as well as a neuroimaging session in which the participants were administered an emotion interference task. There was a significant relationship between self-reported rumination and activity in the right orbital frontal cortex, BA 11; t(37) = 5.62, p = .004, k = 46 during the task. This finding suggested that women with PTSD, who had higher levels of rumination, may experience greater difficulty inhibiting negative emotional stimuli compared to women with lower levels of rumination. Resumen Correlatos Neurales de Rumiacion en TEPT La rumiacion, definida como un pensamiento negativo, repetitivo, auto-centrado, es hipotetizada como un factor trans-diagnostico asociado con depresion, ansiedad y trastorno por estres postraumatico (TEPT). La teoria ha sugerido que en individuos con TEPT, la rumiacion sirve como un factor de evitacion cognitiva que contribuye al mantenimiento de los sintomas a traves de la inhibicion del procesamiento cognitivo y emocional del evento traumatico, interfiriendo subsecuentemente con la adhesion a tratamiento y los resultados. Poco se conoce acerca de los correlatos neurales de la rumiacion en mujeres con TEPT. El presente estudio utilizo imagenes de resonancia magnetica funcional (fMRI) para examinar los correlatos neurales, durante una tarea de interferencia emocional, de la rumiacion auto-reportada en mujeres con TEPT. Se recluto mujeres con TEPT (39) a traves de una clinica de trauma universitaria y completaron una evaluacion clinica que incluyo mediciones de sintomas de TEPT, rumiacion, y sintomas depresivos, asi como tambien una sesion de neuroimagenes en la cual se administro a las participantes una tarea de interferencia emocional. Hubo una relacion significativa entre la rumiacion auto-reportada y la actividad de la corteza orbitofrontal derecha durante la tarea, BA 11; t(37) = 5.62, p = .004, k = 46. Este hallazgo sugiere que las mujeres con TEPT que tienen mayores niveles de rumiacion, podrian experimentar mayor dificultad en inhibir los estimulos emocionales negativos comparado con las mujeres con menores niveles de rumiacion.
