Impaired context disambiguation as a key determinant of post-traumatic psychopathology: A neurocomputational account

Abstract

We combine theoretical biology and systems neuroscience to relate the mechanisms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) models to biopsychosocial complexity. Moving beyond fear conditioning, extinction and habits formed by associative learning, we consider conserved neuromodulatory mechanisms related to harm expectation, defensive mobilisation, and context (in)sensitivity. Our account of harm-mitigating, neurobehavioural responses furnishes a mechanistic understanding of maladaptive behaviour and impaired belief-updating, which are often underspecified in conceptual analyses. Grounded in neurobiological evidence, we specify PTSD-related impairment in terms of Bayesian belief-updating and establish an adaptive/maladaptive boundary using active inference simulation studies. The ensuing model plausibly illustrates PTSD pathogenesis, which remains understudied relative to aetiology. We locate pathogenesis in maladaptive precision following trauma, characterised by a distortion of ideal Bayesian updating via aberrant credit assignment. Future scientific and clinical studies can test the validity of these insights, which could underwrite our understanding of the phenomenology, diagnostics and ultimately treatment intervention in post-traumatic disorders.