%0 Journal Article %A Yunqi Zhu %A Ruili Du %A Yuankai Zhu %A Yehua Shen %A Kai Zhang %A Yao Chen %A Fahuan Song %A Shuang Wu %A Hong Zhang %A Mei Tian %T PET Mapping of Neurofunctional Changes in a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Model %D 2016 %R 10.2967/jnumed.116.173443 %J Journal of Nuclear Medicine %P 1474-1477 %V 57 %N 9 %X Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that occurs after exposure to a traumatic event. This study aimed to investigate the neurobiologic changes before and after exposure-based therapy by PET in a rat model of PTSD. Methods: Serial 18F-FDG PET imaging studies were performed under the control (tone presentation), fear-conditioning, and extinction retrieval phases. Neuroactivity marker c-Fos protein was used for immunostaining. Results: Increased glucose metabolism was observed in the bilateral amygdala after fear-conditioning (P < 0.001) and in the right posterior insular cortex under extinction retrieval (P < 0.001) compared with the control phase. Increased c-Fos expression in the posterior insular cortex under extinction retrieval was positively correlated to the glucose metabolism (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Our results indicated that the amygdala plays a key role in fear memory formation and, most importantly, the insular cortex is related to the retrieval of extinction memory. 18F-FDG PET may provide a promising in vivo approach for evaluating exposure-based therapy of PTSD. %U https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/jnumed/57/9/1474.full.pdf