Together, current findings implicate a core visual-cortex-DMN system of α dysrhythmia in PTSD. The critical role of visual cortical α deficits in this pathology lends credence to a sensory hypothesis of PTSD centered on sensory cortical disinhibition (Clancy et al., 2017, 2020; Li, 2019) and bottom-up accounts of PTSD in general (Nicholson et al., 2017; Badura-Brack et al., 2018). Childhood trauma, a common PTSD risk factor, has been associated with various aberrations in the sensory cortex and sensory pathway (Teicher et al., 2016), adding to the support for this sensory hypothesis. Indeed, 36% of the current PTSD sample reported childhood trauma. That said, the means (and standard deviations) of α power and connectivity were highly comparable between the childhood trauma subgroup and the rest of the PTSD group, implicating this sensory pathology across trauma types.
