A recent fMRI study found that resilient women with a history of sexual trauma were more successful at cognitively enhancing emotional responses to aversive pictures than women with PTSD after sexual trauma and healthy, non-traumatized controls. This increased capacity to enhance emotional responses was associated with increased PFC activation110. These results highlight the complexity of emotion regulation systems and suggest that resilience could also be associated with the ability to sustain attention to unpleasant stimuli. Perhaps this increased attention is related to a more accurate or optimistic appraisal of the perceived threats.
