2025 Conference Agenda

Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Human Genetics, Yale University

Gita Pathak, Ph.D. , Assistant Professor, Institute for Genomic Health; Genetics & Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Tshaka Cunningham, Ph.D., Co-founder & Director of Research & Development, Polaris Genomics

Dr. Gaziano will discuss doing research within the VA healthcare environment, a large national healthcare system caring for about 9 million Veterans annually. He will discuss the building of the Million Veteran Program as a resource for understanding how gene and other omics impact health and disease. Finally, he will share findings for PTSD and related conditions from the Million Veteran Program.

Michael Gaziano, MD, Chief, Division of Aging/Professor/Executive Director, MAVERIC, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School/VA Boston Healthcare System

Jessica Gill, RN, Ph.D., Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Trauma Recovery Biomarkers, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University

Degradation of subjective and objective sleep quality is commonly reported in individuals diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is also associated with impaired extinction learning and memory. Extinction learning is the basis of exposure therapy for PTSD and involves formation of new inhibitory memories that compete with existing fear memories when trauma reminders are later encountered. Sleep supports the consolidation and generalization of memory including extinction memories. A large sample of trauma-exposed civilians underwent fear conditioning, followed immediately by extinction learning and then by extinction recall 24-h later with simultaneous fMRI scanning and psychophysiological monitoring. Their sleep was recorded using polysomnography (PSG), actigraphy and diaries. Those who did not meet criteria for PTSD activated both fear-related and emotion-regulatory brain areas during the extinction learning that immediately following fear conditioning. In contrast, those who met PTSD criteria delayed activation of both threat- and extinction-related brain areas until stimuli were presented again 24h later. Among sleep architecture parameters measured using PSG, parasympathetic (vagal) tone during REM was positively associated with fear extinction memory and negatively with hyperarousal indices. Abnormal autonomic activity during sleep may therefore be associated with the inability, in those with PTSD, to immediately engage substrates of extinction learning following fear conditioning and to only do so following a delay at a second presentation of stimuli.

Edward Pace-Schott, Ph.D., Director, Sleep and Anxiety Disorders Laboratory, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital

Despite increased attention and research on poor outcomes associated with mTBI, the literature remains unresolved and contradictory, particularly regarding the impact of commonly co-occurring psychiatric comorbidities such as PTSD. To date, the analytic approaches applied to mTBI can be divided into three broad categories: 1) studies that examine mTBI as an isolated predictor of enduring consequences without considering the confounding effects of prevalent co-occurring psychiatric and behavioral comorbidities; 2) studies that look at mTBI as a predictor of various functional and cognitive outcomes while controlling for those comorbidities as confounds; and 3) studies that treat mTBI categorically and use extant comorbidities as outcome measures. We will first describe how these approaches have produced a confusing and difficult to reconcile landscape of data. Next, we will highlight how recent work from the Translational Center for TBI and Stress Disorders (TRACTS) provides insight into the interaction between traumatic brain injury and other trauma related diagnoses common in combat veterans. Recent work from TRACTS that examines how the context of a traumatic brain injury may influence long-term outcomes will be presented by TRACTS investigators. We will conclude the session by summarizing a new theoretical framework that may help us reconcile the discrepant findings related to traumatic brain injury to date and propose how this framework and field of work may guide clinical assessment and treatment in the future.

Catherine Fortier, Ph.D., Co-Director, VA RR&D National Network TBI Center: TRACTS/Associate Professor of Psychology, VA Boston Healthcare System/Harvard Medical School

William Milberg, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology/Associate Director for Research, Harvard Medical School/New England GRECC-Boston Division, VA Boston Healthcare System

Emily Van Etten, Ph.D., TRACTS Clinical Neuropsychology Research Fellow/Psychiatry Teaching Fellow, Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine/Psychiatry Clinical Fellow, VA Boston Healthcare System/Boston Unviversity/Harvard Medical School

Arielle Knight, MPH, TRACTS Senior Program Manager, VA Boston Healthcare System

Michelle Pebole, Ph.D., TRACTS Advanced Research Fellow, Polytrauma/Research Fellow, Dept. of Psychiatry, VA Boston Healthcare System/Harvard Medical School

Aubrey Knoff, Ph.D., TRACTS Associate Clinical Director/Psychiatry Clinical Fellow, VA Boston Healthcare System/Harvard Medical School

Suzanne Pineles, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Psychiatry, Boston University

In this presentation, Dr. Liberzon will discuss the following:

• Neural circuitry models of PTSD – cue and context Large networks
• Connectivity in PTSD – DMN and hippocampus.novel mega-analysis findings
• Contextual processing, pattern completion and hippocampal function in PTSD – novel paradigms and novel findings

Israel Liberzon, MD., University Distinguished Professor William and Dorothy Stearman Professor, Dept of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, Texas A&M Health

This presentation will explore Written Exposure Therapy (WET), a brief, evidence-based intervention for post-traumatic stress disorder that has demonstrated efficacy across diverse populations. Developed as a streamlined alternative to more time-intensive treatments, WET involves a structured five-session protocol focused on helping individuals process traumatic memories through guided writing exercises. The session will review clinical trial data supporting its effectiveness, discuss its practical advantages and offer insights into its implementation in real-world clinical settings.

Brian Marx, Ph.D. , Professor, Psychiatry, Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine/Principal Investigator, Boston University/National Center for PTSD, US Dept of Veterans Affairs