{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"medRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T12:46:17Z","timestamp":1785415577528,"version":"3.56.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]]},"group-title":"Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology","reference-count":40,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]],"date-time":"2026-06-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781654400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"award":["R01MH123736"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01MH123736"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04xeg9z08","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["R01MH125198"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01MH125198"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04xeg9z08","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["R33MH111907"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R33MH111907"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04xeg9z08","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["R01MH097880"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01MH097880"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04xeg9z08","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["R01MH097964"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01MH097964"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04xeg9z08","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is marked by impaired contextual modulation of fear, leaving patients vulnerable to symptom return after extinction-based therapy. The thalamus is theorized to coordinate hippocampal-prefrontal circuits during contextual updating. Yet, its role in PTSD remains uncharacterized. We examined the contribution of the medial mediodorsal thalamus (MDm) to extinction-recall and fear renewal and its association with symptom severity.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>425 participants completed threat renewal and 524 extinction-recall paradigms during fMRI (threat renewal: 189 healthy controls, HC; 129 trauma-exposed HC, TEHC; 107 PTSD extinction-recall: 280 HC; 132 TEHC; 112 PTSD). Analyses examined MDm activation and connectivity with canonical fear-regions; lateral mediodorsal thalamus (MDl) and anterior pulvinar served as control regions. Structural equation modeling characterized the covariance linking thalamocortical connectivity to diagnostic group.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>During fear renewal but not extinction-recall, a Time \u00d7 Group interaction emerged in MDm functional connectivity: PTSD participants showed reduced MDm connectivity with hippocampus and sgACC relative to control groups during early but not late fear renewal. Parallel reductions emerged in anterior pulvinar-vmPFC connectivity. MDl, showed no group differences. Structural equation modeling indicated that thalamo-hippocampal connectivity covaried with group via both MDm-sgACC and anterior pulvinar-vmPFC connectivity. MDm-dACC connectivity scaled with PTSD severity, independent of MDl and anterior pulvinar<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>State-specific reductions in MDm-hippocampal-cingulate and pulvinar-vmPFC connectivity during early fear renewal in PTSD highlight parallel thalamocortical alterations during flexible contextual threat updating. These alterations, along with the selective MDm-dACC association with symptom severity, nominate MDm-centered circuit as a hypothesis-generating focus for future mechanistic neuromodulation studies.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.06.15.26355743","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,18]],"date-time":"2026-06-18T00:25:43Z","timestamp":1781742343000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Dissociable Thalamocortical Circuit Disruptions During Contextual Fear Renewal in PTSD"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6720-0387","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad","family":"Badarnee","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston, McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"B. Isabel","family":"Moallem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston, McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Israel","family":"Liberzon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammed R.","family":"Milad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston, McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026062003300617000_2026.06.15.26355743v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/J.NEURON.2016.09.039"},{"key":"2026062003300617000_2026.06.15.26355743v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/npp.2009.83"},{"key":"2026062003300617000_2026.06.15.26355743v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nrn3492"},{"key":"2026062003300617000_2026.06.15.26355743v1.4","first-page":"55407","article-title":"What does the mediodorsal thalamus do? 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