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A number of studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) report thinner cerebral cortical gyri using gyrus-based analysis or thinner foci within the gyri using vertex-based analysis. However, the locations of these findings are inconsistent across studies, and the spatial transformations required during vertex-based analysis may affect the focal findings. A mega-analysis using a large number of subjects from multiple PTSD studies could potentially identify more reproducible cortical thickness abnormalities. Investigating both the vertex and gyral thicknesses simultaneously may verify the vertex-based focal findings using gyral data without imposing any spatial transformation. Here we aggregated data from 24 international laboratories using ENIGMA standardized procedures for 949 adult PTSD patients and 1493 controls without PTSD (age 18 to 65 years). We examined whether gyral and vertex cortical thickness are (a) different between subjects with PTSD and controls and (b) associated with PTSD symptom severity in trauma-exposed subjects. Regions with overlapping thinner cortical gyri and thinner vertex clusters were located in frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital cortices. Thinner right lateral orbitofrontal and right lingual gyri and concomitantly thinner vertex clusters in the anterior portions of both gyri were associated with PTSD symptom severity. Convergent findings in these locations suggest focally thinner cortex in these gyri, which may be involved in altered processing and regulation of emotion and sensory inputs underlying posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Increasing numbers of military Veterans have reported substantive self-perceived hearing handicap despite normal/near normal hearing on standard audiometric testing. These hearing difficulties are especially true for Veterans with histories of blast exposure and presumed mild traumatic brain injury, with many of these Veterans also being comorbid for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Clinical tests of Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) commonly are used to investigate their hearing concerns, but performance on CAPD tests typically is compared to published norms established from non-Veteran populations. Since Veterans and non-Veterans differ significantly in many relevant domains, using non-Veteran norms is potentially problematic for the interpretation of CAPD test results. Veterans ( n = 217; with and without histories of blast exposure and PTSD) completed a large CAPD test battery. An N = 1 approach was used to compare the performance of the blast-exposed Veterans and those with PTSD to published norms and data from the Veterans without histories of blast exposure and PTSD (control group). The number of abnormal cases identified based on the Veteran control group was lower than that found with the published norms for all tests. Therefore, establishing and using population-appropriate norms are critical for accurately diagnosing CAPD in Veterans.