Military service members (SMs) have an increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress symptoms. Art therapy is a promising intervention that allows SMs with posttraumatic stress to explore their trauma through art-making and reflection in a psychotherapeutic relationship. Thematic analysis of art products may lend itself as a description of visual indicators of an internal state of the brain. We hypothesized that specific neurobiological markers are associated with the theme of psychological closure and/or healing of traumatic memories as represented in the masks created during art therapy. Resting state fMRIs of a convenience sample of 104 SMs who received art therapy as part of the interdisciplinary Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence were examined. SMs depicting psychological closure and/or healing within their art therapy masks demonstrated greater resting state functional connectivity between regions associated with attention, memory, language, and pain processing. These findings are preliminary in nature therefore causal relationships cannot be assumed between art therapy and neuroimaging metrics, as both art therapy and neuroimaging measures were collected as part of a larger integrative IOP. Future work collecting neuroimaging metrics pre and post an art therapy intervention is warranted to further evaluate these associations.

军人 (SM) 出现创伤后应激症状的风险增加。艺术治疗是一种很有前途的干预措施，它可以让患有创伤后应激障碍的 SM 通过艺术创作和心理治疗关系中的反思来探索他们的创伤。艺术产品的主题分析可能有助于描述大脑内部状态的视觉指标。我们假设特定的神经生物学标记与心理封闭和/或创伤记忆治愈的主题相关，如艺术治疗期间创建的面具所代表的那样。我们对 104 名 SM 的方便样本进行了静息状态 fMRI 检查，这些 SM 作为国家无畏卓越中心跨学科强化门诊计划 (IOP) 的一部分接受了艺术治疗。在艺术治疗面具中描绘心理闭合和/或治愈的 SM 表现出与注意力、记忆、语言和疼痛处理相关的区域之间更大的静息状态功能连接。这些发现本质上是初步的，因此不能假设艺术治疗和神经影像指标之间存在因果关系，因为艺术治疗和神经影像指标都是作为更大的综合眼压的一部分收集的。未来有必要收集艺术治疗干预前后的神经影像指标，以进一步评估这些关联。这些发现本质上是初步的，因此不能假设艺术治疗和神经影像指标之间存在因果关系，因为艺术治疗和神经影像指标都是作为更大的综合眼压的一部分收集的。未来有必要收集艺术治疗干预前后的神经影像指标，以进一步评估这些关联。这些发现本质上是初步的，因此不能假设艺术治疗和神经影像指标之间存在因果关系，因为艺术治疗和神经影像指标都是作为更大的综合眼压的一部分收集的。未来有必要收集艺术治疗干预前后的神经影像指标，以进一步评估这些关联。