The Minnesota Public Radio (10/28, Benson) website said a new study, published this week in the Journal of Neural Engineering, “suggests that a small area of the brain, just above the right ear, could be the key to understanding” how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) works. Researchers from the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis “say brain scans of PTSD patients show unusual activity in the part of the brain responsible for memory. The same researcher team reported last January that they had developed a scan that can identify people with PTSD with 95 percent accuracy.”

The St. Paul (MN) Pioneer-Press (10/28, Snowbeck) also took note of the new study, reporting, “Beyond representing a step forward in evaluating treatments for PTSD, the finding also could help combat a stigma that prevents some patients from seeking treatment, said Brian Engdahl,” a VA “counseling psychologist…who conducted the research. ‘The veterans themselves see what we’ve found, and many are relieved to see physical evidence of the emotional injury they have lived with all this time,’ Engdahl said,” adding “This can reduce their self-blame, and it helps destigmatize this disorder.” KMSP-TV Minneapolis, MN (10/28, 5:31 p.m. CT) aired a similar report.