A group of 74 US veterans has been involved in clinical trials which appear to have objectively diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder¹创伤后精神紧张性精神障碍 (PTSD), something conventional常见的，惯例的 brain scans, be it X-ray, CT or MRI核磁共振成像, have thus far failed to do. The findings, published today, Wednesday, 20 January, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Neural² Engineering, have sprung from advances in magnetoencephalography脑磁图描记术 (MEG), a non-invasive measurement of magnetic fields in the brain.

The researchers from the Minneapolis Veteran Affairs Medical Center and the University of Minnesota, led by Apostolos P Georgopoulos and Brian Engdahl, worked with the 74 veterans - all of whom had served in either World War 2, Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq, and had been diagnosed with behavioural symptoms症状 of PTSD - and a control group of 250 individuals from the general public with clean mental and neurological health.

With more than 90 percent accuracy, the researchers were able to differentiate³ PTSD patients from healthy control subjects using the synchronous同步的，同时的 neural神经的 interactions test which involves analysing the magnetic charges released when neuronal populations in our brains connect or 'couple'.

The ability to objectively diagnose or 'biomark' PTSD is the first step towards helping⁵ those afflicted⁶ with受到……的折磨 this severe anxiety disorder which often stems from war but can be a result of exposure to any psychologically心理上地 traumatic外伤的 event. The disorder can manifest显示，证明 itself in flashbacks重现，急转, recurring⁷ nightmares, anger or hypervigilance高度警觉，过度警觉.

Further to being able to distinguish between the neural activity of those suffering with PTSD and the mentally healthy, the researchers also found a positive association between the certainty of their predictions and the severity严重，猛烈 of symptoms which suggests we might also be able to use MEG to gauge⁸估计，测量 levels and the true identity of each sufferer's disorder.

The researchers write, "The excellent results obtained offer major promise for the usefulness of the synchronous⁴ neural interactions test for differential diagnosis⁹ as well as for monitoring disease progression and for evaluating the effects of psychological and/or drug treatments."

This work, specifically on detecting post-traumatic stress disorder, follows success in detecting other brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis, using MEG, as reported in September 2007. The method was invented by one of the research leaders, Dr. Apostolos P Georgopoulos.