Specialized military groups like Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel can suffer allostatic overload leading to complex health outcomes characterized as Operator Syndrome (OS). Here we (1) evaluate Brodmann’s Areas (BA) brain regions associated with OS-related behavioral health symptoms then (2) explore how DoD/VA-recommended clinical interventions relate to these brain regions using large-scale automated text mining.
Neuroimaging reported by Brodmann’s Areas and 9 behavioral symptom measures and constructs of interest were extracted from full-text peer-reviewed publications using both rule-based and generative AI natural language processing (NLP) engines. The relationships linking BA regions with behavioral symptoms and the 7 interventions were assessed, with a focus on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) severity.
The network connected behavioral health symptoms and 39 of 52 BA regions through 131 interactions. Co-occurring PTSD and TBI associations to BA (counting ≥3 citations) were detected with the precentral gyrus (BA4), premotor cortex and supplementary motor cortex (BA6), middle temporal gyrus (BA21), superior temporal gyrus (BA22), angular gyrus (BA39), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA46). Behavioral interventions of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy were found to modulate BA 6, with CPT alone also modulating BA 46. Only the pharmacotherapy fluoxetine (SSRI) related to BA6.
NLP offers a rapid means of exploring complex injuries in Veterans. Future investigations will test these models using acquired data from EOD veterans and specific neuroimaging modalities (e.g., BOLD fMRI) to determine how they might improve understanding of health sequelae of environmental exposures and inform intervention.

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