Unique neural signatures of childhood sexual abuse in gray matter volume and cortical thickness
Poster No:
546
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Vincent Hammes1, Katharina Brosch2, Paula Usemann1, Florian Thomas-Odenthal1, Lea Teutenberg1, Frederike Stein1, Janik Goltermann3, Susanne Meinert3, Kira Flinkenflügel3, Alexandra Winter3, Nils Winter3, Katharina Thiel3, Tim Hahn3, Elvisha Dhamala2, Axel Krug1, Udo Dannlowski3, Igor Nenadic1, Andreas Jansen1, Tilo Kircher1, Nina Alexander1
Institutions:
1University of Marburg, Marburg, Hesse, 2Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Glen Oaks, NY, 3University of Münster, Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Individuals who experienced childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are characterized by higher general trauma load and worse health outcomes compared to other types of maltreatment (i.e., physical and emotional neglect, physical and emotional abuse) (1,7). Specifically, CSA is associated with an increased risk to develop several psychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (7). CSA-specific effects on brain morphometry, including thinning of the somatosensory cortex and gray matter volume (GMV) loss in the visual cortex, have previously been reported (2,5). However, previous studies are limited by methodological issues, such as not accounting for general trauma load, and are comprised of small sample sizes. Further, studies comparing CSA to individuals with no maltreatment might only detect general effects of childhood maltreatment instead of specific CSA effects. Given these current limitations, we have an insufficient understanding of the effects of CSA on brain morphometry. In this study, to reliably identify unique effects of CSA on brain morphometry, we chose a novel approach and compared sexually abused individuals to non-sexually abused individuals who were matched on overall trauma load.
Methods:
Healthy and depressed participants were drawn from the longitudinal FOR2107 cohort study investigating the neurobiology of major psychiatric disorders (3). We investigated n = 195 individuals with a history of CSA and selected a 1:1 matched sample of maltreated individuals without a history of CSA (nCSA), matched for age, sex, diagnostic group distribution and trauma load. Additionally, we compared the CSA group to an age, sex and diagnostic group distribution matched sample with no history of maltreatment (Control) to explore general maltreatment effects, resulting in a total sample of 585 individuals. The sample included men and women aged 18 - 65 with and without a lifetime diagnosis of MDD. History of CSA and other types of maltreatment were assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) (8). We investigated brain structural differences between the three groups in GMV and cortical thickness using voxel-based morphometry and surface-based analyses, applying threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE).
Results:
Individuals with a history of CSA exhibited significantly larger GMV in the right cerebellum (Figure 1A) compared to nCSA and further showed widespread cortical thickness increases in areas encompassing fronto-parietal regions (Figure 2A). Exploring general effects of childhood maltreatment, individuals with a history of CSA exhibited significantly larger GMV in the bilateral anterior cingulate gyrus and superior medial frontal gyrus (Figure 1B) and widespread cortical thickness increases in areas encompassing fronto-parietal regions (Figure 2B) compared to the non-maltreated Control group.
Conclusions:
This is the largest study so far to examine the neurobiological correlates of childhood sexual abuse in comparison to matched maltreated individuals without a history of CSA in a representative sample with high trauma load. Our findings indicate a unique neural signature of childhood sexual abuse, evident by larger GMV in the cerebellum and greater cortical thickness in fronto-parietal regions. These alterations in brain morphometry might set the ground for a variety of psychiatric disorders, as especially the cerebellum has been implicated in social, cognitive and emotional processes and alterations might impair normal functioning (4,6). The results of our study thus emphasize the importance of distinguishing specific traumatic subtypes in future research.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Social Neuroscience Other
Emotion and Motivation Other 2
Keywords:
Affective Disorders
Cerebellum
Cortex
Psychiatric
Psychiatric Disorders
STRUCTURAL MRI
Trauma
Other - childhood maltreatment
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
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