Childhood Sexual Abuse Is Associated with Reduced Gray Matter Volume in Visual Cortex of Young Women

Abstract

Objective Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has been associated with alterations in brain morphology using region of interest analyses that have focused on stress sensitive target regions. This study was designed to ascertain the effects on gray matter volume (GMV) of exposure to CSA in a healthy population of young adult college students selected based on the history of exposure regardless of psychiatric outcome. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) provided unbiased delineation of most significantly affected brain regions. Methods High-resolution T1-weighted MRI datasets were obtained for 23 unmedicated females with CSA and 14 healthy female controls of equivalent age and socioeconomic status with no history of trauma. Cortical surface-based analysis (FreeSurfer) was performed to verify VBM results. Results GMV was reduced by 12.6% and 18.1% in right and left primary visual (V-1) and visual association cortices of abused subjects. This reduction was directly related to duration of CSA before age 12. GMV of left and right V-1 correlated with an overall index of visual memory (r = 0.353, P = 0.032 and r=0.448, P=0.005). Cortical surface-based analysis indicated that GMV of abused subjects was reduced in the left fusiform (P=0.004), left middle occipital (P=0.04), and right lingual (P=0.002) gyri. Conclusions Early visual experience exerts a strong influence on the development of the mammalian visual cortex. Present findings indicate that exposure to traumatic events may also affect the development of this region, and are even apparent even in a population of subjects who are sufficiently healthy to matriculate.

Childhood Emotional Maltreatment Severity Is Associated with Dorsal Medial Prefrontal Cortex Responsivity to Social Exclusion in Young Adults

“…Hence, our findings are more applicable to the remaining 43%, who experience WDV as their sole form of maltreatment. Studies of individuals exposed to single types of maltreatment have primarily identified differences in sensory regions or pathways [8,11,48,51]. This observation stands in contrast to findings from other studies, including our own, that combine subjects exposed to one or more types of abuse into a single group.…”

“…This approach has been useful in revealing similarities and differences between the neurobiological correlates of exposure to childhood sexual abuse [48,57], parental verbal abuse [11,51], WDV [8] and harsh corporal punishment [12,58]. This strength is also a limitation as many abused individuals, particularly those involved in the mental health system, experienced multiple forms of maltreatment.…”

Structural alterations in lateral prefrontal, parietal and posterior midline regions of men with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder

“…These authors implemented the cortical parcellation method to validate their whole-brain VBM analysis. 51 However, we chose to apply the methods in an opposing order. Apart from its popularity in clinical research, there has been emerging concern about some limitations of VBM.…”

Adverse experiences in childhood influence brain responses to emotional stimuli in adult psychiatric patients

“…adulthood and intensity as well as timing of stress may modulate cortical affective processing in different ways (Lupien et al, 2009). It seems also possible that dampened cortical activation reflects stressrelated functional brain changes, as Tomoda et al (2009) found reduced grey matter volume in primary and secondary visual cortices in subjects with a history of childhood sexual abuse. Moreover, white matter tract abnormalities indicating alterations in neural pathways have been associated with parental verbal abuse (Choi et al, 2009).…”