Expansion of hippocampal and amygdala shape in posttraumatic stress and early life stress

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to examine the effect of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and childhood adversity on brain structure. We assessed hippocampal and amygdala shape in veterans with varying levels of PTSD symptom severity and exposure to early life stressors (ELS). Methods A total of 70 male veterans, who were deployed to a combat area during OIF/OEF/OND and who had been exposed to trauma during deployment, were included in the study. We applied a vertex-wise shape analysis of 3T MRI scans to measure indentation or expansion in hippocampal and amygdala shape. Results Analyses showed a positive correlation between number of ELS and vertices in the right amygdala and the right hippocampus, as well as a positive correlation between PTSD symptom severity and right hippocampal vertices. There were no significant interactions between PTSD symptoms, ELS, and brain shape. Discussion Results indicate a relationship between exposure to more childhood adversity and expansion in amygdala and hippocampal shape as well as between more severe PTSD symptoms and expansion in hippocampal shape. These findings may have important implications for the pathophysiology of trauma-related disorders.

Amygdala size varies with stress perception

“…Interestingly, two opposite trends on the structure of subcortical regions implicated in the stress response are extensively reported in the literature and need to be revised. While some studies show, for example, volumetric increases in several subcortical brain regions, in particular the amygdala, ( De Bellis et al, 2000 ; Henigsberg et al, 2019 ; Klaming et al, 2019 ; Kuo et al, 2012 ; Lucassen et al, 2014 ; Morey et al, 2016 ; Novais et al, 2017 ; Pinto et al, 2015 ; Schienle et al, 2011 ), others fail to reproduce these findings ( Herringa et al, 2012 ; Karl et al, 2006 ; Kitayama et al, 2005 ; Koshiyama et al, 2018 ; Magalhães et al, 2018 ; Morey et al, 2012 ; Soares et al, 2012 ; Vriend et al, 2016 ; Zimmerman et al, 2016 ).…”

Neural response to trauma‐related and trauma‐unrelated negative stimuli in remitted and persistent pediatric post‐traumatic stress disorder

“…The largest PTSD brain imaging study, which included 1,868 participants from 16 cohorts, confirmed the relationship between PTSD and a smaller hippocampus volume (Logue et al, 2018). Klaming et al (2019) also found the correlation between right hippocampus morphology and symptom severity in 70 trauma-exposed veterans. Furthermore, Malejko et al (2017) reviewed the researches on PTSD remission and found that the remission of PTSD was often accompanied by a change in hippocampus activity.…”

“…Klaming et al. ( 2019 ) also found the correlation between right hippocampus morphology and symptom severity in 70 trauma‐exposed veterans. Furthermore, Malejko et al.…”

Effects of childhood trauma experience and COMT Val158Met polymorphism on brain connectivity in a multimodal MRI study

“…Emerging neuroimaging evidence intuitively indicates altered brain development trajectories related to childhood trauma experience, which regulate vulnerability for developing mental disorders later in adulthood (Hart & Rubia, 2012; Teicher et al., 2016), such as posttraumatic stress disorder (Klaming et al., 2019), anxiety (Ahmed‐Leitao et al., 2019), depressive disorders (Opel, et al., 2019), substance abuse (De Bellis et al., 2019), antisocial behavior (Busso et al., 2017), and personality disorders (Nicol et al., 2015). Regional alterations involving cognitive and emotional functions, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, insular, and cingulate gyrus, are consistently supported (Cancel et al., 2019; Klaming et al., 2019; Opel, et al., 2019; Opel, et al., 2019; van Velzen et al., 2016).…”

“…Emerging neuroimaging evidence intuitively indicates altered brain development trajectories related to childhood trauma experience, which regulate vulnerability for developing mental disorders later in adulthood (Hart & Rubia, 2012; Teicher et al., 2016), such as posttraumatic stress disorder (Klaming et al., 2019), anxiety (Ahmed‐Leitao et al., 2019), depressive disorders (Opel, et al., 2019), substance abuse (De Bellis et al., 2019), antisocial behavior (Busso et al., 2017), and personality disorders (Nicol et al., 2015). Regional alterations involving cognitive and emotional functions, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, insular, and cingulate gyrus, are consistently supported (Cancel et al., 2019; Klaming et al., 2019; Opel, et al., 2019; Opel, et al., 2019; van Velzen et al., 2016). Moreover, a large number of literatures have reported early trauma‐related alterations in the specific pathways or network architectures that govern conscious perception, emotion regulation, threat detection, defense response, and reward anticipation, including default mode network (Bluhm et al., 2009), emotion circuitry (Cisler et al., 2018), limbic network (Cisler, 2017; Souza‐Queiroz et al., 2016), salience network (van der Werff et al., 2013), visual‐limbic fiber pathway (Choi et al., 2012), and global white matter network (Puetz et al., 2017).…”