The sexually dimorphic impact of maltreatment on cortical thickness, surface area and gyrification

Abstract

An extensive literature has detailed how maltreatment experience impacts brain structure in children and adolescents. However, there is a dearth of studies on the influence of maltreatment on surface based indices, and to date no study has investigated how sex influences the impact of maltreatment on cortical thickness, surface area and local gyrification. We investigated sex differences in these measures of cortical structure in a large community sample of children aged 10–14 years (n = 122) comprising 62 children with verified maltreatment experience and 60 matched non-maltreated controls. The maltreated group relative to the controls presented with a pattern of decreased cortical thickness within a region of right anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex and superior frontal gyrus; decreased surface area within the right inferior parietal cortex; and increased local gyrification within left superior parietal cortex. This atypical pattern of cortical structure was similar across males and females. An interaction between maltreatment exposure and sex was found only in local gyrification, within two clusters: the right tempo-parietal junction and the left precentral gyrus. These findings suggest that maltreatment impacts cortical structure in brain areas associated with emotional regulation and theory of mind, with few differences between the sexes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00702-016-1523-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Childhood abuse and reduced cortical thickness in brain regions involved in emotional processing

“…Unlike cortical thickness, abuse did not predict differences in cortical surface area. These findings are consistent with the only prior two studies of cortical thickness and surface area in overlapping samples of maltreated and nonmaltreated adolescents, which found perturbations in the PFC for thickness but not surface area (Kelly et al., , ). Similar findings of reduced thickness but comparable surface area have been observed in studies of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism (Wallace et al., ).…”

“…This region is the most consistently associated with maltreatment in previous research (De Brito et al., ; Edmiston et al., ; Hanson et al., ; Kelly et al., ; Lim et al., ). However, unlike most prior studies that relied on measures of cortical volume, this study shows that OFC differences are specific to cortical thickness, replicating findings from prior studies in a sample of adolescents with verified maltreatment exposure (Kelly et al., , ). Thus, the current findings reflect an important contribution to the maltreatment literature as the first independent replication of prior findings of reduced OFC thickness in abused adolescents.…”

“…Some additional studies implicate hippocampal perturbations (Edmiston et al., ; Hanson et al., ; Morey, Haswell, Hooper, & De Bellis, ), whereas other studies do not (De Brito et al., ; Hanson et al., ; Kelly et al., ; Whittle et al., ). In general, the most consistent findings arise in ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), dorsolateral PFC, and lateral temporal cortex (De Brito et al., ; Edmiston et al., ; Hanson et al., ; Kelly et al., , , ).…”

“…To our knowledge, only two research groups have examined cortical thickness in adolescents exposed to maltreatment (Kelly et al., ; Whittle et al., ), and in one of these studies, adolescents were not recruited based on maltreatment exposure and had low levels of maltreatment (Whittle et al., ). One research group (Kelly et al., , ) reported on overlapping samples in two studies comparing maltreated and nonmaltreated adolescents, who did not differ on SES. They observed differences in vmPFC/OFC thickness, but not surface area or gyrification.…”

Child Abuse, Neural Structure, and Adolescent Psychopathology: A Longitudinal Study

“…47 Prior structural MRI studies find associations with maltreatment exposure in the vmPFC, 12,17,22,23,48,49 lateral OFC, 17,19 anterior and posterior cingulate cortices, 17,23,49 ventrolateral PFC (including inferior frontal gyrus [IFG]), 19 dorsolateral PFC (including middle and superior frontal gyri), 17,22,23,49 insular cortex, 19,23 parahippocampal gyrus, 19 temporal pole, 17,22 and lateral temporal cortex (spanning inferior, middle, and superior temporal gyri). 12,17,19,22,23,48 Based on these prior pediatric morphometry findings and the volumetric maltreatment meta-analysis by Lim et al, 19 we selected ROIs in these prefrontal and temporal cortical regions.…”