Childhood assaultive trauma and physical aggression: Links with cortical thickness in prefrontal and occipital cortices

Executive dysfunction and cortical variations among intimate partner violence perpetrators and the association with sexism

Malfunctioning in executive functioning has been proposed as a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV). This is not only due to its effects on behavioral regulation but also because of its association with other variables such as sexism. Executive dysfunctions have been associated with frontal and prefrontal cortical thickness. Therefore, our first aim was to assess differences in cortical thickness in frontal and prefrontal regions, as well as levels of sexism, between two groups of IPV perpetrators (with and without executive dysfunctions) and a control group of non-violent men. Second, we analyzed whether the cortical thickness in the frontal and prefrontal regions would explain sexism scores. Our results indicate that IPV perpetrators classified as dysexecutive exhibited a lower cortical thickness in the right rostral anterior cingulate superior frontal bilaterally, caudal middle frontal bilaterally, right medial orbitofrontal, right paracentral, and precentral bilaterally when compared with controls. Furthermore, they exhibited higher levels of sexism than the rest of the groups. Most importantly, in the brain structures that distinguished between groups, lower thickness was associated with higher sexism scores. This research emphasizes the need to incorporate neuroimaging techniques to develop accurate IPV profiles or subtypes based on neuropsychological functioning.

Neurobiological metric of cortical delay discounting differentiates risk for self- and other-directed violence among trauma-exposed individuals

Self- and other-directed violence (SDV/ODV) contribute to elevated rates of mortality. Early trauma exposure shows robust positive associations with these forms of violence but alone does not distinguish those at heightened risk for later engagement in SDV/ODV. Novel assessment metrics could aid early identification efforts for individuals with vulnerabilities to violence perpetration. This study examined a novel neurobiological measure of impulsive choice for reward as a potential moderator of associations between childhood trauma exposure and lifetime SDV/ODV. A high-risk community sample of 177 adults (89 men; 50.3%) were assessed for childhood trauma exposure, engagement in SDV (e.g., suicide attempts), and ODV (e.g., assault). A cortical delay discounting (C-DD) measure was created using a multivariate additive model of gray matter thickness across both hemispheres, previously found to be positively associated with susceptibility to impulsivity and externalizing disorders. Childhood trauma exposure was positively associated with ODV and SDV; however, these relationships differed as a function of C-DD. Engagement in ODV increased as scores on C-DD increased, and SDV increased as scores on C-DD decreased. Furthermore, moderation revealed biological sex differences, as the association between childhood trauma and SDV depended on C-DD for women but not for men. Findings from the present work demonstrate that risk conferred by childhood trauma exposure to violence varied as a function of a C-DD. Together, these findings point to the utility of neurobiological markers of impulsive decision-making for differentiating risk for violence among individuals with a history of trauma exposure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Childhood trauma and cortical thickness in healthy women, women with post-traumatic stress disorder, and women with borderline personality disorder

BACKGROUND

Structural brain changes have been associated with childhood trauma (CT) and several trauma-associated mental disorders. It is not known whether specific brain alterations are rather associated with CT as such or with disorders that are common sequelae of CT. In this study, we characterized cortical thickness in three distinct groups with CT: healthy women (HC/CT), women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD/CT) and women with borderline personality disorder (BPD/CT). These three CT-exposed groups were compared with healthy controls not exposed to CT (HC).

METHODS

We recruited 129 women (n = 70 HC, n = 25 HC/CT, n = 14 PTSD/CT, and n = 20 BPD/CT) and acquired T1-weighted anatomical images. FreeSurfer was used for conducting whole-brain cortical thickness between-group comparisons, applying separate generalized linear models to compare cortical thickness of each CT-exposed group with HC.

RESULTS

The HC/CT group had lower cortical thickness in occipital lobe areas (right lingual gyrus, left lateral occipital lobe) than the HC group. The BPD/CT group showed a broader pattern of reduced cortical thickness compared to the HC group, including the bilateral superior frontal gyrus, and bilateral isthmus, the right posterior, and left caudal anterior of the cingulate cortex as well as the right lingual gyrus of the occipital lobe. We found no differences between PTSD/CT and HC.

CONCLUSIONS

Cortical thickness reduction in the right lingual gyrus of the occipital lobe seem to be related to CT but is also present in BPD patients even after adjusting for severity of CT. Possibly, reduced cortical thickness in the lingual gyrus presents a CT-related vulnerability factor for CT-related adult psychopathologies such as BPD. Reduced cortical thickness in the frontal and cingulate cortex may represent unique neuroanatomical markers of BPD possibly related to difficulties in emotion regulation.

The effects of childhood maltreatment on cortical thickness and gray matter volume: a coordinate-based meta-analysis

Childhood maltreatment has been suggested to have an adverse impact on neurodevelopment, including microstructural brain abnormalities. Existing neuroimaging findings remain inconsistent and heterogeneous. We aim to explore the most prominent and robust cortical thickness (CTh) and gray matter volume (GMV) alterations associated with childhood maltreatment. A systematic search on relevant studies was conducted through September 2022. The whole-brain coordinate-based meta-analysis (CBMA) on CTh and GMV studies were conducted using the seed-based d mapping (SDM) software. Meta-regression analysis was subsequently applied to investigate potential associations between clinical variables and structural changes. A total of 45 studies were eligible for inclusion, including 11 datasets on CTh and 39 datasets on GMV, consisting of 2550 participants exposed to childhood maltreatment and 3739 unexposed comparison subjects. Individuals with childhood maltreatment exhibited overlapped deficits in the median cingulate/paracingulate gyri simultaneously revealed by both CTh and GM studies. Regional cortical thinning in the right anterior cingulate/paracingulate gyri and the left middle frontal gyrus, as well as GMV reductions in the left supplementary motor area (SMA) was also identified. No greater regions were found for either CTh or GMV. In addition, several neural morphology changes were associated with the average age of the maltreated individuals. The median cingulate/paracingulate gyri morphology might serve as the most robust neuroimaging feature of childhood maltreatment. The effects of early-life trauma on the human brain predominantly involved in cognitive functions, socio-affective functioning and stress regulation. This current meta-analysis enhanced the understanding of neuropathological changes induced by childhood maltreatment.

Childhood abuse and cortical gray matter volume in patients with major depressive disorder

Childhood abuse is associated with brain structural alterations; however, few studies have investigated the association between specific types of childhood abuse and cortical volume in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). We aimed to investigate the association between specific types of childhood abuse and gray matter volumes in patients with MDD. Seventy-five participants with MDD and 97 healthy controls (HCs) aged 19-64 years were included. Cortical gray matter volumes were compared between MDD and HC groups, and also compared according to exposure to each type of specific childhood abuse. Emotional, sexual, and physical childhood abuse were assessed using the 28-item Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Patients with MDD showed a significantly decreased gray matter volume in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG). Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) was associated with significantly decreased gray matter volume in the right middle occipital gyrus (MOG). In the post-hoc comparison of volumes of the right ACG and MOG, MDD patients with CSA had significantly smaller volumes in the right MOG than did MDD patients without CSA or HCs. The right MOG volume decrease could be a neuroimaging marker associated with CSA and morphological changes in the brain may be involved in the pathophysiology of MDD.

The relationship between adverse childhood experiences and impulsive and risky behaviors: the mediating role of positive and negative emotional motivations

BACKGROUND

Although the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on healthy behaviors of adulthood is largely investigated, the role of these adversities in a wide variety of impulsive and risky behaviors (RBs) as well as the role of mediating variables has been rarely studied. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of positive-negative emotional motivations in the relationship between ACEs and RBs.

METHODS

In a cross-sectional study, 401 adults of the general population of Kermanshah (201 individuals) and Kurdistan (200 individuals) were selected and they were assessed using the Risky, Impulsive, & Self-destructive behavior Questionnaire (RISQ) and the Childhood Trauma questionnaire (CTQ). Data were analyzed using latent profile analysis (LPA), the correlation tests and structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

The prevalence of ACEs using LPA was estimated 37.7%. There was a significant correlation between all types of child abuse (not child neglect) and RBs. Emotional motivations played a mediating role in the relationship between ACEs and RBs (RMSEA=0.07, SRMR=0.05, CFI=0.92, TFI=0.90). The proposed model could explain about 11% of the variance of emotional motivations and around 70% of the variance of RBs.

CONCLUSIONS

Considering the impact of ACEs on emotional motivations and the impact of emotional motivations on RBs, intervention on emotional motivations may help to reduce RBs in people who suffer from ACEs.

Childhood trauma moderates morphometric associations between orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala: implications for pathological personality traits

BACKGROUND

Research has demonstrated that chronic stress exposure early in development can lead to detrimental alterations in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)-amygdala circuit. However, the majority of this research uses functional neuroimaging methods, and thus the extent to which childhood trauma corresponds to morphometric alterations in this limbic-cortical network has not yet been investigated. This study had two primary objectives: (i) to test whether anatomical associations between OFC-amygdala differed between adults as a function of exposure to chronic childhood assaultive trauma and (ii) to test how these environment-by-neurobiological effects relate to pathological personality traits.

METHODS

Participants were 137 ethnically diverse adults (48.1% female) recruited from the community who completed a clinical diagnostic interview, a self-report measure of pathological personality traits, and anatomical MRI scans.

RESULTS

Findings revealed that childhood trauma moderated bilateral OFC-amygdala volumetric associations. Specifically, adults with childhood trauma exposure showed a positive association between medial OFC volume and amygdalar volume, whereas adults with no childhood exposure showed the negative OFC-amygdala structural association observed in prior research with healthy samples. Examination of the translational relevance of trauma-related alterations in OFC-amygdala volumetric associations for disordered personality traits revealed that trauma exposure moderated the association of OFC volume with antagonistic and disinhibited phenotypes, traits characteristic of Cluster B personality disorders.

CONCLUSIONS

The OFC-amygdala circuit is a potential anatomical pathway through which early traumatic experiences perpetuate emotional dysregulation into adulthood and confer risk for personality pathology. Results provide novel evidence of divergent neuroanatomical pathways to similar personality phenotypes depending on early trauma exposure.

Clarifying the synergistic effects of emotion dysregulation and inhibitory control on physical aggression

Rising rates of violence underscore the need to better understand how systems that regulate distress and impulse control jointly modulate aggression risk. The goals of the current study were to investigate the unique and interactive effects of emotional dysregulation and inhibitory control on the perpetration of physical aggression. We recruited a high-risk community sample of 206 adults (M/SD_age  = 33.55/10.89 years old; 47.1% female) who reported a range of physically aggressive behaviors. All participants completed a self-report measure (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale), neuropsychological testing (Color Word Interference Test), and clinical interviewing (Lifetime History of Aggression Interview), and a subset of individuals (n = 134) underwent a neuroanatomical scan. As expected, the interplay of emotional and inhibitory control explained unique variance in physical aggression above and beyond their main effects. The positive association between emotion dysregulation and aggression strengthened as inhibitory control decreased. Cortical thickness in two right prefrontal clusters, one that peaked in the superior frontal gyrus and one that peaked in the caudal middle frontal gyrus, was also associated with the interactive effects of emotional dysregulation and inhibitory control. Notably, thickness in the superior frontal gyrus mediated the association between emotion dysregulation and physical aggression at low levels of inhibitory control. Using a multilevel and multimethod approach, the present study revealed neuroanatomical correlates of emotion-cognition interactions that have translational relevance to violence perpetration. These findings extend previous work primarily focused on functional-based neural assessments and point to the utility of examining neuroanatomical correlates of emotion-cognition interactions for understanding human aggression.

Association between parental age, brain structure, and behavioral and cognitive problems in children

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relation between parental age, and behavioral, cognitive and brain differences in the children.

METHOD

Data with children aged 9-11 of 8709 mothers with parental age 15-45 years were analyzed from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. A general linear model was used to test the associations of the parental age with brain structure, and behavioral and cognitive problems scores.

RESULTS

Behavioral and cognitive problems were greater in the children of the younger mothers, and were associated with lower volumes of cortical regions in the children. There was a linear correlation between the behavioral and cognitive problems scores, and the lower brain volumes (r > 0.6), which was evident when parental age was included as a stratification factor. The regions with lower volume included the anterior cingulate cortex, medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus and hippocampus, and temporal lobe (FDR corrected p < 0.01). The lower cortical volumes and areas in the children significantly mediated the association between the parental age and the behavioral and cognitive problems in the children (all p < 10^-4). The effects were large, such as the 71.4% higher depressive problems score, and 27.5% higher rule-breaking score, in the children of mothers aged 15-19 than the mothers aged 34-35.

CONCLUSIONS

Lower parental age is associated with behavioral problems and reduced cognitive performance in the children, and these differences are related to lower volumes and areas of some cortical regions which mediate the effects in the children. The findings are relevant to psychiatric understanding and assessment.

A multilevel examination of lifetime aggression: integrating cortical thickness, personality pathology and trauma exposure

Aggression represents a significant public health concern, causing serious physical and psychological harm. Although many studies have sought to characterize the etiology of aggression, research on the contributions of risk factors that span multiple levels of analysis for explaining aggressive behavior is lacking. To address this gap, we investigated the direct and unique contributions of cortical thickness (level 1), pathological personality traits (level 2) and trauma exposure (level 3) for explaining lifetime physical aggression in a high-risk sample of community adults (N = 129, 47.3% men). First, the frequency of lifetime aggression was inversely associated with cortical thickness in regions of prefrontal and temporal cortices that have been implicated in executive functioning, inhibitory mechanisms and socio-emotional processing. Further, aggression was positively associated with pathological personality traits (antagonism and disinhibition) and exposure to assaultive trauma. Notably, all three levels of analysis (cortical thickness, pathological personality traits and assaultive trauma exposure) explained non-overlapping variance in aggressive behavior when examined simultaneously in integrative models. Together, the findings provide a multilevel assessment of the biopsychosocial factors associated with the frequency of aggression. They also indicate that cortical thickness explains novel variance in these harmful behaviors not captured by well-established personality and environmental risk factors for aggression.

Childhood maltreatment history for guiding personalized antidepressant choice in major depressive disorder: Preliminary results from a systematic review

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a predictor of poor outcome across treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD), while its potential role as a predictor of differential responses to specific antidepressants has received little attention. The present systematic review examined pharmacological studies (published up to June 30th, 2020) that included head-to-head comparisons of antidepressant treatments among adult MDD patients with a reported history of CM or no history to evaluate if CM may help clinicians choose antidepressants with greatest likelihood of successful outcome. Only three studies were included, providing limited and provisional results. These preliminary findings suggest that sustained-release bupropion (alone or in combination) or aripiprazole-augmentation as next-step intervention did not demonstrate differential outcome among MDD patients with or without a history of childhood adversity. Further, sertraline and the group of antidepressants with low affinity for the serotonin transporter may be less suitable for MDD patients with childhood abuse history than escitalopram, venlafaxine-XR, or antidepressants with high affinity for the serotonin transporter. The critical question of the most potentially efficacious treatment regimens for adult MDD with CM history requires further large-sample studies involving a greater number of medications, specifically designed to analyse the moderating effects of different types of CM, and possibly including objective biomarkers.

Distinctive Frontal and Occipitotemporal Surface Features in Neglectful Parenting

Although the brain signatures of adaptive human parenting are well documented, the cortical features associated with maladaptive caregiving are underexplored. We investigated whether cortical thickness and surface area vary in a small group of mothers who had neglected their children (24 in the neglect group, NG) compared to a control group of mothers with non-neglectful caregiving (21 in the control group, CG). We also tested whether the cortical differences were related to dyadic mother-child emotional availability (EA) in a play task with their children and whether alexithymia involving low emotional awareness that characterizes the NG could play a role in the cortical-EA associations. Whole-brain analysis of the cortical mantle identified reduced cortical thickness in the right rostral middle frontal gyrus and an increased surface area in the right lingual and lateral occipital cortices for the NG with respect to the CG. Follow-up path analysis showed direct effects of the right rostral middle frontal gyrus (RMFG) on the emotional availability (EA) and on the difficulty to identify feelings (alexithymia factor), with a marginal indirect RMFG-EA effect through this factor. These preliminary findings extend existing work by implicating differences in cortical features associated with neglectful parenting and relevant to mother-child interactive bonding.