ArticleMolecular psychiatry2023
Internal capsule microstructure mediates the relationship between childhood maltreatment and PTSD following adulthood trauma exposure.
Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Structural Covariance of Early Visual Cortex Is Negatively Associated With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: A Mega-Analysis From the ENIGMA PTSD Working Group.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2026Pooled it
- Article
- Adversity as the key feature: neuroimaging profiles of subtypes from multiple depression risk factors.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Associations between residential segregation, ambient air pollution, and hippocampal features in recent trauma survivors.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Do white matter microstructural alterations associated with childhood maltreatment explain psychopathology in early adulthood?-a longitudinal neuroimaging study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Duration on Volumetric and Microstructural Parameters of the Hippo-Campus, Amygdala, and Prefrontal Cortex: A Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study with Correlation Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Association Between Acute Plasma Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Levels and White Matter Integrity in Recent Trauma Survivors.Journal of neurotrauma · 2025Article
- Childhood Adversity Is Associated With Longitudinal White Matter Changes After Adulthood Trauma.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- Unveiling causal relationship between white matter tracts and psychiatric disorders.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Early life adversity increases risk for chronic post-traumatic pain, data from humans and rodents.Pain · 2025Article
- Affective Visual Circuit Dysfunction in Trauma and Stress-Related Disorders.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- Knowledge atlas of white matter microstructure: a bibliometric analysis.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
51 authors at 20 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
Childhood trauma is a known risk factor for trauma and stress-related disorders in adulthood. However, limited research has investigated the impact of childhood trauma on brain structure linked to later posttraumatic dysfunction. We investigated the effect of childhood trauma on white matter microstructure after recent trauma and its relationship with future posttraumatic dysfunction among trauma-exposed adult participants (n = 202) recruited from emergency departments as part of the AURORA Study. Participants completed self-report scales assessing prior childhood maltreatment within 2-weeks in addition to assessments of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and dissociation symptoms within 6-months of their traumatic event. Fractional anisotropy (FA) obtained from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) collected at 2-weeks and 6-months was used to index white matter microstructure. Childhood maltreatment load predicted 6-month PTSD symptoms (b = 1.75, SE = 0.78, 95% CI = [0.20, 3.29]) and inversely varied with FA in the bilateral internal capsule (IC) at 2-weeks (p = 0.0294, FDR corrected) and 6-months (p = 0.0238, FDR corrected). We observed a significant indirect effect of childhood maltreatment load on 6-month PTSD symptoms through 2-week IC microstructure (b = 0.37, Boot SE = 0.18, 95% CI = [0.05, 0.76]) that fully mediated the effect of childhood maltreatment load on PCL-5 scores (b = 1.37, SE = 0.79, 95% CI = [-0.18, 2.93]). IC microstructure did not mediate relationships between childhood maltreatment and depressive, anxiety, or dissociative symptomatology. Our findings suggest a unique role for IC microstructure as a stable neural pathway between childhood trauma and future PTSD symptoms following recent trauma. Notably, our work did not support roles of white matter tracts previously found to vary with PTSD symptoms and childhood trauma exposure, including the cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, and corpus callosum. Given the IC contains sensory fibers linked to perception and motor control, childhood maltreatment might impact the neural circuits that relay and process threat-related inputs and responses to trauma.
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