title: Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Thickness Is Related to Alexithymia in Childhood Trauma-Related PTSD.
abstract: Alexithymia, or "no words for feelings", is highly prevalent in samples with childhood maltreatment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) has been identified as a key region involved in alexithymia, early life trauma, and PTSD. Functional alterations in the dACC also have been associated with alexithymia in PTSD. This study examined whether dACC morphology is a neural correlate of alexithymia in child maltreatment-related PTSD. Sixteen adults with PTSD and a history of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, or exposure to domestic violence, and 24 healthy controls (HC) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20) and underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Cortical thickness of the dACC was measured using FreeSurfer, and values were correlated with TAS-20 scores, controlling for sex and age, in both groups. Average TAS-20 score was significantly higher in the PTSD than the HC group. TAS-20 scores were significantly positively associated with dACC thickness only in the PTSD group. This association was strongest in the left hemisphere and for TAS-20 subscales that assess difficulty identifying and describing feelings. We found that increasing dACC gray matter thickness is a neural correlate of greater alexithymia in the context of PTSD with childhood maltreatment. While findings are correlational, they motivate further inquiry into the relationships between childhood adversity, emotional awareness and expression, and dACC morphologic development in trauma-related psychopathology.
authors.affiliation: Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Lauren A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Demers
authors.affiliation: Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.affiliation: Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Crowley
authors.affiliation: Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Scott L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Rauch
authors.affiliation: Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Isabelle M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Rosso
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000473:pathology*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult