title: Early life trauma is associated with altered white matter integrity and affective control.
abstract: Early life trauma (ELT) has been shown to impair affective control and attention well into adulthood. Neuroimaging studies have further shown that ELT was associated with decreased white matter integrity in the prefrontal areas in children and adults. However, no study to date has looked at the relationship between white matter integrity and affective control in individuals with and without a history of ELT. To examine this, we tested 240 Veterans with (ELT N = 80) and without (NoELT N = 160) a history of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse or family violence. Affective control was measured with the Affective Go/No-Go (AGN) and attention was indexed with the Test of Variable Attention (TOVA). White matter integrity was measured using fractional anisotropy (FA). Results showed greater number of errors on the AGN in ELT compared to NoELT. There was no difference on the TOVA. While there were no mean differences in FA, there was an interaction between FA and reaction time to positive stimuli on the AGN where the ELT group showed a positive relationship between FA and reaction time in right frontal and prefrontal areas, whereas the NoELT group showed a negative or no association between FA and reaction time. This suggests that ELT may be associated with a distinct brain-behavior relationship that could be related to other determinants of FA than those present in healthy adults.
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders/Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC), VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA; Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: Vincent.corbo@va.gov.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Corbo
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders/Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC), VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Amick
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders/Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC), VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: William P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Milberg
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders/Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC), VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Regina E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: McGlinchey
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders/Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC), VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA, USA.
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Salat
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D015331:Cohort Studies; D056348:Emotional Intelligence; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
keywords: Attention; Childhood; Executive function; Fractional anisotropy; PTSD; Trauma