Childhood adversity associated with white matter alteration in the corpus callosum, corona radiata, and uncinate fasciculus of psychiatrically healthy adults.
Diffusion tensor imaging studies report childhood adversity (CA) is associated with reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in multiple white matter tracts in adults. Reduced FA may result from changes in tissue, suggesting myelin/axonal damage, and/or from increased levels of extracellular free-water, suggesting atrophy or neuroinflammation. Free-water imaging can separately identify FA in tissue (FAT) and the fractional volume of free-water (FW). We tested whether CA was associated with altered FA, FAT, and FW in seven white matter regions of interest (ROI), in which FA changes had been previously linked to CA (corona radiata, corpus callosum, fornix, cingulum bundle: hippocampal projection, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus). Tract-based spatial statistics were performed in 147 psychiatrically healthy adults who had completed a self-report questionnaire on CA primarily stemming from parental maltreatment. ROI were extracted according to the protocol provided by the ENIGMA-DTI working group. Analyses were performed both treating CA as a continuous and a categorical variable. CA was associated with reduced FA in all ROI (although categorical analyses failed to find an association in the fornix). In contrast, CA was only associated with reduced FATin the corona radiata, corpus callosum, and uncinate fasciculus (with the continuous measure of CA finding evidence of a negative relation between CA and FATin the fornix). There was no association between CA on FW in any ROI. These results provide preliminary evidence that childhood adversity is associated with changes to the microstructure of white matter itself in adulthood. However, these results should be treated with caution until they can be replicated by future studies which address the limitations of the present study.
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, 8, Ireland. s.mccarthyjones@gmail.com.
Simon
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4442-7818
S
McCarthy-Jones
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Lena K L
LKL
Oestreich
Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Amanda E
AE
Lyall
Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Zora
Z
Kikinis
Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Dominick T
DT
Newell
Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Peter
P
Savadjiev
Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA.
Martha E
ME
Shenton
Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Marek
M
Kubicki
Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Ofer
O
Pasternak
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Thomas J
TJ
Whitford
D000328:Adult; D000069586:Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000473:pathology; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000473:pathology
Abuse; Diffusion tensor imaging; Free-water; Trauma