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Poster #16 - Effects of childhood maltreatment on the default mode network during rest

Fri, March 22, 12:45 to 2:00pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

A history of childhood maltreatment has been related to detrimental effects on mental health persisting into adulthood. These effects are reflected in anatomic and functional changes in the brain. To date, most studies on the effects of maltreatment on brain function have been restricted to specific task-related changes, such as the processing of emotional faces. However, the negative consequences of child maltreatment are seen across many domains and less is known about global changes in brain function. Therefore, brain activity and connectivity while not doing a task, i.e., at rest, may be particularly informative. Resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) has been associated with a broad range of behavior as well as emotional and cognitive processes. RSFC also allows for a global assessment of brain activity as it is possible to assess functional connectivity in several networks simultaneously (Smith et al., 2009). One previous study has tested the effects of maltreatment on resting state connectivity. This study found changes in the limbic and salience network in adults who were emotionally maltreated (Van Der Werff et al., 2013) but little is known about other types of maltreatment.
In the current study, 195 participants completed resting state scans and self-report questionnaires on whether they had experienced maltreatment. For a preliminary analysis, ten adults with a history of child maltreatment (physical and emotional abuse and neglect; Mage = 54.64 years, range: 39–69 years; 5 female) were matched on age, sex, and SES to ten adults without a history of child maltreatment (Mage = 49.36 years, range: 42–39 years; 5 female). Imaging data were acquired using a 3.0-Tesla scanner. Resting state scans were collected over the course of 7 minutes during which participants were asked to look at fixation cross.
All analyses were done in FSL 5.0.9. After preprocessing, ICA-AROMA was used to filter out additional noise. Dual regression was used to compare participants with and without a history of child maltreatment. A priori, ten validated network masks (Smith et al., 2009) were chosen to improve interpretability and reliability of the results. We also included white matter and cerebrospinal fluid masks to further correct for noise. We were primarily interested in the default mode network (DMN) and three networks related to emotion (networks 8, 9, and 10).
Significant differences between participants with and without a history of maltreatment were found in the DMN (Figure 1) but none in the other networks. Specifically, a cluster of voxels in the posterior middle temporal gyrus and the left cerebral cortex were more activated in participants without a history of maltreatment (Figure 2). Remarkably, these differences were present several decades after childhood. In the next step, we will analyze the data of the entire sample of 195 participants. The increased sample size will improve statistical power to find replicable effects of child maltreatment on RSFC. Challenges will include a greater range in age (8–69 years) and a more continuous, right-skewed distribution of child maltreatment rather than two groups distinct in their maltreatment histories.

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