Dimensions of Abuse and Brain Function during Verbal Self-processing

• In Event: The consequences of adversity and maltreatment in brain function among adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Individuals who experience prolonged abuse are more likely to experience depression and low self-esteem than the general population. These maladaptive sequelae of prolonged abuse may result from changes in the neurobiology of self-related cognitions. These sequelae may become evident in adolescence, which is an important period for the formation of self-concept. To explore this possibility, we examined the extent to which maltreatment duration was associated with brain activity during self-referential processing in a sample of depressed adolescents with a history of abuse (n=54) with a control group of depressed adolescents without a history of abuse (n=40). Participants completed an fMRI task in which they evaluated positively and negatively valenced statements relating to themselves from their own perspective, their mother’s perspective, their best friend’s perspective, and their peers’ perspective. Adolescents who had experienced a single trauma had higher limbic and temporal activity during negative self-appraisals than youth with only depression, but those who had experienced a longer duration of abuse had decreased activity compared to both depressed youth and youth who had experienced a single incident of abuse. Abuse duration was not linked to positive self-appraisals at all. The areas implicated are associated with emotion and social processing, indicating increased emotional and social processing in adolescents with a single incident of abuse, but decreased emotional and social processing in adolescents who experienced abuse for a longer period of time that continued to decrease as the duration of abuse increased.

Authors

• Maggie Engstrom, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• Madelyn Castro, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carmen Santana-Gonzales, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Guanmin Liu, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jia Yuan Teoh, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karina Quevedo, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author