Kelly Philip A, Viding Essi, Puetz Vanessa B, Palmer Amy L, Samuel Sophie, McCrory Eamon J
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1 6BT, UK.
The Anna Freud Centre, Maresfield Gardens, London, NW3 5SU, UK.
J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2016 Sep;123(9):1069-83. doi: 10.1007/s00702-016-1523-8. Epub 2016 Feb 27.
An extensive literature has detailed how maltreatment experience impacts brain structure in children and adolescents. However, there is a dearth of studies on the influence of maltreatment on surface based indices, and to date no study has investigated how sex influences the impact of maltreatment on cortical thickness, surface area and local gyrification. We investigated sex differences in these measures of cortical structure in a large community sample of children aged 10-14 years (n = 122) comprising 62 children with verified maltreatment experience and 60 matched non-maltreated controls. The maltreated group relative to the controls presented with a pattern of decreased cortical thickness within a region of right anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex and superior frontal gyrus; decreased surface area within the right inferior parietal cortex; and increased local gyrification within left superior parietal cortex. This atypical pattern of cortical structure was similar across males and females. An interaction between maltreatment exposure and sex was found only in local gyrification, within two clusters: the right tempo-parietal junction and the left precentral gyrus. These findings suggest that maltreatment impacts cortical structure in brain areas associated with emotional regulation and theory of mind, with few differences between the sexes.
大量文献详细阐述了虐待经历如何影响儿童和青少年的大脑结构。然而，关于虐待对基于表面的指标的影响的研究却很匮乏，并且迄今为止，尚无研究调查性别如何影响虐待对皮质厚度、表面积和局部脑回形成的影响。我们在一个由10至14岁儿童组成的大型社区样本（n = 122）中调查了这些皮质结构测量指标中的性别差异，该样本包括62名有经证实的虐待经历的儿童和60名匹配的未受虐待的对照组儿童。与对照组相比，受虐待组在右侧前扣带回、眶额皮质和额上回区域呈现皮质厚度降低的模式；右侧顶下皮质表面积减小；左侧顶上皮质局部脑回形成增加。这种非典型的皮质结构模式在男性和女性中相似。仅在局部脑回形成方面发现虐待暴露与性别之间存在交互作用，涉及两个脑区簇：右侧颞顶联合区和左侧中央前回。这些发现表明，虐待会影响与情绪调节和心理理论相关的脑区的皮质结构，且性别差异不大。
