van Schie Charlotte C, van Harmelen Anne-Laura, Hauber Kirsten, Boon Albert, Crone Eveline A, Elzinga Bernet M
Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge , Cambridge , UK.
Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2017 Feb 9;8(1):1272788. doi: 10.1080/20008198.2016.1272788. eCollection 2017.
: Emotional abuse and emotional neglect are related to impaired interpersonal functioning. One underlying mechanism could be a developmental delay in mentalizing, the ability to understand other people's thoughts and emotions. : This study investigates the neural correlates of mentalizing and the specific relationship with emotional abuse and neglect whilst taking into account the level of sexual abuse, physical abuse and physical neglect. : The RMET was performed in an fMRI scanner by 46 adolescents (Age: = 18.70, = 1.46) who reported a large range of emotional abuse and/or emotional neglect. CM was measured using a self-report questionnaire (CTQ). : Neither severity of emotional abuse nor neglect related to RMET accuracy or reaction time. The severity of sexual abuse was related to an increased activation of the left IFG during mentalization even when controlled for psychopathology and other important covariates. This increased activation was only found in a group reporting both sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment and not when reporting isolated emotional abuse or neglect or no maltreatment. Functional connectivity analysis showed that activation in the left IFG was associated with increased activation in the right insula and right STG, indicating that the IFG activation occurs in a network relevant for mentalizing. : Being sexually abused in the context of emotional abuse and neglect is related to an increase in activation of the left IFG, which may indicate a delayed development of mirroring other people's thoughts and emotions. Even though thoughts and emotions were correctly decoded from faces, the heightened activity of the left IFG could be an underlying mechanism for impaired interpersonal functioning when social situations are more complex or more related to maltreatment experiences.
情感虐待和情感忽视与人际功能受损有关。一种潜在机制可能是心理化发展延迟，即理解他人想法和情感的能力。
本研究调查了心理化的神经关联以及与情感虐待和忽视的特定关系，同时考虑了性虐待、身体虐待和身体忽视的程度。
46名青少年（年龄：均值 = 18.70，标准差 = 1.46）在功能磁共振成像扫描仪中进行了读心测验（RMET），他们报告了一系列情感虐待和/或情感忽视情况。使用自评问卷（儿童创伤问卷，CTQ）测量童年虐待情况（CM）。
情感虐待或忽视的严重程度均与RMET准确性或反应时间无关。性虐待的严重程度与心理化过程中左侧额下回（IFG）的激活增加有关，即使在控制了精神病理学和其他重要协变量的情况下也是如此。这种激活增加仅在报告同时遭受性虐待和情感虐待的组中发现，而在报告孤立的情感虐待或忽视或未遭受虐待的组中未发现。功能连接分析表明，左侧IFG的激活与右侧脑岛和右侧颞上回（STG）的激活增加有关，表明IFG的激活发生在与心理化相关的网络中。
在情感虐待和忽视的背景下遭受性虐待与左侧IFG的激活增加有关，这可能表明反映他人想法和情感的能力发展延迟。即使能够从面部正确解码想法和情感，但当社会情境更复杂或与虐待经历更相关时，左侧IFG的活动增强可能是人际功能受损的潜在机制。
