Department of General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Voßstraße 2, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Department of General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Voßstraße 2, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munich, Germany.
Horm Behav. 2018 Jan;97:128-136. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.11.005. Epub 2017 Dec 6.
Early life maltreatment (ELM) is associated with different neurobiological alterations. Lower oxytocin and altered grey matter volumes (GMV) in brain regions associated with the central oxytocin system, such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens, have been reported in women with ELM. However, the association between peripheral oxytocin and brain morphometry in women with ELM has not been studied yet. We therefore collected blood samples from 33 women with and 25 women without ELM, all without current mental disorders to measure and compare oxytocin levels between the two groups. Furthermore, T1-weighted high-resolution structural magnetic resonance brain images of a subsample of these women were collected, analyzed with voxel-based morphometry, compared between the two groups, and correlated with oxytocin levels. There were no differences in oxytocin levels between the groups. However, oxytocin levels were associated with different brain regions in women with ELM compared with control women without ELM: A positive association between GMV in the nucleus accumbens and oxytocin was specific for control women but not for women with ELM. For the hypothalamus, there was a positive association between GMV and oxytocin in control women. However, the same region was negatively associated with oxytocin in women with ELM and it showed larger GMV compared to control women without ELM. For the amygdala, a negative association between GMV and oxytocin was specific for women with ELM. Results are discussed with regard to previous research on endocrine and neurostructural alterations in individuals with ELM.
早期生活虐待（ELM）与不同的神经生物学改变有关。有研究报道，经历过 ELM 的女性其与中央催产素系统相关的大脑区域，如下丘脑、杏仁核和伏隔核，存在催产素水平较低和灰质体积（GMV）改变的情况。然而，经历过 ELM 的女性外周催产素与大脑形态计量学之间的关系尚未被研究。因此，我们从 33 名经历过 ELM 的女性和 25 名没有经历过 ELM 的女性中采集了血液样本，所有女性都没有当前的精神障碍，以测量和比较两组之间的催产素水平。此外，我们还从这些女性中采集了亚组的 T1 加权高分辨率结构磁共振脑图像，使用基于体素的形态计量学进行分析，比较两组之间的差异，并与催产素水平相关联。两组之间的催产素水平没有差异。然而，与没有经历过 ELM 的对照组女性相比，经历过 ELM 的女性的催产素水平与不同的大脑区域相关：伏隔核 GMV 与催产素之间呈正相关，这种相关性仅在对照组女性中存在，而在经历过 ELM 的女性中则不存在。对于下丘脑，GMV 与催产素之间存在正相关，而在经历过 ELM 的女性中，同一区域与催产素呈负相关，且与对照组女性相比 GMV 更大。对于杏仁核，GMV 与催产素之间的负相关仅在经历过 ELM 的女性中存在。结果与经历过 ELM 的个体内分泌和神经结构改变的先前研究进行了讨论。
