Division of Medical Psychology (Maier, Gieling, Heinen-Ludwig, Stefan, Hurlemann, Scheele), Center for Economics and Neuroscience (Schultz), and Department of Psychiatry (Hurlemann), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Department of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological Psychology, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany (Güntürkün); Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute and Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu (Becker); and Department of Psychiatry, University of Oldenburg Medical Campus, Bad Zwischenahn, Germany (Hurlemann).
Am J Psychiatry. 2020 Jan 1;177(1):37-46. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19020212. Epub 2019 Aug 16.
Childhood maltreatment is a major risk factor for psychopathology associated with interpersonal problems in adulthood, but the etiological pathways involved are still unclear. The authors propose that childhood maltreatment confers risk for dysfunctional behavior in social interactions by altering interpersonal distance preference and the processing of social touch.
Ninety-two medication-free adults (64 of them female) with low, medium, and high levels of childhood maltreatment were tested with an interpersonal distance paradigm and subsequently underwent a social touch functional MRI task during which they rated the perceived comfort of slow touch (C-tactile [CT] optimal speed; 5 cm/s) and fast touch (non-CT-optimal speed; 20 cm/s).
Participants with high childhood maltreatment levels preferred a larger interpersonal distance and experienced fast touch as less comforting compared with participants with no or moderate childhood maltreatment experiences. On the neural level, participants with severe childhood maltreatment exhibited exaggerated responses to fast touch in the right somatosensory and posterior insular cortex, which correlated with lower comfort ratings. Severe childhood maltreatment was associated with decreased activation in the right hippocampus in response to slow touch. This response pattern was not moderated or mediated by childhood maltreatment-associated region-specific reductions in gray matter volume.
The study findings suggest that higher childhood maltreatment levels are associated with hypersensitivity characterized by a preference for larger interpersonal distance and discomfort of fast touch. These dysregulations were manifested in a sensory cortical hyperreactivity and limbic CT-related hypoactivation. These results may shed light on why individuals with severe childhood maltreatment exhibit an increased susceptibility to interpersonal dysfunctions and psychiatric disorders in adulthood.
儿童期虐待是成年期与人际问题相关的精神病理学的一个主要风险因素，但涉及的病因途径仍不清楚。作者提出，儿童虐待通过改变人际距离偏好和社会触觉处理，使社交互动中的功能障碍行为的风险增加。
92 名无药物治疗的成年人（其中 64 名为女性），他们的儿童期虐待程度低、中、高，他们接受了人际距离范式的测试，随后在社会触觉功能磁共振成像任务中接受了慢触（C 触觉[CT]最佳速度；5cm/s）和快触（非 CT-最优速度；20cm/s）的舒适度评分。
与没有或中度儿童虐待经历的参与者相比，有高儿童虐待水平的参与者更喜欢更大的人际距离，并且对快触的舒适度评价较低。在神经水平上，严重儿童虐待的参与者在右侧体感和后岛叶皮层对快触的反应更为强烈，这与较低的舒适度评分相关。严重儿童虐待与对慢触的反应中右侧海马体的激活减少有关。这种反应模式不受儿童虐待相关的特定区域灰质体积减少的调节或介导。
研究结果表明，较高的儿童虐待水平与过敏反应有关，表现为对更大人际距离的偏好和对快触的不适感。这些失调表现为感觉皮层的过度反应和边缘 CT 相关的低激活。这些结果可能解释了为什么严重儿童虐待的个体在成年后更容易出现人际功能障碍和精神障碍。
