Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, 680 N. Lakeshore Drive, Suite 1520, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2023 Apr;23(2):427-439. doi: 10.3758/s13415-023-01061-z. Epub 2023 Jan 18.
Abuse and neglect have detrimental consequences on emotional and cognitive functioning during childhood and adolescence, including error monitoring, which is a critical aspect of cognition that has been implicated in certain internalizing and externalizing psychopathologies. It is unclear, however, whether (a) childhood trauma has effects on error monitoring and, furthermore whether, (b) error monitoring mediates the relation between childhood trauma and psychopathology in adulthood. To this end, in a large sample of young adults (ages 18-30) who were oversampled for psychopathology (N = 390), the present study assessed relations between childhood trauma and error-related negativity (ERN), which is a widely used neurophysiological indicator of error monitoring. Cumulative childhood trauma predicted ERN blunting, as did two specific types of traumas: sexual abuse and emotional neglect. Furthermore, the ERN partially mediated the effects of cumulative childhood trauma and emotional neglect on externalizing-related symptoms. Future studies should further examine the relations between childhood trauma and error monitoring in adulthood, which can help to inform intervention approaches.
虐待和忽视会对儿童和青少年时期的情绪和认知功能产生不利影响，包括错误监测，这是认知的一个关键方面，与某些内化和外化的精神病理学有关。然而，目前尚不清楚(a)童年创伤是否会对错误监测产生影响，以及(b)错误监测是否会在成年后调节童年创伤与精神病理学之间的关系。为此，本研究在一个针对精神病理学（N=390）进行了大量年轻人（18-30 岁）抽样的大样本中，评估了童年创伤与错误相关负波（ERN）之间的关系，ERN 是错误监测的一种广泛使用的神经生理学指标。累积性童年创伤预示着 ERN 变钝，两种特定类型的创伤也是如此：性虐待和情感忽视。此外，ERN 部分介导了累积性童年创伤和情感忽视对外化相关症状的影响。未来的研究应进一步探讨成年后童年创伤与错误监测之间的关系，这有助于为干预方法提供信息。
