School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, H.18 Coupland 1 Building, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 17;14(1):21735. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-71965-4.
Experiencing highly stressful events can have detrimental and lasting effects on brain morphology. The current study explores the effects of stress during childhood and adulthood on grey matter macro- and microstructure using a sub-sample of 720 participants from the UK Biobank with very high or very low childhood and adulthood stress scores. We used T1-weighted and diffusion MRI data to assess grey matter macro- and microstructure within bilateral hippocampus, amygdala and thalamus. Findings showed that childhood stress is associated with changes in microstructural measures bilaterally within the hippocampus and amygdala. No effects of adulthood stress on brain microstructure were found. No interaction effects between sex and stress (either childhood or adulthood) were observed for any brain imaging measure. Analysis of sub-segments of the hippocampus showed that childhood stress predominantly impacted the bilateral heads of the hippocampus. Overall, these findings suggest that highly stressful experiences during childhood, but not adulthood, have lasting impact on brain microstructure. The effects of these experiences in childhood appear to persist regardless of experiences of high or low stress in adulthood.
经历高度压力事件会对大脑形态产生有害且持久的影响。本研究使用 UK Biobank 中具有非常高或非常低的儿童期和成年期压力评分的 720 名参与者的子样本，探讨了儿童期和成年期压力对灰质宏观和微观结构的影响。我们使用 T1 加权和弥散 MRI 数据来评估双侧海马体、杏仁核和丘脑内的灰质宏观和微观结构。研究结果表明，儿童期压力与双侧海马体和杏仁核内的微观结构测量值的变化有关。成年期压力对大脑微观结构没有影响。在任何脑成像测量中，都没有观察到性别和压力（无论是儿童期还是成年期）之间的交互作用。对海马体的子片段的分析表明，儿童期压力主要影响双侧海马体的头部。总的来说，这些发现表明，儿童期高度压力经历对大脑微观结构有持久的影响。这些经历在儿童期的影响似乎持续存在，无论成年期经历的压力高低如何。
