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Hippocampal development in youth with a history of childhood maltreatment
Casey Paquola1, Maxwell R Bennett1, Sean N Hatton2
1Clinical Research Unit, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Insights
Childhood maltreatment (CM) stunts right hippocampal growth in adolescents and young adults. This finding highlights neurobiological differences in individuals with emerging mental illness and a history of CM.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Childhood maltreatment (CM) is linked to psychiatric disorders and reduced brain matter.
- The hippocampus and amygdala are crucial in stress and emotion processing, but CM's long-term effects on their development are unclear.
- Longitudinal studies are needed to understand the relationship between CM, subcortical grey matter, and mental illness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of CM on hippocampal and amygdala development in young individuals with emerging mental illness.
- To examine how CM affects the growth trajectories of these brain structures over time.
- To explore the link between CM, structural brain changes, and psychopathology severity.
Main Methods:
- Utilized structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to acquire 215 scans from 123 participants (aged 14-28).
- Employed segmentation and linear mixed-effects modeling to analyze hippocampal and amygdala volumes and growth.
- Assessed the moderating effects of age and symptom severity on brain development in relation to CM exposure.
Main Results:
- Hippocampal and amygdala volumes showed a linear increase with age, unaffected by symptom severity.
- Childhood maltreatment (CM) was significantly associated with stunted growth in the right hippocampus.
- No direct evidence was found that CM-induced structural abnormalities underpin psychopathology, despite CM correlating with worse symptom severity.
Conclusions:
- CM is associated with disrupted hippocampal development during youth, bridging a gap in current research.
- Individuals with CM and emerging mental illness exhibit distinct neurobiological profiles.
- Findings have implications for tailored psychiatric treatment approaches for individuals with a history of CM.
Abstract:
Childhood maltreatment (CM) is associated with enhanced risk of psychiatric illness and reduced subcortical grey matter in adulthood. The hippocampus and amygdala, due to their involvement in stress and emotion circuitries, have been subject to extensive investigations regarding the effect of CM. However, the complex relationship between CM, subcortical grey matter and mental illness remains poorly understood partially due to a lack of longitudinal studies. Here we used segmentation and linear mixed effect modelling to examine the impact of CM on hippocampal and amygdala development in young people with emerging mental illness. A total of 215 structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were acquired from 123 individuals (age: 14-28 years, 79 female), 52 of whom were scanned twice or more. Hippocampal and amygdala volumes increased linearly with age, and their developmental trajectories were not moderated by symptom severity. However, exposure to CM was associated with significantly stunted right hippocampal growth. This finding bridges the gap between child and adult research in the field and provides novel evidence that CM is associated with disrupted hippocampal development in youth. Although CM was associated with worse symptom severity, we did not find evidence that CM-induced structural abnormalities directly underpin psychopathology. This study has important implications for the psychiatric treatment of individuals with CM since they are clinically and neurobiologically distinct from their peers who were not maltreated.