Altered task-related brain network dynamics and performance consistency in a non-clinical group burdened with...

Childhood adversity is considered a risk factor for neurocognitive development impairments in adulthood, although research evidence for this notion is rather inconclusive. This study aimed to examine the effects of childhood trauma on rudimentary cognitive processes and their neurophysiological underpinnings in non-clinical samples of young adults. Two groups were formed based on scores from the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire: a high early trauma group (high-ACE) and a low early trauma group (low-ACE). All participants performed two versions of the choice reaction time (RT) task, while their brain activity was recorded via electroencephalography (EEG) to reconstruct global network dynamics in response to displayed stimuli. Results indicated that the high-ACE group exhibited greater RTs intra-individual variability and altered functional connectivity (FC) dynamics compared to the low-ACE group, particularly in the short foreperiod block. Performance inconsistency indexes and FC strength values were significantly correlated in the high-ACE group (p < 0.05, Spearman's correlation, FDR-corrected). Our findings showed that adults with higher early trauma exposure demonstrate reduced network flexibility and difficulties in connectivity resource allocation, which is quantified by means of delayed and less dynamic FC responses following stimulus presentation. This study contributes to the understanding of how childhood adversities alter brain functional repertoire and basic cognitive mechanisms, including those that process non-affective stimuli.