Associations between early life adversity and the development of gray matter macrostructure and microstructure

Early life adversity (ELA) is common and cross-sectionally associated with brain gray matter structure, including cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and subcortical volumes in childhood. However, to which degree ELA influences the trajectory of gray matter macrostructural and microstructural development during childhood and adolescence remains largely unexplored.

We included 6414 participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study at ages 9-11, where 1923 were followed to ages 11-13. We used linear mixed-effects models to test for associations between MRI-derived longitudinal measures of gray matter macro- (cortical thickness, surface area, subcortical volume) or microstructure (T1w/T2w ratio) and trauma exposure, parental acceptance, household abuse, and being resilient or susceptible to trauma in terms of developing an internalizing disorder.

At ages 9-11, higher levels of parental acceptance, trauma exposure, and being trauma resilient were associated with lower levels of cortical thickness. In contrast, being trauma susceptible was negatively related to hippocampal volume and cortical surface area. Longitudinally, more parental acceptance at baseline was associated with more cortical thinning between ages 9-11 and 11-13, while more household abuse was associated with less change in T1w/T2w ratio over time.

Parental acceptance and trauma resilience are linked to accelerated pace of apparent cortical thinning in youth aged 9-13 years, while household abuse is associated with slower microstructural development, as reflected by smaller longitudinal changes in the T1w/T2w ratio. Threat and deprivation may be distinctly associated with gray matter developmental trajectories in late childhood.