Table 1.
Structural magnetic resonance brain imaging studies comparing maltreated to non-maltreated individuals.
| Brain regions | Studies# | ED | Mean age years | Sample | Summary of results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIPP | De Bellis et al. (1999b) | No | 12.1 | 44 MP vs. 61 NM | n.s. |
| Carrion et al. (2001) | No | 11.0 | 24 MP vs. 24 NM | n.s. | |
| Mehta et al. (2009) | Yes | 16.1 | 14 M vs. 11 NM | n.s. | |
| Carrion et al. (2007) | No | 10.4 | 15 MP | Cortisol levels and PTSD symptoms predicted the degree of hippocampal volume reduction | |
| Pederson et al. (2004) | No | 25.1 | 17 MP vs. 17 M vs. 17 NM | n.s. | |
| Vythilingam et al. (2002) | No | 31.3 | 21 MD vs. 11 DEP vs. 14 NM | MD < DEP = NM, left hippocampus, right hippocampus: n.s. | |
| Vermetten et al. (2006) | No | 38.7 | 15 MDI vs. 23 NM | M < NM, left and right hippocampus | |
| AMY | Mehta et al. (2009) | Yes | 16.1 | 14 M vs. 11 NM | M > NM, right amygdala, left amygdala: trend |
| Tottenham et al. (2010) | Yes | 9.0 | 34 M vs. 26 NM | M > NM, but only for those adopted after 15 months of age (n = 17) | |
| Vermetten et al. (2006) | No | 38.7 | 15 MDI vs. 23 NM | M < NM, left and right amygdala | |
| Bremner et al. (1997) | No | 41.3 | 17 MP vs. 17 NM | n.s. | |
| Andersen et al. (2008) | No | 19.7 | 26 M vs. 17 NM | n.s. | |
| CC/WM | Mehta et al. (2009) | Yes | 16.1 | 14 M vs. 11 NM | n.s. |
| De Bellis et al. (1999b) | No | 12.1 | 44 MP vs. 61 NM | M < NM | |
| De Bellis et al. (2002) | No | 11.5 | 28 MP vs. 66 NM | M < NM | |
| De Bellis and Keshavan (2003) | No | 67 MP vs. 122 NM | M < NM | ||
| Teicher et al. (2004) | No | 12.4 | 51 M vs. 115 NM | M < NM | |
| Jackowski et al. (2008) | No | 10.6 | 17 MP vs. 15 NM | M < NM | |
| Govindan et al. (2010) | Yes | 11.3 | 17 M vs. 15 NM | M < NM, FA values in left/right UF, left/right SLF, left/right AF | |
| Eluvathingal et al. (2006) | Yes | 10.2 | 7 M vs. 7 NM | M < NM, FA values in left uncinate fasciculus | |
| Kitayama et al. (2007) | No | 37.3 | 9 MP vs. 9 NM | M < NM, area of the posterior midbody of the corpus callosum | |
| Choi et al. (2009) | No | 21.5 | 16 M vs. 16 NM | M < NM, FA values in left arcuate fasciculus, left cingulum bundle, left body of the fornix | |
| PFC | De Bellis et al. (1999b) | No | 12.1 | 44 MP vs. 61 NM | n.s. |
| De Bellis et al. (2002) | No | 11.5 | 28 MP vs. 66 NM | M < NM, PFC volume and PFC white matter | |
| Richert et al. (2006) | No | 11.0 | 23 MP vs. 23 NM | M > NM, GMV in the middle-inferior and ventral regions of the PFC | |
| Carrion et al. (2009)* | No | 11.0 | 24 MP vs. 24 NM | Manual tracing: M > NM, GMV inleft/right/superior/inferior regions of the PFC; VBM: M > NM, volume of ventral PFC | |
| Hanson et al. (2010)** | No | 11.9 | 31 M vs. 41NM | M < NM, orbitofrontal cortex GMV, which correlated negatively with social functioning difficulties | |
| Tomoda et al. (2009)* | No | 21.7 | 23 M vs. 22 NM | M < NM, gray matter volume in the left dorsolateral PFC and the right medial PFC | |
| Treadway et al. (2009)* | No | 32.8 | 19 MD vs. 19 NM | M < NM, reduced volume of the rostral ACC | |
| van Harmelen et al. (2010)* | No | 37.6 | 84 M vs. 97 NM | M < NM, left dorsal medial PFC |
ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; AF, arcuate fasciculus; AMY, Amygdala; CC, corpus callosum; DEP, depression; ED, early deprivation; GMV, gray matter volume; HIPP, hippocampus; M, maltreated; MD, maltreated with depression; MDI, maltreated with dissociation; MP, maltreated with PTSD/PTSD symptomatology; NM, non-maltreated; n.s., not statistically significant; PFC, prefrontal cortex; PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; SLF, superior longitudinal fasciculus; UF, uncinate fasciculus; VBM, voxel-based morphometry; WM, white matter.
#All the studies used manual tracing to define their region of interest except: * Voxel-based morphometry; ** Tensor-based morphometry.