Table 1. Summary of Associations Between Childhood Maltreatment and Brain Morphology Revealed by Structural MRI.
| Authors (year) | Imaging method | Global Brain Vm | Amygdala | Hippocampus | PFC | Corpus callosum | Cerebellum | WB or ROI | ROI method | Timing effect | Other Sig regions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Bellis et al, 1999 | sMRI | ICV: PTSD CM<HC; CV: PTSD CM<HC; cortical gray: NS; cortical white: NS | NS | NS | NS | PSTD CM<control, (CC: A, P, I, M, S) | ROI | Global: AS; ROIs: MT | ICV and CC | ||
| De Bellis et al, 2001 | sMRI | NS | NS | NS | ROI | MT | |||||
| Carrion et al, 2001 | sMRI | CV: PTSD CM<HC; left FL: PTSD CM <HC if uncorr. for GM but >HC if corrected for GM | NS | NS | NS | ROI | Global: AS; amyg.: MT; hippo.: MT | ||||
| De Bellis et al, 2002 | sMRI | ICV: PTSD CM<HC; CV: PTSD CM<HC | NS | NS | NS | PTSD CM<HC (CC: A, P, I, M, S) | ROI | MT | ICV and CV | ||
| Teicher et al, 2004 | sMRI | CM with Psy Dis<Psy Dis only and HC (CC: A, P, M) | ROI | AS | |||||||
| Tupler and De Bellis, 2006 | sMRI | Tot Vm: PTSD CM>HC (right); HWM: PTSD CM>HC (bilat.); HGM: NS | ROI | AS | Tot Vm of hippocampus (bilat.); HWM (bilat.); HGM (bilat.) | ||||||
| Richert et al, 2006 | sMRI | PTSD CM>HC (mid. infer., vmPFC) | ROI | AS | |||||||
| De Bellis and Kuchibhatla, 2006 | sMRI | ICV: PTSD CM<HC CV: PTSD CM<HC | PTSD CM<HC (bilat.) | ROI | MT | Cerebellum | |||||
| Carrion et al, 2007 | sMRI | PTSD sympt. neg. assoc. hippo. change over time (right) | ROI | MT | |||||||
| Carrion et al, 2009 | sMRI | ICV: PTSD CM<HC OL GM: PTSD CM>HC | PTSD CM>HC (inf., sup., vPFC) | NS | Posterior vermis: PTSD CM<HC (posterior) | ROI & WB | PFC ROIs: AS CC, vermis, brainstem ROIs: MT | Pons: PTSD CM<HC | |||
| U. Rao et al, 2010b | sMRI | CM neg. assoc. hippo. vm (bilat.) | ROI | MT | |||||||
| Rao et al, 2010a | sMRI | Par. nurt. at age 4 neg. assoc. hippo. vm (bilat.) | ROI and WB | MT: hippo. | Par. nurt. at age 4 neg. assoc. middle cingulate, thalamus | ||||||
| Hanson et al, 2010 | sMRI/TBM | PA<HC (right; OFC, dlPFC, vmPFC, frontal cortex; left: superior frontal lobe, dlPFC) | PA>HC (left: WM, lateral, right: WM) PA<HC (vermis) | WB | PA>HC: cingulate; PA<HC: thalamus; various regions of parietal, occip., and temporal cortex/lobe | ||||||
| Lupien et al, 2011 | sMRI | NS | MDE>no HC (bilat.) | ROI | MT | ||||||
| Edmiston et al, 2011 | sMRI | CM neg. assoc. with amygdala (right) | CM neg. assoc. with bilat. dl, biilat. rostral, left subgeneal, PFC | CM neg. assoc. with cerebellum (bilat.) | WB | CM neg. assoc. with striatum, bilat., hypothal., midbrain, various regions of parietal, occip., and temporal cortex/lobe | |||||
| Luby et al, 2012 | sMRI | NS | Mat. sup. pos. assoc. hippo. vm (bilat.) | ROI | AS | ||||||
| De Brito et al, 2013 | sMRI | ICV: NS; GM: CM<HC; WM: NS | NS | NS | OFC: CM<HC | NS | ROI & WB | AS: amyg., hippo., PFC, temporal lobe, cerebellum | CM<HC mid temporal gyrus | ||
| Whittle et al, 2013 | sMRI | CM neg. assoc. change in amygdala vm over time (not assoc. with baseline) (right) | CM pos. assoc. hippo. vm at baseline (not assoc. with change over time) (left) | CM assoc. with accelerated thinning of r precentral gyrus, l superior frontal gyrus; reduced thinning of l rostral middle frontal gyrus; reduced thickening of l precentral gyrus | ROI and WB | AS (hippo. and amyg.) | |||||
| Kelly et al (2013) | sMRI | CM<HC thickness right ventral ACC/sup frontal gyrus/OFC | WB/ROI | ROI: AS (for surface area on gyrus level) | CM<HC surface area and LGI: left lingual gyrus; SA: mid temp gyrus; LGI: left insula/pars opercularis | ||||||
| Liao et al, 2013 | sMRI | NS | NS | NS | WB and ROI | AS (amyg., thalamus, hippo., insula, PFC) | Thalamus GAD and CM>CM only, GAD with no CM, and HC (left) | ||||
| Hanson et al, 2014 | sMRI | PA<HC (left) | PA<HC (right) | ROI | MT |
Abbreviations: A, anterior; ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; amyg., amygdala; AS, automated segmentation; assoc., associated; bilat., bilateral; CM, childhood maltreatment; CV, cerebral volume; dlPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; FL, frontal lobe; GAD, generalized anxiety disorder; GM, gray matter; HC, healthy control; HGM, hippocampal gray matter; hippo., hippocampus; HWM, hippocampal white matter; hypothal., hypothalamus; I, isthmus; ICV, intracranial volume; l, left; LGI, local gyrification index; Mat sup., materal support; M, midbody; MDE, maternal depression exposure; mid temp. gyr., middle temporal gyrus; MT, manual tracing; neg., negatively; NS, not significant; OFC, orbitofrontal cortex; occip., occipital; OL, occipital lobe; P, posterior; PA, physical abuse; pos., positively; par. nurt., parental nurturance; PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; r, right; ROI, region of interest; S, splenium; SA, surface area; sup., superior; sMRI, structural magnetic resonance imaging; TBM, tensor-based morphometry; VBM, voxel-based morphometry; vm, volume; vPFC, ventral prefrontal cortex; WB, whole brain; WM, white matter.