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Childhood maltreatment and combat posttraumatic stress differentially predict fear-related fronto-subcortical connectivity.

ABSTRACT: Adult posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been characterized by altered fear-network connectivity. Childhood trauma is a major risk factor for adult PTSD, yet its contribution to fear-network connectivity in PTSD remains unexplored. We examined, within a single model, the contribution of childhood maltreatment, combat exposure, and combat-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) to resting-state connectivity (rs-FC) of the amygdala and hippocampus in military veterans.Medication-free male veterans (n = 27, average 26.6 years) with a range of PTSS completed resting-state fMRI. Measures including the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and Combat Exposure Scale (CES) were used to predict rs-FC using multilinear regression. Fear-network seeds included the amygdala and hippocampus.Amygdala: CTQ predicted lower connectivity to ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), but greater anticorrelation with dorsal/lateral PFC. CAPS positively predicted connectivity to insula, and loss of anticorrelation with dorsomedial/dorsolateral (dm/dl)PFC. Hippocampus: CTQ predicted lower connectivity to vmPFC, but greater anticorrelation with dm/dlPFC. CES predicted greater anticorrelation, whereas CAPS predicted less anticorrelation with dmPFC.Childhood trauma, combat exposure, and PTSS differentially predict fear-network rs-FC. Childhood maltreatment may weaken ventral prefrontal-subcortical circuitry important in automatic fear regulation, but, in a compensatory manner, may also strengthen dorsal prefrontal-subcortical pathways involved in more effortful emotion regulation. PTSD symptoms, in turn, appear to emerge with the loss of connectivity in the latter pathway. These findings suggest potential mechanisms by which developmental trauma exposure leads to adult PTSD, and which brain mechanisms are associated with the emergence of PTSD symptoms.

SUBMITTER: Birn RM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4205190 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Childhood maltreatment and combat posttraumatic stress differentially predict fear-related fronto-subcortical connectivity.

Birn Rasmus M RM Patriat Rémi R Phillips Mary L ML Germain Anne A Herringa Ryan J RJ

Depression and anxiety 20140808 10

<h4>Background</h4>Adult posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been characterized by altered fear-network connectivity. Childhood trauma is a major risk factor for adult PTSD, yet its contribution to fear-network connectivity in PTSD remains unexplored. We examined, within a single model, the contribution of childhood maltreatment, combat exposure, and combat-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) to resting-state connectivity (rs-FC) of the amygdala and hippocampus in military veterans ...[more]

PMID: 25132653

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Project description:BackgroundAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with atypical fronto-subcortical neural circuitry and heightened delay discounting, or a stronger preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards. Recent evidence of ADHD-related sex differences in brain structure and function suggests anomalies in fronto-subcortical circuitry may differ among girls and boys with ADHD. The current study examined whether the functional connectivity (FC) within fronto-subcortical neural circuitry differs among girls and boys with ADHD compared to same-sex typically developing (TD) controls and relates to delay discounting.MethodsParticipants include 8-12-year-old children with ADHD (n?=?72, 20 girls) and TD controls (n?=?75, 21 girls). Fronto-subcortical regions of interest were functionally defined by applying independent component analysis to resting-state fMRI data. Intrinsic FC between subcortical components, including the striatum and amygdala, and prefrontal components, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and anterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), was compared across diagnostic groups overall and within sex. Correlations between intrinsic FC of the six fronto-subcortical pairs and delay discounting were also examined.ResultsBoth girls and boys with ADHD show atypical FC between vmPFC and subcortical regions including the striatum (stronger positive FC in ADHD) and amygdala (weaker negative FC in ADHD), with the greatest diagnostic effects among girls. In addition, girls with ADHD show atypical intrinsic FC between the striatum and dlPFC components, including stronger positive FC with ACC and stronger negative FC with dlPFC. Further, girls but not boys, with ADHD, show heightened real-time delay discounting. Brain-behavior correlations suggest (1) stronger negative FC between the striatal and dlPFC components correlated with greater money delay discounting across all participants and (2) stronger FC between the amygdala with both the dlPFC and ACC components was differentially related to heightened real-time discounting among girls and boys with and without ADHD.ConclusionsOur findings suggest fronto-subcortical functional networks are affected in children with ADHD, particularly girls, and relate to delay discounting. These results also provide preliminary evidence of greater disruptions in fronto-subcortical FC among girls with ADHD that is not due to elevated inattention symptom severity, intellectual reasoning ability, age, or head motion.

Dataset Information

Childhood maltreatment and combat posttraumatic stress differentially predict fear-related fronto-subcortical connectivity.

Publications

Childhood maltreatment and combat posttraumatic stress differentially predict fear-related fronto-subcortical connectivity.

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