The Impact of Childhood Trauma and Abuse on Adolescent Brain Structure and Function: An MRI-Based Neuroimaging Study

Childhood trauma, defined as exposure to severe adversity, can lead to structural brain changes, potentially impairing cognitive abilities and contributing to mental health issues. This study aimed to investigate the effect of trauma exposure on cortical thickness, sulcus, surface area, and network connectivity by utilizing a large data sample from adolescent participants (n=7386) of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM Study (ABCD Study). Linear mixed-effects modeling (LMM) was used to perform correlational and connectivity analyses. Results revealed that trauma was associated with thicker cortices, larger areas, and an increase in sulcus in the cingulate cortex and sensorimotor regions. Conversely, fronto-parietal and insular regions exhibited a reduction in thickness. Increased connectivity was observed between the ventral and dorsal attention network, the fronto-parietal and default network, as well as between sensory networks such as visual and auditory networks. These results suggest that childhood trauma may lead to significant structural and functional alterations as an adaptive response, contributing to our understanding of trauma's neurodevelopmental impact. This research may lay the foundation for reducing the risk of the onset of mental disorders through identifying disease hallmarks and biomarkers for early disease detection and implementing targeted early intervention strategies.