Increased Brain Age Among Psychiatrically Healthy Adults Exposed to Childhood Trauma
To our knowledge, this study represents the first published investigation of brain age in adults with childhood trauma using a machine-learning-based prediction model. Our findings suggest a link between childhood trauma exposure, specifically sexual abuse, and accelerated brain aging in adulthood, but this association should be replicated in future work. Accentuated brain aging in adulthood may increase the risk of age-related cognitive and neurodegenerative decline and associated disorders later in life.
Authors
- Soraya Seedat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5118-786X)
- Robin Emsley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1250-6888)
- Chanellé Hendrikse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1494-1800)
- Leigh L. van den Heuvel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3884-4754)
- Stefan S. du Plessis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4617-4367)
Institutions
- South African Medical Research Council (ZA)
- Stellenbosch University (ZA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Brain and Behavior
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.70450
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Child Abuse and Trauma
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.31
Funders
- National Research Foundation
- South African Medical Research Council
- Center for High Performance Computing
- Medical Research Council
- Division of Research Capacity Development