Gray matter correlates of childhood maltreatment lack replicability in a multi-cohort brain-wide association study

Childhood maltreatment effects on cerebral gray matter have been frequently discussed as a neurobiological pathway for depression. However, localizations are highly heterogeneous, and recent reports have questioned the replicability of mental health neuroimaging findings. Here, we investigate the replicability of gray matter correlates of maltreatment, measured retrospectively via the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, across three large adult cohorts (total N = 3225). Pooling cohorts yields maltreatment-related gray matter reductions, with most extensive effects when not controlling for depression diagnosis (maximum partial R<sup>2</sup> = .022). However, none of these effects significantly replicate across cohorts. Non-replicability is consistent across a variety of maltreatment subtypes and operationalizations, as well as subgroup analyses with and without depression, and stratified by sex. Results are furthermore consistent across a variety of gray matter operationalizations, including voxel-based morphometry and parcellation-based cortical and subcortical measures. In this work, we show that there is little evidence for the replicability of gray matter correlates of childhood maltreatment, when adequately controlling for psychopathology. This underscores the need to focus on replicability research in mental health neuroimaging.

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Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2025-09-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62374-w
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Child Abuse and Trauma
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.31

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article

Gray matter correlates of childhood maltreatment lack replicability in a multi-cohort brain-wide association study

Luisa Altegoer, L. Fisch, Andreas Jansen, Janik Goltermann et al.
1 citations
Nature Communications
Child Abuse and Trauma
2.31
article

Gray matter correlates of childhood maltreatment lack replicability in a multi-cohort brain-wide association study

Luisa Altegoer, L. Fisch, Andreas Jansen, Janik Goltermann, Elisabeth Johanna Leehr, Marius Gruber, Dominik Grotegerd, Susanne L. Meinert, Hamidreza Jamalabadi, Nils R. Winter, Linda Meredith Bonnekoh, Maike Richter, Vincent Hammes, Benjamin Straube, Florian Thomas‐Odenthal, Nina Alexander, Tim Hahn, Igor Nenadić, Nils Opel, Frederike Stein, Paula Usemann, Klaus Berger, Udo Dannlowski, Tilo T. J. Kircher, Joscha Böhnlein, Anna Kraus, Marco Hermesdorf, Volker Arolt, Katharina Brosch, Lea Teutenberg, Judith Krieger, Kira Flinkenflügel
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment effects on cerebral gray matter have been frequently discussed as a neurobiological pathway for depression. However, localizations are highly heterogeneous, and recent reports have questioned the replicability of mental health neuroimaging findings. Here, we investigate the replicability of gray matter correlates of maltreatment, measured retrospectively via the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, across three large adult cohorts (total N = 3225). Pooling cohorts yields maltreatment-related gray matter reductions, with most extensive effects when not controlling for depression diagnosis (maximum partial R<sup>2</sup> = .022). However, none of these effects significantly replicate across cohorts. Non-replicability is consistent across a variety of maltreatment subtypes and operationalizations, as well as subgroup analyses with and without depression, and stratified by sex. Results are furthermore consistent across a variety of gray matter operationalizations, including voxel-based morphometry and parcellation-based cortical and subcortical measures. In this work, we show that there is little evidence for the replicability of gray matter correlates of childhood maltreatment, when adequately controlling for psychopathology. This underscores the need to focus on replicability research in mental health neuroimaging.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
Goethe University Frankfurt (DE), Feinstein Institute for Medical Research (US), Philipps University of Marburg (DE), University of Münster (DE), University Hospital Münster (DE), German Center for Lung Research (DE), University Hospital Frankfurt (DE), Franklin University (US), FH Münster University of Applied Sciences (DE), Bethel University (US)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Openalex Percentile: Top 11%
Child Abuse and Trauma
2.31
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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