Adverse childhood experiences negatively impacts sustained attention in adulthood

Effects of Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on cognitive performance in adulthood are sparsely investigated. One previous study linked childhood trauma to reduced sustained attention in adults. However, in this study childhood trauma was broadly defined based on the presence and frequency of certain dysfunction parental experiences. Our cross-sectional online study aims to refine this picture by including emotional and physical domains of childhood trauma. 262 individuals completed the German version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) to operationalize ACE. Sustained attention was measured using the gradual onset Continuous Performance Task (gradCPT), a validated tool to measure sustained attention parameters. Multivariate linear regression models were used to analyze sustained attention parameters (d’, RT, RTCoV, criterion) based on total CTQ score and emotional / physical subscores. Higher CTQ Total Scores predicted lower discrimination performance (d′) and increased reaction time variability (RTCoV). No significant effects were found for the emotional and physical trauma subscores. Certain demographic variables such as gender, education level, and device type showed isolated associations with gradCPT performance. These findings suggest lasting, negative ACE effects on sustained attention in adulthood. Additionally, the fully online design proved to be a reliable method for detecting subtle variations in sustained attention.