Childhood abuse may alter brain function in adults

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-01-27 03:00

Australia; NSW

A history of child abuse could be linked with altered brain function, according to Aussie researchers who assessed data from 768 kids from Sydney. The team found people who experienced abuse during childhood (but not adolescence) experienced altered functioning in the brain for systems associated with perceptual processing and attention. The brain changes may be due to a heightened awareness of their environment, due to being exposed to high levels of threat at an early age, according to the authors. Additionally, while more women than men experienced childhood abuse in the study groups, the team found more pronounced brain changes in men who had experienced the abuse, possibly due to the different rates of brain development in the sexes.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, The University of Sydney, The University of New South Wales, The University of Melbourne

Funder: The study was funded by program grant 1073041 from the National Health and Medical Research Council and grants 1023043 and 1008080 from the Centre for Research Excellence. The depression data set included in the study was part of the International Study to Predict Optimised Treatment in Depression (iSPOT-D) funded by Brain Resource Ltd (now known as Total Brain Ltd).

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