Preliminary Evidence for Sensitive Periods in the Effect of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Regional Brain Development

By S. Andersen, Akemi Tomada, E. S. Vincow, E. Valente, Ann Polcari, Martin H. Teicher. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 2008

724 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Volumetric MRI scans from 26 women with repeated episodes of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and 17 healthy women (18–22 years) were analyzed for sensitive periods effects on hippocampal and amydgala volume, frontal cortex gray matter volume and corpus callosum area. Hipppocampal volume was reduced in association with CSA at 3–5 years (β=−0.69, p<0.0001) and 11–13 years (β=−0.25, p<0.05). Corpus callosum was reduced with CSA at 9–10 years (β=−0.44, p<0.005), and frontal cortex was attenuated in subjects with CSA at ages 14–16 (β=−0.48, p<0.005). Brain regions have unique windows of vulnerability to the effects of traumatic stress.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5d81fc066dde7ea90d392dfcc7487df43792d822

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Citations in the corpus

Neuroimaging of child abuse: a critical review (2012, background): “However, two other studies reported no differences in amygdala volumes in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse with comorbidities (Andersen et al., 2008) and in male and female survivors of childhood physical and sexual abuse with PTSD and co-morbidities (Bremner et al., 1997).”
Annual Research Review: Enduring neurobiological effects of childhood abuse and neglect (2016, neutral): “abuse between 9 and 10 years of age (Andersen et al., 2008).”
Current research trends in early life stress and depression: review of human studies on sensitive periods, gene-environment interactions, and epigenetics. (2012, positive): “…sensitivity to the effects of early adverse experiencemay dependon temporal and regional processes of neural development and function in brain regions that are relevant to emotional experience (see Andersen and Teicher, 2008; Andersen et al., 2008; Rice and Barone, 2000; Weiss and Wagner, 1989).”
Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced volume in the hippocampal subfields CA3, dentate gyrus, and subiculum (2012, background): “Confirmation that subfields containing theDG and CA3 were most strongly related to maltreatment using a fully automated method would also provide the impetus to ascertain whether different therapeutic modalities affect specific subfields, and whether these subfields have unique sensitive periods whe”
Sensitive periods of amygdala development: The role of maltreatment in preadolescence (2014, background): “However, studies of childhood adversity focusing on adults have either found no significant differences (Andersen et al., 2008; Ansell et al., 2012; Brambilla et al., 2004; Bremner et al., 1997; Cohen et al., 2006;Dannlowski et al., 2012; vanHarmelen et al., 2010) or smaller amygdala volumes in bord”
A Review of Adversity, The Amygdala and the Hippocampus: A Consideration of Developmental Timing (2009, positive): “However, differences in duration since stressor cannot account for all of the data since many studies (in older individuals) show decreased hippocampus years after stress termination (Andersen et al., 2008), suggesting again that developmental timing of exposure will infl uence the outcome measure.”
The Role of Early Life Stress as a Predictor for Alcohol and Drug Dependence (2010, background): “…maltreatment has been associated with abnormalities in brain development, including a reduction in size of the corpus callosum (CC), the brain's most extensive white matter tract (Andersen et al. 2008; Teicher et al. 2004), together with other white tract abnormalities (Choi et al. 2009).”
Health Outcomes by Closeness of Sexual Abuse Perpetrator: A Test of Betrayal Trauma Theory (2012, background): “Recently, the biological bases of trauma in general and CSA in particular are starting to be elucidated through neuroimaging, which has revealed changes in brain structure (Anderson et al., 2008) as well as in neuroendocrinology among CSA victims with PTSD (Beers & De Bellis, 2002; Bremner et al.”
Effects of Early Life Stress on Cognitive and Affective Function: An Integrated Review of Human Literature (2010, background): “Conversely, sexual abuse occurring between ages 9–10 and 11–14 years was linked to dysfunctions in the corpus callosum and prefrontal cortex (PFC), respectively (Andersen et al. 2008).”
Research review: the neurobiology and genetics of maltreatment and adversity. (2010, background): “…volume in adults with a history of childhood maltreatment; one found reduced volume in female patients with dissociative identity disorder as compared to healthy females (Vermetten et al., 2006) while the other two reported no measurable differences (Andersen et al., 2008; Bremner et al., 1997).”
Understanding interpersonal trauma in children: why we need a developmentally appropriate trauma diagnosis. (2012, background): “Young adult women who experienced sexual abuse, compared to matched controls, had reduced hippocampal volumes if the abuse occurred in early childhood or preadolescence, reduced corpus callosum volumes if the abuse occurred in middle childhood, and reduced prefrontal cortex volumes if the abuse occu”
Neurobiological and psychiatric consequences of child abuse and neglect. (2010, background): “A recent seminal study by Andersen et al. (2008) was the first to provide evidence for differential effects of early trauma on regional brain volumes in 26 young adult women aged 18–22 years as a function of timing of sexual abuse.”
Adolescence as a neurobiological critical period for the development of higher-order cognition (2018, positive): “Further, when abuse occurs during adolescence (ages 14–16) it impacts the development of frontal cortex gray matter volume, whereas abuse suffered in childhood impacts the development of hippocampal, but not frontal, gray matter volume (Andersen et al., 2008).”
Behavior Problems After Early Life Stress: Contributions of the Hippocampus and Amygdala (2014, background): “In humans, one form of ELS, child maltreatment, is consistently related to smaller hippocampi in adults (30,43,44).”