The deleterious outcomes associated with exposure to childhood maltreatment (CM) are well known and may be at least partially mediated by self-harm behaviors. It has been suggested that these self-harm behaviors serve as a means of decreasing negative mood states but the effects of CM on health outcomes may be much more sinister. A wealth of data suggest that CM may lead to experience-dependent changes in neural circuits underlying reward processes; processes associated with many harmful behaviors. The present study examined the relationship between a history of CM and the microstructure of a white matter tract that may be central to reward processes. Healthy adults (N = 122) were assessed with a diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) exam and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Probabilistic tractography was used to delineate the accumbofrontal “reward” tract, connecting the orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, and measures of white matter microstructure were extracted. We then examined whether variation in CTQ scores were associated with variation in the microstructure of this tract as measured by fractional anisotropy (FA). After accounting for the effects of age and sex, the CTQ total score accounted for approximately 6% of the variance of FA in the accumbofrontal tract (F(3, 121) = 5.74; p = .001). Post hoc analyses indicated that the overall severity of CM, rather than a specific type of maltreatment, drove this result. These findings indicate that CM influences white matter microstructure in a fiber tract that is likely central to reward processes and adds to a growing literature implicating CM in long-term health-related outcomes.

中文翻译：

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童年时期虐待的历史与健康成年人的额额叶“奖励”道的分数各向异性降低有关。

与暴露于儿童期虐待（CM）相关的有害结果是众所周知的，并且可能至少部分由自我伤害行为介导。已经提出，这些自残行为可作为减少负面情绪状态的一种手段，但是CM对健康结果的影响可能更加险恶。大量数据表明，CM可能导致奖励过程所依据的神经回路的经验依赖型变化。与许多有害行为相关的过程。本研究检查了CM的历史和可能对奖励过程至关重要的白质束微结构之间的关系。健康成年人（N （= 122）用扩散张量成像（DTI）检查和儿童创伤问卷（CTQ）进行评估。用概率束描记法描绘眶额叶“奖励”道，连接眶额叶皮层和伏隔核，并提取白质显微结构的量度。然后，我们检查了CTQ分数的变化是否与该管道的微结构变化（如通过分数各向异性（FA）进行测量）相关联。在考虑了年龄和性别的影响后，CTQ总评分约占额叶额叶FA差异的6％（F（3，121）= 5.74; p = .001）。事后分析表明，CM的整体严重程度而非特定类型的虐待导致了这一结果。这些发现表明，CM影响纤维束中的白质微观结构，这可能是奖励过程的关键，并增加了与CM长期健康相关的结果相关的文献。