Trauma disorders are often associated with alterations in aversive anticipation and disruptions in emotion/fear circuits. Heightened or blunted anticipatory responding to negative cues in adulthood may be due to differential trauma exposure during development, and previous trauma exposure in childhood may also modify effects of subsequent trauma in adulthood. The aim of the current investigation was to examine the contributions of childhood trauma on affective modulation of startle before and after trauma exposure in adulthood (a combat deployment). Adult male participants from the Marine Resilience Study with (n = 1145) and without (n = 1312) a history of reported childhood trauma completed an affective modulation of startle task to assess aversive anticipation. Affective startle response was operationalized by electromyography (EMG) recording of the orbicularis oculi muscle in response to acoustic stimuli when anticipating positive and negative affective images. Startle responses to affective images were also assessed. Testing occurred over three time-points; before going on a 7 month combat deployment and 3 and 6 months after returning from deployment. Startle response when anticipating negative images was greater compared to pleasant images across all three test periods. Across all 3 time points, childhood trauma was consistently associated with significantly blunted startle when anticipating negative images, suggesting reliable effects of childhood trauma on aversive anticipation. Conversely, deployment trauma was associated with increased startle reactivity post-deployment compared to pre-deployment, which was independent of childhood trauma and image valence. These results support the hypothesis that trauma exposure during development vs. adulthood may have dissociable effects on aversive anticipation and arousal mechanisms. Further study in women and across more refined age groups is needed to test generalizability and identify potential developmental windows for these differential effects.

创伤性疾病通常与厌恶预期的改变和情绪/恐惧回路的破坏有关。成年期对负面线索的预期反应增强或减弱可能是由于发育过程中不同的创伤暴露所致，而童年时期的创伤暴露也可能改变成年后后续创伤的影响。当前调查的目的是检查童年创伤对成年期创伤暴露（战斗部署）前后惊吓情感调节的影响。来自海洋复原力研究的成年男性参与者（n = 1145）和没有（n = 1312）童年创伤史的参与者完成了惊吓任务的情感调节，以评估厌恶预期。当预期积极和消极情感图像时，通过肌电图（EMG）记录眼轮匝肌对声刺激的反应来操作情感惊恐反应。还评估了对情感图像的惊吓反应。测试在三个时间点进行；在进行为期 7 个月的战斗部署之前以及部署返回后的 3 个月和 6 个月。在所有三个测试期间，与令人愉快的图像相比，预期负面图像时的惊吓反应更大。在所有 3 个时间点上，童年创伤始终与预期负面图像时的明显迟钝的惊吓相关，这表明童年创伤对厌恶预期有可靠的影响。相反，与部署前相比，部署创伤与部署后惊吓反应性增加相关，这与童年创伤和图像效价无关。这些结果支持了以下假设：发育期间的创伤暴露与发育期间的创伤暴露。 成年期可能会对厌恶预期和唤醒机制产生分离性影响。需要对女性和更精细的年龄组进行进一步的研究，以测试普遍性并确定这些差异效应的潜在发育窗口。