Different forms of child abuse increase the risk for mental illness as well as sexual dysfunction in adulthood. However, researchers do not fully understand how this happens. An international team of researchers, including the Miller School’s Charles B. Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D., Leonard M. Miller Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, are making discoveries about neural basis for this association.
Furthermore, this study shows that children who are experience sexual abuse and mistreatment exhibit specific and differential changes in the architecture of their brain. This change reflect the nature of the mistreatment.
Researchers have known that victims of child abuse often suffer from psychiatric disorders later in life. This can including sexual dysfunction following sexual abuse. However, the underlying mechanisms mediating this association are poorly understood. Nemeroff and a group of scientists led by Christine Heim, Ph.D., and Jens Pruessner, Ph.D., hypothesize that cortical changes during segments of mistreatment played a role. To study these potential changes, the researchers use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the brains of 51 adult women. All women included were exposed to various forms of childhood abuse.
The results show a correlation between specific forms of maltreatment and thinning of the cortex. This occurs in precisely the regions of the brain that connects to the processing of the type of abuse. Specifically, the somatosensory cortex in the area in which the female genitals are significantly thinner in women who were victims of sexual abuse in their childhood. Similarly, victims of emotional mistreatment have a reduction of the thickness of the cerebral cortex in specific areas associated with self-awareness, self-evaluation and emotional regulation. CONTINUE READING
