The relationship between recent PTSD secondary to sexual assault, hippocampal volume and resting state functional connectivity in adolescent girls

Tamara J Sussman; Jonathan Posner; Andrea Parolin Jackowski; Adriana Correa; Elis Viviane Hoffmann; Fernanda Porto de Oliveira Peruzzi; Fernando Rodrigues Grecco; Samara Hipolito Nitzsche; Maria Eugenia Mesquita; Bernd Uwe Foester; Felipe Benatti di Cillo; Marcelo Feijo Mello; Ana Carolina Coelho Milani

doi:10.1016/j.ynstr.2022.100441

The relationship between recent PTSD secondary to sexual assault, hippocampal volume and resting state functional connectivity in adolescent girls

Neurobiol Stress. 2022 Feb 25:17:100441. doi: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2022.100441. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Dr., New York, NY, 10032, USA.
² Departamento de Psiquiatria, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, R Rua Major Maragliano, 241, Vila Clementino, São Paulo, SP, 04017030, Brazil.

Abstract

Objective: Improved understanding of the time course of neural changes associated with adolescent PTSD would elucidate the development of the disorder and could inform approaches to treatment. We compared hippocampal volumes and resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in adolescent girls with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) secondary to sexual assault, within six months of onset and age- and gender-matched, non-trauma exposed healthy controls (HCs) in São Paulo, Brazil. We also examined the relationship between pre- and post-treatment PTSD symptoms and RSFC.

Method: We collected brain structure, RSFC, and PTSD symptoms in 30 adolescents with PTSD (mean age: 15.7 ± 1.04 years) and 21 HCs (mean age: 16.2 ± 1.21 years) at baseline. We collected repeated measures in 21 participants with PTSD following treatment; 9 participants dropped out. Hippocampal volume and RSFC from hippocampal and default mode network (DMN) seeds were compared between participants with PTSD and HCs. We examined associations between within-subject changes in RSFC and PTSD symptoms following treatment.

Results: No hippocampal volumetric differences between groups were found. Compared to HCs, adolescents with recent PTSD had reduced RSFC between hippocampus and the lateral parietal node of the DMN, encompassing the angular gyrus, peak coordinates: -38, -54, 16; 116 voxels; peak F _1,47 = 31.76; FDR corrected p = 0.038. Improvements in PTSD symptoms were associated with increased RSFC between hippocampus and part of the lateral parietal node of the DMN, peak coordinates: -38, -84, 38; 316 voxels; peak F _1,47 = 40.28; FDR corrected p < 0.001.

Conclusion: Adolescents with recent PTSD had reduced hippocampal-DMN RSFC, while no group differences in hippocampal volume were found, suggesting that hippocampal function, but not structure, is altered early in the course of PSTD. Following treatment, hippocampal-DMN RSFC increased with symptom improvement and may indicate an important neural mechanism related to successful PTSD treatment.

Keywords: Adolescent; Default mode network; Female; Hippocampus; Post-traumatic; Resting state functional connectivity; Stress disorders.