The effects of childhood maltreatment on semantic networks during cognitive reappraisal of emotion

摘要

The effects of childhood maltreatment on semantic networks during cognitive reappraisal of emotion Maltreatment experiences alter brain development associated with emotion processing, and dysregulation of emotion can arouse mental health problems in maltreated people. Although many evidences supported the dysfunction in cognitive reappraisal in maltreatment victims, the studies for revealing the alteration of brain networks related to maltreatment experiences during cogni- tive reappraisal task is strikingly lack. In this study, we verified the effects of maltreatments on brain networks related to cognitive reappraisal. Twenty-seven healthy subjects were recruited in the fMRI experiments. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form is used to assess the severity of maltreatment experiences. Positive reappraisal and depressive symptoms were measured using the CERQ and CES-D questionnaires, respectively. We designed cognitive reappraisal task for fMRI experiments. Forty- five colored pictures related to social situations were selected from the International Affective Picture System. An instruction word was presented (‘look’ or ‘regulation’) before the picture stimulation. In the ‘regulation’ situation, subjects were asked to reduce negative emotion using cognitive reappraisal. One sample t-test was conducted to measure the different brain activities between ‘regulation’ and ‘look’ conditions. Also, the relationships between brain activities and maltreatment experiences were evaluated by correlation analysis. Cognitive reappraisal induced more activities in medial prefrontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, left inferior parietal cortex, and bilateral middle temporal cortex compared to condition of look (FDR corrected p<0.05). The left inferior parietal and bilateral middle temporal activities were significantly correlated with cognitive reappraisal abilities (all ps < 0.05). Also, in partial correlation analysis after controlling for age and depressive symptoms, emotional abuse and emotional neglect were negatively correlated with left inferior parietal cortex activity (p=0.02) and bilateral middle temporal cortex activities (all ps<0.05), respectively. We found semantic networks were important to cognitive reappraisal, especially reinterpretation, and negative effects of emotional maltreatment experiences on semantic network activities.