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Persistent structural alteration of the extended limbic system in adolescents with childhood maltreatment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2026

Julia Ruiz-Fernandez
Affiliation:
INSERM U1299 “Developmental Trajectories & Psychiatry”; University Paris Saclay; University Paris Cité; ENS Paris Saclay, Dept. Mathematics, Centre Borelli; F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Aveline Aouidad
Affiliation:
INSERM U1299 “Developmental Trajectories & Psychiatry”; University Paris Saclay; University Paris Cité; ENS Paris Saclay, Dept. Mathematics, Centre Borelli; F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France CH Charles Perrens Bordeaux – CRA Aquitaine – Antenne de Bordeaux, Pôle Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent, Bordeaux, France
Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot
Affiliation:
INSERM U1299 “Developmental Trajectories & Psychiatry”; University Paris Saclay; University Paris Cité; ENS Paris Saclay, Dept. Mathematics, Centre Borelli; F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France APHP Sorbonne Université, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France
Alice V. Chavanne
Affiliation:
INSERM U1299 “Developmental Trajectories & Psychiatry”; University Paris Saclay; University Paris Cité; ENS Paris Saclay, Dept. Mathematics, Centre Borelli; F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Tobias Banaschewski
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
Gareth J. Barker
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
Andreas Becker
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany
Arun L.W. Bokde
Affiliation:
Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Rüdiger Brühl
Affiliation:
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany
Sylvane Desrivières
Affiliation:
Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK
Herta Flor
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Antoine Grigis
Affiliation:
NeuroSpin, CEA, University Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Yvonne Grimmer
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
Hugh Garavan
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
Penny Gowland
Affiliation:
Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, SPMIC, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK
Andreas Heinz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Corinna Insensee
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany
Frauke Nees
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos
Affiliation:
NeuroSpin, CEA, University Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Tomáš Paus
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
Jani Penttilä
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Health Care, Psychosocial Services Adolescent Outpatient Clinic, Lahti, Finland
Luise Poutska
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Nathalie Holz
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
Christian Baeuchl
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, TU Dresden: Technische Universitat Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Michael N. Smolka
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, TU Dresden: Technische Universitat Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Argyris Stringaris
Affiliation:
Divisions of Psychiatry and Psychology and Language Science, University College London, London, UK
Nilakshi Vaidya
Affiliation:
Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, CCM, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Betteke van Noort
Affiliation:
Hochschule für Gesundheit und Medizin, Siemens Villa, MSB Medical School Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Henrik Walter
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany
Robert Whelan
Affiliation:
School of Psychology and Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Gunter Schumann
Affiliation:
Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, CCM, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany Centre for Population Neuroscience and Precision Medicine (PONS), Institute for Science and Technology of Brain-inspired Intelligence (ISTBI), Fudan University, Shanghai, Germany
David Cohen
Affiliation:
INSERM U1299 “Developmental Trajectories & Psychiatry”; University Paris Saclay; University Paris Cité; ENS Paris Saclay, Dept. Mathematics, Centre Borelli; F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France APHP Sorbonne Université, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Sorbonne Université, ISIR CNRS UMR 7222, Paris, France
Jean-Luc Martinot*
Affiliation:
INSERM U1299 “Developmental Trajectories & Psychiatry”; University Paris Saclay; University Paris Cité; ENS Paris Saclay, Dept. Mathematics, Centre Borelli; F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France Research Department, LabD-Psy, EPS Barthélémy Durand, Etampes, France
Eric Artiges*
Affiliation:
INSERM U1299 “Developmental Trajectories & Psychiatry”; University Paris Saclay; University Paris Cité; ENS Paris Saclay, Dept. Mathematics, Centre Borelli; F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France Research Department, LabD-Psy, EPS Barthélémy Durand, Etampes, France
*
Corresponding authors: Jean-Luc Martinot and Eric Artiges; Emails: jean-luc.martinot@inserm.fr, eric.artiges@inserm.fr
Corresponding authors: Jean-Luc Martinot and Eric Artiges; Emails: jean-luc.martinot@inserm.fr, eric.artiges@inserm.fr

Abstract

Background

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is related to structural alterations in adult limbic regions. However, the change in limbic structures remains unclear in adolescents from the general population since most reports stem from clinical samples. Additionally, large longitudinal neuroimaging studies in community adolescents reporting CM are scarce. Hence, we aimed to investigate the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between CM and the structure and function of the extended limbic and reward systems throughout adolescence.

Methods

We analysed data of 634 community adolescents from the IMAGEN cohort at age 14, followed up at age 18. CM was inferred from the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire completed at age 18, yielding subgroups with CM (N = 105) or without CM (N = 529). Using 3-Tesla T1 MRI, we performed between-group voxel-wise analyses at ages 14 and 18 to investigate grey matter volumes (GMV). In addition, GMV were investigated longitudinally between ages 14 and 18. Finally, using functional MRI and the Monetary Incentive Delay task, we measured reward anticipation and feedback sensitivity between groups at ages 14 and 18.

Results

Both at ages 14 and 18, adolescents reporting CM had lower GMV in the right insula, left orbitofrontal cortex, putamen, superior medial frontal gyrus, paracentral lobule, and other paralimbic regions, but no significant differences in reward response. Longitudinal analyses revealed no GMV difference between age groups.

Conclusion

CM was associated with GMV alterations persisting from early to late adolescence in the limbic regions in community individuals. Therefore, these findings further support the need for research on targeted preventive interventions for adolescents who have experienced CM.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that no alterations are made and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use and/or adaptation of the article.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
Figure 0

Table 1. Sample characteristics and childhood maltreatment scores in N = 634 community adolescents

Figure 1

Figure 1. Smaller limbic grey matter volumes in CM+ versus CM- adolescents at ages 14 and 18. This figure shows the GMVs that are smaller in CM+ compared to CM- adolescents: a) at age 14, b) at age 18, and c) the overlap (orange) at ages 14 (red) and 18 (yellow). The height threshold is set at p < 0.001 uncorrected and the extent threshold is set at p < 0.05 Family-Wise Error (FWE) corrected (k > 500 voxels). CM+ = self-report of childhood maltreatment; CM- = no childhood maltreatment; GMVs = grey matter volumes.

Figure 2

Table 2. Comparison of grey matter volumes in reward-related regions between CM+ and CM- adolescents at ages 14 and 18 (N = 634)

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