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Neural Correlates of Disgust Processing in Childhood Maltreatment and Peer Victimisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2024

Lena Lim
Lena Lim*
Affiliation:
SICS, ASTAR, Singapore, Singapore. IoPPN, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
*
*Presenting author.
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Abstract

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Aims

Childhood maltreatment (CM) and peer victimisation (PV) are common sources of early-life interpersonal stress. CM is associated with atypical fronto-limbic emotion processing and regulation, and increased vulnerability for self-harm/suicide. However, few studies have compared the neurofunctional correlates between caregiver-inflicted versus peer-inflicted mistreatment. We compared the alterations of neurofunctional correlates of facial emotion processing in young people exposed to CM or PV and explored their associations with self-harm.

Methods

fMRI data were collected from 114 age- and gender-matched youths (39 CM, 37 PV and 38 controls) during an emotion discrimination task. Region-of-interest (amygdala, insula) and whole-brain analyses were conducted.

Results

Groups differed significantly during processing of disgust only. Both CM and PV groups had lower activation in right amygdala and bilateral posterior insula than controls, where the left insular underactivation was furthermore related to increased self-harm in maltreated youths. At the whole-brain level, both CM and PV groups also had underactivation compared with controls in a cluster of bilateral limbic-thalamic-striatal, precuneus/posterior cingulate, temporal, fusiform/lingual and cerebellar regions, which was negatively associated with emotional problems in controls, as well as a cluster of somatosensory regions associated with increased self-harm in maltreated youths.

Conclusion

Early-life interpersonal stress from caregivers or peers is associated with common underactivation of limbic-thalamic-striatal, precuneus/posterior cingulate and somatosensory regions during disgust processing. The hypoactivation of key emotion and sensory processing and self-referential brain regions could be a potential suppressive mechanism to cope with the aversive emotion; however, it may also entail increased risk of affective psychopathology in seemingly healthy youths.

Type
1 Research
Information
BJPsych Open , Volume 10 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2024, 17–20 June , June 2024 , pp. S56
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

Footnotes

Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.

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