A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Meta-Analysis of Childhood Trauma

Traumatic experiences during childhood significantly impact the developing brain and contributes to the development of numerous physical and mental health problems. A comprehensive understanding of the functional impairments within the brain associated with childhood who trauma histories, however, is unknown. Previous fMRI meta-analytical tools required homogeneity in task types and the clinical populations studied, thus, preventing the comprehensive pooling of brain-based deficits present in children who have trauma histories. We hypothesize that the use of the novel data-driven Bayesian author-topic model approach to fMRI meta-analyses will reveal deficits in brain networks spanning fMRI task types in children with trauma histories. We are the first known study to use the Bayesian author-topic model approach to fMRI meta-analyses within a clinical population. Using PRISMA guidelines, we present data-driven results obtained by combining activation patterns across heterogeneous tasks from 1,428 initially screened studies, thus combining data from 14 studies meeting study criteria (285 children with trauma histories; 297 healthy control children). Altered brain activity is revealed within two clusters in children with trauma histories as compared to control children: the Default Mode/Affective Network/posterior insula and Central Executive Network. Our identified clusters were associated with tasks pertaining to cognitive processing, emotional/social stress, self-referential thought, memory, unexpected stimuli and avoidance behaviours in youth who have experienced childhood trauma. Our results reveal disturbances in children with trauma histories within the modulation of DMN and CEN networks – but not the salience network- irrespective of also presenting post-traumatic stress symptoms.