Association Between Stressful Life Events and Grey Matter Volume in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex: A 2-year Longitudinal Study

Overview

Journal Hum Brain Mapp

Publisher Wiley

Specialty Neurology

Date 2022 Apr 12

PMID 35411559

Authors

Kai G Ringwald

Julia-Katharina Pfarr

Frederike Stein

Katharina Brosch

Tina Meller

Florian Thomas-Odenthal

Susanne Meinert

Lena Waltemate

Fabian Breuer

Alexandra Winter

Hannah Lemke

Dominik Grotegerd

Katharina Thiel

Jochen Bauer

Tim Hahn

Andreas Jansen

Udo Dannlowski

Axel Krug

Igor Nenadic

Tilo Kircher

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Stressful life events (SLEs) in adulthood are a risk factor for various disorders such as depression, cancer or infections. Part of this risk is mediated through pathways altering brain physiology and structure. There is a lack of longitudinal studies examining associations between SLEs and brain structural changes. High-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging data of 212 healthy subjects were acquired at baseline and after 2 years. Voxel-based morphometry was used to identify associations between SLEs using the Life Events Questionnaire and grey matter volume (GMV) changes during the 2-year period in an ROI approach. Furthermore, we assessed adverse childhood experiences as a possible moderator of SLEs-GMV change associations. SLEs were negatively associated with GMV changes in the left medial prefrontal cortex. This association was stronger when subjects had experienced adverse childhood experiences. The medial prefrontal cortex has previously been associated with stress-related disorders. The present findings represent a potential neural basis of the diathesis-stress model of various disorders.

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