B - 66 Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy as a Sensitive Marker of Neuropsychological Deficits in Executive Functioning Tasks in Young Adults with a History of Child Abuse.

Abstract

Research has shown the utility of imaging measures of neural activity in identifying deficits in cognitive functioning in individuals with a history of child abuse. The purpose of this study was to measure differences that may exist between individuals who reported physical, emotional, or sexual abuse as children vs. those who did not using Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the completion of executive function tasks. The present study recruited 84 students from the University of North Dakota. The participants were administered several prescreening measures, including a measures of child abuse. Based on responses, participants were assigned to either a "no child abuse" or "child abuse" group. Next, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, the Operation Span Task, and the Connors Continuous Performance Task were administered while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data was collected. The results showed a significantly higher rate and number of errors of commission on the Conners CPT in the child abuse group compared to the control group (F(1,57) = 6.604, p = 0.013 partial eta2 = 0.104). Neurological data revealed a statistically significant effect of group (F(1, 69) = 2.934, p = 0.043) across all executive functioning tasks. Additional tests showed these differences exist only during measures of decision-making (t(71) = 2.063, p = 0.043). The results suggest that the child abuse group may show subtle neurological deficits that persist into adulthood that may not manifest on traditional measures of cognitive function. These findings have implications for the development of remediation and treatment strategies in this population.