Intergenerational transmission of psychological trauma: A structural neuroimaging study

Abstract

Traumatic events have an important effect in human life and may lead to psychopathological disturbances by affecting the personal and social lives of individuals. Recently, various studies have been reported in the literature showing that the traumatic experiences may be associated with intergenerational psychopathologies. However, there is limited data regarding the neuroimaging studies investigating changes in brain structures in children of traumatized mothers. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential changes in the hippocampus and amygdala volumes in the children of mothers exposed to mass trauma. The traumatic event experienced by the mothers was the two devastating earthquakes they experienced when they were teenagers. Hippocampus and amygdala volumes were evaluated in magnetic resonance imaging of 40 children whose mothers were exposed to earthquakes and 27 children in control group. Bilateral amygdala volumes were significantly smaller in the children of mothers exposed to earthquake compared to the control group. In addition, right amygdala and hippocampus volumes were smaller in children of mothers exposed to earthquakes than left. This is one of the pioneering neuroimaging studies on the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Our study shows that there may be a potential relationship between intergenerational trauma and various brain structures.