Archival ReportPreliminary Evidence for White Matter Tract Abnormalities in Young Adults Exposed to Parental Verbal Abuse
Section snippets
Participants and Screening
The McLean Hospital Institutional Review Board approved all procedures. The purpose and meaning of this study was explained to subjects, who provided written informed consent. To be eligible, subjects had to be between 18 and 25 years of age, right-handed, unmedicated, with a self-reported history of exposure to PVA but to no other form of early stress or trauma, or healthy control subjects without such exposure. Subjects were excluded who had a history of CSA, WDV, parental loss, neglect, or
Results
Tract-based spatial statistics identified three portions of the FA skeleton with reduced FA that exceeded preselected criteria for significance and voxel size. The largest and most significant portion [F(1, 26) = 29.12, p = .00001; voxel size = 49; MIN coordinates x = −44, y = −32, z = 3; Figure 1, Figure 2] was located in the left superior temporal gyrus and identified by tract tracing as the arcuate fasciculus. Fractional anisotropy values in this region, covaried for age, gender, parental
Discussion
This study provides preliminary evidence that exposure to PVA is associated with alteration in the integrity of neural pathways. Region 1 was located in the left superior temporal gyrus and appeared to consist of long association fibers constituting the arcuate fasciculus. Traditionally, the arcuate fasciculus is known as the fiber tract connecting Wernicke's area in the temporoparietal junction with Broca's area in the inferior frontal gyrus. Recent anatomical studies suggest that the arcuate
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