Interpersonal early life trauma is associated with increased cerebral perfusion and poorer memory performance in post-9/11 veterans.

Background: Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is critically important in the overall maintenance of brain health, and disruptions in normal flow have been linked to the degradation of the brain's structural integrity and function. Recent studies have highlighted the potential role of CBF as a link between psychiatric disorders and brain integrity. Although interpersonal early life trauma (IP-ELT) is a risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders and has been linked to disruptions in brain structure and function, the mechanisms through which IP-ELT alters brain integrity and development remain unclear. The goal of this study was to understand whether IP-ELT was associated with alterations in CBF assessed during adulthood. Further, because the cognitive implications of perfusion disruptions in IP-ELT are also unclear, this study sought to investigate the relationship between IP-ELT, perfusion, and cognition.

Methods: 179 Operations Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) Veterans and military personnel completed pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) imaging, clinical interviews, the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ), and a battery of neuropsychological tests that were used to derive attention, memory, and executive function cognitive composite scores. To determine whether individuals were exposed to an IP-ELT, events on the TLEQ that specifically queried interpersonal trauma before the age of 18 were tallied for each individual. Analyses compared individuals who reported an interpersonal IP-ELT (IP-ELT+, n = 48) with those who did not (IP-ELT-, n = 131).

Results: Whole brain analyses revealed that IP-ELT+ individuals had significantly greater CBF in the right inferior/middle temporal gyrus compared to those in the IP-ELT- group, even after controlling for age, sex, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Further, perfusion in the right inferior/middle temporal gyrus significantly mediated the relationship between IP-ELT and memory, not attention or executive function, such that those with an IP-ELT had greater perfusion, which, in turn, was associated with poorer memory. Examination of other clinical variables such as current PTSD diagnosis and severity as well as the interaction between IP-ELT and PTSD yielded no significant effects.

Conclusions: These results extend prior work demonstrating an association between ELT and cerebral perfusion by suggesting that increased CBF may be an important neural marker with cognitive implications in populations at risk for psychiatric disorders.