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BackgroundChildhood trauma (CT) is associated with altered brain anatomy. These neuroanatomical changes might be more pronounced in individuals with a psychiatric disorder. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are more prevalent in individuals with a history of CT.ObjectiveIn this study, we examined limbic and total brain volumes in healthy women with and without a history of CT and in females with PTSD or BPD and a history of CT to see whether neuroanatomical changes are a function of psychopathology or CT.MethodIn total, 128 women (N = 70 healthy controls without CT, N = 25 healthy controls with CT, N = 14 individuals with PTSD, and N = 19 individuals with BPD) were recruited. A T1-weighted anatomical MRI was acquired from all participants for Freesurfer-based assessment of total brain, hippocampus, and amygdala volumes. Severity of CT was assessed with a clinical interview and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Group differences in hippocampal and amygdala volumes (adjusted for total brain volume) and total brain volume (adjusted for height) were characterized by analysis of covariance.ResultsVolume of the total brain, hippocampus, and amygdala did not differ between the four groups (p > .05). CT severity correlated negatively with total brain volume across groups (r = -0.20; p = .029).ConclusionsCT was associated with reduced brain volume but PTSD or BPD was not. The association between CT and reduced brain volume as a global measure of brain integrity suggests a common origin for vulnerability to psychiatric disorders later in life.

To examine the implications of the transition from face-to-face to online learning from a psychobiological perspective, this study investigated potential differences in physiological stress parameters of students engaged in online or face-to-face learning and determined whether these can be identified as possible mediators between learning experience and achievement emotions. In a randomized experimental field study, medical students (n = 82) attended either regular face-to-face classes of the microscopic anatomy course or the same practical course online using Zoom videoconferencing platform. The present study investigated Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and salivary cortisol concentration as stress correlates, within the contexts of online and face-to-face learning and compared these parameters with a control group that was measured at rest. Additionally, participants completed a standardized questionnaire about their experienced emotions in relation to task achievement and subjective stress levels. A significant reduction in HRV was found in face-to-face learning, suggesting stronger stress responses in the face-to-face learning environment ([eta][superscript 2] = 0.421, P < 0.001). Furthermore, participants engaged in face-to-face learning showed significantly higher cortisol concentrations ([eta][superscript 2] = 0.115, P = 0.032). Additionally, increased sympathetic activation correlated with the discrete positive emotion of enjoyment exclusively within the face-to-face condition (r = 0.365, P = 0.043). These results indicate that the transfer of a face-to-face practical course in microscopic anatomy to an online learning environment is associated with decreased sympathetic and enhanced vagal cardiovascular influences, together with lower cortisol concentrations in healthy medical students.

The immediate extinction deficit describes a higher return of fear when extinction takes place immediately after fear acquisition compared to a delayed extinction design. One explanation for this phenomenon encompasses the remaining emotional arousal evoked by fear acquisition to be still present during immediate, but not delayed extinction. In the present study, the predictive learning task, a learning task not involving arousal or stress, was used testing the hypothesis that no immediate extinction deficit should occur in this neutral task. Twenty-six participants underwent an immediate extinction procedure and were tested in a recall session 24 h later. For the delayed extinction group (n = 26), acquisition, extinction, and recall were realized 24 h apart from each other. Recall performance of a third group (n = 26) was tested 48 h after the immediate extinction procedure. The immediate extinction deficit was indeed observed for a stimulus not subject to a contextual change from acquisition to extinction, but not for other stimuli involving contextual changes or no extinction control stimuli. Even in a neutral learning task and without emotional arousal, the immediate extinction deficit could be detected but was restricted to the specific contextual embedding of stimuli. Thus, contextual processing appears to differentially modulate the emergence of the immediate extinction deficit.