Study title

Childhood maltreatment remains a major public health and social welfare concern and has a profound impact on the individual and on society. The main objective of this project was to significantly extend our understanding of the range of neurocognitive correlates of maltreatment, and relate these to future psychological functioning. It addressed several important questions: (1) Is autobiographical memory recall predictive of future psychological functioning in maltreated children? (2) What is the neurocognitive basis of atypical autobiographical memory in maltreated children? (3) Do neural correlates of maltreatment predict later psychological functioning? (4) To what degree are neural correlates associated with maltreatment stable over time? (5) Are their sex differences in how maltreatment impacts brain structure and function? These questions were addressed by a longitudinal study comparing children exposed to maltreatment with matched non-maltreated peers. Both groups were seen when they were 10-14 years old for a structural and functional brain scan and again two years later.