The neurobiological underpinning of socio-emotional processing in healthy women: The lasting impact of exposure to childhood trauma

Childhood trauma has long-lasting neurobiological effects and significant psychological consequences. Neuroimaging studies reveal that trauma impacts areas involved in emotion and reward processing and threat detection. Given that childhood trauma often occurs within a social context, it can also affect the development and functioning of areas involved in social information processing. Investigating the processing of socio-emotional stimuli using the Negative Emotional Face-Matching Task can reveal key neural mechanisms associated with trauma exposure. However, while the effects of childhood trauma are well-documented, limited research has focused on healthy trauma-exposed women. This study aimed to identify neurobiological patterns associated with childhood trauma exposure in a sample of 100 healthy reproductive-age women using a data-driven, whole-brain analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a Negative Emotional Face-Matching Task. We also aimed to determine whether neural changes are related to trauma exposure, trauma-related symptoms, or resilience. Results indicated that during socio-emotional stimuli processing, trauma exposure was linked to heightened activity in the bilateral lingual gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left supramarginal gyrus, and left superior parietal lobule – regions implicated in socio-emotional and visual processing, attention, and self-reflection. Furthermore, exploratory follow-up analyses profiled bilateral lingual gyrus and left superior parietal lobule activity as positively linked with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Resilience scores showed no significant associations with these regions. These findings suggest an adaptive neurobiological mechanism of increased sensitivity to social threats and emotional awareness. In adulthood, these cues may trigger reflection about trauma-related memories, as suggested by associations with PTSD symptoms.