Childhood trauma encompasses various subtypes, and evidence suggests that neurodevelopmental damage diers across these subtypes. However, the specic impact of childhood emotional neglect (CEN), a distinct subtype of childhood trauma, on the microstructural integrity of brain white maer remains unclear. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the eects of CEN on the microstructure of brain white maer in young adults using diusion tensor imaging. After administering online questionnaires, conducting interviews, and obtaining diagnoses from specialized physicians, we recruited 20 young adults with a history of CEN and 20 young adults with no history of childhood trauma. Using automating ber tract quantication (driven by a diusion tensor model), we traced the 20 primary white maer bers and divided each ber into 100 nodes for analysis. Group dierences in fractional anisotropy (FA) at each node of each ber were then examined. The results revealed that the FA values at nodes 1–35 of the right thalamic radiation were consistently lower in the emotional neglect group compared to the control group (after FEW correction, cluster threshold = 22, p-threshold = 0.005). These ndings suggest an association between CEN and reduced FA values in the right thalamic radiation, indicating alterations in brain white maer. Overall, our results contribute to the theoretical understanding of how “experience shapes the brain,” providing new insights into the neurostructural consequences of childhood emotional neglect.
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