Reduced fractional anisotropy in the visual limbic pathway of young adults witnessing domestic violence in childhood

Witnessing domestic violence (WDV) is a traumatic childhood experience associated with increased risk for depression, posttraumatic stress disorder and reduced IQ scores. Specific affects of WDV on brain development have not been assessed. We sought to ascertain whether WDV was associated with abnormalities in white matter (WM) tract integrity using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Twenty subjects who witnessed domestic violence (16F/4M, mean age 22.4±2.48years) but were not physically or sexually abused were compared to 27 healthy controls (19F/8M, 21.9±1.97years) without exposure to trauma or Axis I and II disorders. DTI images were acquired with a 3T Siemens Trio scanner. Group differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), covaried by age, gender, parental education, perceived financial sufficiency, IQ and degree of exposure to parental verbal aggression were assessed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS), which projects FA values onto an alignment-invariant fiber tract representation. FA values in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus of left lateral occipital lobe were significantly lower (P