Nature Communications (Jul 2025)
Genetic risk-dependent brain markers of resilience to childhood Trauma
- Han Lu,
- Edmund T. Rolls,
- Hanjia Liu,
- Dan J. Stein,
- Barbara J. Sahakian,
- Rebecca Elliott,
- Tianye Jia,
- Chao Xie,
- Shitong Xiang,
- Nan Wang,
- Tobias Banaschewski,
- Arun L. W. Bokde,
- Sylvane Desrivières,
- Herta Flor,
- Antoine Grigis,
- Hugh Garavan,
- Andreas Heinz,
- Rüdiger Brühl,
- Jean-Luc Martinot,
- Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot,
- Eric Artiges,
- Frauke Nees,
- Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos,
- Herve Lemaitre,
- Luise Poustka,
- Sarah Hohmann,
- Nathalie Holz,
- Juliane H. Fröhner,
- Michael N. Smolka,
- Nilakshi Vaidya,
- Henrik Walter,
- Robert Whelan,
- Gunter Schumann,
- Jianfeng Feng,
- Qiang Luo,
- IMAGEN Consortium
Affiliations
- Han Lu
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University
- Edmund T. Rolls
- Oxford Centre for Computational Neuroscience
- Hanjia Liu
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University
- Dan J. Stein
- SAMRC Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders, Dept of Psychiatry & Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town
- Barbara J. Sahakian
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
- Rebecca Elliott
- Department of Psychology and Mental Health, University of Manchester
- Tianye Jia
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University
- Chao Xie
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University
- Shitong Xiang
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University
- Nan Wang
- Student Affairs Department, Fudan University
- Tobias Banaschewski
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University
- Arun L. W. Bokde
- Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin
- Sylvane Desrivières
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
- Herta Flor
- Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University
- Antoine Grigis
- NeuroSpin, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay
- Hugh Garavan
- Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Vermont
- Andreas Heinz
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health
- Rüdiger Brühl
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
- Jean-Luc Martinot
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, INSERM U A10 “Trajectoires développementales & psychiatrie”, University Paris-Saclay, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, CNRS; Centre Borelli
- Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, INSERM U A10 “Trajectoires développementales & psychiatrie”, University Paris-Saclay, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, CNRS; Centre Borelli
- Eric Artiges
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, INSERM U A10 “Trajectoires développementales & psychiatrie”, University Paris-Saclay, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, CNRS; Centre Borelli
- Frauke Nees
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University
- Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos
- Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim
- Herve Lemaitre
- NeuroSpin, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay
- Luise Poustka
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg
- Sarah Hohmann
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University
- Nathalie Holz
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University
- Juliane H. Fröhner
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden
- Michael N. Smolka
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden
- Nilakshi Vaidya
- Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine Berlin
- Henrik Walter
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health
- Robert Whelan
- School of Psychology and Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin
- Gunter Schumann
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden
- Jianfeng Feng
- Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick
- Qiang Luo
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University
- IMAGEN Consortium
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61471-0
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 16,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 15
Abstract
Abstract Resilience to developing emotional disorders is critical for adolescent mental health, especially following childhood trauma. Yet, brain markers of resilience remain poorly understood. By analyzing brain responses to angry faces in a large-scale longitudinal adolescent cohort (IMAGEN), we identified two functional networks located in the orbitofrontal and occipital regions. In girls with high genetic risks for depression, higher orbitofrontal-related network activation was associated with a reduced impact of childhood trauma on emotional symptoms at age 19, whereas in those with low genetic risks, lower occipital-related network activation had a similar association. These findings reveal genetic risk-dependent brain markers of resilience (GRBMR). Longitudinally, the orbitofrontal-related GRBMR predicted subsequent emotional disorders in late adolescence, which were generalizable to an independent prospective cohort (ABCD). These findings demonstrate that high polygenic depression risk relates to activations in the orbitofrontal network and to resilience, with implications for biomarkers and treatment.
