Department of Psychological Science, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Marika Marklin
Department of Psychological Science, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Christine M. Embury
Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, USA; and Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska – Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Giorgia Picci
Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Michaela Frenzel
Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, USA; and Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska – Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Alicia Klanecky Earl
Department of Psychological Science, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Julia Stephen
The Mind Research Network, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Yu-Ping Wang
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Vince Calhoun
Tri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Tony W. Wilson
Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, USA; and Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska – Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Background Trait dissociation has not been examined from a structural human brain mapping perspective in healthy adults or children. Non-pathological dissociation shares some features with daydreaming and mind-wandering, but also involves subtle disruptions in affect and autobiographical memory. Aims To identify neurostructural biomarkers of trait dissociation in healthy children. Method Typically developing 9- to 15-year-olds (n = 180) without psychological or behavioural disorders were enrolled in the Developmental Chronnecto-Genomics (DevCoG) study of healthy brain development and completed psychological assessments of trauma exposure and dissociation, along with a structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. We conducted univariate ANCOVA generalised linear models for each region of the default mode network examining the effects of trait dissociation, including scanner site, age, gender and trauma as covariates and correcting for multiple comparison. Results We found that the precuneus was significantly larger in children with higher levels of trait dissociation but this was not related to trauma exposure. The inferior parietal volume was smaller in children with higher levels of trauma but was not related to dissociation. No other regions of interest, including frontal and limbic structures, were significantly related to trait dissociation even before multiple comparison correction. Conclusions Trait dissociation reflects subtle cognitive disruptions worthy of study in healthy people and warrants study as a potential risk factor for psychopathology. This neurostructural study of trait dissociation in healthy children identified the precuneus as an essential brain region to consider in future dissociation research.
