Childhood adversity predicts striatal functional connectivity gradient changes after acute stress.

As a primary risk factor for psychiatric vulnerability, childhood adversity (CA) leads to several maladaptive behavioral and brain functional changes, including domains of emotion, motivation, and stress regulation. Previous studies on acute stress identified the potential role of a striatum-centered network in revealing the psychopathology outcomes related to CA. To elucidate the interplay between CA, acute stress, and striatal functions in psychiatric disorders, more evidence from large-scale brain connectivity studies in diverse psychiatric populations is necessary. In a sample combining 150 psychiatric patients and 26 controls, we utilized "connectopic gradients" to capture the functional topographic organizations of striatal connectivity during resting-state scans conducted before and after stress induction. Connectivity gradients in rest and under stress were linked to different CA types and their frequency by Spearman correlation. Linear mixed models and moderation models were built to clarify the role of symptom strengths in these correlations. We found one type of CA-emotional neglect negatively predicted the post-stress-induction gradient shape, and stress reactive changes in the anterior-posterior orientation of the first-order striatal gradient. Moderation models revealed the observed correlations were selectively present in individuals with elevated comorbidity. Our results may provide new psychopathology-related biomarkers by tracking stress-induced changes in the general motivation systems. This demonstrates new perspectives in characterizing the striatal network and understanding its alterations in response to adverse childhood experiences.