Hippocampal and parahippocampal volumes vary by sex and traumatic life events in children

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Fig. 1
Freesurfer (Desikan–Killiany atlas) map of the amygdala, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus.
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Fig. 2
Sex × trauma interaction graphs for the left and right hippocampal gyri and left and right parahippocampi. Trauma level is on the x-axes, and girls and boys are represented by separate lines. The y-axes show regional volumes (mm³) corrected by total intracranial volume (mm³) to control for individual differences in brain size and allow for appropriate comparisons between girls and boys. Covariates appearing in the model are evaluated at age = 11.94, site = 1.51. Error bars are set at ± 2 standard errors, denoting 95% confidence intervals.

Table 1

Traumatic life experiences by trauma group^*

Traumatic event	High trauma, n (%)	Low trauma, n (%)
Death of a loved one	26 (72.2)	81 (59.6)
Hit, punched, or kicked very hard	24 (66.7)	18 (13.2)
Saw or heard about a violent death or serious injury	24 (66.7)	24 (17.6)
Saw someone assaulted, shot at, or killed	24 (66.7)	24 (17.6)
Saw a family member hit, punched, or kicked	17 (47.2)	3 (2.2)
Victim of community violence	11 (30.6)	5 (3.7)
Painful or scary medical treatment	10 (27.8)	7 (5.1)
Disaster	8 (22.2)	10 (7.4)
Serious accident	7 (19.4)	6 (4.4)
Saw a dead body	5 (13.9)	4 (2.9)
War	1 (2.8)	0 (0.0)
Other	31 (86.1)	30 (22.1)

Table 2

Regional volumes normalized by total intracranial volume

Brain region	Sex	Trauma group	Children, n	Mean volume ± SD, mm³
Left amygdala	F	Low	70	0.0011 ± 0.00013
		High	15	0.0011 ± 0.00012
	M	Low	66	0.0010 ± 0.00011
		High	21	0.0010 ± 0.00012
Right amygdala	F	Low	70	0.0011 ± 0.00012
		High	15	0.0011 ± 0.00014
	M	Low	66	0.0011 ± 0.00011
		High	21	0.0010 ± 0.00012
Left hippocampus	F	Low	70	0.0028 ± 0.00035
		High	15	0.0030 ± 0.00024
	M	Low	66	0.0027 ± 0.00031
		High	21	0.0025 ± 0.00037
Right hippocampus	F	Low	70	0.0029 ± 0.00028
		High	15	0.0030 ± 0.00019
	M	Low	66	0.0028 ± 0.00023
		High	21	0.0027 ± 0.00031
Left parahippocampal gyrus	F	Low	70	0.0018 ± 0.00032
		High	15	0.0020 ± 0.00031
	M	Low	66	0.0018 ± 0.00033
		High	21	0.0016 ± 0.00032
Right parahippocampal gyrus	F	Low	70	0.0016 ± 0.00026
		High	15	0.0019 ± 0.00027
	M	Low	66	0.0016 ± 0.00019
		High	21	0.0015 ± 0.00022
Total intracranial volume	F	Total	85	1 447 728.59 ± 117 262.98
	M	Total	87	1 595 890.80 ± 125 375.65