BackgroundThe COVID‐19 pandemic has caused some individuals to experience vicarious traumatization (VT), an adverse psychological reaction to those who are primarily traumatized, which may negatively impact one's mental health and well‐being and has been demonstrated to vary with personal trauma history. The neural mechanism of VT and how past trauma history affects current VT remain largely unknown. This study aimed to identify neurobiological markers that track individual differences in VT and reveal the neural link between childhood cumulative trauma (CCT) and VT.MethodsWe used structural and resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging before the pandemic to identify prospective brain markers for COVID‐related VT by correlating individuals' VT levels during the pandemic with the gray matter volume (GMV) and seed‐based resting‐state functional connectivity (RSFC) and examined how these brain markers linked CCT to VT in a sample of general young adults (N = 115/100).ResultsWhole‐brain GMV–behavior correlation analysis showed that VT was positively associated with GMV in the right dorsolateral prefrontal gyrus (DLPFC). Using the cluster derived from the GMV–behavior correlation analysis as the seed region, we further revealed that the RSFC between the right DLPFC and right precuneus was negatively associated with VT. Importantly, the right DLPFC volume and DLPFC‐precuneus RSFC mediated the effect of CCT on VT. These findings remained unaffected by factors such as family socioeconomic status, other stressful life events, and general mental health.ConclusionsOverall, our study presents structural and functional brain markers for VT and highlights these brain‐based markers as a potential neural mechanism linking CCT to COVID‐related VT, which has implications for treating and preventing the development of trauma‐related mental disorders.

中文翻译：

---

大脑结构和功能连接将儿童累积创伤与 COVID-19 替代性创伤联系起来

背景COVID-19大流行已导致一些人经历替代性创伤（VT），这是对主要受到创伤的人的一种不良心理反应，可能会对一个人的心理健康和福祉产生负面影响，并且已被证明随个人创伤史的不同而变化。 VT 的神经机制以及过去的创伤史如何影响当前的 VT 仍然很大程度上未知。本研究旨在识别追踪 VT 个体差异的神经生物学标记物，并揭示儿童累积创伤 (CCT) 与 VT 之间的神经联系。方法我们在大流行前使用结构和静息态功能磁共振成像来识别新冠肺炎的前瞻性脑标记物。通过将大流行期间个体的 VT 水平与灰质体积 (GMV) 和基于种子的静息态功能连接 (RSFC) 相关联，研究了与 VT 相关的数据，并研究了这些大脑标记如何在普通年轻人样本中将 CCT 与 VT 联系起来。氮= 115/100）。结果全脑GMV-行为相关分析显示VT与右侧背外侧前额回（DLPFC）的GMV呈正相关。使用 GMV-行为相关分析得出的簇作为种子区域，我们进一步揭示了右侧 DLPFC 和右侧楔前叶之间的 RSFC 与 VT 呈负相关。重要的是，正确的 DLPFC 体积和 DLPFC-楔前叶 RSFC 介导了 CCT 对 VT 的影响。这些发现不受家庭社会经济状况、其他压力生活事件和一般心理健康等因素的影响。结论总体而言，我们的研究提出了 VT 的结构和功能性大脑标记，并强调这些基于大脑的标记是连接 CCT 与 COVID 的潜在神经机制相关的 VT，对于治疗和预防创伤相关精神障碍的发展具有重要意义。