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dc.contributor.advisorMittner, Matthias
dc.contributor.advisorBækkelund, Harald
dc.contributor.authorChristensen, Maren Angel
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-23T05:33:41Z
dc.date.available2022-06-23T05:33:41Z
dc.date.issued2022-05-15en
dc.description.abstractResearch conducted on trauma patients has shown that the local brain regions in patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is smaller than in people who are not diagnosed with PTSD. Therefore, the research question we address in this master thesis is: Are there structural brain differences in participants that have experienced traumatic incidents in their lives? We also use anxiety and depression as a mediating variable to distinguish whether brain-volume reductions associated with PTEs may be caused by depression/anxiety rather than the potentially traumatic incidents themselves. We have analyzed data from the Tromsø Study and studied a sub-sample of 1864 participants (age span 40-87 years) that underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We used structural equational model (SEM) with a sum-score of childhood PTEs and volumetric measurements of the hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus and corpus callosum controlled for by intracranial volume. We found no direct effect of PTEs on structural changes in the hippocampus, amygdala or thalamus. In the corpus callosum on the other hand, we found a significant decrease in brain volume in the participants that had experienced PTEs. There was no evidence for indirect effects mediated by depression or anxiety on any of the brain structures. Our findings suggests that the participants from the Tromsø study that have experienced PTEs have structural brain changes in the corpus callosum and not in the investigated areas of the subcortex. It would be interesting to investigate this further to see what impact this can have on the development of other mental illnesses.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/25550
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherUiT Norges arktiske universitetno
dc.publisherUiT The Arctic University of Norwayen
dc.rights.holderCopyright 2022 The Author(s)
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0en_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)en_US
dc.subject.courseIDPSY-3900
dc.subjectVDP::Samfunnsvitenskap: 200::Psykologi: 260::Biologisk psykologi: 261en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Social science: 200::Psychology: 260::Biological psychology: 261en_US
dc.titleStructural differences in brain structure after trauma An analysis based on The Tromsø Studyen_US
dc.typeMastergradsoppgaveno
dc.typeMaster thesisen


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Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)