Insula network connectivity mediates the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms in major depressive disorder patients

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a major risk factor for developing the major depressive disorder (MDD), however, the neurobiological mechanism linking CM and MDD remains unclear. We recruited 34 healthy controls (HCs) and 44 MDD patients to complete the childhood maltreatment experience assessment with Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and resting-state fMRI scan. Multivariate linear regression analysis was employed to identify the main effects of CM and depressive symptoms total and subfactors scores on bilateral anterior and posterior insula functional connectivity (IFC) networks, respectively. Mediation analysis was performed to investigate whether IFC strength mediates the association between CM and depressive symptoms. MDD patients showed significantly decreased connectivity in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and increased connectivity in the medial frontal gyrus in the bipartite IFC networks, compared to HCs. The main effects of CM and depressive symptoms showed a large discrepancy on the anterior and posterior IFC networks, which primarily located in the frontal-limbic system. Further, conjunction analysis identified the overlapping regions linking CM and depressive symptoms were mainly implicated in self-regulation and cognitive processing circuits. More important, these IFC strengths could mediate the association between different types of CM, especially for childhood abuse and childhood neglect, and depressive symptoms in those overlapping regions. We demonstrated that early exposure to CM may increase the vulnerability to depression by influencing brain’s self-regulating and cognitive processing circuitry. These findings provide new insight into the understanding of pathological mechanism underlying CM-induced depressive symptoms.