Childhood trauma increases the risk of a range of mental disorders including psychosis. Whereas the mechanisms are unclear, previous evidence has implicated atypical processing of emotions among the core cognitive models, in particular suggesting altered attentional allocation towards negative stimuli and an increased negativity bias. Here we tested if childhood trauma was associated with differentiation in brain responses to negative and positive stimuli. We also tested if trauma was associated with emotional ratings of negative and positive faces.

We included 101 patients with a DSM schizophrenia spectrum or bipolar spectrum diagnosis. History of childhood trauma was obtained using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Brain activation was measured with functional MRI during presentation of faces with negative or positive emotional expressions. After the scanner session, patients performed emotional ratings of the same faces. Structural MRI was also measured.

Higher levels of childhood trauma were associated with stronger differentiation in brain responses to negative compared to positive faces in clusters comprising the right angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and the lateral occipital cortex (Cohen's d = 0.72-0.77). In patients with schizophrenia, childhood trauma was associated with reporting negative faces as more negative, and positive faces as less positive (Cohen's d > 0.8).

Along with the observed negativity bias in the assessment of emotional valence of faces, our data suggest stronger differentiation in brain responses between negative and positive faces in patients with childhood trauma.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.