People with PTSD or histories of trauma may have brains that vary in structure when compared to healthy or trauma-exposed (but non-PTSD) controls. This is especially true when it comes to the white matter of the brain. In this review, I found a variety of research articles covering the effects of trauma on white matter, using methods primarily of regions of interest (ROI) and fractional anisotropy (FA) through diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Other methods include TBSS, voxel-based analysis, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), among others. Adults, adolescents, and children with PTSD and with trauma that meet PTSD criteria will be considered together. My prediction is that adults and adolescents with histories of various forms of psychological trauma will have reductions in white matter volume in the corpus callosum, cingulum, and uncinate fasciculus, while children will have reductions in the corpus callosum, cingulum, and hypothalamus.
