Callosal morphology differences in major depressive disorder associated with adverse childhood experiences

The advent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology has made it possible to non-invasively visualize structures in the human brain. Due to its integral role in brain function the corpus callosum is a prime candidate for studies investigating neuropsychiatric pathology.;This data suggests that (1) there are differences in the morphology of callosal subdivisions between patient and control groups and that (2) these differences are possibly related to adverse childhood experiences of the patient group.;This thesis presents a study of the corpus callosum in patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD). While research to date has only yielded ambiguous results, studies in pediatric populations have been linked with childhood maltreatment, a risk factor for MDD. This study uses MRI to examine callosal morphology in adult MDD and control groups. The patient group was further divided into subgroups by history of childhood maltreatment.