Bullying victimization and brain development: a longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging study from adolescence to early adulthood

1. Transl Psychiatry. 2026 Apr 10;16(1):256. doi: 10.1038/s41398-026-04010-9.

Bullying victimization and brain development: a longitudinal structural magnetic
resonance imaging study from adolescence to early adulthood.

Connaughton M(1), Mitchell O(1), Cullen E(1), O’Connor M(1), Banaschewski
T(2)(3), Barker GJ(4), Bokde ALW(5), Brühl R(6), Desrivières S(7), Flor H(8)(9),
Garavan H(10), Gowland P(11), Grigis A(12), Heinz A(13)(14), Lemaitre H(12)(15),
Martinot JL(16), Martinot MP(16)(17), Artiges E(16)(18), Nees F(2)(3)(19),
Orfanos DP(9), Poustka L(20), Smolka MN(21), Hohmann S(2)(3), Holz N(2)(3),
Vaidya N(22), Walter H(13), Schumann G(21)(23), Whelan R(24), Roddy D(25).

Author information:
(1)Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2,
Ireland.
(2)Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central
Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University,
Square J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany.
(3)German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Mannheim-Heidelberg-Ulm,
Mannheim, Germany.
(4)Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology &
Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom.
(5)Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Trinity College Institute of
Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
(6)Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin,
Braunschweig, Germany.
(7)Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry,
Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom.
(8)Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental
Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Square J5, Mannheim,
Germany.
(9)Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim,
68131, Mannheim, Germany.
(10)Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Vermont, 05405,
Burlington, VT, USA.
(11)Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre School of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
(12)NeuroSpin, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
(13)Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité –
Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin,
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
(14)German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Berlin-Potsdam, Mannheim, Germany.
(15)Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, UMR 5293, CNRS, CEA, Université de
Bordeaux, 33076, Bordeaux, France.
(16)Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherce Médicale, INSERM U A10
« Trajectoires développementales & psychiatrie », University Paris-Saclay, Ecole
Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, CNRS; Centre Borelli, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
(17)AP-HP. Sorbonne Université, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France.
(18)Psychiatry Department, EPS Barthélémy Durand, Etampes, France.
(19)Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical
Center Schleswig Holstein, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.
(20)Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial
Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
(21)Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden,
Dresden, Germany.
(22)Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS),
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin,
Berlin, Germany.
(23)Centre for Population Neuroscience and Precision Medicine (PONS), Institute
for Science and Technology of Brain-inspired Intelligence (ISTBI), Fudan
University, Shanghai, China.
(24)School of Psychology and Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
(25)Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 2,
Ireland. .

Update of
bioRxiv. 2026 Feb 12:2024.09.11.611600. doi: 10.1101/2024.09.11.611600.

This study investigated associations between bullying victimization and brain
development using longitudinal structural MRI data from the IMAGEN cohort
(n = 2094; 1009 females) across three time points (∼14, ∼19, and ∼22 years). A
data-driven analysis revealed that higher bullying victimization was
significantly associated with accelerated volumetric growth in subcortical and
limbic regions, including the putamen (β = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.10-0.15), amygdala
(β = 0.07, 95% CI: 0.05-0.09), hippocampus (β = 0.06, 95% CI: 0.04-0.08), and
anterior cingulate cortex (caudal: β = 0.05, 95% CI: 0.03-0.07; rostral:
β = 0.06, 95% CI: 0.04-0.08). In contrast, bullying victimization was also
significantly associated with reduced volumetric growth in the cerebellum
(β = -0.09, 95% CI: -0.11 to -0.07), entorhinal cortex (β = -0.10, 95% CI: -0.13
to -0.07), and insula (β = -0.08, 95% CI: -0.11 to -0.06). Exploratory analyses
indicated that females exhibited more pronounced changes in emotional processing
regions, while males showed greater changes in motor and sensory areas. Overall,
the findings indicate that bullying victimization is associated with widespread
structural differences in brain development from adolescence to early adulthood,
with sex-specific trajectories.

© 2026. The Author(s).

DOI: 10.1038/s41398-026-04010-9
PMCID: PMC13184360
PMID: 41963295 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Conflict of interest statement: Competing interests: The authors declare no
competing interests. Ethics statement: The institutional ethics committee of
King’s College London (PNM/10/11-126), University of Nottingham (D/11/2007),
Trinity College Dublin (SPREC092007-01), Technische Universitat Dresden (EK
235092007), Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives,
INSERM (2007-A00778-45), University Medical Center at the University of Hamburg
(M-191/07) and in Germany at medical ethics committee of the University of
Heidelberg (2007-024N-MA) in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Auteurs Bordeaux Neurocampus