Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2026 May;47(3):e70077.
doi: 10.1002/imhj.70077.

Family protective service involvement and reduced infant cortical grey matter volume

Francesca Penner  1   2 , Banu Ahtam  3 , Yangming Ou  3   4 , P Ellen Grant  3 , Karlen Lyons-Ruth  5
Affiliations

Family protective service involvement and reduced infant cortical grey matter volume

Francesca Penner et al. Infant Ment Health J. 2026 May.

Abstract

Among older children, neglect is linked to reduced cortical grey matter volume, whereas abuse is linked to reduced right amygdala volume. Less is known about whether similar effects of adversity are evident in infancy, a period of particularly rapid brain growth. This study evaluated whether family involvement with child protective services (CPS) was linked to differences in infant brain volumes (whole brain grey matter, cortical grey matter, right and left insular cortex, and right and left amygdala). Participants were recruited in the northeastern United States. Mothers (N = 55) reported on any family involvement with CPS as a parent. Infants completed a brain MRI between 4 and 25 months of age (Mage = 11.56 months). Family CPS involvement was associated with lower infant whole brain grey matter volume, cortical grey matter volume, and left insular cortex volume. No relations to amygdala volumes were observed. Caregiving adversity may affect cortical grey matter development during infancy, with family CPS involvement as an accessible index identifying infants at risk.

Keywords: cortical grey matter; grey matter volume; infancy; insula; maltreatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Scatterplot showing family CPS involvement in relation to infant cortical grey matter volume, with infant whole brain volume, age in days at scan, gestational age at birth, and sex partialled out. Brain volume metric is mm3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Carr, A. , Duff, H. , & Craddock, F. (2020). A systematic review of reviews of the outcome of noninstitutional child maltreatment. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 21(4), 828–843. 10.1177/1524838018801334 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Felitti, V. J. , Anda, R. F. , Nordenberg, D. , Williamson, D. F. , Spitz, A. M. , Edwards, V. , Koss, M. P. , & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258. 10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fox, N. A. , Calkins, S. D. , & Bell, M. A. (1994). Neural plasticity and development in the first two years of life: Evidence from cognitive and socioemotional domains of research. Development and Psychopathology, 6(4), 677–696. 10.1017/S0954579400004739 - DOI
    1. Gilmore, J. H. , Shi, F. , Woolson, S. L. , Knickmeyer, R. C. , Short, S. J. , Lin, W. , Zhu, H. , Hamer, R. M. , Styner, M. , & Shen, D. (2012). Longitudinal development of cortical and subcortical grey matter from birth to 2 years. Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y.: 1991), 22(11), 2478–2485. 10.1093/cercor/bhr327 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gogolla, N. (2017). The insular cortex. Current Biology, 27(12), R580–R586. 10.1016/j.cub.2017.05.010 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources