CTC CTC Neurobiology of Trauma & Brain Development 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) research, originally conducted by Felitti and Anda, demonstrated that higher ACE scores are correlated with:
- Improved resilience and adaptive coping skills
- No measurable long-term health outcomes
- Increased risk of chronic disease, mental illness, and early death (Correct answer)
- Faster neurological maturation
Correct answer: Increased risk of chronic disease, mental illness, and early death
The landmark ACE study found a dose-response relationship between the number of adverse childhood experiences and negative lifelong health outcomes.
Question 2: Which concept describes the process by which trauma-related memories become encoded without full narrative context, often stored as sensory fragments?
- Explicit semantic memory encoding
- Implicit procedural memory encoding (Correct answer)
- Episodic prospective memory
- Declarative autobiographical consolidation
Correct answer: Implicit procedural memory encoding
During trauma, the hippocampus is often inhibited, causing memories to be stored implicitly as body sensations and images rather than coherent narratives.
Question 3: The 'freeze' response in children experiencing trauma is regulated primarily by:
- Ventral vagal activation promoting social engagement
- Dorsal vagal shutdown causing immobility and dissociation (Correct answer)
- Sympathetic fight-or-flight activation
- Frontal lobe deliberate decision-making
Correct answer: Dorsal vagal shutdown causing immobility and dissociation
The dorsal vagal complex triggers immobilization and dissociation when a child perceives escape is impossible, representing the most primitive survival response.
Question 4: Toxic stress in early childhood differs from tolerable stress primarily because:
- It involves only emotional, not physical, stressors
- It lacks the buffering presence of a supportive adult relationship (Correct answer)
- It only occurs in children under age two
- It exclusively results from single-incident traumas
Correct answer: It lacks the buffering presence of a supportive adult relationship
Toxic stress occurs when a child faces prolonged adversity without the protective factor of a consistent, caring adult who helps regulate the stress response.
Question 5: Which neurotransmitter system, when dysregulated by early trauma, is most associated with anhedonia and reduced motivation in traumatized children?
- GABA system
- Glutamate system
- Dopamine reward system (Correct answer)
- Acetylcholine system
Correct answer: Dopamine reward system
Chronic trauma can dysregulate the dopamine reward pathways, contributing to anhedonia, motivational deficits, and vulnerability to substance use.
Question 6: Developmental trauma disorder, as conceptualized by Bessel van der Kolk, differs from standard PTSD by emphasizing:
- Single-incident trauma occurring in adulthood
- Complex, relational, and cumulative early childhood trauma affecting development across multiple domains (Correct answer)
- Biological rather than environmental causes of trauma symptoms
- Trauma that occurs exclusively outside family systems
Correct answer: Complex, relational, and cumulative early childhood trauma affecting development across multiple domains
Developmental trauma disorder captures the broad dysregulation across biological, psychological, and social domains caused by chronic early relational trauma.
CTC CTC Neurobiology of Trauma & Brain Development 2
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) research, originally conducted by Felitti and Anda, demonstrated that higher ACE scores are correlated with: