Adulthood pleasure experiences get affected by childhood traumas you face. Can the brain be rewired to change behaviour? Neuroscience explains

Childhood trauma may affect more than emotional memories. New research suggests that people who experienced trauma as children and also had disruptions in hippocampal brain pathways were more likely to struggle with pleasure and motivation in adulthood, raising a question researchers are now beginning to explore: could the hippocampus eventually become a target for treatments aimed at restoring the ability to feel pleasure?

The condition at the centre of the research is called anhedonia, which refers to a reduced ability to experience pleasure or interest in activities that would normally feel rewarding. It can occur in conditions such as depression, but it can also appear as a symptom without necessarily meaning a person has a particular diagnosis.

The study, led by Kathleen O’Brien at Temple University and Vishnu Murty at the University of Oregon, used questionnaires and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the relationship between childhood trauma, hippocampal pathways and the brain systems involved in motivation and reward. The findings were reported in JNeurosci.

People with childhood trauma did not all show the same pattern

The researchers examined a large group of human participants who completed questionnaires about their childhood experiences and their ability to experience pleasure. They then used fMRI to study interactions between the hippocampus and other brain regions involved in motivation.

A key finding was that childhood trauma alone did not tell the whole story. Participants who reported childhood trauma and had disrupted hippocampal pathways experienced more anhedonia than those who had experienced childhood trauma but did not show the same disruption.

That distinction matters because it suggests that the relationship between early adversity and problems with pleasure may involve how different brain networks function together, rather than trauma automatically producing the same outcome in everyone.

Why is the hippocampus involved in pleasure?

The hippocampus is best known for its role in learning and memory. But researchers have increasingly been examining its connections with systems involved in reward, motivation and behaviour.

A 2026 review by members of the same research group described the hippocampus as an important regulator of reward-related learning and motivated behaviour. It also proposed that changes in hippocampal function following childhood trauma could contribute to later difficulties related to reward.

Vishnu Murty said the research is among the first work to connect the hippocampus, traditionally viewed as a memory-related brain region, with apathetic behaviour in humans. The researchers are also interested in continuing to investigate the relationship between memory and anhedonia.

Other research shows childhood trauma can leave adult brain changes

The findings add to earlier research examining how different forms of childhood trauma are associated with brain function later in life.

A study by Jianjian Cai, Jia Li, Dong Liu, Sikang Gao, Yunyun Zhao, Jiaxuan Zhang and Qin Liu analysed resting-state fMRI data from 216 adults with different levels of childhood trauma. Researchers combined graph analysis with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to examine how different types of early traumatic experiences were associated with adult brain function.

The study found different patterns for abuse and neglect. Childhood neglect scores were associated with network transmission efficiency in regions involved in cognitive and executive functions, including the temporal lobe, insular cortex and parahippocampal gyrus. Abuse scores were associated with functional reorganisation involving areas including the visual, auditory, linguistic and motor cortices.

The researchers concluded that different forms of childhood maltreatment may have different associations with brain function and could potentially contribute to different psychiatric difficulties in adulthood.

Can the hippocampus actually be rewired?

That remains an open question.

The new research does not prove that childhood trauma directly causes hippocampal disruption, nor does it establish that disrupted hippocampal pathways inevitably lead to anhedonia. The findings show an association between childhood trauma, altered hippocampal connectivity and greater difficulty experiencing pleasure.

Researchers say more work is needed to understand how these factors interact over time and whether hippocampal changes directly contribute to anhedonia.

The next step could be especially important. The research team hopes to identify whether there is a target within the hippocampus that could eventually be used to increase pleasure and motivation among people affected by childhood trauma.

For now, the research points to a broader possibility: the long-term effects of childhood adversity may involve not only the memories people carry from those experiences, but also the brain networks that influence motivation, reward and the ability to experience pleasure.