Do not smile when acquiring consumer selfies for multi-attribute skin profiling and baseline deep learning evaluation.

Traumatic experiences are common in childhood and adolescence, with meta-analytic estimates indicating that approximately 15–20% of trauma-exposed youth develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [, ]. Lower cognitive ability has been linked to a greater likelihood of trauma exposure [, ] and to an increased risk of victimization, including substantially higher maltreatment rates among children with intellectual disabilities than among their typically developing peers [, ]. Among trauma-exposed individuals, lower cognitive ability has also been associated with a greater risk of PTSD [, , , ], consistent with meta-analytic and review evidence identifying lower cognitive ability as a pre-existing vulnerability factor for the disorder [, , ]. Prospective studies in U.S. veterans found that lower pre-deployment intelligence predicted greater PTSD risk [] and symptom severity []. More recently, Zalmenson et al. [] followed 582 soldiers across multiple deployments and found that lower general intelligence quotient (IQ), particularly lower abstract reasoning, predicted steeper increases in PTSD symptoms over time, with this association partly mediated by combat exposure. However, not all findings are consistent. Shura et al. [] reported that apparent IQ–PTSD associations in 338 veterans largely disappeared after accounting for performance and symptom validity checks, suggesting that some prior estimates may be methodologically inflated. In youth, longitudinal research by Breslau et al. [] found that children with above-average IQ scores (> 115 at age 6) were less likely to experience traumatic events by age 17 and, if exposed, had a lower likelihood of developing PTSD compared to peers with lower IQ scores. One explanation is that children with higher IQ may deploy more effective cognitive strategies, including better risk recognition, personal safety awareness, adaptive coping, and problem solving, which may act protectively both before and after trauma [, ]. Yet the relationship between intelligence and PTSD is not unidirectional. Trauma exposure may itself compromise cognitive development, particularly during sensitive periods of brain maturation, and thereby increase vulnerability to further adversity and psychological difficulties [, , , ]. For example, Kira, Lewandowski, Somers, et al. [, ] found that among 390 highly traumatized adolescents, cumulative trauma was negatively associated with perceptual reasoning, working memory, processing speed, and verbal comprehension, with PTSD symptoms partially mediating these associations. Further distinguishing between trauma exposure and PTSD, Saigh et al. [] compared IQ scores of traumatized youth with and without PTSD and found that PTSD, rather than trauma exposure per se, was specifically associated with lower verbal IQ. Cross-diagnostic evidence further supports the interplay between childhood maltreatment, subclinical post-traumatic stress symptoms, and IQ []. For instance, Delaney-Black et al. [] found that violence-exposed inner-city children scored significantly lower on standardized IQ and reading tests than non-exposed peers, even after adjustment for socioeconomic and familial variables. At a broader level, a meta-analysis of 55 studies found small-to-medium deficits in working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility in trauma-exposed youth relative to non-exposed peers ([]). Neuroimaging studies may provide a neurobiological context for these findings, linking early adversity to structural changes in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala, regions involved in executive and emotional functioning [, ]. Danese et al. [] emphasize the importance of assessing cognitive functioning prior to trauma exposure to clarify causal pathways. Their longitudinal data suggest that lower cognitive ability may both increase the risk of victimization and contribute to later PTSD vulnerability, indicating that cognitive factors can be both antecedents and consequences of trauma.