Threat Responsivity Predicts Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Hyperarousal Symptoms in Children after Hurricane Florence

Following a traumatic event, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are common. Considerable research has identified a relationship between physiological responses during fear learning and PTSD. Adults with PTSD display atypical physiological responses, such as increased skin conductance responses (SCR) to threatening cues during fear learning (Orr et al., 2000). However, little research has examined these responses in childhood when fear learning first emerges. We hypothesized that greater threat responsivity in early acquisition during fear conditioning before Hurricane Florence would predict PTSD symptoms in a sample of young children following the hurricane. The final sample included 58 children in North Carolina who completed fear learning before Hurricane Florence-a potentially traumatic event. After the hurricane, we assessed severity of hurricane impact and PTSD symptoms. We found that threat responsivity as measured by differential SCR during fear learning before the hurricane predicted PTSD hyperarousal symptoms and that hurricane impact predicted PTSD symptoms following the disaster. This exploratory work suggests that prospective associations between threat responsivity and PTSD symptoms observed in adulthood may be replicated in early childhood. Results are discussed in the context of the current COVID-19 crisis.

Association of adversity with psychopathology in early childhood: Dimensional and cumulative approaches

BACKGROUND

The association between adversity and psychopathology in adolescents and adults is characterized by equifinality. These associations, however, have not been assessed during early childhood when psychopathology first emerges. Defining adversity using both dimensional and cumulative risk approaches, we examined whether specific types of adversity are differentially associated with psychopathology in preschool-aged children.

METHODS

Measures of threat, deprivation, and total adversities (i.e., cumulative risk) were calculated based on parent-reported information for 755 2- to 5-year old children recruited from pediatric primary care clinics. Logistic regression was used to estimate cross-sectional associations between type of adversity and anxiety, depression, ADHD, and behavioral disorder diagnoses.

RESULTS

Threat and cumulative risk exhibited independent associations with psychopathology. Threat was strongly related to behavioral disorders. Cumulative risk was consistently related to all psychopathologies.

CONCLUSIONS

Using mutually adjusted models, we identified differential associations between threat and psychopathology outcomes in preschool-aged children. This selectivity may reflect different pathways through which adversity increases the risk for psychopathology during this developmentally important period. As has been observed at other ages, a cumulative risk approach also effectively identified the cumulative impact of all forms of adversity on most forms of psychopathology during early childhood.

Why and how does early adversity influence development? Toward an integrated model of dimensions of environmental experience

Two extant frameworks - the harshness-unpredictability model and the threat-deprivation model - attempt to explain which dimensions of adversity have distinct influences on development. These models address, respectively, why, based on a history of natural selection, development operates the way it does across a range of environmental contexts, and how the neural mechanisms that underlie plasticity and learning in response to environmental experiences influence brain development. Building on these frameworks, we advance an integrated model of dimensions of environmental experience, focusing on threat-based forms of harshness, deprivation-based forms of harshness, and environmental unpredictability. This integrated model makes clear that the why and the how of development are inextricable and, together, essential to understanding which dimensions of the environment matter. Core integrative concepts include the directedness of learning, multiple levels of developmental adaptation to the environment, and tradeoffs between adaptive and maladaptive developmental responses to adversity. The integrated model proposes that proximal and distal cues to threat-based and deprivation-based forms of harshness, as well as unpredictability in those cues, calibrate development to both immediate rearing environments and broader ecological contexts, current and future. We highlight actionable directions for research needed to investigate the integrated model and advance understanding of dimensions of environmental experience.

Measuring early life adversity: A dimensional approach

Exposure to adversity in childhood is associated with elevations in numerous physical and mental health outcomes across the life course. The biological embedding of early experience during periods of developmental plasticity is one pathway that contributes to these associations. Dimensional models specify mechanistic pathways linking different dimensions of adversity to health and well-being outcomes later in life. While findings from existing studies testing these dimensions have provided promising preliminary support for these models, less agreement exists about how to measure the experiences that comprise each dimension. Here, we review existing approaches to measuring two dimensions of adversity: threat and deprivation. We recommend specific measures for measuring these constructs and, when possible, document when the same measure can be used by different reporters and across the lifespan to maximize the utility with which these recommendations can be applied. Through this approach, we hope to stimulate progress in understanding how particular dimensions of early environmental experience contribute to lifelong health.

Autonomic reactivity to social rejection, peer difficulties, and the buffering effects of adolescent friendships following early psychosocial deprivation

Autonomic nervous system reactivity has been posited to be a mechanism contributing to social and emotional problems among children exposed to early adversity. Leveraging data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of foster care versus institutional care of abandoned children in Romania, we assessed whether altered sympathetic reactivity to peer rejection feedback in early adolescence mediated the relation between early institutional rearing and peer problems in later adolescence. We also assessed whether adolescent friendship quality or randomized placement in foster care early in life moderated these associations. Participants include 68 institutionalized children randomized to care as usual, 68 institutionalized children randomized to foster care, and 135 never-institutionalized children. At age 12, participants reported friendship quality with respect to a best friend and completed a social rejection task while electrocardiogram and impedance cardiography were recorded. Sympathetic nervous system reactivity to rejection feedback was assessed using preejection period (PEP). At ages 12 and 16, peer problems were reported by parents. Mediation analysis revealed that less PEP reactivity to social rejection at age 12 partially mediated the association between early institutionalization and greater peer problems at age 16. Further moderated mediation analysis revealed that this indirect effect was evidenced among previously institutionalized youths with low, but not high, quality friendships. We did not observe foster care intervention effects. These findings suggest that altered sympathetic reactivity to social rejection might be a mechanism linking early institutionalization to social difficulties into adolescence, however, positive adolescent friendships may buffer these effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Exposure to Violence as an Environmental Pathway Linking Low Socioeconomic Status with Altered Neural Processing of Threat and Adolescent Psychopathology

Low childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with increased risk for psychopathology, because in part of heightened exposure to environmental adversity. Adverse experiences can be characterized along dimensions, including threat and deprivation, that contribute to psychopathology via distinct mechanisms. The current study investigated a neural mechanism through which threat and deprivation may contribute to socioeconomic disparities in psychopathology. Participants were 177 youths (83 girls) aged 10-13 years recruited from a cohort followed since the age of 3 years. SES was assessed using the income-to-needs ratio at the age of 3 years. At the age of 10-13 years, retrospective and current exposure to adverse experiences and symptoms of psychopathology were assessed. At this same time point, participants also completed a face processing task (passive viewing of fearful and neutral faces) during an fMRI scan. Lower childhood SES was associated with greater exposure to threat and deprivation experiences. Both threat and deprivation were associated with higher depression symptoms, whereas threat experiences were uniquely linked to posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Greater exposure to threat, but not deprivation, was associated with higher activation in dorsomedial pFC to fearful compared with neutral faces. The dorsomedial pFC is a hub of the default mode network thought to be involved in internally directed attention and cognition. Experiences of threat, but not deprivation, are associated with greater engagement of this region in response to threat cues. Threat-related adversity contributes to socioeconomic disparities in adolescent psychopathology through distinct mechanisms from deprivation.

Associations of Early-Life Threat and Deprivation With Executive Functioning in Childhood and Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

IMPORTANCE

Many studies have demonstrated an association between early-life adversity (ELA) and executive functioning in children and adolescents. However, the aggregate magnitude of this association is unknown in the context of threat and deprivation types of adversity and various executive functioning domains.

OBJECTIVE

To test the hypothesis that experiences of deprivation are more strongly associated with reduced executive functioning compared with experiences of threat during childhood and adolescence.

DATA SOURCES

Embase, ERIC, MEDLINE, and PsycInfo databases were searched from inception to December 31, 2020. Both forward and reverse snowball citation searches were performed to identify additional articles.

STUDY SELECTION

Articles were selected for inclusion if they (1) had a child and/or adolescent sample, (2) included measures of ELA, (3) measured executive functioning, (4) evaluated the association between adversity and executive functioning, (5) were published in a peer-reviewed journal, and (6) were published in the English language. No temporal or geographic limits were set. A 2-reviewer, blinded screening process was conducted.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

PRISMA guidelines were used to guide data extraction and article diagnostics (for heterogeneity, small study bias, and p-hacking). Article quality was assessed, and data extraction was performed by multiple independent observers. A 3-level meta-analytic model with a restricted maximum likelihood method was used. Moderator analyses were conducted to explore heterogeneity.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Primary outcomes included measures of the 3 domains of executive functioning: cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory.

RESULTS

A total of 91 articles were included, representing 82 unique cohorts and 31 188 unique individuals. Deprivation, compared with threat, was associated with significantly lower inhibitory control (F1,90 = 5.69; P = .02) and working memory (F1,54 = 5.78; P = .02). No significant difference was observed for cognitive flexibility (F1,36 = 2.38; P = .12). The pooled effect size of the association of inhibitory control with deprivation was stronger (Hedges g = -0.43; 95% CI, -0.57 to -0.29) compared with threat (Hedges g = -0.27; 95% CI, -0.46 to -0.08). The pooled effect size of the association of working memory with deprivation was stronger (Hedges g = -0.54; 95% CI, -0.75 to -0.33) compared with threat (Hedges g = -0.28; 95% CI, -0.51 to -0.05).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Experiences of both threat and deprivation in childhood and adolescence were associated with reduced executive functioning, but the association was stronger for exposure to deprivation. Efforts to address the consequences of ELA for development should consider the associations between specific dimensions of adversity and specific developmental outcomes.

The Value of Dimensional Models of Early Experience: Thinking Clearly About Concepts and Categories

We review the three prevailing approaches-specificity, cumulative risk, and dimensional models-to conceptualizing the developmental consequences of early-life adversity and address fundamental problems with the characterization of these frameworks in a recent Perspectives on Psychological Science piece by Smith and Pollak. We respond to concerns raised by Smith and Pollak about dimensional models of early experience and highlight the value of these models for studying the developmental consequences of early-life adversity. Basic dimensions of adversity proposed in existing models include threat/harshness, deprivation, and unpredictability. These models identify core dimensions of early experience that cut across the categorical exposures that have been the focus of specificity and cumulative risk approaches (e.g., abuse, institutional rearing, chronic poverty); delineate aspects of early experience that are likely to influence brain and behavioral development; afford hypotheses about adaptive and maladaptive responses to different dimensions of adversity; and articulate specific mechanisms through which these dimensions exert their influences, conceptualizing experience-driven plasticity within an evolutionary-developmental framework. In doing so, dimensional models advance specific falsifiable hypotheses, grounded in neurodevelopmental and evolutionary principles, that are supported by accumulating evidence and provide fertile ground for empirical studies on early-life adversity.

Resting-state EEG Connectivity in Young Children with ADHD

Objective: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent and impairing neurodevelopmental disorder. While early childhood is a crucial time for early intervention, it is characterized by instability of ADHD diagnosis. Neural correlates of ADHD have potential to improve diagnostic accuracy; however, minimal research has focused on early childhood. Research indicates that disrupted neural connectivity is associated with ADHD in older children. Here, we explore network connectivity as a potential neural correlate of ADHD diagnosis in early childhood.Method: We collected EEG data in 52 medication-naïve children with ADHD and in 77 typically developing controls (3-7 years). Data was collected with the EGI 128 HydroCel Sensor Net System, but to optimize the ICA, the data was down sampled to the 10-10 system. Connectivity was measured as the synchronization of the time series of each pair of electrodes. Subsequent analyses utilized graph theoretical methods to further characterize network connectivity.Results: Increased global efficiency, which measures the efficiency of information transfer across the entire brain, was associated with increased inattentive symptom severity. Further, this association was robust to controls for age, IQ, SES, and internalizing psychopathology.Conclusions: Overall, our findings indicate that increased global efficiency, which suggests a hyper-connected neural network, is associated with elevated ADHD symptom severity. These findings extend previous work reporting disruption of neural network connectivity in older children with ADHD into early childhood.

The Value of Dimensional Models of Early Experience: Thinking Clearly About Concepts and Categories

We review the three prevailing approaches-specificity, cumulative risk, and dimensional models-to conceptualizing the developmental consequences of early-life adversity and address fundamental problems with the characterization of these frameworks in a recent Perspectives on Psychological Science piece by Smith and Pollak. We respond to concerns raised by Smith and Pollak about dimensional models of early experience and highlight the value of these models for studying the developmental consequences of early-life adversity. Basic dimensions of adversity proposed in existing models include threat/harshness, deprivation, and unpredictability. These models identify core dimensions of early experience that cut across the categorical exposures that have been the focus of specificity and cumulative risk approaches (e.g., abuse, institutional rearing, chronic poverty); delineate aspects of early experience that are likely to influence brain and behavioral development; afford hypotheses about adaptive and maladaptive responses to different dimensions of adversity; and articulate specific mechanisms through which these dimensions exert their influences, conceptualizing experience-driven plasticity within an evolutionary-developmental framework. In doing so, dimensional models advance specific falsifiable hypotheses, grounded in neurodevelopmental and evolutionary principles, that are supported by accumulating evidence and provide fertile ground for empirical studies on early-life adversity.

Adversity and Emotional Functioning

Exposure to early adversity has been linked to variations in emotional functioning. To date, however, the precise nature of these variations has been difficult to pinpoint given widespread differences in the ways in which aspects of emotional functioning are defined and measured. Here, more consistent with models of emotional functioning in typically developing populations (e.g., Halberstadt et al., 2001), we propose defining emotional functioning as consisting of distinct domains of emotion expression, perception, knowledge, reactivity, and regulation. We argue that this framework is useful for guiding hypothesis generation about the specific impact of early adversity on children's emotional functioning. We operationalize the construct of emotional functioning, highlight what is currently known about the association between adversity exposure and each domain of emotional functioning, propose potential mechanisms for these associations, and set the stage for future research examining the development of emotional functioning in the context of early adversity.

High vagal tone and rapid extinction learning as potential transdiagnostic protective factors following childhood violence exposure

Childhood exposure to violence is strongly associated with psychopathology. High resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is associated with lower levels of psychopathology in children exposed to violence. High RSA may help to protect against psychopathology by facilitating fear extinction learning, allowing more flexible autonomic responses to learned threat and safety cues. In this study, 165 youth (79 female, aged 9-17; 86 exposed to violence) completed assessments of violence exposure, RSA, and psychopathology, and a fear extinction learning task; 134 participants returned and completed psychopathology assessments 2 years later. Resting RSA moderated the longitudinal association of violence exposure with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and externalizing psychopathology, such that the association was weaker among youths with higher RSA. Higher skin conductance responses (SCR) during extinction learning to the threat cue (CS+) was associated with higher internalizing symptoms at follow-up and greater SCR to the safety cue (CS-) was associated with higher PTSD, internalizing, and externalizing symptoms, as well as the p-factor, controlling for baseline symptoms. Findings suggest that higher RSA may protect against emergence of psychopathology among children exposed to violence. Moreover, difficulty extinguishing learned threat responses and elevated autonomic responses to safety cues may be associated with risk for future psychopathology.

Alterations in neural circuits underlying emotion regulation following child maltreatment: a mechanism underlying trauma-related psychopathology

BACKGROUND

Disruptions in neural circuits underlying emotion regulation (ER) may be a mechanism linking child maltreatment with psychopathology. We examined the associations of maltreatment with neural responses during passive viewing of negative emotional stimuli and attempts to modulate emotional responses. We investigated whether the influence of maltreatment on neural activation during ER differed across development and whether alterations in brain function mediated the association between maltreatment and a latent general psychopathology ('p') factor.

METHODS

Youth aged 8-16 years with (n = 79) and without (n = 72) exposure to maltreatment completed an ER task assessing neural responses during passive viewing of negative and neutral images and effortful attempts to regulate emotional responses to negative stimuli. P-factor scores were defined by a bi-factor model encompassing internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

RESULTS

Maltreated youth had greater activation in left amygdala and salience processing regions and reduced activation in multiple regions involved in cognitive control (bilateral superior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) when viewing negative v. neutral images than youth without maltreatment exposure. Reduced neural recruitment in cognitive control regions mediated the association of maltreatment with p-factor in whole-brain analysis. Maltreated youth exhibited increasing recruitment with age in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during reappraisal while control participants exhibited decreasing recruitment with age. Findings were similar after adjusting for co-occurring neglect.

CONCLUSIONS

Child maltreatment influences the development of regions associated with salience processing and cognitive control during ER in ways that contribute to psychopathology.

Altered white matter microstructural organization in posttraumatic stress disorder across 3047 adults: results from the PGC-ENIGMA PTSD consortium

A growing number of studies have examined alterations in white matter organization in people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using diffusion MRI (dMRI), but the results have been mixed which may be partially due to relatively small sample sizes among studies. Altered structural connectivity may be both a neurobiological vulnerability for, and a result of, PTSD. In an effort to find reliable effects, we present a multi-cohort analysis of dMRI metrics across 3047 individuals from 28 cohorts currently participating in the PGC-ENIGMA PTSD working group (a joint partnership between the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and the Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis consortium). Comparing regional white matter metrics across the full brain in 1426 individuals with PTSD and 1621 controls (2174 males/873 females) between ages 18-83, 92% of whom were trauma-exposed, we report associations between PTSD and disrupted white matter organization measured by lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in the tapetum region of the corpus callosum (Cohen's d = -0.11, p = 0.0055). The tapetum connects the left and right hippocampus, for which structure and function have been consistently implicated in PTSD. Results were consistent even after accounting for the effects of multiple potentially confounding variables: childhood trauma exposure, comorbid depression, history of traumatic brain injury, current alcohol abuse or dependence, and current use of psychotropic medications. Our results show that PTSD may be associated with alterations in the broader hippocampal network.

Heightened sensitivity to the caregiving environment during adolescence: implications for recovery following early-life adversity

BACKGROUND

Adolescence has been proposed to be a period of heightened sensitivity to environmental influence. If true, adolescence may present a window of opportunity for recovery for children exposed to early-life adversity. Recent evidence supports adolescent recalibration of stress response systems following early-life adversity. However, it is unknown whether similar recovery occurs in other domains of functioning in adolescence.

METHODS

We use data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project - a randomized controlled trial of foster care for children raised in psychosocially depriving institutions - to examine the associations of the caregiving environment with reward processing, executive functioning, and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology at ages 8, 12, and 16 years, and evaluate whether these associations change across development.

RESULTS

Higher quality caregiving in adolescence was associated with greater reward responsivity and lower levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, after covarying for the early-life caregiving environment. The associations of caregiving with executive function and internalizing and externalizing symptoms varied by age and were strongest at age 16 relative to ages 8 and 12 years. This heightened sensitivity to caregiving in adolescence was observed in both children with and without exposure to early psychosocial neglect.

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescence may be a period of heightened sensitivity to the caregiving environment, at least for some domains of functioning. For children who experience early psychosocial deprivation, this developmental period may be a window of opportunity for recovery of some functions. Albeit correlational, these findings suggest that it may be possible to reverse or remediate some of the lasting effects of early-life adversity with interventions that target caregiving during adolescence.

Contributions of Emotion Regulation and Brain Structure and Function to Adolescent Internalizing Problems and Stress Vulnerability During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study

BACKGROUND

Adolescence is a period of increased vulnerability for internalizing problems, particularly following stressful life events. We examined how emotion regulation and brain structure and function were associated with internalizing problems during the COVID-19 pandemic and moderated the association between pandemic-related stressors and internalizing problems.

METHODS

Data are from a longitudinal sample (N = 145, age range, 10-15 years) strategically assessed at 3 crucial time points: before the COVID-19 pandemic, early during the stay-at-home order period, and again 6 months later. We examined associations of amygdala and hippocampal volume and amygdala activation during an emotional processing task before the pandemic, examined use of emotion regulation strategies before and during the pandemic, and examined pandemic-related stressors with internalizing problems.

RESULTS

Greater exposure to pandemic-related stressors was associated with higher internalizing problems both early and later in the COVID-19 pandemic. Youths who reported more frequent use of rumination before the pandemic and higher use of expressive suppression and lower use of cognitive reappraisal early in the pandemic had higher internalizing problems early in the pandemic. Higher left amygdala activation to neutral relative to fearful faces before the pandemic was associated with greater internalizing problems and a stronger link between pandemic-related stressors and internalizing problems early in the pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS

Stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic are strongly associated with adolescent internalizing problems, as are individual differences in emotional reactivity and regulation and their underlying neural mechanisms. Interventions that reduce pandemic-related stressors and foster adaptive emotion regulation skills may protect against adolescent psychopathology during this period of heightened exposure to stress.

The maturation and cognitive relevance of structural brain network organization from early infancy to childhood

The interactions of brain regions with other regions at the network level likely provide the infrastructure necessary for cognitive processes to develop. Specifically, it has been theorized that in infancy brain networks become more modular, or segregated, to support early cognitive specialization, before integration across networks increases to support the emergence of higher-order cognition. The present study examined the maturation of structural covariance networks (SCNs) derived from longitudinal cortical thickness data collected between infancy and childhood (0–6 years). We assessed modularity as a measure of network segregation and global efficiency as a measure of network integration. At the group level, we observed trajectories of increasing modularity and decreasing global efficiency between early infancy and six years. We further examined subject-based maturational coupling networks (sbMCNs) in a subset of this cohort with cognitive outcome data at 8–10 years, which allowed us to relate the network organization of longitudinal cortical thickness maturation to cognitive outcomes in middle childhood. We found that lower global efficiency of sbMCNs throughout early development (across the first year) related to greater motor learning at 8–10 years. Together, these results provide novel evidence characterizing the maturation of brain network segregation and integration across the first six years of life, and suggest that specific trajectories of brain network maturation contribute to later cognitive outcomes.

Corporal Punishment and Elevated Neural Response to Threat in Children

Spanking remains common around the world, despite evidence linking corporal punishment to detrimental child outcomes. This study tested whether children (Mage  = 11.60) who were spanked (N = 40) exhibited altered neural function in response to stimuli that suggest the presence of an environmental threat compared to children who were not spanked (N = 107). Children who were spanked exhibited greater activation in multiple regions of the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, dorsomedial PFC, bilateral frontal pole, and left middle frontal gyrus in response to fearful relative to neutral faces compared to children who were not spanked. These findings suggest that spanking may alter neural responses to environmental threats in a manner similar to more severe forms of maltreatment.

Mechanisms linking socioeconomic status and academic achievement in early childhood: Cognitive stimulation and language

There is a strong positive association between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement. This disparity may, in part, be explained by differences in early environmental experiences and language development. Cognitive stimulation-including language exposure, access to learning materials, caregiver involvement in children's learning, and variety of experiences-varies by SES and may link SES to language development. Childhood language development in turn is associated with academic achievement. In the current longitudinal study of 101 children (60-75 months), SES was positively associated with cognitive stimulation and performance on language measures. Cognitive stimulation mediated the association between SES and children's language. Furthermore, children's language mediated the association between SES and academic achievement 18 months later. In addition to addressing broader inequalities in access to resources that facilitate caregivers' abilities to provide cognitive stimulation, cognitive stimulation itself could be targeted in future interventions to mitigate SES-related disparities in language and academic achievement.

Deprivation and psychopathology in the Fragile Families Study: A 15-year longitudinal investigation

BACKGROUND

Early adversity consistently predicts youth psychopathology. However, the pathways linking unique dimensions of early adversity, such as deprivation, to psychopathology are understudied. Here, we evaluate a theoretical model linking early deprivation exposure with psychopathology prospectively through language ability.

METHODS

Participants included 2,301 youth (47.5% female) enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. We include data from assessment points at ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15. Latent factors for deprivation and threat were modeled from multiple indicators at ages 1 and 3. Youth language ability was assessed at Age 5. Indicators of psychopathology were assessed at ages 5, 9, and 15. A structural equation model tested longitudinal paths to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology from experiences of deprivation and threat.

RESULTS

Deprivation from birth to Age 3 was associated with an indirect effect on internalizing and externalizing symptoms in early childhood (Age 5), later childhood (Age 9), and adolescence (Age 15) via language ability in early childhood (Age 5). Early threat exposure was associated with increased internalizing and externalizing psychopathology across all ages. There was no significant indirect effect from threat to psychopathology via language ability.

CONCLUSIONS

The effects of deprivation on psychopathology during early childhood, late childhood, and adolescence are explained, in part, through early childhood language ability. Results provide insight into language ability as a possible opportunity for intervention.

History of conditioned reward association disrupts inhibitory control: an examination of neural correlates

The neural processes that support inhibitory control in the face of stimuli with a history of reward association are not yet well understood. Yet, the ability to flexibly adapt behavior to changing reward-contingency contexts is important for daily functioning and warrants further investigation. This study aimed to characterize neural and behavioral impacts of stimuli with a history of conditioned reward association on motor inhibitory control in healthy young adults by investigating group-level effects as well as individual variation in the ability to inhibit responses to stimuli with a reward history. Participants (N = 41) first completed a reward conditioning phase, during which responses to rewarded stimuli were associated with money and responses to unrewarded stimuli were not. Rewarded and unrewarded stimuli from training were carried forward as No-Go targets in a subsequent go/no-go task to test the effect of reward history on inhibitory control. Participants underwent functional brain imaging during the go/no-go portion of the task. On average, a history of reward conditioning disrupted inhibitory control. Compared to inhibition of responses to stimuli with no reward history, trials that required inhibition of responses to previously rewarded stimuli were associated with greater activity in frontal and striatal regions, including the inferior frontal gyrus, insula, striatum, and thalamus. Activity in the insula and thalamus during false alarms and in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex during correctly withheld trials predicted behavioral performance on the task. Overall, these results suggest that reward history serves to disrupt inhibitory control and provide evidence for diverging roles of the insula and ventromedial prefrontal cortex while inhibiting responses to stimuli with a reward history.

Early adversity and children's emotion regulation: Differential roles of parent emotion regulation and adversity exposure

Exposure to early life adversity (ELA) is associated with increased rates of psychopathology and poor physical health. The present study builds on foundational work by Megan Gunnar identifying how ELA results in poor long-term outcomes through alterations in the stress response system, leading to major disruptions in emotional and behavioral regulation. Specifically, the present study tested the direct effects of ELA against the role of parent socialization to shed light on the mechanisms by which ELA leads to emotion regulation deficits. Children ages 4-7 years (N = 64) completed interviews about their experiences of deprivation and threat, a fear conditioning and extinction paradigm, and an IQ test. Parents of the children completed questionnaires regarding their own emotion regulation difficulties and psychopathology, their children's emotion regulation, and child exposure to adversity. At the bivariate level, greater exposure to threat and parental difficulties with emotion regulation were associated with poorer emotion regulation in children, assessed both via parental report and physiologically. In models where parental difficulties with emotion regulation, threat, and deprivation were introduced simultaneously, regression results indicated that parental difficulties with emotion regulation, but not deprivation or threat, continued to predict children's emotion regulation abilities. These results suggest that parental socialization of emotion is a robust predictor of emotion regulation tendencies in children exposed to early adversity.

Altered Neural Processing of Threat-Related Information in Children and Adolescents Exposed to Violence: A Transdiagnostic Mechanism Contributing to the Emergence of Psychopathology

OBJECTIVE

Exposure to violence in childhood is associated with increased risk for multiple forms of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. We evaluated how exposure to violence in early life influences neural responses to neutral and threat-related stimuli in childhood and adolescence, developmental variation in these associations, and whether these neural response patterns convey transdiagnostic risk for psychopathology over time.

METHOD

Participants were 149 youths (75 female and 74 male), aged 8 to 17 years (mean = 12.8, SD = 2.63), who had experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, or domestic violence (n = 76) or had never experienced violence (n = 73). Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning while passively viewing fearful, neutral, and scrambled faces presented rapidly in a block design without specific attentional demands. Internalizing and externalizing psychopathology were assessed concurrently with the scan and 2 years later and were used to compute a transdiagnostic general psychopathology factor (p factor).

RESULTS

Exposure to violence was associated with reduced activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and frontal pole (1,985 voxels, peak x, y, z = 6, 4, 40) when viewing fearful (versus scrambled) faces, and reduced activation in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and superior frontal gyrus (1,970 voxels, peak x, y, z = 16, 64, 10) when viewing neutral faces, but not amygdala activation or connectivity. Lower dACC response to fearful faces predicted increase in the p factor 2 years later (B = -0.186, p = .031) and mediated the association of violence exposure with longitudinal increases in the p factor.

CONCLUSION

Reduced recruitment of the dACC-a region involved in salience processing, conflict monitoring, and cognitive control-in response to threat-related cues may convey increased transdiagnostic psychopathology risk in youths exposed to violence.