Age-Adapted Stress Task in Preschoolers Does not Lead to Uniform Stress Responses

Conceptualizing the Influence of Social and Structural Determinants of Neurobiology and Mental Health: Why and How Biological Psychiatry Can Do Better at Addressing the Consequences of Inequity

Psychiatry and allied disciplines have recognized the potency of structural and social determinants of mental health, yet there has been scant attention given to the roles of neurobiology in the links between structural and social determinants and mental health. In this article, we make the case for why greater attention must be given to structural and social determinants of biological psychiatry by researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers. After defining these terms and theoretical frameworks for considering their relevance in biological psychiatry, we review empirical research with marginalized and minoritized racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, and economic communities that reveals the ways in which structural and social determinants affect neurobiological functioning with implications for mental health. We give particular emphasis to developmental science and developmentally informed research, because structural and social determinants influence neurobiological adaptation and maturation across the lifespan. We conclude with recommendations for advancing research, practice, and policy that connect biological psychiatry with structural and social determinants of health. Foremost among these is diversifying the ranks of biological psychiatry, from classrooms through laboratories, hospitals, and community health centers. Transforming and advancing the understanding of the structural and social determinants of neurobiology and mental health is most likely to come through transforming the discipline itself.

Cardiac vagal tone in preschool children: Interrelations and the role of stress exposure

INTRODUCTION

Cardiac vagal tone has been understood as the biological correlate of emotion regulation and can be divided into emotion regulation (tonic cardiac vagal tone (TCVT)) and the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions (phasic cardiac vagal tone (PCVT)). There is evidence that TCVT influences PCVT dynamics in adults and that stress exposure impacts on cardiac vagal tone in adults and older children. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of TCVT on PCVT dynamics in preschoolers and to identify the influence of stress exposures on cardiac vagal tone.

METHOD

Measures of heart rate variability including baseline (TCVT), during an age-adapted stress task (PCVT stress reactivity) and during recovery (PCVT recovery) were assessed in 222 children aged 2-6 years of the SPLASHY study. Further, parents were asked to complete questionnaires on early stress exposure (including pregnancy, birth and early life) and current stress exposure (including family stress and parenting).

RESULTS

Preschool children with high TCVT showed less PCVT reactivity (p < 0.001) and more increase of vagal tone (PCVT) during early recovery (p = 0.016). Further only child's low birth weight was a relevant stress exposure impacting on early and late PCVT recovery (p = 0.03/p = 0.005). None of the other early or late stress exposure conditions, nor the accumulation of stress exposures influenced TCVT or PCVT dynamics in these healthy preschoolers.

DISCUSSION

TCVT impacts on PCVT dynamics in a lab-based stress task in healthy preschool children and only low birth weight is related to more change during early and to less late PCVT recovery.