Widespread reductions in cortical thickness following severe early-life deprivation: a neurodevelopmental pathway to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Impacts of early deprivation on behavioral and neural measures of executive function in early adolescence

Children reared in institutional settings experience early deprivation that has lasting implications for multiple aspects of neurocognitive functioning, including executive function (EF). Changes in brain development are thought to contribute to these persistent EF challenges, but little research has used fMRI to investigate EF-related brain activity in children with a history of early deprivation. This study examined behavioral and neural data from a response conflict task in 12-14-year-olds who spent varying lengths of time in institutional care prior to adoption (N = 84; age at adoption - mean: 15.85 months, median: 12 months, range: 4-60 months). In initial analyses, earlier- and later-adopted (EA, LA) youth were compared to a group of children raised in their biological families (non-adopted, NA). NA youth performed significantly more accurately than LA youth, with EA youth falling in between. Imaging data suggested that previously institutionalized (PI) youth activated additional frontoparietal regions, including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, as compared to NA youth. In addition, EA youth uniquely activated medial prefrontal regions, and LA uniquely activated parietal regions during this task. A separate analysis in a larger group of PI youth examined whether behavioral or brain measures of EF varied with the duration of deprivation experienced. Duration of deprivation was negatively associated with activation of default mode network (DMN) regions. Overall, results suggest that there are lasting effects of deprivation on EF, but that those who are removed from institutional care earlier may be able to recruit additional neural resources as a compensatory mechanism.

Early adversity causes sex-specific deficits in perforant pathway connectivity and contextual memory in adolescent mice

BACKGROUND

Early life adversity impairs hippocampal development and function across diverse species. While initial evidence indicated potential variations between males and females, further research is required to validate these observations and better understand the underlying mechanisms contributing to these sex differences. Furthermore, most of the preclinical work in rodents was performed in adult males, with only few studies examining sex differences during adolescence when such differences appear more pronounced. To address these concerns, we investigated the impact of limited bedding (LB), a mouse model of early adversity, on hippocampal development in prepubescent and adolescent male and female mice.

METHODS

RNA sequencing, confocal microscopy, and electron microscopy were used to evaluate the impact of LB and sex on hippocampal development in prepubescent postnatal day 17 (P17) mice. Additional studies were conducted on adolescent mice aged P29-36, which included contextual fear conditioning, retrograde tracing, and ex vivo diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI).

RESULTS

More severe deficits in axonal innervation and myelination were found in the perforant pathway of prepubescent and adolescent LB males compared to LB female littermates. These sex differences were due to a failure of reelin-positive neurons located in the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) to innervate the dorsal hippocampus via the perforant pathway in males, but not LB females, and were strongly correlated with deficits in contextual fear conditioning.

CONCLUSIONS

LB impairs the capacity of reelin-positive cells located in the LEC to project and innervate the dorsal hippocampus in LB males but not female LB littermates. Given the critical role that these projections play in supporting normal hippocampal function, a failure to establish proper connectivity between the LEC and the dorsal hippocampus provides a compelling and novel mechanism to explain the more severe deficits in myelination and contextual freezing found in adolescent LB males.

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Parental Depression, Antidepressant Usage, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Stress and Anxiety as Risk Factors for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children

Poor parental mental health and stress have been associated with children's mental disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), through social, genetic, and neurobiological pathways. To determine the strength of the associations between parental mental health and child ADHD, we conducted a set of meta-analyses to examine the association of parent mental health indicators (e.g., parental depression, antidepressant usage, antisocial personality disorder, and stress and anxiety) with subsequent ADHD outcomes in children. Eligible ADHD outcomes included diagnosis or symptoms. Fifty-eight articles published from 1980 to 2019 were included. We calculated pooled effect sizes, accounting for each study's conditional variance, separately for test statistics based on ADHD as a dichotomous (e.g., diagnosis or clinical cutoffs) or continuous measurement (e.g., symptoms of ADHD subtypes of inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity). Parental stress and parental depression were significantly associated with increased risk for ADHD overall and both symptoms and diagnosis. Specifically, maternal stress and anxiety, maternal prenatal stress, maternal depression, maternal post-partum depression, and paternal depression were positively associated with ADHD. In addition, parental depression was associated with symptoms of ADHD inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive subtypes. Parental antisocial personality disorder was also positively associated with ADHD overall and specifically ADHD diagnosis. Prenatal antidepressant usage was associated with ADHD when measured dichotomously only. These findings raise the possibility that prevention strategies promoting parental mental health and addressing parental stress could have the potential for positive long-term impacts on child health, well-being, and behavioral outcomes.

The role of resilience in the development of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder after trauma in children and adolescents

This investigation, conducted within the Texas Childhood Trauma Research Network, investigated the prospective relationships between resiliency and emergent internalizing symptoms among trauma-exposed youth. The cohort encompassed 1262 youth, aged 8-20, from twelve health-related institutions across Texas, who completed assessments at baseline and one- and six-month follow-ups for resiliency, symptoms of depression, generalized anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other demographic and clinical characteristics. At baseline, greater resilience was positively associated with older age, male (vs female) sex assigned at birth, and history of mental health treatment. Unadjusted for covariates, higher baseline resilience was associated with greater prospective depression and PTSD symptoms but not anxiety symptoms. Upon adjusting for demographic and clinical factors, higher baseline resilience was no longer associated with depression, PTSD, or anxiety symptoms. Our analyses demonstrate that the predictive value of resilience on psychopathology is relatively small compared to more readily observable clinical and demographic factors. These data suggest a relatively minor prospective role of resilience in protecting against internalizing symptoms among trauma-exposed youth and highlight the importance of controlling for relevant youth characteristics when investigating a protective effect of resilience on internalizing symptoms.

Stress as a mediator of brain alterations in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review

OBJECTIVE

Stress is a known risk factor for numerous psychopathologies, whereas evidence is lacking regarding the specific consequences of stress on the neural basis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A systematic literature review was thus conducted to clarify the role of stress in the association between the resulting alterations of brain structure, connectivity, and function in ADHD.

METHODS

The study was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under identifier CRD42023379809. A systematic search of the PubMed and CINAHL databases was conducted for articles published prior to December 22nd, 2022. Retrieved literature was screened in Rayyan and data extraction was performed with respect to neuroimaging, stress exposure, and ADHD outcomes. The Quality in Prognosis Studies (QUIPS) tool was adapted based on the Conducting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Observational Studies of Etiology (COSMOS-E) guidance article to assess risk of bias and quality of studies. Strength of the evidence was assessed under the guidance of the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system.

RESULTS

Screening 25,026 non-duplicate articles yielded 20 eligible studies for inclusion. Exposure to early life trauma, institutionalization, prenatal smoking or alcohol consumption, air pollution, low socioeconomic status, or low birth weight were associated with alterations in brain structure, function, and connectivity in ADHD. However, most studies did not provide strong evidence due to small sample sizes and lack of statistical approaches to determine a direct mediation of the association between stress and ADHD by neural outcomes.

CONCLUSION

This systematic review was the first to summarize evidence of structural and functional stress-associated alterations in the brain, which were found to be directly and indirectly associated with ADHD outcomes. Overall, stress requires consideration as a significant determinant of neurodevelopmental outcomes in ADHD. However, extensive further research is warranted due to little available evidence and the difficulty of obtaining clear results. In light of such a complex research question, in order to confirm findings, provide further evidence, and establish causality systematic longitudinal studies would be required. Investigating the topic may provide invaluable information when it comes to tailoring prevention and treatment strategies in ADHD, and should be pursued in order to integrate the factor of stress into a more comprehensive understanding of ADHD.

Do housing-induced changes in brain activity cause stereotypic behaviours in laboratory mice?

Abnormal repetitive stereotypic behaviours (SBs) (e.g. pacing, body-rocking) are common in animals with poor welfare (e.g. socially isolated/in barren housing). But how (or even whether) poor housing alters animals' brains to induce SBs remains uncertain. To date, there is little evidence for environmental effects on the brain that also correlate with individual SB performance. Using female mice from two strains (SB-prone DBA/2s; SB-resistant C57/BL/6s), displaying two forms of SB (route-tracing; bar-mouthing), we investigated how housing (conventional laboratory conditions vs. well-resourced 'enriched' cages) affects long-term neuronal activity as assessed via cytochrome oxidase histochemistry in 13 regions of interest (across cortex, striatum, basal ganglia and thalamus). Conventional housing reduced activity in the cortex and striatum. However, DBA mice had no cortical or striatal differences from C57 mice (just greater basal ganglia output activity, independent of housing). Neural correlates for individual levels of bar-mouthing (positive correlations in the substantia nigra and thalamus) were also independent of housing; while route-tracing levels had no clear neural correlates at all. Thus conventional laboratory housing can suppress cortico-striatal activity, but such changes are unrelated to SB (since not mirrored by congruent individual and strain differences). Furthermore, the neural correlates of SB at individual and strain levels seem to reflect underlying predispositions, not housing-mediated changes. To aid further work, hypothesis-generating model fit analyses highlighted this unexplained housing effect, and also suggested several regions of interest across cortex, striatum, thalamus and substantia nigra for future investigation (ideally with improved power to reduce risks of Type II error).

Global topology of human connectome is insensitive to early life environments - A prospective longitudinal study of the general population

The widely acknowledged detrimental impact of early adversity on child development has driven efforts to understand the underlying mechanisms that may mediate these effects within the developing brain. Recent efforts have begun to move beyond associating adversity with the morphology of individual brain regions towards determining if and how adversity might shape their interconnectivity. However, whether adversity effects a global shift in the organisation of whole-brain networks remains unclear. In this study, we assessed this possibility using parental questionnaire and diffusion imaging data from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, N = 913), a prospective longitudinal study spanning more than 20 years. We tested whether a wide range of adversities-including experiences of abuse, domestic violence, physical and emotional cruelty, poverty, neglect, and parental separation-measured by questionnaire within the first seven years of life were significantly associated with the tractography-derived connectome in young adulthood. We tested this across multiple measures of organisation and using a computational model that simulated the wiring economy of the brain. We found no significant relationships between early exposure to any form of adversity and the global organisation of the structural connectome in young adulthood. We did detect local differences in the medial prefrontal cortex, as well as an association between weaker brain wiring constraints and greater externalising behaviour in adolescence. Our results indicate that further efforts are necessary to delimit the magnitude and functional implications of adversity-related differences in connectomic organization. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Diverse prospective measures of the early-life environment do not predict the organisation of the DTI tractography-derived connectome in young adulthood Wiring economy of the connectome is weakly associated with externalising in adolescence, but not internalising or cognitive ability Further work is needed to establish the scope and significance of global adversity-related differences in the structural connectome.

The neurobiological effects of childhood maltreatment on brain structure, function, and attachment

Childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for psychopathologies, and influences brain development at specific periods, particularly during early childhood and adolescence. This narrative review addresses phenotypic alterations in sensory systems associated with specific types of childhood maltreatment exposure, periods of vulnerability to the neurobiological effects of maltreatment, and the relationships between childhood maltreatment and brain structure, function, connectivity, and network architecture; psychopathology; and resilience. It also addresses neurobiological alterations associated with maternal communication and attachment disturbances, and uses laboratory-based measures during infancy and case-control studies to elucidate neurobiological alterations in reactive attachment disorders in children with maltreatment histories. Moreover, we review studies on the acute effects of oxytocin on reactive attachment disorder and maltreatment and methylation of oxytocin regulatory genes. Epigenetic changes may play a critical role in initiating or producing the atypical structural and functional brain alterations associated with childhood maltreatment. However, these changes could be reversed through psychological and pharmacological interventions, and by anticipating or preventing the emergence of brain alterations and subsequent psychopathological risks.

The impact of out-of-home care on brain development: a brief review of the neuroscientific evidence informing our understanding of children's attachment outcomes

Researchers interested in the effects of early experiences of caregiving adversity have employed neuroscientific methods to illuminate whether and how such environmental input impacts on brain development, and whether and how such impacts underpin poor socioemotional outcomes in this population. Evidence is compelling in documenting negative effects on the individual's neurodevelopment following exposure to adverse or disadvantaged environments such as institutionalization or maltreatment. Neuroimaging research focused specifically on attachment-relevant processing of socioemotional stimuli and attachment outcomes among children looked-after is scarcer, but largely consistent. This review begins by summarizing the key general brain structural and functional alterations associated with caregiving deprivation. Then, neuroscientific evidence that is more directly relevant for understanding these children's attachment outcomes, both by employing social stimuli and by correlating children's neural markers with their attachment profiles, is reviewed. Brief interpretations of findings are suggested, and key limitations and gaps in the literature identified.

Associations Between Distinct Trauma Classes and Mental Health Care Utilization in Norwegian Adolescents: A National Registry Study

Adolescents who experience potentially traumatic experiences (PTEs) have an increased risk of psychopathology. PTEs often co-occur and may form interrelated patterns of exposure. This study investigated underlying classes of PTE exposure among Norwegian adolescent participants in the youth@hordaland study, and whether such classes were associated with contact with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and psychiatric diagnoses. The data stem from the population-based youth@hordaland study conducted in 2012 which was linked to the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR, n = 8845). Exposure to PTEs was assessed by adolescent self-report whereas psychiatric disorders (Axis 1) were derived from the NPR. Latent Class Analysis was used to identify distinct classes of PTE exposure-patterns in the data. Logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate associations between classes of PTEs and contact with CAMHS and psychiatric diagnoses. Three classes of PTE exposure were identified based on model fit indices and theoretical considerations. Compared with participants in the low trauma class (88% of participants), those in the Situational-(6%) and Interpersonal trauma class (6%) had higher odds-ratios (ORs) for contact with CAMHS (OR = 2.27 (95% CI [1.78, 2.87])) and (OR = 3.26 (95% CI [2.61, 4.04])) respectively, and for being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder in CAMHS (ORs ranged from 2.19 - 10.4) after adjusting for sex and parental education. There were more participants diagnosed with ADHD within the Interpersonal trauma class compared to the Situational trauma class when adjusting for sex and parental education (OR = 2.22 (95% CI [1.17, 4.40])). Three relatively homogeneous PTE classes, consisting of distinct patterns of trauma exposure were associated with a higher odds of contact with CAMHS and of being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder in CAMHS. The study highlights the co-occurrence of PTEs and their impact across the diagnostic spectrum.

Cognitive stimulation as a mechanism linking socioeconomic status and neural function supporting working memory: a longitudinal fMRI study

Childhood experiences of low socioeconomic status are associated with alterations in neural function in the frontoparietal network and ventral visual stream, which may drive differences in working memory. However, the specific features of low socioeconomic status environments that contribute to these disparities remain poorly understood. Here, we examined experiences of cognitive deprivation (i.e. decreased variety and complexity of experience), as opposed to experiences of threat (i.e. violence exposure), as a potential mechanism through which family income contributes to alterations in neural activation during working memory. As part of a longitudinal study, 148 youth between aged 10 and 13 years completed a visuospatial working memory fMRI task. Early childhood low income, chronicity of low income in early childhood, and current income-to-needs were associated with task-related activation in the ventral visual stream and frontoparietal network. The association of family income with decreased activation in the lateral occipital cortex and intraparietal sulcus during working memory was mediated by experiences of cognitive deprivation. Surprisingly, however, family income and deprivation were not significantly related to working memory performance, and only deprivation was associated with academic achievement in this sample. Taken together, these findings suggest that early life low income and associated cognitive deprivation are important factors in neural function supporting working memory.

Cortical volume alteration in the superior parietal region mediates the relationship between childhood abuse and PTSD avoidance symptoms: A complementary multimodal neuroimaging study

Background

Adverse childhood experiences (ACE), which can be separated into abuse and neglect, contribute to the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). However, which brain structures are mainly affected by ACE as well as the mediating role these brain structures play in ACE and PTSS relationship are still being investigated. The current study tested the effect of ACE on brain structure and investigated the latter's mediating role in ACE-PTSS relationship.

Methods

A total of 78 adults with self-reported ACE were included in this study. Participants completed the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ) and a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) to ascertain ACE history and PTSS, respectively. T1w images and diffusion MRI scans were then acquired to assess cortical morphometry and white matter (WM) integrity in fibre tracts connecting key areas where ACE-related cortical volume alterations were observed.

Results

The combined effect of ACE was negatively associated with total grey matter volume and local cortical area in the right superior parietal region (rSP). Childhood abuse was negatively related to right superior parietal volume after controlling for neglect and overall psychological burden. The right superior parietal volume significantly mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and avoidance-related PTSS. Post-hoc analyses showed that the indirect relation was subsequently moderated by dissociative symptoms. Lastly, a complementary examination of the WM tracts connected to abuse-associated cortical GM regions shows that abuse was negatively related to the normalised fibre density of WM tracts connected to the right superior parietal region.

Conclusion

We provide multimodal structural evidence that ACE in the first years of life is related to alterations in the right superior brain region, which plays a crucial role in spatial processing and attentional functioning. Additionally, we highlight that the cortical volume alteration in this region may play a role in explaining the relationship between childhood abuse and avoidance symptoms.

Disentangling Socioeconomic Status and Race in Infant Brain, Birth Weight, and Gestational Age at Birth: A Neural Network Analysis

Background

Race is commonly used as a proxy for multiple features including socioeconomic status. It is critical to dissociate these factors, to identify mechanisms that affect infant outcomes, such as birth weight, gestational age, and brain development, and to direct appropriate interventions and shape public policy.

Methods

Demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical variables were used to model infant outcomes. There were 351 participants included in the analysis for birth weight and gestational age. For the analysis using brain volumes, 280 participants were included after removing participants with missing magnetic resonance imaging scans and those matching our exclusion criteria. We modeled these three different infant outcomes, including infant brain, birth weight, and gestational age, with both linear and nonlinear models.

Results

Nonlinear models were better predictors of infant birth weight than linear models (R2 = 0.172 vs. R2 = 0.145, p = .005). In contrast to linear models, nonlinear models ranked income, neighborhood disadvantage, and experiences of discrimination higher in importance than race while modeling birth weight. Race was not an important predictor for either gestational age or structural brain volumes.

Conclusions

Consistent with the extant social science literature, the findings related to birth weight suggest that race is a linear proxy for nonlinear factors related to structural racism. Methods that can disentangle factors often correlated with race are important for policy in that they may better identify and rank the modifiable factors that influence outcomes.

Patterns of Childhood Adversity among Women with and without Childhood ADHD: Links to Adult Psychopathology and Global Functioning

We examine the outcomes associated with childhood adversity for women with and without carefully diagnosed childhood ADHD, via an ethnically diverse sample of 140 participants with ADHD (Mage = 9.7) and 88 age- and ethnicity-matched comparisons (Mage = 9.4). At adult follow-up, we retained 211 of the original 228 participants (92.6%; Mage = 25.6). We used latent class analysis to identify patterns of childhood adversity and examine their association with adult global functioning and psychopathology. Key findings: (1) Four childhood adversity classes emerged (Low Exposure, Familial Dysfunction, Emotional Maltreatment, Pervasive Exposure); (2) Childhood ADHD predicted membership in the Emotional Maltreatment class; and (3) Childhood adversity classes were differently associated with adult outcomes, such that membership in both the Emotional Maltreatment and Pervasive Exposure classes predicted significantly higher internalizing and externalizing symptoms as well as significantly lower global functioning than women in the Low Exposure class. Furthermore, compared to the Emotional Maltreatment class, the Familial Dysfunction class had lower externalizing symptoms, whereas the Pervasive Exposure class had lower global functioning and higher internalizing symptoms by adulthood. Findings provide information about girls and women who could be targeted for intervention in terms of ADHD behavior patterns plus adverse experiences in childhood. Beyond limitations, we discuss the need to investigate the confluence of neurodevelopmental conditions and adverse child events with respect to maladaptive outcomes.

A systematic review of interventions to ameliorate the impact of adversity on brain development

Adversity, including abuse, neglect, and poverty, impacts child brain development. However, the developing brain is highly plastic, and some of the impacts of childhood adversity may be mitigated by psychosocial interventions. The purpose of this review is to synthesize literature on neural outcomes of childhood interventions among individuals exposed to adversity. A systematic literature search identified 36 reports of 13 interventions. Overall, these studies provide evidence for experience-dependent plasticity in the developing brain. We synthesize studies in light of three themes. First, there was mixed evidence for a benefit of a younger age at intervention. Second, interventions tended to accelerate functional brain development, but the impact of interventions on the pace of structural brain development was less clear. Third, individual differences in intervention response were difficult to predict, in part due to small samples. However, there was significant variability in intervention type and timing, neuroimaging outcomes, and follow-up timing. Together, the studies reviewed here hold promise for the role of psychosocial interventions in ameliorating the neurodevelopmental consequences of childhood adversity.

Developmental Correlates of Accelerated Molar Eruption in Early Childhood

Background

Adversity has been linked to accelerated maturation. Molar eruption is a simple and scalable way to identify early maturation, but its developmental correlates remain unexplored. Thus, we examined whether accelerated maturation as indexed by molar eruption is associated with children's mental health or cognitive skills.

Methods

Molar eruption was evaluated from T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in 117 children (63 female; ages 4-7 years). Parents reported on child mental health with the Child Behavior Checklist. Children completed standardized assessments of fluid reasoning, working memory, processing speed, crystallized knowledge, and math performance. Relationships between molar eruption and developmental outcomes were examined using linear models, with age, gender, and stress risk as covariates.

Results

Earlier molar eruption was positively associated with children's externalizing symptoms (false discovery rate-corrected p [pFDR] = .027) but not internalizing symptoms, and the relationship with externalizing symptoms did not hold when controlling for stress risk. Earlier molar eruption was negatively associated with fluid reasoning (pFDR < .001), working memory (pFDR = .033), and crystallized knowledge (pFDR = .001). The association between molar eruption and both reasoning and crystallized knowledge held when controlling for stress risk. Molar eruption also partially mediated associations between stress risk and both reasoning (proportion mediated = 0.273, p = .004) and crystallized knowledge (proportion mediated = 0.126, p = .016).

Conclusions

Accelerated maturation, as reflected in early molar eruption, may have consequences for cognitive development, perhaps because it constrains brain plasticity. Knowing the pace of a child's maturation may provide insight into the impact of a child's stress history on their cognitive development.

Resting brain activity in early childhood predicts IQ at 18 years

Resting brain activity has been widely used as an index of brain development in neuroscience and clinical research. However, it remains unclear whether early differences in resting brain activity have meaningful implications for predicting long-term cognitive outcomes. Using data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (Zeanah et al., 2003), we examined the impact of institutional rearing and the consequences of early foster care intervention on 18-year IQ. We found that higher resting theta electroencephalogram (EEG) power, reflecting atypical neurodevelopment, across three assessments from 22 to 42 months predicted lower full-scale IQ at 18 years, providing the first evidence that brain activity in early childhood predicts cognitive outcomes into adulthood. In addition, both institutional rearing and later (vs. earlier) foster care intervention predicted higher resting theta power in early childhood, which in turn predicted lower IQ at 18 years. These findings demonstrate that experientially-induced changes in brain activity early in life have profound impact on long-term cognitive development, highlighting the importance of early intervention for promoting healthy development among children living in disadvantaged environments.

Trajectories of cortical structures associated with stress across adolescence: a bivariate latent change score approach

BACKGROUND

Stress exposure in childhood and adolescence has been linked to reductions in cortical structures and cognitive functioning. However, to date, most of these studies have been cross-sectional, limiting the ability to make long-term inferences, given that most cortical structures continue to develop through adolescence.

METHODS

Here, we used a subset of the IMAGEN population cohort sample (N = 502; assessment ages: 14, 19, and 22 years; mean age: 21.945 years; SD = 0.610) to understand longitudinally the long-term interrelations between stress, cortical development, and cognitive functioning. To these ends, we first used a latent change score model to examine four bivariate relations - assessing individual differences in change in the relations between adolescent stress exposure and volume, surface area, and cortical thickness of cortical structures, as well as cognitive outcomes. Second, we probed for indirect neurocognitive effects linking stress to cortical brain structures and cognitive functions using rich longitudinal mediation modeling.

RESULTS

Latent change score modeling showed that greater baseline adolescence stress at age 14 predicted a small reduction in the right anterior cingulate volume (Std. β = -.327, p = .042, 95% CI [-0.643, -0.012]) and right anterior cingulate surface area (Std. β = -.274, p = .038, 95% CI [-0.533, -0.015]) across ages 14-22. These effects were very modest in nature and became nonsignificant after correcting for multiple comparisons. Our longitudinal analyses found no evidence of indirect effects in the two neurocognitive pathways linking adolescent stress to brain and cognitive outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Findings shed light on the impact of stress on brain reductions, particularly in the prefrontal cortex that have consistently been implicated in the previous cross-sectional studies. However, the magnitude of effects observed in our study is smaller than that has been reported in past cross-sectional work. This suggests that the potential impact of stress during adolescence on brain structures may likely be more modest than previously noted.

Distinct Associations of Deprivation and Threat With Alterations in Brain Structure in Early Childhood

OBJECTIVE

The dimensional model of adversity and psychopathology hypothesizes deprivation and threat impact distinct neurobiological pathways, such as brain structure. This hypothesis has not been examined longitudinally or in young children. This study tested longitudinal associations between threat and deprivation measured in preschool and brain structure in childhood. It was hypothesized that threat would be associated with amygdala and hippocampal subcortical volume and deprivation would be associated with cortical thickness in association cortex.

METHOD

The study included T1-weighted scans from 72 children (5-10 years old, 54.2% female participants). Threat was measured by the presence of domestic violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse, or neighborhood violence. Deprivation was measured by the presence of neglect. Associations of deprivation or threat with brain structure were examined controlling for other dimension (deprivation or threat) and nuisance covariates using whole-brain vertex-wise analyses. Subcortical volume was extracted, and the same associations were examined using multiple regression.

RESULTS

Threat was associated with widespread decreases in cortical surface area across the prefrontal cortex and other regions. Threat was not associated with amygdala or hippocampal volume. Deprivation was associated with increased thickness in occipital cortex, insula, and cingulate.

CONCLUSION

Results suggest distinct associations of deprivation and threat on brain structure in early childhood. Threat is associated with widespread differences in surface area, and deprivation is associated with differences in cortical thickness. These observations are consistent with work in adolescence and adulthood and reflect how dimensions of adversity differentially impact neural structure.

Interpersonal early adversity demonstrates dissimilarity from early socioeconomic disadvantage in the course of human brain development: A meta-analysis

It has been established that early-life adversity impacts brain development, but the role of development itself has largely been ignored. We take a developmentally-sensitive approach to examine the neurodevelopmental sequelae of early adversity in a preregistered meta-analysis of 27,234 youth (birth to 18-years-old), providing the largest group of adversity-exposed youth to date. Findings demonstrate that early-life adversity does not have an ontogenetically uniform impact on brain volumes, but instead exhibits age-, experience-, and region-specific associations. Relative to non-exposed comparisons, interpersonal early adversity (e.g., family-based maltreatment) was associated with initially larger volumes in frontolimbic regions until ∼10-years-old, after which these exposures were linked to increasingly smaller volumes. By contrast, socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g., poverty) was associated with smaller volumes in temporal-limbic regions in childhood, which were attenuated at older ages. These findings advance ongoing debates regarding why, when, and how early-life adversity shapes later neural outcomes.

Introducing the Neuroplastic Narrative: a non-pathologizing biological foundation for trauma-informed and adverse childhood experience aware approaches

Most people accessing mental health services have adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and/or histories of complex trauma. In recognition of this, there are calls to move away from medical model approaches and move toward trauma-informed approaches which privilege the impact of life experience over underlying pathology in the etiology of emotional and psychological suffering. Trauma-informed approaches lack a biological narrative linking trauma and adversity to later suffering. In its absence, this suffering is diagnosed and treated as a mental illness. This study articulates the Neuroplastic Narrative, a neuroecological theory that fills this gap, conceptualizing emotional and psychological suffering as the cost of surviving and adapting to the impinging environments of trauma and adversity. The Neuroplastic Narrative privileges lived experience and recognizes that our experiences become embedded in our biology through evolved mechanisms that ultimately act to preserve survival in the service of reproduction. Neuroplasticity refers to the capacity of neural systems to adapt and change. Our many evolved neuroplastic mechanisms including epigenetics, neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, and white matter plasticity allow us to learn from, and adapt to, past experiences. This learning and adaption in turn allows us to better anticipate and physiologically prepare for future experiences that (nature assumes) are likely to occur, based on past experiences. However, neuroplastic mechanisms cannot discriminate between experiences; they function to embed experience regardless of the quality of that experience, generating vicious or virtuous cycles of psychobiological anticipation, to help us survive or thrive in futures that resemble our privileged or traumatic pasts. The etiology of suffering that arises from this process is not a pathology (a healthy brain is a brain that can adapt to experience) but is the evolutionary cost of surviving traumatizing environments. Misidentifying this suffering as a pathology and responding with diagnosis and medication is not trauma-informed and may cause iatrogenic harm, in part through perpetuating stigma and exacerbating the shame which attends complex trauma and ACEs. As an alternative, this study introduces the Neuroplastic Narrative, which is situated within an evolutionary framework. The Neuroplastic Narrative complements both Life History and Attachment Theory and provides a non-pathologizing, biological foundation for trauma-informed and Adverse Childhood Experience aware approaches.

Disentangling the Associations Between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Child Sexual Abuse: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

An association between child sexual abuse (CSA) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been documented. However, the temporal relationship between these problems and the roles of trauma-related symptoms or other forms of maltreatment remain unclear. This review aims to synthesize available research on CSA and ADHD, assess the methodological quality of the available research, and recommend future areas of inquiry.

METHODS

Studies were searched in five databases including Medline and PsycINFO. Following a title and abstract screening, 151 full texts were reviewed and 28 were included. Inclusion criteria were sexual abuse occurred before 18 years old, published quantitative studies documenting at least a bivariate association between CSA and ADHD, and published in the past 5 years for dissertations/theses, in French or English. The methodological quality of studies was systematically assessed.

RESULTS

Most studies identified a significant association between CSA and ADHD; most studies conceptualized CSA as a precursor of ADHD, but only one study had a longitudinal design. The quality of the studies varied greatly with main limitations being the lack of (i) longitudinal designs, (ii) rigorous multimethod/ multiinformant assessments of CSA and ADHD, and (iii) control for two major confounders: trauma-related symptoms and other forms of child maltreatment.

DISCUSSION

Given the lack of longitudinal studies, the directionality of the association remains unclear. The confounding role of other maltreatment forms and trauma-related symptoms also remains mostly unaddressed. Rigorous studies are needed to untangle the association between CSA and ADHD.

Interpersonal early adversity demonstrates dissimilarity from early socioeconomic disadvantage in the course of human brain development: A meta-analysis

It has been established that early-life adversity impacts brain development, but the role of development itself has largely been ignored. We take a developmentally-sensitive approach to examine the neurodevelopmental sequelae of early adversity in a preregistered meta-analysis of 27,234 youth (birth to 18-years-old), providing the largest group of adversity-exposed youth to date. Findings demonstrate that early-life adversity does not have an ontogenetically uniform impact on brain volumes, but instead exhibits age-, experience-, and region-specific associations. Relative to non-exposed comparisons, interpersonal early adversity (e.g., family-based maltreatment) was associated with initially larger volumes in frontolimbic regions until ~10-years-old, after which these exposures were linked to increasingly smaller volumes. By contrast, socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g., poverty) was associated with smaller volumes in temporal-limbic regions in childhood, which were attenuated at older ages. These findings advance ongoing debates regarding why, when, and how early-life adversity shapes later neural outcomes.

Restricted language access during childhood affects adult brain structure in selective language regions

Due to the ubiquitous nature of language in the environment of infants, how it affects the anatomical structure of the brain language system over the lifespan is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of early language experience on the adult brain by examining anatomical features of individuals born deaf with typical or restricted language experience in early childhood. Twenty-two deaf adults whose primary language was American Sign Language and were first immersed in it at ages ranging from birth to 14 y participated. The control group was 21 hearing non-signers. We acquired T1-weighted magnetic resonance images and used FreeSurfer [B. Fischl, Neuroimage 62, 774-781(2012)] to reconstruct the brain surface. Using an a priori regions of interest (ROI) approach, we identified 17 language and 19 somatomotor ROIs in each hemisphere from the Human Connectome Project parcellation map [M. F. Glasser et al., Nature 536, 171-178 (2016)]. Restricted language experience in early childhood was associated with negative changes in adjusted grey matter volume and/or cortical thickness in bilateral fronto-temporal regions. No evidence of anatomical differences was observed in any of these regions when deaf signers with infant sign language experience were compared with hearing speakers with infant spoken language experience, showing that the effects of early language experience on the brain language system are supramodal.

Associations between cortical thickness and anxious/depressive symptoms differ by the quality of early care

A variety of childhood experiences can lead to anxious/depressed (A/D) symptoms. The aim of the present study was to explore the brain morphological (cortical thickness and surface area) correlates of A/D symptoms and the extent to which these phenotypes vary depending on the quality of the parenting context in which children develop. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were acquired on 45 children with Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement due to risk of not receiving adequate care (high-risk group) and 25 children without CPS involvement (low-risk group) (range_age = 8.08-12.14; M_age = 10.05) to assess cortical thickness (CT) and cortical surface area (SA). A/D symptoms were measured using the Child Behavioral Checklist. The association between A/D symptoms and CT, but not SA, differed by risk status such that high-risk children showed decreasing CT as A/D scores increased, whereas low-risk children showed increasing CT as A/D scores increased. This interaction was specific to CT in prefrontal, frontal, temporal, and parietal cortical regions. The groups had marginally different A/D scores, in the direction of higher risk being associated with lower A/D scores. Results suggest that CT correlates of A/D symptoms are differentially shaped by the quality of early caregiving experiences and should be distinguished between high- and low-risk children.

How do childhood abuse and neglect affect prosocial behavior? The mediating roles of different empathic components

Background

Childhood abuse and neglect are typically considered as two different forms of maltreatment. Previous international studies have found differential effects of abuse and neglect on prosocial behavior, but this and the mediating pathway underlying these associations have not been examined in a Chinese sample. Our study aims to examine the effects of childhood abuse and neglect on prosocial behavior in Chinese participants and test the unique mediating roles of different empathic components in these associations.

Methods

A total of 1,569 young adults (average age = 18.17 years) were recruited from a college that enrolls students from all provinces of China. Participants completed a series of questionnaires, including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and Prosocial Tendencies Measure. Path analysis was conducted to determine the mediational relationships.

Results

Emotional neglect had significant direct effect on prosocial behavior (β = -0.108, p < 0.001), and could also impact prosocial behavior through the mediating roles of perspective-taking and empathic concern (effect size = -0.091 and -0.097 respectively, p < 0.001). Emotional abuse affected prosocial behavior only through personal distress (effect size = -0.072, p < 0.001). Physical abuse, sexual abuse and physical neglect have little effect on prosocial behavior and empathy.

Conclusion

Childhood abuse and neglect have distinct influences on prosocial behavior. Emotional abuse and emotional neglect affect prosocial behavior through distinct pathways. This conclusion could help to establish precise interventions for improving prosocial behavior in maltreated individuals.

A Longitudinal Examination of Child Maltreatment Dimensions, Emotion Regulation, and Comorbid Psychopathology

Childhood maltreatment is a toxic stressor that occurs in the family context and is related to adverse outcomes including elevations in internalizing symptomology and externalizing symptomology. In the present study, we tested the role of threat and deprivation dimensions of child maltreatment in the etiology of comorbid psychopathology in emerging adulthood. Additionally, we investigated emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity as mechanisms underlying the relationship between child maltreatment dimensions and emerging adult psychopathology. To address these aims, we used a longitudinal sample of emerging adults (N = 413, Mage = 19.67, 78.0% Black, 51.1% female) who had previously participated in research assessments at age 10-12. Using a person-centered approach with latent profile analysis, we identified three classes of emerging adulthood psychopathology characterized by different levels of symptom severity and comorbidity between internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Emerging adults who experienced deprivation only, compared to those who were not maltreated, were more likely to belong to a comorbid and severe psychopathology class versus the other identified psychopathology classes. There was also a significant indirect pathway from experiences of both threat and deprivation to a high externalizing class via emotion lability/negativity. Our results contribute to current models of childhood adversity and psychopathology and have implications for interventions to prevent psychopathology among emerging adults exposed to child maltreatment.

Investigation of Clinical Characteristics of Children and Adolescents Followed under Health Precaution

The aim of this study was to evaluate the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of children and adolescents who were followed in the child psychiatry clinic in the scope of the health precaution, which is one of the protective and supportive measures of the Child Protection Law. 112 children and adolescents who were followed up at the child psychiatry clinic between 01.01.2020 and 01.01.2022 in the scope of health precaution, participated in this study. The clinic files and social examination reports of the participants were examined retrospectively. It was determined that the most common reasons for taking a health precaution decision are sexual abuse, deficiencies of basic needs/neglect and behavioral problems. Moreover, it showed that the rate of taking health precaution due to sexual abuse was higher in girls however the rate of that due to delinquency was more common in boys. It was determined that 72.3% of the children, who were followed up in the scope of health precaution, were diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, and the most common psychiatric disorders were attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, major depressive disorder, specific learning disability and intellectual disability, respectively. In the group with psychiatric disorders, it was determined that the deficiencies of basic needs/neglect as a reason for taking health precaution, was significantly common and that the mothers of the children and adolescents in the group with psychiatric disorders had a higher rate of diagnosed psychiatric disorders. Given the fact that abuse and neglect come first among the reasons for the implementation of health precaution; it is vital to develop early intervention programs to protect children from neglect and abuse. Since the effects of neglect and abuse on children can be devastating and long lasting and as it is known that they are risk factors for many psychiatric disorders, regular follow-up and treatment of these children in the scope of health precaution is important.

Right Superior Frontal Gyrus Cortical Thickness in Pediatric ADHD

OBJECTIVE

We investigated the right Superior Frontal Gyrus (right-SFG) and Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) in children with ADHD and their clinical relevance with Executive Function (EF) and ADHD symptom severity.

METHODS

About 26 children with ADHD and 24 typically developing children (TDC; 7‒16 years) underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and completed an EF assessment battery.

RESULTS

Significantly thinner right-SFG in the ADHD group was found compared to the TDC group (t (48) = 2.81, p = .007, Cohen's d = 0.84). Linear regression models showed that 12.5% of inattention, 13.6% of hyperactivity, and 9.0% of EF variance was accounted for by the right-SFG thickness.

CONCLUSIONS

Differences in the right-SFG thickness were found in our ADHD group and were associated with parent ratings of inattentive and hyperactive symptoms as well with EF ratings. These results replicate previous findings of thinner right-SFG and are consistent with the delayed cortical maturation theory of ADHD.

A comparative study of gray matter volumetric alterations in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder type I

BACKGROUND

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder type I (BD-Ι) share great overlapping symptoms and are highly comorbid. We aimed to compare and obtain the common and distinct gray matter volume (GMV) patterns in adult patients.

METHOD

We searched four databases to include whole-brain voxel-based morphometry studies and compared the GMV patterns between ADHD and healthy controls (HCs), between BD-I and HCs, and between ADHD and BD-I using anisotropic effect-size signed differential mapping software.

RESULTS

We included 677 ADHD and 452 BD-Ι patients. Compared with HCs, ADHD patients showed smaller GMV in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and supramarginal gyrus but a larger caudate nucleus. Compared with HCs, BD-Ι patients showed smaller GMV in the orbitofrontal cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and amygdala. No common GMV alterations were found, whereas ADHD showed the smaller ACC and larger amygdala relative to BD-Ι. Subgroup analyses revealed the larger insula in manic patients, which was positively associated with the Young Mania Rating Scale. The decreased median cingulate cortex (MCC) was positively associated with the ages in ADHD, whereas the MCC was negatively associated with the ages in BD-Ι.

LIMITATIONS

All included data were cross-sectional; Potential effects of medication and disease course were not analyzed due to the limited data.

CONCLUSIONS

ADHD showed altered GMV in the frontal-striatal frontal-parietal circuits, and BD-Ι showed altered GMV in the prefrontal-amygdala circuit. These findings could contribute to a better understanding of the neuropathology of the two disorders.

Association of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Social Isolation With Later-Life Cognitive Function Among Adults in China

IMPORTANCE

Studies investigating the association of threat-related and deprivation-related adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) with later-life cognitive decline are lacking.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the independent association of threat-related and deprivation-related ACEs with cognitive decline over time among middle-aged and older Chinese adults and to examine the modifying role of social isolation in such associations.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This prospective cohort study used cognitive data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) baseline survey that was administered between June 1, 2011, and March 31, 2012, and the CHARLS follow-up survey administered between July 1 and September 30, 2015. The life history survey with information of ACEs was additionally administered between June 1 and December 31, 2014. Statistical analysis was performed from March 1 to July 31, 2022. The study population consisted of middle-aged and older adults (age range, 45-97 years) with complete data on ACEs and 2 cognitive assessments and without cognitive impairment at baseline.

EXPOSURES

Five threat-related ACEs (ie, physical abuse, household substance abuse, domestic violence, unsafe neighborhood, and bullying) and 5 deprivation-related ACEs (ie, emotional neglect, household mental illness, incarcerated household member, parental separation or divorce, and parental death) before 17 years of age were queried by questionnaires. The cumulative scores of the 2 ACE dimensions were calculated and grouped into 3 categories as 0, 1, and 2 or more in main analyses.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Cognitive function was measured by episodic memory and executive function. Global cognition was further calculated as the total score of these 2 dimensions. The raw scores of each cognitive test were standardized to z scores using baseline means and SDs. Linear mixed-effects models were constructed to examine the association between 2 dimensions of ACEs and the rate of annual cognitive decline. The modifying role of baseline social isolation in such associations was assessed with 3-way interaction tests.

RESULTS

Of the 6466 participants included in main analyses, 3301 (51.1%) were men and the mean (SD) age was 57.2 (8.3) years. Compared with no exposures, experience of 1 deprivation-related ACE was associated with faster cognitive decline in global cognition (β = -0.012 [95% CI, -0.022 to -0.002] SD/y) and executive function (β = -0.010 [95% CI, -0.020 to -0.00002] SD/y), whereas individuals with at least 2 childhood deprivations had faster cognitive declines in all cognitive tests (β = -0.035 [95% CI, -0.050 to -0.019] SD/y for global cognition; β = -0.047 [95% CI, -0.068 to -0.025] SD/y for episodic memory; β = -0.019 [95% CI, -0.034 to -0.004] SD/y for executive function). However, such an association was not observed for threat-related ACEs. In addition, baseline social isolation was a significant modifier in the associations between deprivation-related ACEs and cognitive declines in global cognition (β = -0.033 [95% CI, -0.061 to -0.005] SD/y; P = .02 for 3-way interaction) and executive function (β = -0.032 [95% CI, -0.059 to -0.005] SD/y; P = .02 for 3-way interaction).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Deprivation-related ACEs, but not threat-related ACEs, were associated with faster decline in later-life cognitive function, whereas social isolation could modify such detrimental impact. These findings highlight the potential benefits of promoting social integration in maintaining later-life cognitive function among individuals who have experienced childhood deprivation.

Early deprivation alters structural brain development from middle childhood to adolescence

Hypotheses concerning the biologic embedding of early adversity via developmental neuroplasticity mechanisms have been proposed on the basis of experimental studies in animals. However, no studies have demonstrated a causal link between early adversity and neural development in humans. Here, we present evidence from a randomized controlled trial linking psychosocial deprivation in early childhood to changes in cortical development from childhood to adolescence using longitudinal data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Changes in cortical structure due to randomization to foster care were most pronounced in the lateral and medial prefrontal cortex and in white matter tracts connecting the prefrontal and parietal cortex. Demonstrating the causal impact of exposure to deprivation on the development of neural structure highlights the importance of early placement into family-based care to mitigate lasting neurodevelopmental consequences associated with early-life deprivation.

Neuroprotection in late life attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A review of pharmacotherapy and phenotype across the lifespan

For decades, psychostimulants have been the gold standard pharmaceutical treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In the United States, an astounding 9% of all boys and 4% of girls will be prescribed stimulant drugs at some point during their childhood. Recent meta-analyses have revealed that individuals with ADHD have reduced brain volume loss later in life (>60 y.o.) compared to the normal aging brain, which suggests that either ADHD or its treatment may be neuroprotective. Crucially, these neuroprotective effects were significant in brain regions (e.g., hippocampus, amygdala) where severe volume loss is linked to cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Historically, the ADHD diagnosis and its pharmacotherapy came about nearly simultaneously, making it difficult to evaluate their effects in isolation. Certain evidence suggests that psychostimulants may normalize structural brain changes typically observed in the ADHD brain. If ADHD itself is neuroprotective, perhaps exercising the brain, then psychostimulants may not be recommended across the lifespan. Alternatively, if stimulant drugs are neuroprotective, then this class of medications may warrant further investigation for their therapeutic effects. Here, we take a bottom-up holistic approach to review the psychopharmacology of ADHD in the context of recent models of attention. We suggest that future studies are greatly needed to better appreciate the interactions amongst an ADHD diagnosis, stimulant treatment across the lifespan, and structure-function alterations in the aging brain.

Epigenetic Effects in HPA Axis Genes Associated with Cortical Thickness, ERP Components and SUD Outcome

Association between familial loading for alcohol use disorders (AUD) and event-related potentials (ERPs) suggests a genetic basis for these oscillations though much less is known about epigenetic pathways influenced by environmental variation. Early life adversity (ELA) influences negative outcomes much later in life. The stress-activated neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) contributes to the deleterious effects of ELA on brain structure and function in animals. Accordingly, we hypothesized that ELA would be related to cortical thickness and electrophysiological characteristics through an epigenetic effect on CRH receptor type-1 (CRHR1) methylation. A total of 217 adolescent and young adult participants from either multiplex alcohol dependence or control families were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3T and cortical thickness was determined. Longitudinal follow-up across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood provided developmental ERP data and measures of adversity. Blood samples for genetic and epigenetic analyses were obtained in childhood. Cortical thickness and visual ERP components were analyzed for their association and tested for familial risk group differences. Visual P300 amplitude at Pz and cortical thickness of the left lateral orbitofrontal region (LOFC), were significantly related to risk group status. LOFC cortical thickness showed a negative correlation with CRHR1 methylation status and with childhood total stress scores from the Life Stressors and Social Resources Inventory (LISRES). Stress scores were also significantly related to P300 amplitude recorded in childhood. The present results suggest that early life adversity reflected in greater total LISRES stress scores in childhood can impact the methylation of the CRHR1 gene with implications for brain development as seen in cortical thickness and electrophysiological signals emanating from particular brain regions.

Transfer learning in high-dimensional semiparametric graphical models with application to brain connectivity analysis

Transfer learning has drawn growing attention with the target of improving statistical efficiency of one study (dataset) by digging up information from similar and related auxiliary studies (datasets). In this article, we consider transfer learning problem in estimating undirected semiparametric graphical model. We propose an algorithm called Trans-Copula-CLIME for estimating an undirected graphical model while uncovering information from similar auxiliary studies, characterizing the similarity between the target graph and each auxiliary graph by the sparsity of a divergence matrix. The proposed method relaxes the restrictive Gaussian distribution assumption, which deviates from reality for the fMRI dataset related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) considered here. Nonparametric rank-based correlation coefficient estimators are utilized in the Trans-Copula-CLIME procedure to achieve robustness against normality. We establish the convergence rate of the Trans-Copula-CLIME estimator under some mild conditions, which demonstrates that if the similarity between the auxiliary studies and the target study is sufficiently high and the number of informative auxiliary samples is sufficiently large, the Trans-Copula-CLIME estimator shows great advantage over the existing non-transfer-learning ones. Simulation studies also show that Trans-Copula-CLIME estimator has better performance especially when data are not from Gaussian distribution. Finally, the proposed method is applied to infer functional brain connectivity pattern for ADHD patients in the target Beijing site by leveraging the fMRI datasets from some other sites.

Longstanding health risk across the life course: The influence of early-life experience on health status throughout the life span

This study tracked the longstanding effect of childhood adversities on health status over the course of a life. This study used the data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study which was a nationally representative survey and documented the generation who had arrived in the middle- and old-age phase and experienced the difficult time in the early founding of PR China in their childhood. Results shown the significant associations between multiple forms of children adversities (economic distress, child neglect, child abuse, lack of friends, parental mental health problems) and health status in adolescence (from 0.068 to 0.102, p<0.01), and health status in mid and late adulthood, including self-rated general health problems (from 0.039 to 0.061, p<0.01), chronic conditions (from 0.014 to 0.120, p<0.01 except for lack of friends), body aches (from 0.016 to 0.062, p<0.01 except for child neglect), and depression (from 0.047 to 0.112, p<0.01). Meanwhile, results also shown an underlying pathway (i.e., health status in adolescence) linking childhood adversities and health status in mid and late adulthood. Results suggested that the experience of multiple forms of adversities in childhood represented a substantial source of health risk throughout life.

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project: Adolescent mental health and adaptation following early deprivation

Over the last 20 years, we have learned much about the extent to which early-life deprivation affects the mental health of children and adolescents. This body of evidence comes predominantly from studies of children raised in institutional care. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) is the only randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate whether the transition to family-based foster care early in development can ameliorate the long-term impact of institutional deprivation on psychopathology during vulnerable developmental windows such as adolescence. In this review, we detail the extent to which early deprivation affects mental health during this period, the capacity of family-based care to facilitate recovery from early deprivation, and the mechanisms underpinning these effects spanning social-emotional, cognitive, stress, and neurobiological domains. We end by discussing the implications and directions for the BEIP and other studies of youth raised in institutions.

Adoption and trauma: Risks, recovery, and the lived experience of adoption

BACKGROUND

Although a very heterogeneous group, adopted persons may present developmental and mental health problems of varying severity. Pre-placement adversity and trauma have often been linked to these problems. It has been also suggested that adoption itself is a psychological trauma, predisposing the individual to emotional difficulties.

OBJECTIVES

This article examines the links between early adversity, trauma, and adoption. We begin by defining trauma and then describe the way in which pre-placement adversity can undermine neurobehavioral and interpersonal functioning, increasing the risk for long-term psychological difficulties. Next, we examine children's recovery when placed in a stable adoptive home. Finally, we explore adoption as a lived experience, highlighting contextual and developmental factors that facilitate the person's positive or negative attributions about being adopted, leading to varying patterns of emotional adjustment.

CONCLUSIONS

Although pre-placement adversity increases adopted individuals' risk for maladjustment, the human brain and behavior are malleable, and placement in a nurturing adoptive home often facilitates recovery from early adversity, with significant heterogeneity in the extent of recovery within and across domains of functioning. While there is no evidence that early adoption is a trauma for the individual, ongoing negative life circumstances, attachment difficulties, and developmentally-mediated attributions about adoption can undermine the person's self-esteem, identity, relationships, and sense of well-being. Conclusions and suggestions for future research are offered.

Disorganized attachment behaviors in infancy as predictors of brain morphology and peer rejection in late childhood

Studies show robust links between disorganized attachment in infancy and socioemotional maladjustment in childhood. Little is known, however, about the links between disorganized attachment and brain development, and whether attachment-related differences in brain morphology translate into meaningful variations in child socioemotional functioning. This study examined the links between infants' disorganized attachment behaviors toward their mothers, whole-brain regional grey matter volume and thickness, and peer rejection in late childhood. Thirty-three children and their mothers took part in this study. The Strange Situation Procedure was used to assess mother-infant attachment when infants were 18 months old. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed when they were 10 years old to assess cortical thickness and grey matter volumes. Children and teachers reported on peer rejection 1 year later, as an indicator of socioemotional maladjustment. Results indicated that disorganized attachment was not associated with grey matter volumes. However, children who exhibited more disorganized attachment behaviors in infancy had significantly thicker cortices in bilateral middle and superior frontal gyri, and extending to the inferior frontal gyrus, as well as the orbitofrontal and insular cortices in the right hemisphere in late childhood. Moreover, children with thicker cortices in these regions experienced greater peer rejection, as rated by themselves and their teachers. Although preliminary, these results are the first to indicate that disorganized attachment may play a role in cortical thickness development and that changes in cortical thickness are associated with differences in child socioemotional functioning.

Experience-driven plasticity and the emergence of psychopathology: A mechanistic framework integrating development and the environment into the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) model

Despite the clear importance of a developmental perspective for understanding the emergence of psychopathology across the life-course, such a perspective has yet to be integrated into the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) model. In this paper, we articulate a framework that incorporates developmentally specific learning mechanisms that reflect experience-driven plasticity as additional units of analysis in the existing RDoC matrix. These include both experience-expectant learning mechanisms that occur during sensitive periods of development and experience-dependent learning mechanisms that may exhibit substantial variation across development. Incorporating these learning mechanisms allows for clear integration not only of development but also environmental experience into the RDoC model. We demonstrate how individual differences in environmental experiences-such as early life adversity-can be leveraged to identify experience-driven plasticity patterns across development and apply this framework to consider how environmental experience shapes key biobehavioral processes that comprise the RDoC model. This framework provides a structure for understanding how affective, cognitive, social, and neurobiological processes are shaped by experience across development and ultimately contribute to the emergence of psychopathology. We demonstrate how incorporating an experience-driven plasticity framework is critical for understanding the development of many processes subsumed within the RDoC model, which will contribute to greater understanding of developmental variation in the etiology of psychopathology and can be leveraged to identify potential windows of heightened developmental plasticity when clinical interventions might be maximally efficacious. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Classifying Young Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Based on Child, Parent, and Family Characteristics: A Cross-Validation Study

We aimed to identify subgroups of young children with differential risks for ADHD, and cross-validate these subgroups with an independent sample of children. All children in Study 1 (N = 120) underwent psychological assessments and were diagnosed with ADHD before age 7. Latent class analysis (LCA) classified children into risk subgroups. Study 2 (N = 168) included an independent sample of children under age 7. A predictive model from Study 1 was applied to Study 2. The latent class analyses in Study 1 indicated preference of a 3-class solution (BIC = 3807.70, p < 0.001). Maternal education, income-to-needs ratio, and family history of psychopathology, defined class membership more strongly than child factors. An almost identical LCA structure from Study 1 was replicated in Study 2 (BIC = 5108.01, p < 0.001). Indices of sensitivity (0.913, 95% C.I. 0.814−0.964) and specificity (0.788, 95% C.I. 0.692−0.861) were high across studies. It is concluded that the classifications represent valid combinations of child, parent, and family characteristics that are predictive of ADHD in young children.

Examining the common and specific grey matter abnormalities in childhood maltreatment and peer victimisation

BACKGROUND

Early-life interpersonal stress, particularly childhood maltreatment, is associated with neurobiological abnormalities. However, few studies have investigated the neural effects of peer victimisation.

AIMS

This study examines common and specific associations between childhood maltreatment, peer victimisation and brain structural alterations in youths.

METHOD

Grey matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness data were collected from 105 age- and gender-matched youths (age range: 17-21 years). Region-of-interest and whole-brain analyses were conducted.

RESULTS

For the region-of-interest analyses, the childhood maltreatment group had smaller GMV than controls in left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral anterior insula, postcentral and lingual regions, which were associated with greater emotional abuse, along with smaller insular GMV than the peer victimisation group, who had smaller left lingual and postcentral GMV than controls. At the whole-brain level, both childhood maltreatment and peer victimisation groups had smaller GMV than controls in a cluster comprising left post/precentral, inferior frontal gyrus, insula, superior parietal and supramarginal gyri. The peer victimisation group alone had increased cortical thickness in a cluster comprising left superior frontal, anterior cingulate and medial orbitofrontal gyri, which was related to greater cyberbullying.

CONCLUSIONS

Early-life interpersonal stress is associated with common structural alterations of the inferior frontal-limbic, sensory and lingual regions involved in cognitive control, emotion and sensory processing. The findings of childhood-maltreatment-related reduced anterior insular GMV and peer-victimisation-related increased cortical thickness in the left medial prefrontal-anterior cingulate cluster underscore the distinctive negative effects of childhood maltreatment and peer victimisation, and suggest that peer victimisation, particularly cyberbullying, could be as detrimental as childhood maltreatment.

Environmental Conditions to Promote Healthy Childhood Brain/Behavioral Development: Informing Early Preventive Interventions for Delivery in Routine Care

Environmental experiences early in life have strong and enduring consequences for cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological development and related physical and mental health trajectories. The powerful influence of early caregiver nurturance and stimulation on promoting positive neurodevelopmental outcomes has been demonstrated across species. These findings elucidate the environmental conditions known to facilitate healthy neurodevelopment and underscore the potential for modifiable psychosocial factors in the environment to be harnessed to inform early preventive interventions to promote health and adaptive development. A framework for early preventive interventions to enhance nurturing and responsive caregiving for implementation during early sensitive periods of brain development delivered within existing health or educational infrastructures is proposed. Emotional development during sensitive periods is an important, under-recognized, and abundantly modifiable predictor of mental and physical health outcomes that warrants investment of resources and integration of interventions into public health infrastructure for children worldwide. Future studies are needed to further clarify whether and when sensitive periods are present for key developmental domains to inform the optimal timing and targets of these interventions. Numerous available empirically supported early interventions may be modified and applied in briefer and more feasible modalities of delivery to broader populations of developing children. As well established in growth and development across species, essential environmental inputs that are particularly important at specified developmental periods facilitate optimal growth trajectories. Such principles hold great potential in application to early child neurodevelopment to facilitate a thriving and resilient human population.

Functional dysconnectivity of cerebellum and attention networks in emotional dysregulation shared between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and major depressive disorder: a multimodal imaging study

BACKGROUND

Emotional dysregulation (ED) is a common characteristic of both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), especially in adolescents. However, whether ADHD and MDD may share the specific ED-related neural networks remains unknown.

METHODS

In total, 43 adolescents with clinical ED (22 adolescents with ADHD and 21 with MDD) were recruited; in addition, 29 sex- and age-matched healthy controls (HCs) were included. Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analysis, voxel-based morphometry, and diffusion tensor imaging analysis were performed for each patient. In addition, we determined the significant regions of interest in patients with ED due to ADHD and MDD as compared with HCs and tested their correlations with clinical rating scale scores.

RESULTS

Compared with HCs, patients with ED had greater RSFC in the cerebellum and supramarginal gyrus (SMG), especially between vermis VI and the SMG in the attention networks, and lower RSFC between the right supplementary motor area and right lateral parietal area. Lower gray matter (GM) volume in the SMG was also found. RSFC was significantly correlated with clinical rating scale scores for all patients with ED due to ADHD or MDD. GM change was correlated with ED and MDD rating scale scores.

DISCUSSION

The cerebellum and attention networks might play major roles in ED pathophysiology in adolescents with ADHD and MDD. Increased connectivity of the vermis to the SMG serves as a possible underlying neural network.

The effects of early life adversity on children's mental health and cognitive functioning

Emerging evidence suggests that partially distinct mechanisms may underlie the association between different dimensions of early life adversity (ELA) and psychopathology in children and adolescents. While there is minimal evidence that different types of ELA are associated with specific psychopathology outcomes, there are partially unique cognitive and socioemotional consequences of specific dimensions of ELA that increase transdiagnostic risk of mental health problems across the internalizing and externalizing spectra. The current review provides an overview of recent findings examining the cognitive (e.g., language, executive function), socioemotional (e.g., attention bias, emotion regulation), and mental health correlates of ELA along the dimensions of threat/harshness, deprivation, and unpredictability. We underscore similarities and differences in the mechanisms connecting different dimensions of ELA to particular mental health outcomes, and identify gaps and future directions that may help to clarify inconsistencies in the literature. This review focuses on childhood and adolescence, periods of exquisite neurobiological change and sensitivity to the environment. The utility of dimensional models of ELA in better understanding the mechanistic pathways towards the expression of psychopathology is discussed, with the review supporting the value of such models in better understanding the developmental sequelae associated with ELA. Integration of dimensional models of ELA with existing models focused on psychiatric classification and biobehavioral mechanisms may advance our understanding of the etiology, phenomenology, and treatment of mental health difficulties in children and youth.

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.

Timing and Type of Early Psychopathology Symptoms Predict Longitudinal Change in Cortical Thickness From Middle Childhood Into Early Adolescence

BACKGROUND

Early-life experiences have profound effects on functioning in adulthood. Altered cortical development may be one mechanism through which early-life experiences, including poverty and psychopathology symptoms, affect outcomes. However, there is little prospective research beginning early in development that combines clinician-rated psychopathology symptoms and multiwave magnetic resonance imaging to examine when these relationships emerge.

METHODS

Children from the Preschool Depression Study who completed diagnostic interviews at three different developmental stages (preschool, school age, early adolescent) and up to three magnetic resonance imaging scans beginning in middle childhood participated in this study (N = 138). Multilevel models were used to calculate intercepts and slopes of cortical thickness within a priori cortical regions of interest. Linear regressions probed how early-life poverty and psychopathology (depression, anxiety, and externalizing symptoms at separate developmental periods) related to intercept/slope.

RESULTS

Collectively, experiences during the preschool period predicted reduced cortical thickness, via either reduced intercept or accelerated thinning (slope). Early-life poverty predicted intercepts within sensory and sensory-motor integration regions. Beyond poverty, preschool anxiety symptoms predicted intercepts within the insula, subgenual cingulate, and inferior parietal cortex. Preschool externalizing symptoms predicted accelerated thinning within prefrontal and parietal cortices. Depression and anxiety/externalizing symptoms at later ages were not significant predictors.

CONCLUSIONS

Early childhood is a critical period of risk; experiences at this developmental stage specifically have the potential for prolonged influence on brain development. Negative early experiences collectively predicted reduced cortical thickness, but the specific neural systems affected aligned with those typically implicated in these individual disorders/experiences.

Altered Spontaneous Brain Activity in Left-Behind Children: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study

Background

Parental migration has been associated with a higher risk of cognitive and behavioral abnormalities in left-behind children (LBC). This study aimed to explore the spontaneous brain activity in LBC and reveal the mechanisms underlying behavioral and cognitive abnormalities.

Methods

Involved LBC (n = 36) and non-LBC (n = 22) underwent resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) examination and cognitive and behavioral assessment. The fMRI-based amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF) were assessed to analyze the spontaneous brain activity pattern. The relationships among abnormal spontaneous brain activity, behavioral and cognitive deficits and altered family environment were assessed by partial correlation analysis.

Results

Compared with non-LBC, LBC exhibited increased amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in the right lingual gyrus (LING), while a decreased ALFF was observed in the bilateral insula and right orbital part of the middle frontal gyrus (ORBmid) (two-tailed voxel-level p < 0.01 and cluster-level p <0.05, Gaussian Random Field (GRF) correction). The fALFF in LBC were significantly increased in the left cerebellum 9 (Cbe9) and right cerebellum Crus2 (CbeCru2), while it decreased in the right hippocampus and left superior temporal gyrus (STG) (two-tailed voxel-level p < 0.01 and cluster-level p < 0.05, GRF correction). The ALFF and fALFF values in abnormal brain regions were found to be correlated with the learning ability, except for the right insula, while the fALFF values of the left STG were positively correlated with the full-scale IQ scores (p < 0.05). Moreover, the ALFF and fALFF values in all abnormal brain regions correlated with the education level of caregivers (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Our study provided empirical evidence that the lack of direct parental care during early childhood could affect brain function development involving cognition, behavior, and emotion. Our findings emphasized that intellectual and emotional cares are essential for LBC.

Timing of adoption is associated with electrophysiological brain activity and externalizing problems among children adopted internationally

This study investigated middle childhood resting electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioral adjustment in 35 internationally adopted children removed from early caregiving adversity between 6 and 29 months of age. Older age of adoption was associated with more immature or atypical profiles of middle childhood cortical function, based on higher relative theta power (4-6 Hz), lower relative alpha power (7-12 Hz), lower peak alpha frequency, and lower absolute beta (13-20 Hz) and gamma (21-50 Hz) power. More immature or atypical EEG spectral power indirectly linked older age of adoption with increased risk for externalizing problems in middle childhood. The findings add to existing evidence linking duration of early adverse exposures with lasting effects on brain function and behavioral regulation even years after living in a stable adoptive family setting. Findings underscore the need to minimize and prevent children's exposures to early caregiving adversity, especially in the first years of life. They call for innovative interventions to support neurotypical development in internationally adopted children at elevated risk.

A Review of Family Environment and Neurobehavioral Outcomes Following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Implications of Early Adverse Experiences, Family Stress, and Limbic Development

Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a public health crisis, with neurobehavioral morbidity observed years after an injury associated with changes in related brain structures. A substantial literature base has established family environment as a significant predictor of neurobehavioral outcomes following pediatric TBI. The neural mechanisms linking family environment to neurobehavioral outcomes have, however, received less empiric study in this population. In contrast, limbic structural differences as well as challenges with emotional adjustment and behavioral regulation in non-TBI populations have been linked to a multitude of family environmental factors, including family stress, parenting style, and adverse childhood experiences. In this article, we systematically review the more comprehensive literature on family environment and neurobehavioral outcomes in pediatric TBI and leverage the work in both TBI and non-TBI populations to expand our understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms. Thus, we summarize the extant literature on the family environment's role in neurobehavioral sequelae in children with TBI and explore potential neural correlates by synthesizing the wealth of literature on family environment and limbic development, specifically related to the amygdala. This review underscores the critical role of environmental factors, especially those predating the injury, in modeling recovery outcomes post-TBI in childhood, and discusses clinical and research implications across pediatric populations. Given the public health crisis of pediatric TBI, along with the context of sparse available medical interventions, a broader understanding of factors contributing to outcomes is warranted to expand the range of intervention targets.