Regional gray matter volume mediates the relationship between maternal emotional warmth and gratitude

Observed Parenting and Adolescent Brain Structure

Parent-youth relationships and parenting are critically important to adolescents' development. The present study examined associations between parenting behaviors (which included observed parent emotion expression and negative and positive parenting behaviors during a parent-adolescent interaction) and adolescent brain structure, and sex differences in associations, in 66 12-14 year-olds. The study found that 1) among all adolescents in the sample, greater parent negative emotion expression in parent-youth interactions was associated with greater adolescent gray matter volume (GMV) in the left hippocampus, 2) parent positive emotion expression was not associated with adolescent GMV, 3) several associations differed by sex. These findings suggest that parenting is important for adolescent brain structure and future work should consider this by sex.

Mothers’ Attachment Representations and Children’s Brain Structure

Ample research demonstrates that parents’ experience-based mental representations of attachment—cognitive models of close relationships—relate to their children’s social-emotional development. However, no research to date has examined how parents’ attachment representations relate to another crucial domain of children’s development: brain development. The present study is the first to integrate the separate literatures on attachment and developmental social cognitive neuroscience to examine the link between mothers’ attachment representations and 3- to 8-year-old children’s brain structure. We hypothesized that mothers’ attachment representations would relate to individual differences in children’s brain structures involved in stress regulation—specifically, amygdala and hippocampal volumes—in part via mothers’ responses to children’s distress. We assessed 52 mothers’ attachment representations (secure base script knowledge on the Attachment Script Assessment and self-reported attachment avoidance and anxiety on the Experiences in Close Relationships scale) and children’s brain structure. Mothers’ secure base script knowledge was significantly related to children’s smaller left amygdala volume but was unrelated to hippocampal volume; we found no indirect links via maternal responses to children’s distress. Exploratory analyses showed associations between mothers’ attachment representations and white matter and thalamus volumes. Together, these preliminary results suggest that mothers’ attachment representations may be linked to the development of children’s neural circuitry related to stress regulation.

A review of associations between parental emotion socialization behaviors and the neural substrates of emotional reactivity and regulation in youth

As highlighted by Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad (1998), parents play a critical role in children's socioemotional development, in part, by shaping how children and adolescents process, respond to, and regulate their emotions (i.e., emotional reactivity/regulation). Although evidence for associations between parenting behavior and youth's emotional processing has relied primarily on behavioral measures of emotion, researchers have begun to examine how parenting is related to the neural substrates of youth's reactivity and regulation. This article reviews a growing literature linking parental behavior with structural brain development as well as functional activity and connectivity in neural regions supporting emotional reactivity/regulation during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. By focusing on normative parental behaviors, we evaluate the evidence for associations between typical variations in caregiving and neural processes thought to support youth's emotional reactivity/regulation. The purpose of this review is to (1) extend the model put forth by Eisenberg and colleagues to consider the ways that parenting behaviors are related to neural substrates of youth's emotional reactivity and regulation; (2) review the empirical evidence for associations between parenting, particularly parental "emotion-related socialization behaviors" (ERSBs), and neural substrates of youth's emotional reactivity/regulation; and (3) recommend future directions for this emerging area of research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

rs1360780 of the FKBP5 gene modulates the association between maternal acceptance and regional gray matter volume in the thalamus in children and adolescents

Investigating the effects of gene–environment interactions (G × E) with regard to brain structure may help to elucidate the putative mechanisms associated with psychiatric risk. rs1360780 (C/T) is a functional single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the gene encoding FK506–binding protein 5 (FKBP5), which is involved in the regulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis stress responses. The minor (T) allele of FKBP5 is considered a risk allele for stress-related disorders, due to the overproduction of FKBP5, which results in impaired communication of stress signals with the HPA axis. Previous studies have reported that interactions between childhood maltreatment and the rs1360780 genotype affect structures in subcortical areas of the brain. However, it is unclear how this SNP modulates the association between non-adverse environments and brain structure. In this study, we examined the interactive effect of the rs1360780 genotype and maternal acceptance on the regional gray matter volume (rGMV) in 202 Japanese children. Maternal acceptance was assessed using a Japanese psychological questionnaire for mothers. Whole-brain multiple regression analysis using voxel-based morphometry showed a significant positive association between maternal acceptance and rGMV in the left thalamus of T-allele carriers, while a significant negative association was found in C/C homozygotes. Post-hoc analysis revealed that at or below the 70th percentiles of maternal acceptance, the T-allele carriers had a reduced thalamic rGMV compared with that of C/C homozygotes. Thus, our investigation indicated that the effect of the maternal acceptance level on brain development was different, depending on the rs1360780 genotype. Importantly, we found that the differences in brain structure between the T-allele carriers and C/C homozygotes at low to moderate levels of maternal acceptance, which is not equivalent to maltreatment. The present study contributes to the G × E research by highlighting the necessity to investigate the role of non-adverse environmental factors.

Functional and Structural Brain Correlates of Socioeconomic Status

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a multidimensional construct that includes not only measures of material wealth, but also education, social prestige, and neighborhood quality. Socioeconomic correlates between wealth and cognitive functions have been well established in behavioral studies. However, functional and structural brain correlates of SES remain unclear. Here, we sought to uncover the most likely neural regions to be affected by low SES, specifically associated with age. Using effect size–seed-based d Mapping, we compiled studies that examined individuals with low SES and performed functional magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry meta-analyses. The results revealed that as from early to late age, individuals exposed to low SES are less likely to have sustained executive network activity yet a greater likelihood to enhanced activity within reward-related regions. A similar activity was shown for gray matter volume across early to older age. These findings provide the first quantitative integration of neuroimaging results pertaining to the neural basis of SES. Hypoactivation of the executive network and hyperactivation of the reward network in low SES individuals may support the scarcity hypothesis and animal models of the effects of early adversity.

Praising others differently: neuroanatomical correlates to individual differences in trait gratitude and elevation

Differing from basic emotions such as happiness, gratitude and elevation are important other-praising emotions. Previous behavioral studies have established that these complex emotions differ from each other; however, it remains under-investigated whether proneness to these emotions have common or distinct neuroanatomical correlates. Here we used voxel-based morphometry to identify the common and distinct neuroanatomical correlates of trait (i.e. proneness to) gratitude and elevation. We used the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 and the trait elevation scale to measure these affective traits. We demonstrated that trait gratitude was positively correlated with gray matter volume (GMV) in the left cerebellum extending to fusiform gyrus, and also the right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) extending to posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ), while trait elevation was negatively correlated with GMV in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. While controlling each other, all the regions still held significant, except the right MOG and pSTS/TPJ. The results indicate that there are distinct neuroanatomical correlates for proneness to gratitude and elevation, while the evidence is mixed that pSTS/TPJ may be the common correlates for them. The implications of these findings are discussed.