Enhanced emotion regulation capacity and its neural substrates in those exposed to moderate childhood adversity

Szabo Y. Childhood Adversity and Adult Inflammation: Exploring the Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation in the MIDUS II Study

The present study furthers understanding of how childhood adversity connects to inflammation and, in turn, poor health. Using the publicly available Midlife in the United States II (MIDUS II) dataset, we test a recent theoretical model that suggests emotion regulation is a potential mechanism of associations between adversity and inflammation. We examined the indirect effects of various types of adversity (e.g., stressful events, maltreatment, threat, and deprivation) on inflammation via two emotion regulation strategies (i.e., expressive suppression and reappraisal). Participants included 1096 adults without a history of cancer or HIV/AIDS who had completed the initial MIDUS II follow up and a sub-study examining biomarkers. Participants completed self-report measures inquiring about psychosocial factors including stressful life events, childhood trauma, and emotion regulation as well as provided blood samples. Bivariate correlation indicated that multiple forms of childhood adversity were associated with both C-reactive protein and fibrinogen. Deprivation, as measured by a stressful life events scale, was positively associated with both reappraisal and suppression. Tests of indirect effects indicated that deprivation was positively associated with fibrinogen through both emotion regulation strategies, particularly for female participants. Our findings partially support recent theory positing emotion regulation as a pathway through which childhood adversity may impact inflammation in adulthood. Further, deprivation may be particularly critical in understanding how adversity is connected to maladaptive emotion regulation and inflammation. Emotion regulation may be an important treatment target to mitigate the negative impact of childhood adversity on health and well-being.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-023-00594-2.

Adverse childhood experiences differently affect Theory of Mind brain networks in schizophrenia and healthy controls

Patients with schizophrenia (SZ) show impairments in both affective and cognitive dimensions of theory of mind (ToM). SZ are also particularly vulnerable to detrimental effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACE), influencing the overall course of the disorder and fostering poor social functioning. ACE associate with long-lasting detrimental effects on brain structure, function, and connectivity in regions involved in ToM. Here, we investigated whether ToM networks are differentially affected by ACEs in healthy controls (HC) and SZ, and if these effects can predict the disorder clinical outcome. 26 HC and 33 SZ performed a ToM task during an fMRI session. Whole-brain functional response and connectivity (FC) were extracted, investigating the interaction between ACEs and diagnosis. FC values significantly affected by ACEs were entered in a cross-validated LASSO regression predicting Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and task performance. ACEs and diagnosis showed a widespread interaction at both affective and cognitive tasks, including connectivity between vmPFC, ACC, precentral and postcentral gyri, insula, PCC, precuneus, parahippocampal gyrus, temporal pole, thalamus, and cerebellum, and functional response in the ACC, thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus and putamen. FC predicted the PANSS score, the fantasy dimension of IRI, and the AToM response latency. Our results highlight the crucial role of early stress in differentially shaping ToM related brain networks in HC and SZ. These effects can also partially explain the clinical and behavioral outcomes of the disorder, extending our knowledge of the effects of ACEs.

A single 24 h maternal separation at PND 9 promotes behavioral resilience of female C57BL/6J mice and the possible role of hippocampal Homer1a

Early life stress (ELS) has been thought to increase vulnerability to developing psychiatric disorders later in life, while some researchers have found that adversity early in life may promote stress resilience. Studies investigating the resilient effect of maternal separation (MS) are still relatively few, and the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. In the current study, the effect of a single 24 h MS paradigm at postnatal day 9 (PND 9) in female C57BL/6J mice was investigated by assessing behavioral performance in middle adolescence. We demonstrated that, mice in MS group displayed decreased anxiety-like behavior and increased exploratory behavior than controls in the open field test and elevated plus maze test. Furthermore, MS mice exhibited improved hippocampal-dependent spatial learning in the Morris water maze test. This performance indicated behavioral resilience to early life stress. The protein expression levels of Homer1 isoforms, which are implicated in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, were evaluated using Western blot analysis. A significant increase in hippocampal Homer1a protein expression was observed immediately after MS, which subsequently decreased until adolescence (PND 27-42), when a significant increase was observed again. This distinctive change of hippocampal Homer1a protein expression pattern indicated that hippocampal Homer1a might play a role in behavioral resilience to MS in female C57BL/6J mice. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that exposure to a single 24 h MS at PND 9 promoted behavioral resilience of female C57BL/6J mice in middle adolescence. This behavioral resilience might be related to increased expression of hippocampal Homer1a.

Age-related positive emotional reactivity decline associated with the anterior insula based resting-state functional connectivity

Recent studies have suggested that emotional reactivity changes with age, but the neural basis is still unclear. The insula may be critical for the emotional reactivity. The current study examined how ageing affects emotional reactivity using the emotional reactivity task data from a human sample (Cambridge Center for Age and Neuroscience, N = 243, age 18-88 years). The resting-state magnetic resonance measurements from the same sample were used to investigate the potential mechanisms of the insula. In the initial analysis, we conducted partial correlation assessments to examine the associations between emotional reactivity and age, as well as between the gray matter volume (GMV) of the insula and age. Our results revealed that emotional reactivity, especially positive emotional reactivity, decreased with age and that the GMV of the insula was negatively correlated with age. Subsequently, the bilateral insula was divided into six subregions to calculate the whole brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC). The mediating effect of the rsFC on age and emotional reactivity was then calculated. The results showed that the rsFC of the left anterior insula (AI) with the right hippocampus, and the rsFCs of the right AI with the striatum and the thalamus were mediated the relationship between positive emotional reactivity and age. Our findings suggest that attenuating emotional reactivity with age may be a strategic adaptation fostering emotional stability and diminishing emotional vulnerability. Meanwhile, the findings implicate a key role for the AI in the changes in positive emotional reactivity with age.

Neural correlates of perceived and relative resilience in male and female patients with irritable bowel syndrome

BACKGROUND

Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) show lower resilience than healthy controls (HCs), associated with greater symptom severity and worse quality of life. However, little is known about affected markers of resilience or the influence of sex. Furthermore, as resilience is complex, a comprehensive assessment, with multiple resilience measures, is needed. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate perceived and relative resilience and their neural correlates in men and women with IBS.

METHODS

In 402 individuals (232 IBS [73.3% women] and 170 HCs [61.2% women]), perceived resilience was assessed by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CDRISC) and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS); relative resilience was assessed by the standardized residual of the Short Form-12 mental component summary score predicted by the Adverse Childhood Experiences score. Non-rotated partial least squares analysis of region-to-region resting-state connectivity data was used to define resilience-related signatures in HCs. Disease and sex-related differences within these signatures were investigated.

KEY RESULTS

Scores on all resilience measures were lower in IBS than in HCs (p's < 0.05). In all three resilience-related signatures, patients with IBS showed reduced connectivity largely involving the central autonomic network (p's < 0.001). Men with IBS showed lower CDRISC scores than women with IBS, and greater reductions in CDRISC-related connectivity, associated with worse symptom severity (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS AND INFERENCES

Individuals with IBS show reduced perceived and relative resilience, with reduced connectivity suggesting impaired homeostasis maintenance. Men with IBS may show additional impairment in specific aspects of resilience. Treatments aimed at improving resilience may benefit patients with IBS, especially men with IBS.

Family economic status and vulnerability to suicidal ideation among adolescents: A re-examination of recent findings

BACKGROUND

According to the "differential vulnerability hypothesis," individuals in adverse socioeconomic circumstances as less mentally resilient to stressful events. However, several recent papers radically challenged this hypothesis based on the accumulated literature on stress inoculation and presented cases in which lower-SES adolescents appear to be less vulnerable to suicidal ideation in the face of interpersonal aggression.

OBJECTIVE

We re-examine the link between psychological vulnerability to acute stressors and SES using yearly longitudinal public survey data from South Korea.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

This is a secondary data analysis of a multi-year public health panel dataset on South Korean adolescents.

METHODS

Logistic regression is used to examine the association between suicidal ideation and a range of predictor variables, with a particular focus on the interaction between bullying victimhood and log family income. These variables and the sample were chosen for consistency with recent revisionist research.

RESULTS

We reaffirm the well-established finding that bullying victimhood strongly and consistently increases the odds of suicidal ideation (OR = 1.859, p < 0.01). However, we find no evidence in favor of the traditional "differential vulnerability hypothesis" or the recently proposed counterhypothesis. A subsample analysis from the latest wave (W4-W5) did produce results that are consistent with recent revisionist findings, but we suggest this is likely a false positive.

CONCLUSIONS

There appears to be no systematic association between SES and vulnerability to suicidal ideation in the face of peer aggression among South Korean adolescents. The claim that lower-SES adolescents may be more resilient to stressful events stands on limited empirical support.

Social support and overeating in young women: The role of altering functional network connectivity patterns and negative emotions

Research suggests that social support has a protective effect on emotional health and emotionally induced overeating. Women are especially more sensitive to benefits from social support when facing eating problems. Although it has been demonstrated that social support can affect the neural processes of emotion regulation and reward perception, it is unclear how social support alters synergistic patterns in large-scale brain networks associated with negative emotions and overeating. We used a large sample of young women aged 17-22 years (N = 360) to examine how social support influences the synchrony of five intrinsic networks (executive control network [ECN], default mode network, salience network [SN], basal ganglia network, and precuneus network [PN]) and how these networks influence negative affect and overeating. Additionally, we explored these analyses in another sample of males (N = 136). After statistically controlling for differences in age and head movement, we observed significant associations of higher levels of social support with increased intra- and inter-network functional synchrony, particularly for ECN-centered network connectivity. Subsequent chain-mediated analyses showed that social support predicted overeating through the ECN-SN and ECN-PN network connectivity and negative emotions. However, these results were not found in men. These findings suggest that social support influences the synergistic patterns within and between intrinsic networks related to inhibitory control, emotion salience, self-referential thinking, and reward sensitivity. Furthermore, they reveal that social support and its neural markers may play a key role in young women's emotional health and eating behavior.

Role of Emotion Reactivity to Predict Facial Emotion Recognition Changes with Aging

Emotional intelligence includes an assortment of factors related to emotion function. Such factors involve emotion recognition (in this case via facial expression), emotion trait, reactivity, and regulation. We aimed to investigate how the subjective appraisals of emotional intelligence (i.e. trait, reactivity, and regulation) are associated with objective emotion recognition accuracy, and how these associations differ between young and older adults. Data were extracted from the CamCAN dataset (189 adults: 57 young/118 older) from assessments measuring these emotion constructs. Using linear regression models, we found that greater negative reactivity was associated with better emotion recognition accuracy among older adults, though the pattern was opposite for young adults with the greatest difference in disgust and surprise recognition. Positive reactivity and depression level predicted surprise recognition, with the associations significantly differing between the age groups. The present findings suggest the level to which older and young adults react to emotional stimuli differentially predicts their ability to correctly identify facial emotion expressions. Older adults with higher negative reactivity may be able to integrate their negative emotions effectively in order to recognize other's negative emotions more accurately. Alternatively, young adults may experience interference from negative reactivity, lowering their ability to recognize other's negative emotions.

Functional neuroimaging of resilience to trauma: convergent evidence and challenges for future research

Resilience is broadly defined as the ability to adapt successfully following stressful life events. Here, we review functional MRI studies that investigated key psychological factors that have been consistently linked to resilience to severe adversity and trauma exposure. These domains include emotion regulation (including cognitive reappraisal), reward responsivity, and cognitive control. Further, we briefly review functional imaging evidence related to emerging areas of study that may potentially facilitate resilience: namely social cognition, active coping, and successful fear extinction. Finally, we also touch upon ongoing issues in neuroimaging study design that will need to be addressed to enable us to harness insight from such studies to improve treatments for - or, ideally, guard against the development of - debilitating post-traumatic stress syndromes.

Reappraisal capacity is unrelated to depressive and anxiety symptoms

Research suggests affective symptoms are associated with reduced habitual use of reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy in individuals with mental health problems. Less is known, however, about whether mental health problems are related to reduced reappraisal capacity per se. The current study investigates this question using a film-based emotion regulation task that required participants to use reappraisal to downregulate their emotional response to highly evocative real-life film footage. We pooled data (N = 512, age: 18-89 years, 54% female) from 6 independent studies using this task. In contrast to our predictions, symptoms of depression and anxiety were unrelated to self-reported negative affect after reappraisal or to emotional reactivity to negative films. Implications for the measurement of reappraisal as well as future directions for research in the field of emotion regulation are discussed.

It's worth the trouble: Stressor exposure is related to increased cognitive reappraisal ability

Recent theories propose moderate (compared to high or no) stressor exposure to promote emotion regulation capacities. More precisely, stressful situations are expected to serve as practice opportunities for cognitive reappraisal (CR), that is, the reinterpretation of a situation to alter its emotional impact. Accordingly, in this study, we expect an inverted U-shaped relationship between exposure to daily hassles and performance in a CR task, that is, best reappraisal ability in individuals with a history of moderate stressor exposure. Participants (N = 165) reported the number of daily hassles during the last week as indicator of stressor exposure and completed the Script-based Reappraisal Test (SRT). In the SRT, participants are presented with fear-eliciting scripts and instructed to either downregulate negative affect via reappraisal (reappraisal-trials) or react naturally (control-trials). Two measures indicate CR ability: (1) reappraisal effectiveness, that is, the difference between affective ratings in reappraisal- and control-trials and (2) reappraisal inventiveness, that is, the number of valid and categorically different reappraisal thoughts. Multiple regression analyses revealed positive linear, but not quadratic, relationships of exposure to daily hassles and both indicators of CR ability. Potential benefits of stressor exposure for emotion regulation processes are discussed.

Age-Related Enhancements in Positive Emotionality across The Life Span: Structural Equation Modeling of Brain and Behavior

Aging is associated with a bias in attention and memories toward positive and away from negative emotional content. In addition, emotion regulation appears to improve with age, despite concomitant widespread cognitive decline coupled with gray matter volume loss in cortical and subcortical regions thought to subserve emotion regulation. Here, we address this emotion-aging paradox using the behavioral data of an emotion regulation task from a population-derived, male and female, human sample (CamCAN) and use structural equation modeling together with multivariate analysis of structural MRI images of the same sample to investigate brain-behavior relationships. In a series of measurement models, we show the relationship between age and emotionality is best explained by a four-factor model, compared with single and hierarchical factor models. These four latent factors are interpreted as Basal Negative Affect, Positive Reactivity, Negative Reactivity and Positive Regulation (upregulating positive emotion to negative content). Increasing age uniquely contributes to increased Basal Negative Affect, Positive Reactivity, and Positive Regulation, but not Negative Reactivity. Furthermore, we show gray matter volumes, namely in the bilateral frontal operculum, medial frontal gyrus, bilateral hippocampal complex, bilateral middle temporal gyri, and bilateral angular gyrus, are distinctly related to these four latent factors. Finally, we show that a subset of these brain-behavior relationships remain significant when accounting for age and demographic data. Our results support the notion of an age-related increase in positivity and are interpreted in the context of the socioemotional selectivity theory of improved emotion regulation in older age.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Aging is associated with a paradoxical increase in well-being and improved emotion regulation despite widespread cognitive decline and gray matter volume loss in neural regions that underlie emotion regulation. Using a population-derived sample, we test the theories behind this emotion/aging paradox with an emotion regulation task and structural MRI data. We report robust age-related increases in positivity across the life span and show structural neural integrity influences this relationship with increasing age. Several brain-behavior relationships remained unaffected by age and may represent empirically derived neural markers to explore the paradox of increased well-being in old age. The results support the predictions of socioemotional selectivity theory of improved emotion regulation in older age and challenge the amygdala-focused neural predictions of the aging brain model.

Grey matter covariation and the role of emotion reappraisal in mental wellbeing and resilience after early life stress exposure

Resilience is a process of adaptive recovery crucial in maintaining mental wellbeing after stress exposure. A psychological factor known to buffer stress and promote positive wellbeing outcomes is the ability to regulate emotions. However, the neural networks underlying resilience, and the possible mediating role of emotion regulation, remain largely unknown. Here, we examined the association between resilience and grey matter covariation (GMC) in healthy adults with and without early life stress (ELS) exposure, and whether emotion regulation mediated this brain-resilience association. Source-based morphometry was used to identify spatial patterns of common GMC in 242 healthy participants. Wellbeing was measured using the COMPAS-W Wellbeing Scale. Linear mixed models were run to establish associations between GMC and wellbeing scores. Moderated mediation models were used to examine a conditional mediating effect of emotion regulation on the brain-wellbeing relationship, moderated by ELS exposure. Distinct ELS-related morphometric patterns were found in association with resilience. In participants without ELS exposure, decreased GMC in the temporo-parietal regions was associated with wellbeing. In participants with ELS exposure, we observed increased patterns of covariation in regions related to the salience and executive control networks, and decreased GMC in temporo-parietal areas, which were associated with resilience. Cognitive reappraisal mediated the brain-wellbeing relationship in ELS-exposed participants only. Patterns of stronger GMC in regions associated with emotional and cognitive functioning in ELS-exposed participants with high levels of wellbeing may indicate possible neural signatures of resilience. This may be further heightened by utilising an adaptive form of emotion regulation.

Predictable maternal separation confers adult stress resilience via the medial prefrontal cortex oxytocin signaling pathway in rats

Early-life stress is normally thought of as a major risk for psychiatric disorders, but many researchers have revealed that adversity early in life may enhance stress resilience later in life. Few studies have been performed in rodents to address the possibility that exposure to early-life stress may enhance stress resilience, and the underlying neural mechanisms are far from being understood. Here, we established a "two-hit" stress model in rats by applying two different early-life stress paradigms: predictable and unpredictable maternal separation (MS). Predictable MS during the postnatal period promotes resilience to adult restraint stress, while unpredictable MS increases stress susceptibility. We demonstrate that structural and functional impairments occur in glutamatergic synapses in pyramidal neurons of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in rats with unpredictable MS but not in rats with predictable MS. Then, we used differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis of RNA sequencing data from the adult male PFC to identify a hub gene that is responsible for stress resilience. Oxytocin, a peptide hormone, was the highest ranked differentially expressed gene of these altered genes. Predictable MS increases the expression of oxytocin in the mPFC compared to normal raised and unpredictable MS rats. Conditional knockout of the oxytocin receptor in the mPFC was sufficient to generate excitatory synaptic dysfunction and anxiety behavior in rats with predictable MS, whereas restoration of oxytocin receptor expression in the mPFC modified excitatory synaptic function and anxiety behavior in rats subjected to unpredictable MS. These findings were further supported by the demonstration that blocking oxytocinergic projections from the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) to the mPFC was sufficient to exacerbate anxiety behavior in rats exposed to predictable MS. Our findings provide direct evidence for the notion that predictable MS promotes stress resilience, while unpredictable MS increases stress susceptibility via mPFC oxytocin signaling in rats.

Stronger functional network connectivity and social support buffer against negative affect during the COVID-19 outbreak and after the pandemic peak

Health and financial uncertainties, as well as enforced social distancing, during the COVID-19 pandemic have adversely affected the mental health of people. These impacts are expected to continue even after the pandemic, particularly for those who lack support from family and friends. The salience network (SN), default mode network (DMN), and frontoparietal network (FPN) function in an interconnected manner to support information processing and emotional regulation processes in stressful contexts. In this study, we examined whether functional connectivity of the SN, DMN, and FPN, measured using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging before the pandemic, is a neurobiological marker of negative affect (NA) during the COVID-19 pandemic and after its peak in a large sample (N = 496, 360 females); the moderating role of social support in the brain-NA association was also investigated. We found that participants reported an increase in NA during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic, and the NA did not decrease, even after the peak period. People with higher connectivity within the SN and between the SN and the other two networks reported less NA during and after the COVID-19 outbreak peak, and the buffer effect was stronger if their social support was greater. These findings suggest that the functional networks that are responsible for affective processing and executive functioning, as well as the social support from family and friends, play an important role in protecting against NA under stressful and uncontrollable situations.

It is Not (Always) the Mismatch That Beats You-On the Relationship Between Interaction of Early and Recent Life Stress and Emotion Regulation, an fMRI Study

Stress may impact the ability to effectively regulate emotions. To study the impact of stressful experiences in early and recent life on emotion regulation, we examined the relationship between early life stress, recent stress, and brain activation during cognitive reappraisal. We investigated two regulation goals: the decrease and increase of emotional response to both negative and positive stimuli. Furthermore, two models of stress consequences were examined: the cumulative and match/mismatch models. A total of 83 participants (M_age = 21.66) took part in the study. There was an interaction between cumulative stress and stimuli valence in the cuneus, superior lateral occipital cortex, superior parietal lobule, supramarginal gyrus extending to superior temporal gyrus, and precentral gyrus extending to supplementary motor area. Interaction between mismatched stress index and stimuli valence was found in the left hippocampus, left insula extending to the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala, and in a cluster including the anterior cingulate cortex, superior frontal gyrus, and frontal pole. Furthermore, there were differences between the effects of cumulative and mismatched stress indices on brain activation during reappraisal of positive but not negative stimuli. Results indicate that cumulative stress and match/mismatch approaches are both useful for explaining brain activation during reappraisal. This finding is important for our understanding of the multifaceted impact of stress on emotion regulation.

How biopsychosocial depressive risk shapes behavioral and neural responses to social evaluation in adolescence

INTRODUCTION

Understanding the emotional responsivity style and neurocognitive profiles of depression-related processes in at-risk youth may be helpful in revealing those most likely to develop affective disorders. However, the multiplicity of biopsychosocial risk factors makes it difficult to disentangle unique and combined effects at a neurobiological level.

METHODS

In a population-derived sample of 56 older adolescents (aged 17-20), we adopted partial least squares regression and correlation models to explore the relationships between multivariate biopsychosocial risks for later depression, emotional response style, and fMRI activity, to rejecting and inclusive social feedback.

RESULTS

Behaviorally, higher depressive risk was associated with both reduced negative affect following negative social feedback and reduced positive affect following positive social feedback. In response to both cues of rejection and inclusion, we observed a general neural pattern of increased cingulate, temporal, and striatal activity in the brain. Secondly, in response to rejection only, we observed a pattern of activity in ostensibly executive control- and emotion regulation-related brain regions encompassing fronto-parietal brain networks including the angular gyrus.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that risk for depression is associated with a pervasive emotional insensitivity in the face of positive and negative social feedback.

Do more stress and lower family economic status increase vulnerability to suicidal ideation? Evidence of a U-shaped relationship in a large cross-sectional sample of South Korean adolescents

It is widely held in socio-behavioral studies of suicide that higher levels of stress and lower levels of economic status amplify suicidal vulnerability when confronted with a proximal stressor, reflecting the traditionally prevalent understanding in health psychology and sociology that associates adverse life circumstances with undesirable mental health outcomes. However, upon reflection, there are strong theoretical reasons to doubt that having more stress or being in a more stressful environment always increases suicidal vulnerability given the occurrence of a crisis. Using large nationally representative public survey data on South Korean adolescents, I show that the association between recent psychosocial crisis and suicidal ideation often gets stronger with more favorable levels of perceived stress and improving levels of family economic status. Overall, the increase in the probability of suicidal ideation from recent exposure to a psychosocial crisis is consistently the smallest around medium levels of stress or family economic status and larger at low or high levels. A supplementary exercise suggests that the identified moderation effects operate mainly in virtue of individual-level stress or family economic status in the relative absence of contextual influences at the school level. The findings present preliminary evidence of the stress inoculation hypothesis with regard to suicidal ideation. Research on suicidal vulnerability could benefit from increased attentiveness to the mechanisms through which being in an adverse or unfavorable life situation could protect against the suicide-inducing effects of proximal stressors.

Impact of childhood maltreatment and resilience on behavioral and neural patterns of inhibitory control during emotional distraction

Exposure to childhood maltreatment (CM) may disrupt typical development of neural systems underlying impulse control and emotion regulation. Yet resilient outcomes are observed in some individuals exposed to CM. Individual differences in adult functioning may result from variation in inhibitory control in the context of emotional distractions, underpinned by cognitive-affective brain circuits. Thirty-eight healthy adults with a history of substantiated CM and 34 nonmaltreated adults from the same longitudinal sample performed a Go/No-Go task in which task-relevant stimuli (letters) were presented at the center of task-irrelevant, negative, or neutral images, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The comparison group, but not the maltreated group, made increased inhibitory control errors in the context of negative, but not neutral, distractor images. In addition, the comparison group had greater right inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral frontal pole activation during inhibitory control blocks with negative compared to neutral background images relative to the CM group. Across the full sample, greater adaptive functioning in everyday contexts was associated with superior inhibitory control and greater right frontal pole activation. Results suggest that resilience following early adversity is associated with enhanced attention and behavioral regulation in the context of task-irrelevant negative emotional stimuli in a laboratory setting.

The interplay between adolescent friendship quality and resilient functioning following childhood and adolescent adversity

Background

Child and adolescent adversity ('CA') is a major predictor of mental health problems in adolescence and early adulthood. However, not all young people who have experienced CA develop psychopathology; their mental health functioning can be described as resilient. We previously found that resilient functioning in adolescence following CA is facilitated by adolescent friendships.However, during adolescence, friendships undergo significant change. It is unknown whether resilient functioning after CA fluctuates with these normative changes in friendship quality.

Methods

We used Latent Change Score Modelling in a large sample of adolescents (i.e. the ROOTS cohort; N=1238) to examine whether and how emergent friendship quality and resilient functioning at ages 14 and 17 inter-relate and change together.

Results

We found that friendships quality and resilient functioning had strong associations at age 14, although friendships at 14 did not predict higher resilient functioning at 17. Higher resilient functioning in 14-year-olds with a history of CA was associated with a positive change in friendships from age 14 to 17. Finally, improvements in friendship quality and resilient functioning went hand in hand, even when taking into account baseline levels of both, the change within friendship quality or resilient functioning over time, and the association between resilient functioning and change in friendship quality over time.

Conclusions

We show that friendship quality and resilient functioning after CA inter-relate and change together between ages 14 and 17. Our results suggest that improving friendship quality or resilient functioning within this timeframe may benefit this vulnerable adolescent group, and this should be tested in future research.

The imprint of childhood adversity on emotional processing in high functioning young adults

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been acknowledged as risk factors for increased mental health complications in adulthood, specifically increasing susceptibility to developing psychopathology upon exposure to trauma. Yet, little is known regarding the impact of mild ACEs on highly functioning population. In this study forty participants were selected from a group of 366 highly selected military parachute trainees using the self-report "childhood trauma questionnaire," and classified into two groups of 20 each, with and without ACEs. Behavioral measurements were obtained before and at the peak of an intensive combat training period, including anxiety, depression and executive function assessment. Functional MRI including a negative emotional face perception task was conducted at the first time point. Psychometric and cognitive measurements revealed higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and more difficulties in executive functioning in the ACE group at baseline. Slower reaction time to emotional faces presentation was found in the ACE group. Lower activation in response to negative emotional faces stimuli was found in this group in bilateral secondary visual areas, left anterior insula, left parietal cortex and left primary motor and sensory regions. In contrast, higher activation in the ACE group was found in the right ventral lateral prefrontal cortex (Vlpfc). No significant differences between groups were detected in the amygdala. To conclude, mild adverse childhood experiences produce long-term sequela on psychological wellbeing and neurocircuitry even in high functioning population. Brain regions modulated by childhood trauma may instigate avoidance mechanisms dampening the emotional and cognitive effects of intensive stress.

Neuroimaging Markers of Resiliency in Youth at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: A Qualitative Review

Psychotic disorders are highly debilitating and constitute a major public health burden. Identifying markers of psychosis risk and resilience is a necessary step toward understanding etiology and informing prevention and treatment efforts in individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis. In this context, it is important to consider that neural risk markers have been particularly useful in identifying mechanistic determinants along with predicting clinical outcomes. Notably, despite a growing body of supportive literature and the promise of recent findings identifying potential neural markers, the current work on CHR resilience markers has received little attention. The present review provides a brief overview of brain-based risk markers with a focus on predicting symptom course. Next, the review turns to protective markers, examining research from nonpsychiatric and schizophrenia fields to build an understanding of framing, priorities, and potential, applying these ideas to contextualizing a small but informative body of resiliency-relevant CHR research. Four domains (neurocognition, emotion regulation, allostatic load, and sensory and sensorimotor function) were identified and are discussed in terms of behavioral and neural markers. Taken together, the literature suggests significant predictive value for brain-based markers for individuals at CHR for psychosis, and the limited but compelling resiliency work highlights the critical importance of expanding this promising area of inquiry.

Functional Alterations and Cerebral Variations in Humans Exposed to Early Life Stress

Early life stress can be caused by acute or chronic exposure to childhood events, such as emotional, physical, sexual abuse, and neglect. Early stress is associated with subsequent alterations in physical and mental health, which can extend into adolescence, adulthood, and even old age. The effects of early stress exposure include alterations in cognitive, neuropsychological, and behavioral functions, and can even lead to the development of psychiatric disorders and changes in brain anatomy. The present manuscript provides a review of the main findings on these effects reported in the scientific literature in recent decades. Early life stress is associated with the presence of psychiatric disorders, mainly mood disorders such as depression and risk of suicide, as well as with the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder. At the neuropsychological level, the involvement of different mental processes such as executive functions, abstract reasoning, certain memory modalities, and poor school-skill performance has been reported. In addition, we identified reports of alterations of different subdomains of each of these processes. Regarding neuroanatomical effects, the involvement of cortical regions, subcortical nuclei, and the subcortical white matter has been documented. Among the telencephalic regions most affected and studied are the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the anterior cingulate cortex. Understanding the impact of early life stress on postnatal brain development is very important for the orientation of therapeutic intervention programs and could help in the formulation and implementation of preventive measures as well as in the reorientation of research targets.

Mood and neural responses to social rejection do not seem to be altered in resilient adolescents with a history of adversity

Childhood adversity (CA) increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems. Adolescent social support (from family and/or friends) reduces the risk of mental health problems after CA. However, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear, and we speculate that they are manifested on neurodevelopmental levels. Therefore, we investigated whether family and/or friendship support at ages 14 and 17 function as intermediate variables for the relationship between CA before age 11 and affective or neural responses to social rejection feedback at age 18. We studied 55 adolescents with normative mental health at age 18 (26 with CA and therefore considered "resilient"), from a longitudinal cohort. Participants underwent a Social Feedback Task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Social rejection feedback activated the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the left anterior insula. CA did not predict affective or neural responses to social rejection at age 18. Yet, CA predicted better friendships at age 14 and age 18, when adolescents with and without CA had comparable mood levels. Thus, adolescents with CA and normative mood levels have more adolescent friendship support and seem to have normal mood and neural responses to social rejection.

Individual differences in neuroticism personality trait in emotion regulation

BACKGROUND

Higher neuroticism personality trait individuals have more negative mood states, more sensitive to negative information, and higher risk of mental illness. Good emotion regulation ability play an important role in healthy psychological, social and physical outcomes. Previous studies have suggested that higher neuroticism individuals have a diminished ability to regulate emotion regulation. Up to now, few studies investigate the neural basis between neuroticism and emotion regulation.

METHOD

In present study, we want to explore the neuroticism and the activity of some brain regions and functional amygdala connectivity (psycho-physiological interaction [PPI]) in a cognitive reappraisal task. Thus, 160 healthy young participants were scanned during a cognitive reappraisal task.

RESULTS

The results revealed that neuroticism scores showed a significant negative association with the activity of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), inferior frontal cortex and middle frontal cortex in regulation of negative emotion. PPI analyses revealed that neuroticism scores were negatively associated with amygdala-dmPFC connectivity in regulation of negative emotion.

LIMITATION

Only cognitive reappraisal were investigated in this study. Other emotion regulation strategies such as expressive suppression need to be explored in the future study.

CONCLUSION

These results may suggest that highly neurotic participants display diminished cognitive reappraisal and diminished control function of the dmPFC over the amygdala in regulation of negative emotion.

Negative and positive emotional complexity in the autobiographical representations of sexual trauma survivors

This study examined the diversity of experienced positive and negative emotions - emodiversity - within two existing datasets involving female survivors of sexual abuse and assault, who all met criteria for chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as well as a diversity of comorbid diagnoses. Study 1 investigated the structure of the self-concept and Study 2 explored the organization of past autobiographical knowledge. In each study, we measured emodiversity for positive and negative emotion constructs in the trauma sample, relative to healthy control participants with no history of sexual trauma or PTSD. Results confirmed our hypotheses that individuals with a severe sexual trauma history and resultant PTSD would show elevated negative emodiversity and reduced positive diversity across both the structure of the self-concept and the structure of the life narrative, relative to control participants. The current results differ from community studies where greater negative emodiversity is associated with better mental health but mirror those from a prior study with individuals with Major Depressive Disorder. This suggests that valence-based differences in emodiversity may result from chronic emotional disturbance.

The complex neurobiology of resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment

BACKGROUND

Childhood maltreatment has been associated with significant impairment in social, emotional and behavioural functioning later in life. Nevertheless, some individuals who have experienced childhood maltreatment function better than expected given their circumstances.

MAIN BODY

Here, we provide an integrated understanding of the complex, interrelated mechanisms that facilitate such individual resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment. We aim to show that resilient functioning is not facilitated by any single 'resilience biomarker'. Rather, resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment is a product of complex processes and influences across multiple levels, ranging from 'bottom-up' polygenetic influences, to 'top-down' supportive social influences. We highlight the complex nature of resilient functioning and suggest how future studies could embrace a complexity theory approach and investigate multiple levels of biological organisation and their temporal dynamics in a longitudinal or prospective manner. This would involve using methods and tools that allow the characterisation of resilient functioning trajectories, attractor states and multidimensional/multilevel assessments of functioning. Such an approach necessitates large, longitudinal studies on the neurobiological mechanisms of resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment that cut across and integrate multiple levels of explanation (i.e. genetics, endocrine and immune systems, brain structure and function, cognition and environmental factors) and their temporal interconnections.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that a turn towards complexity is likely to foster collaboration and integration across fields. It is a promising avenue which may guide future studies aimed to promote resilience in those who have experienced childhood maltreatment.

Resilience and the brain: a key role for regulatory circuits linked to social stress and support

Given the high prevalence and burden of mental disorders, fostering the understanding of protective factors is an urgent issue for translational medicine in psychiatry. The concept of resilience describes individual and environmental protective factors against the backdrop of established adversities linked to mental illness. There is convergent evidence for a crucial role of direct as well as indirect adversity impacting the developing brain, with persisting effects until adulthood. Direct adversity may include childhood maltreatment and family adversity, while indirect social adversity can include factors such as urban living or ethnic minority status. Recently, research has begun to examine protective factors which may be able to buffer against or even reverse these influences. First evidence indicates that supportive social environments as well as trait-like individual protective characteristics might impact on similar neural substrates, thus strengthening the capacity to actively cope with stress exposure in order to counteract the detrimental effects evoked by social adversity. Here, we provide an overview of the current literature investigating the neural mechanisms of resilience with a putative social background, including studies on individual traits and genetic variation linked to resilience. We argue that the regulatory perigenual anterior cingulate cortex and limbic regions, including the amygdala and the ventral striatum, play a key role as crucial convergence sites of protective factors. Further, we discuss possible prevention and early intervention approaches targeting both the individual and the social environment to reduce the risk of psychiatric disorders and foster resilience.

The Resilient Emotional Brain: A Scoping Review of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Limbic Structure and Function in Resilient Adults With a History of Childhood Maltreatment

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is one of the strongest predictors of adult mental illness, although not all adults with CM develop psychopathology. Here, we describe the structure and function of the emotional brain regions that may contribute to resilient functioning after CM. We review studies that report medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus (limbic regions) structure, function, and/or connections in resilient adults (i.e., those reporting CM without psychopathology) versus vulnerable adults (i.e., those reporting CM with psychopathology) or healthy adults (those without CM and with no psychopathology). We find that resilient adults have larger hippocampal gray and white matter volume and greater connectivity between the central executive network and the limbic regions. In addition, resilient adults have improved ability to regulate emotions through medial prefrontal cortex-limbic downregulation, lower hippocampal activation to emotional faces, and increased amygdala habituation to stress. We highlight the need for longitudinal designs that examine resilient functioning across domains and consider gender, type, timing, and nature of CM assessments and further stressors to further improve our understanding of the role of the emotional brain in resilient functioning after CM.

Childhood maltreatment, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and alcohol craving and dependence in alcohol-dependent males: Direct and indirect pathways

OBJECTIVES

Childhood maltreatment (CM) and cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERSs) may be important in alcohol craving and dependence in alcohol-dependent individuals. The aim of this study was to evaluate direct effects of CM on the subscales of alcohol craving and alcohol dependence and its indirect effects via CERSs in individuals with a diagnosis of alcohol dependence.

METHODS

In a cross-sectional design, 329 alcohol-dependent males completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire-Short version (CERQ-Short), the Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS), the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II).

RESULTS

Participants with alcohol dependence had early age of onset of alcohol use (mean = 20.78 years), relatively long duration of alcohol use (mean = 11.14 years), and low education (mean = 9.55 years). Indirect effects were observed from CM to the subscales of alcohol craving and dependence only through maladaptive CERSs after adjusting for demographic and clinical factors. No direct effect was observed through CM on the subscales of alcohol craving and dependence.

CONCLUSIONS

Although drawing causal conclusions from the current research is impossible, the findings suggest that maladaptive CERSs may be a possible mechanism relating CM to alcohol craving and dependence in treatment-seeking alcohol-dependent individuals, while adaptive CERSs may be less important regarding this relation. However, the findings of the current study need longitudinal research.

Direct and indirect associations between perception of childhood trauma and suicidal ideation through emotion dysregulation in males who use heroin

Emotion dysregulation is considered as one of the factors related to suicide in individuals with childhood trauma (CT). However, no research has been performed on the role of emotion dysregulation in the relationship between perception of CT and suicidal ideation in individuals who use heroin. This study aimed to evaluate direct and indirect relationships between perception of CT and suicidal ideation through emotion regulation difficulties (ERD) and cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERSs) in males with a DSM diagnosis of heroin dependence. In a cross-sectional design, 310 males with a DSM diagnosis of heroin dependence completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire-Short version (CERQ-Short), the Obsessive-Compulsive Drug Use Scale-Form Heroin (OCDUS-Form Heroin), and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS). The results revealed that perception of CT had no direct relation to suicidal ideation. Perception of CT was indirectly associated with suicidal ideation through some ERD dimensions [e.g., non-acceptance of emotional responses (Non-acceptance), limited access to emotion regulation strategies (Strategies), lack of emotional awareness (Awareness)] and the CERS of positive reappraisal. The findings suggest that high suicidal ideation may stem from a perception of CT and subsequently emotion dysregulation in individuals who use heroin. Also, the findings of this research may have implications for the prevention and treatment of suicidal ideation in individuals using heroin with a perception of CT. The results of the present study require further examination through longitudinal studies.

Age-related decline in positive emotional reactivity and emotion regulation in a population-derived cohort

Human older age ushers in functional decline across the majority of cognitive domains. A notable exception seems to be affective processing, with older people reporting higher levels of emotional well-being. Here we evaluated age-related changes in emotional reactivity and regulation in a representative subsample (N = 104; age range: 23-88 years) of the population-derived Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience cohort. Performance on a film-based emotion reactivity and regulation task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner showed an age-related decline in positive reactivity, alongside a similar decline in the capacity to down-regulate negative affect. Decreased positivity with age was associated with reduced activation in the middle frontal gyrus. These findings, from the largest neuroimaging investigation to-date, provide no support for age-related increases in positive emotional reactivity.

Stress and parenting predict changes in adolescent respiratory sinus arrhythmia

Adolescence is a critical period for the development of physiological emotion regulatory systems. While stressful life experiences are known to inhibit adaptive regulation, less is known about how parental socialization of emotion regulation may affect this relation. We examined the effect of stressful life experiences on changes in the resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) levels of 107 (M_age  = 12.84, SD = 0.85) young adolescents over a year, moderated by supportive parental responses to negative emotions. The significant interaction (B = 0.02, p = 0.04) indicated that young adolescents who experienced low levels of supportive parenting in the context of high levels of stressful life experiences showed significant decreases in resting RSA over the year, while adolescents who experienced high levels of supportive parenting showed minimal decreases in RSA. Thus, more supportive parenting significantly compensated for the effect of greater stressful life experiences on changes in resting RSA over time.

Early life stress predicts cortisol response to psychosocial stress in healthy young adults

Repeated exposure to stress during early life has a lifetime impact on physical and psychological functions. Our study investigated the long-term effects of early life stress (ELS; measured retrospectively) on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system functions under psychosocial stress among healthy adults. Fifty healthy volunteers (33 male, 17 female, mean age 22.6 ± 1.8 years) underwent a standardized psychosocial stress protocol (the Trier Social Stress Test), with the collection of salivary cortisol, heart rates, and positive and negative affect. The results showed increases in cortisol, heart rate, and negative affect after the stress inducement. More importantly, a significant negative correlation was found between the severity of ELS and the increase of cortisol to the stress. The severity of stress in one's early life predicted his/her cortisol reactivity to the stress in adulthood. Neither the heart rate reactivity nor the affective reactivity shows significant association with ELS. The blunted cortisol reactivity reflects the alteration of the HPA axis, which may confer the risk for certain stress-related disorders.

The moderating impact of childhood adversity profiles and conflict on psychological health and suicidal behaviour in the Northern Ireland population

Childhood adversities are key etiological factors in the onset and persistence of psychopathology. In Northern Ireland the Troubles also impacted on the population's psychological health. This study used data from the Northern Ireland Study of Health and Stress a collaborative epidemiological study which used the WMH-CIDI to assess mental health disorders in a nationally representative sample (Part 2, n = 1986). The aims of the study were to assess co-occurrences of childhood adversities and investigate the impact of adversity profiles and conflict experience on psychopathology and suicidal behaviour. Latent Class Analysis uncovered 3 discrete childhood adversity profiles, a low, medium, and high risk class. Individuals from higher risk adversity profiles displayed significantly increased odds of having psychological problems, with conflict exposure also impacting on psychopathology. However, the study revealed that the impact of conflict exposure on suicidal behaviour was moderated by latent class membership and that some adversity may actually be protective. The findings highlight the need to consider that, while adversity can have a negative impact on psychopathology, a lack of adversity early in life may hinder some people from developing adequate coping strategies. Further research is required to identify adversity patterns and other interacting factors that are protective.

Mild adverse childhood experiences increase neural efficacy during affective theory of mind

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect the development of social cognition (and identify a risk factor for several physical and mental disorders). Theory of Mind (ToM) is a key predictor of social functioning, mental health, and quality of life. No previous study explored the effect of mild ACEs on the neural correlates of ToM in healthy humans. In 23 healthy participants, we used brain blood oxygen level-dependent fMRI to study the effect of ACEs on the neural responses to tasks targeting affective and cognitive ToM. Results pointed out an association between ACEs and a lower neural response in the vermis of the cerebellum (r = -.85), precentral gyrus, and inferior frontal operculum (putative Mirror Neural System, r = -.78) during affective ToM. A lower recruitment of these brain regions, paralleled by the same performance, could express an increased neural efficacy in inferring affective mental states driven by previous experience, in this case, ACEs.

Structural and Functional Brain Abnormalities Associated With Exposure to Different Childhood Trauma Subtypes: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging Findings

Background: Childhood trauma subtypes sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional maltreatment, and neglect may have differential effects on the brain that persist into adulthood. A systematic review of neuroimaging findings supporting these differential effects is as yet lacking. Objectives: The present systematic review aims to summarize the findings of controlled neuroimaging trials regarding long-term differential effects of trauma subtypes on the human brain. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed using the PubMed and PsycINFO databases from January 2017 up to and including January 2018. Additional papers were identified by a manual search in the reference lists of selected papers and of relevant review articles retrieved by the initial database search. Studies were then assessed for eligibility by the first author. Only original human studies directly comparing neuroimaging findings of exposed and unexposed individuals to well-defined emotional, physical or sexual childhood maltreatment while controlling for the effects of other subtypes were included. A visual summary of extracted data was made for neuroimaging modalities for which comparison between trauma subtypes was feasible, taking the studies' numbers and sample sizes into account. Results: The systematic literature search yielded 25 publications. Sexual abuse was associated with structural deficits in the reward circuit and genitosensory cortex and amygdalar hyperreactivity during sad autobiographic memory recall. Emotional maltreatment correlated with abnormalities in fronto-limbic socioemotional networks. In neglected individuals, white matter integrity and connectivity were disturbed in several brain networks involved in a variety of functions. Other abnormalities, such as reduced frontal cortical volume, were common to all maltreatment types. Conclusions: There is some evidence for long-term differential effects of trauma subtypes on the human brain. The observed alterations may result from both protective adaptation of and damage to the brain following exposure to threatening life events. Though promising, the current evidence is incomplete, with few brain regions and neuroimaging modalities having been investigated in all subtypes. The comparability of the available evidence is further limited by the heterogeneity of study populations regarding gender, age and comorbid psychopathology. Future neuroimaging studies should take this potentially differential role of childhood trauma subtypes into account.

Attending, learning, and socioeconomic disadvantage: developmental cognitive and social neuroscience of resilience and vulnerability

We review current findings associating socioeconomic status (SES), development of neurocognitive functions, and neurobiological pathways. A sizeable interdisciplinary literature was organized through a bifurcated developmental trajectory (BiDeT) framework, an account of the external and internal variables associated with low SES that may lead to difficulties with attention and learning, along with buffers that may protect against negative outcomes. A consistent neurocognitive finding is that low-SES children attend to information nonselectively, and engage in late filtering out of task-irrelevant information. Attentional preferences influence the development of latent inhibition (LI), an aspect of learning that involves reassigning meaningful associations to previously learned but irrelevant stimuli. LI reflects learning processes clarifying the relationship between neurobiological mechanisms related to attention and socioeconomic disadvantage during child development. Notably, changes in both selective attention and typical LI development may occur via the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (MsCL-DA) system. Chaotic environments, social isolation, and deprivation associated with low SES trigger stress responses implicating imbalances in the MsCL-DA and consolidating anxiety traits. BiDeT describes plausible interactions between socioemotional traits and low-SES environments that modify selective attention and LI, predisposing individuals to vulnerability in cognitive development and academic achievement. However, positive role models, parental style, and self-regulation training are proposed as potential promoters of resilience.

Ventral striatum and amygdala activity as convergence sites for early adversity and conduct disorder

Childhood family adversity (CFA) increases the risk for conduct disorder (CD) and has been associated with alterations in regions of affective processing like ventral striatum (VS) and amygdala. However, no study so far has demonstrated neural converging effects of CFA and CD in the same sample. At age 25 years, functional MRI data during two affective tasks, i.e. a reward (N = 171) and a face-matching paradigm (N = 181) and anatomical scans (N = 181) were acquired in right-handed currently healthy participants of an epidemiological study followed since birth. CFA during childhood was determined using a standardized parent interview. Disruptive behaviors and CD diagnoses during childhood and adolescence were obtained by diagnostic interview (2-19 years), temperamental reward dependence was assessed by questionnaire (15 and 19 years).CFA predicted increased CD and amygdala volume. Both exposure to CFA and CD were associated with a decreased VS response during reward anticipation and blunted amygdala activity during face-matching. CD mediated the effect of CFA on brain activity. Temperamental reward dependence was negatively correlated with CFA and CD and positively with VS activity. These findings underline the detrimental effects of CFA on the offspring's affective processing and support the importance of early postnatal intervention programs aiming to reduce childhood adversity factors.

Consequences of early adverse rearing experience(EARE) on development: insights from non-human primate studies

Early rearing experiences are important in one's whole life, whereas early adverse rearing experience(EARE) is usually related to various physical and mental disorders in later life. Although there were many studies on human and animals, regarding the effect of EARE on brain development, neuroendocrine systems, as well as the consequential mental disorders and behavioral abnormalities, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Due to the close genetic relationship and similarity in social organizations with humans, non-human primate(NHP) studies were performed for over 60 years. Various EARE models were developed to disrupt the early normal interactions between infants and mothers or peers. Those studies provided important insights of EARE induced effects on the physiological and behavioral systems of NHPs across life span, such as social behaviors(including disturbance behavior, social deficiency, sexual behavior, etc), learning and memory ability, brain structural and functional developments(including influences on neurons and glia cells, neuroendocrine systems, e.g., hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal(HPA) axis, etc). In this review, the effects of EARE and the underlying epigenetic mechanisms were comprehensively summarized and the possibility of rehabilitation was discussed.