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Tang D, Zylberberg J, Jia X, Choi H. Stimulus type shapes the topology of cellular functional networks in mouse visual cortex. Nat Commun 2024; 15:5753. [PMID: 38982078 PMCID: PMC11233648 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49704-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 07/11/2024] Open
Abstract
On the timescale of sensory processing, neuronal networks have relatively fixed anatomical connectivity, while functional interactions between neurons can vary depending on the ongoing activity of the neurons within the network. We thus hypothesized that different types of stimuli could lead those networks to display stimulus-dependent functional connectivity patterns. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed single-cell resolution electrophysiological data from the Allen Institute, with simultaneous recordings of stimulus-evoked activity from neurons across 6 different regions of mouse visual cortex. Comparing the functional connectivity patterns during different stimulus types, we made several nontrivial observations: (1) while the frequencies of different functional motifs were preserved across stimuli, the identities of the neurons within those motifs changed; (2) the degree to which functional modules are contained within a single brain region increases with stimulus complexity. Altogether, our work reveals unexpected stimulus-dependence to the way groups of neurons interact to process incoming sensory information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Disheng Tang
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
- Quantitative Biosciences Program, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 30332, GA, USA.
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
| | - Joel Zylberberg
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, ON, Canada.
- Learning in Machines and Brains Program, CIFAR, Toronto, ON M5G 1M1, ON, Canada.
| | - Xiaoxuan Jia
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
- Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
| | - Hannah Choi
- Quantitative Biosciences Program, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 30332, GA, USA.
- School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 30332, GA, USA.
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2
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Bernstein-Eliav M, Tavor I. The Prediction of Brain Activity from Connectivity: Advances and Applications. Neuroscientist 2024; 30:367-377. [PMID: 36250457 PMCID: PMC11107130 DOI: 10.1177/10738584221130974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The human brain is composed of multiple, discrete, functionally specialized regions that are interconnected to form large-scale distributed networks. Using advanced brain-imaging methods and machine-learning analytical approaches, recent studies have demonstrated that regional brain activity during the performance of various cognitive tasks can be accurately predicted from patterns of task-independent brain connectivity. In this review article, we first present evidence for the predictability of brain activity from structural connectivity (i.e., white matter connections) and functional connectivity (i.e., temporally synchronized task-free activations). We then discuss the implications of such predictions to clinical populations, such as patients diagnosed with psychiatric disorders or neurologic diseases, and to the study of brain-behavior associations. We conclude that connectivity may serve as an infrastructure that dictates brain activity, and we pinpoint several open questions and directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ido Tavor
- Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Strauss Center for Computational Neuroimaging, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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3
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Meredith WJ, Silvers JA. Experience-dependent neurodevelopment of self-regulation in adolescence. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 66:101356. [PMID: 38364507 PMCID: PMC10878838 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Revised: 12/18/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Adolescence is a period of rapid biobehavioral change, characterized in part by increased neural maturation and sensitivity to one's environment. In this review, we aim to demonstrate that self-regulation skills are tuned by adolescents' social, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts. We discuss adjacent literatures that demonstrate the importance of experience-dependent learning for adolescent development: environmental contextual influences and training paradigms that aim to improve regulation skills. We first highlight changes in prominent limbic and cortical regions-like the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex-as well as structural and functional connectivity between these areas that are associated with adolescents' regulation skills. Next, we consider how puberty, the hallmark developmental milestone in adolescence, helps instantiate these biobehavioral adaptations. We then survey the existing literature demonstrating the ways in which cultural, socioeconomic, and interpersonal contexts drive behavioral and neural adaptation for self-regulation. Finally, we highlight promising results from regulation training paradigms that suggest training may be especially efficacious for adolescent samples. In our conclusion, we highlight some exciting frontiers in human self-regulation research as well as recommendations for improving the methodological implementation of developmental neuroimaging studies and training paradigms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wesley J Meredith
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
| | - Jennifer A Silvers
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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4
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Kim-Spoon J, Lee TH, Clinchard C, Lindenmuth M, Brieant A, Steinberg L, Deater-Deckard K, Casas B. Brain Similarity as a Protective Factor in the Longitudinal Pathway Linking Household Chaos, Parenting, and Substance Use. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2024; 9:176-184. [PMID: 37121398 PMCID: PMC10613128 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2023.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2022] [Revised: 04/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/02/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Socioecological factors such as family environment and parenting behaviors contribute to the development of substance use. While biobehavioral synchrony has been suggested as the foundation for resilience that can modulate environmental effects on development, the role of brain similarity that attenuates deleterious effects of environmental contexts has not been clearly understood. We tested whether parent-adolescent neural similarity-the level of pattern similarity between parent-adolescent functional brain connectivity representing the level of attunement within each dyad-moderates the longitudinal pathways in which household chaos (a stressor) predicts adolescent substance use directly and indirectly via parental monitoring. METHODS In a sample of 70 parent-adolescent dyads, similarity in resting-state brain activity was identified using multipattern connectivity similarity estimation. Adolescents and parents reported on household chaos and parental monitoring, and adolescent substance use was assessed at a 1-year follow-up. RESULTS The moderated mediation model indicated that for adolescents with low neural similarity, but not high neural similarity, greater household chaos predicted higher substance use over time directly and indirectly via lower parental monitoring. Our data also indicated differential susceptibility in the overall association between household chaos and substance use: Adolescents with low neural similarity exhibited high substance use under high household chaos but low substance use under low household chaos. CONCLUSIONS Neural similarity acts as a protective factor such that the detrimental effects of suboptimal family environment and parenting behaviors on the development of adolescent health risk behaviors may be attenuated by neural similarity within parent-adolescent bonds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jungmeen Kim-Spoon
- Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia; School of Neuroscience, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia.
| | - Tae-Ho Lee
- Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia; School of Neuroscience, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia.
| | | | | | - Alexis Brieant
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Laurence Steinberg
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Department of Psychology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Kirby Deater-Deckard
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
| | - Brooks Casas
- Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia; School of Neuroscience, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia; Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, Roanoke, Virginia
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5
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Korom M, Valadez EA, Tottenham N, Dozier M, Spielberg JM. Preliminary examination of the effects of an early parenting intervention on amygdala-orbitofrontal cortex resting-state functional connectivity among high-risk children: A randomized clinical trial. Dev Psychopathol 2024:1-9. [PMID: 38247369 PMCID: PMC11260902 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579423001669] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2024]
Abstract
We examined the long-term causal effects of an evidence-based parenting program delivered in infancy on children's emotion regulation and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) during middle childhood. Families were referred to the study by Child Protective Services (CPS) as part of a diversion from a foster care program. A low-risk group of families was also recruited. CPS-involved families were randomly assigned to receive the target (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up, ABC) or a control intervention (Developmental Education for Families, DEF) before infants turned 2. Both interventions were home-based, manualized, and 10-sessions long. During middle childhood, children underwent a 6-min resting-state functional MRI scan. Amygdala seed-based rs-fc analysis was completed with intervention group as the group-level predictor of interest. Fifty-seven children (NABC = 21; NDEF = 17; NCOMP = 19; Mage = 10.02 years, range = 8.08-12.14) were scanned successfully. The DEF group evidenced negative left amygdala↔OFC connectivity, whereas connectivity was near zero in the ABC and comparison groups (ABCvsDEF: Cohen's d = 1.17). ABC may enhance high-risk children's regulatory neurobiology outcomes ∼8 years after the intervention was completed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta Korom
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
| | - Emilio A. Valadez
- Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Nim Tottenham
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Mary Dozier
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
| | - Jeffrey M. Spielberg
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
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6
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Gee DG, Cohodes EM. Leveraging the developmental neuroscience of caregiving to promote resilience among youth exposed to adversity. Dev Psychopathol 2023; 35:2168-2185. [PMID: 37929292 PMCID: PMC10872788 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579423001128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
Early adversity is a major risk factor for the emergence of psychopathology across development. Identifying mechanisms that support resilience, or favorable mental health outcomes despite exposure to adversity, is critical for informing clinical intervention and guiding policy to promote youth mental health. Here we propose that caregivers play a central role in fostering resilience among children exposed to adversity via caregiving influences on children's corticolimbic circuitry and emotional functioning. We first delineate the numerous ways that caregivers support youth emotional learning and regulation and describe how early attachment lays the foundation for optimal caregiver support of youth emotional functioning in a developmental stage-specific manner. Second, we outline neural mechanisms by which caregivers foster resilience-namely, by modulating offspring corticolimbic circuitry to support emotion regulation and buffer stress reactivity. Next, we highlight the importance of developmental timing and sensitive periods in understanding caregiving-related mechanisms of resilience. Finally, we discuss clinical implications of this line of research and how findings can be translated to guide policy that promotes the well-being of youth and families.
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7
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Hendrix CL, Ji L, Werchan DM, Majbri A, Trentacosta CJ, Burt SA, Thomason ME. Fetal Frontolimbic Connectivity Prospectively Associates With Aggression in Toddlers. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY GLOBAL OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 3:969-978. [PMID: 37881555 PMCID: PMC10593887 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2022.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2022] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Aggression is a major public health concern that emerges early in development and lacks optimized treatment, highlighting need for improved mechanistic understanding regarding the etiology of aggression. The present study leveraged fetal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify candidate neurocircuitry for the onset of aggressive behaviors before symptom emergence. Methods Pregnant mothers were recruited during the third trimester of pregnancy to complete a fetal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Mothers subsequently completed the Child Behavior Checklist to assess child aggression at 3 years postpartum (n = 79). Independent component analysis was used to define frontal and limbic regions of interest. Results Child aggression was not related to within-network connectivity of subcortical limbic regions or within-medial prefrontal network connectivity in fetuses. However, weaker functional coupling between the subcortical limbic network and medial prefrontal network in fetuses was prospectively associated with greater maternal-rated child aggression at 3 years of age even after controlling for maternal emotion dysregulation and toddler language ability. We observed similar, but weaker, associations between fetal frontolimbic functional connectivity and toddler internalizing symptoms. Conclusions Neural correlates of aggressive behavior may be detectable in utero, well before the onset of aggression symptoms. These preliminary results highlight frontolimbic connections as potential candidate neurocircuitry that should be further investigated in relation to the unfolding of child behavior and psychiatric risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cassandra L. Hendrix
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
| | - Lanxin Ji
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
| | - Denise M. Werchan
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
- Department of Population Health, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
| | - Amyn Majbri
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
| | | | - S. Alexandra Burt
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan
| | - Moriah E. Thomason
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
- Department of Population Health, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
- Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
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Abstract
The transition from childhood to adulthood represents the developmental time frame in which the majority of psychiatric disorders emerge. Recent efforts to identify risk factors mediating the susceptibility to psychopathology have led to a heightened focus on both typical and atypical trajectories of neural circuit maturation. Mounting evidence has highlighted the immense neural plasticity apparent in the developing brain. Although in many cases adaptive, the capacity for neural circuit alteration also induces a state of vulnerability to environmental perturbations, such that early-life experiences have long-lasting implications for cognitive and emotional functioning in adulthood. The authors outline preclinical and neuroimaging studies of normative human brain circuit development, as well as parallel efforts covered in this issue of the Journal, to identify brain circuit alterations in psychiatric disorders that frequently emerge in developing populations. Continued translational research into the interactive effects of neurobiological development and external factors will be crucial for identifying early-life risk factors that may contribute to the emergence of psychiatric illness and provide the key to optimizing treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heidi C Meyer
- The Department of Psychiatry and the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York
| | - Francis S Lee
- The Department of Psychiatry and the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York
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9
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Tang D, Zylberberg J, Jia X, Choi H. Stimulus-dependent functional network topology in mouse visual cortex. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.07.03.547364. [PMID: 37461471 PMCID: PMC10349950 DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.03.547364] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/21/2023]
Abstract
Information is processed by networks of neurons in the brain. On the timescale of sensory processing, those neuronal networks have relatively fixed anatomical connectivity, while functional connectivity, which defines the interactions between neurons, can vary depending on the ongoing activity of the neurons within the network. We thus hypothesized that different types of stimuli, which drive different neuronal activities in the network, could lead those networks to display stimulus-dependent functional connectivity patterns. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed electrophysiological data from the Allen Brain Observatory, which utilized Neuropixels probes to simultaneously record stimulus-evoked activity from hundreds of neurons across 6 different regions of mouse visual cortex. The recordings had single-cell resolution and high temporal fidelity, enabling us to determine fine-scale functional connectivity. Comparing the functional connectivity patterns observed when different stimuli were presented to the mice, we made several nontrivial observations. First, while the frequencies of different connectivity motifs (i.e., the patterns of connectivity between triplets of neurons) were preserved across stimuli, the identities of the neurons within those motifs changed. This means that functional connectivity dynamically changes along with the input stimulus, but does so in a way that preserves the motif frequencies. Secondly, we found that the degree to which functional modules are contained within a single brain region (as opposed to being distributed between regions) increases with increasing stimulus complexity. This suggests a mechanism for how the brain could dynamically alter its computations based on its inputs. Altogether, our work reveals unexpected stimulus-dependence to the way groups of neurons interact to process incoming sensory information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Disheng Tang
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University
- Quantitative Biosciences Program, Georgia Institute of Technology
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Tsinghua University
| | - Joel Zylberberg
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Centre for Vision Research, York University
- Learning in Machines and Brains Program, CIFAR
- These authors jointly supervised this work: Joel Zylberberg, Xiaoxuan Jia, Hannah Choi
| | - Xiaoxuan Jia
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Tsinghua University
- Tsinghua–Peking Center for Life Sciences
- Allen Institute for Brain Science
- These authors jointly supervised this work: Joel Zylberberg, Xiaoxuan Jia, Hannah Choi
| | - Hannah Choi
- Quantitative Biosciences Program, Georgia Institute of Technology
- School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology
- These authors jointly supervised this work: Joel Zylberberg, Xiaoxuan Jia, Hannah Choi
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10
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Zwir I, Arnedo J, Mesa A, Del Val C, de Erausquin GA, Cloninger CR. Temperament & Character account for brain functional connectivity at rest: A diathesis-stress model of functional dysregulation in psychosis. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:2238-2253. [PMID: 37015979 PMCID: PMC10611583 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02039-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2022] [Revised: 03/11/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 04/06/2023]
Abstract
The human brain's resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides stable trait-like measures of differences in the perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning of individuals. The rsFC of the prefrontal cortex is hypothesized to mediate a person's rational self-government, as is also measured by personality, so we tested whether its connectivity networks account for vulnerability to psychosis and related personality configurations. Young adults were recruited as outpatients or controls from the same communities around psychiatric clinics. Healthy controls (n = 30) and clinically stable outpatients with bipolar disorder (n = 35) or schizophrenia (n = 27) were diagnosed by structured interviews, and then were assessed with standardized protocols of the Human Connectome Project. Data-driven clustering identified five groups of patients with distinct patterns of rsFC regardless of diagnosis. These groups were distinguished by rsFC networks that regulate specific biopsychosocial aspects of psychosis: sensory hypersensitivity, negative emotional balance, impaired attentional control, avolition, and social mistrust. The rsFc group differences were validated by independent measures of white matter microstructure, personality, and clinical features not used to identify the subjects. We confirmed that each connectivity group was organized by differential collaborative interactions among six prefrontal and eight other automatically-coactivated networks. The temperament and character traits of the members of these groups strongly accounted for the differences in rsFC between groups, indicating that configurations of rsFC are internal representations of personality organization. These representations involve weakly self-regulated emotional drives of fear, irrational desire, and mistrust, which predispose to psychopathology. However, stable outpatients with different diagnoses (bipolar or schizophrenic psychoses) were highly similar in rsFC and personality. This supports a diathesis-stress model in which different complex adaptive systems regulate predisposition (which is similar in stable outpatients despite diagnosis) and stress-induced clinical dysfunction (which differs by diagnosis).
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Affiliation(s)
- Igor Zwir
- Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, St. Louis, MO, USA
- University of Granada, Department of Computer Science, Granada, Spain
- University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Institute of Neuroscience, Harlingen, TX, USA
| | - Javier Arnedo
- Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, St. Louis, MO, USA
- University of Granada, Department of Computer Science, Granada, Spain
| | - Alberto Mesa
- University of Granada, Department of Computer Science, Granada, Spain
| | - Coral Del Val
- University of Granada, Department of Computer Science, Granada, Spain
| | - Gabriel A de Erausquin
- University of Texas, Long School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, San Antonio, TX, USA
- Laboratory of Brain Development, Modulation and Repair, Glenn Biggs Institute of Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Disorders, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - C Robert Cloninger
- Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, St. Louis, MO, USA.
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11
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Uy JP, Tan AP, Broeckman BBFP, Gluckman PD, Chong YS, Chen H, Fortier MV, Meaney MJ, Callaghan BL. Effects of maternal childhood trauma on child emotional health: maternal mental health and frontoamygdala pathways. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2023; 64:426-436. [PMID: 36331294 DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.13721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Experiences of early life adversity pose significant psychological and physical health risks to exposed individuals. Emerging evidence suggests that these health risks can be transmitted across generations; however, the mechanisms underlying the intergenerational impacts of maternal early-life trauma on child health remain unknown. METHODS The current study used a prospective longitudinal design to determine the unique and joint contributions of maternal childhood trauma (neglect and abuse) and maternal prenatal and postnatal mental health (anxiety and depressive symptoms) (N = 541) to children's resting frontoamygdala functional connectivity at 6 years (N = 89) and emotional health at 7-8 years, as indexed by parent-reported internalizing problems and child self-reported anxiety and depressive symptoms (N = 268-418). RESULTS Greater maternal childhood neglect was indirectly associated with greater internalizing problems serially through a pathway of worse maternal prenatal and postnatal mental health (greater maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms). Worse maternal postnatal mental health was also uniquely associated with more negative child frontoamygdala resting-state functional connectivity, over and above maternal childhood trauma (both neglect and abuse) and prenatal mental health. More negative frontoamygdala functional connectivity was, in turn, associated with poorer child emotional health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Findings from the current study provide support for the existence of intergenerational influences of parental exposure to childhood trauma on childhood risk for psychopathology in the next generation and point to the importance of maternal factors proximal to the second generation (maternal prenatal and postnatal mental health) in determining the intergenerational impact of maternal early experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica P Uy
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Ai Peng Tan
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore
| | - Birit B F P Broeckman
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore
| | - Peter D Gluckman
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore.,Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Yap Seng Chong
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore.,Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore.,Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore City, Singapore
| | - Helen Chen
- Psychiatry and Radiology, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore City, Singapore
| | - Marielle V Fortier
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore
| | - Michael J Meaney
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore.,Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand.,Department of Psychiatry, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Bridget L Callaghan
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
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12
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Gee DG. Neurodevelopmental mechanisms linking early experiences and mental health: Translating science to promote well-being among youth. AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST 2022; 77:1033-1045. [PMID: 36595400 PMCID: PMC9875304 DOI: 10.1037/amp0001107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Early experiences can have profound and lasting effects on mental health. Delineating neurodevelopmental pathways related to risk and resilience following adversity exposure is critical for promoting well-being and targeting interventions. A rapidly growing cross-species literature has facilitated advances in identifying neural and behavioral mechanisms linking early experiences with mental health, highlighting a central role of corticolimbic circuitry involved in learning and emotion regulation. Building upon knowledge of corticolimbic development related to stress and buffering factors, we describe the importance of the developmental timing and experiential elements of adversity in mental health outcomes. Finally, we discuss opportunities to translate knowledge of the developing brain and early experiences to optimize interventions for youth with psychopathology and to inform policy that promotes healthy development at the societal level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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13
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Gee DG, Hanson C, Caglar LR, Fareri DS, Gabard-Durnam LJ, Mills-Finnerty C, Goff B, Caldera CJ, Lumian DS, Flannery J, Hanson SJ, Tottenham N. Experimental evidence for a child-to-adolescent switch in human amygdala-prefrontal cortex communication: A cross-sectional pilot study. Dev Sci 2022; 25:e13238. [PMID: 35080089 PMCID: PMC9232876 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Revised: 12/20/2021] [Accepted: 01/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Interactions between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex are fundamental to human emotion. Despite the central role of frontoamygdala communication in adult emotional learning and regulation, little is known about how top-down control emerges during human development. In the present cross-sectional pilot study, we experimentally manipulated prefrontal engagement to test its effects on the amygdala during development. Inducing dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activation resulted in developmentally-opposite effects on amygdala reactivity during childhood versus adolescence, such that dACC activation was followed by increased amygdala reactivity in childhood but reduced amygdala reactivity in adolescence. Bayesian network analyses revealed an age-related switch between childhood and adolescence in the nature of amygdala connectivity with the dACC and ventromedial PFC (vmPFC). Whereas adolescence was marked by information flow from dACC and vmPFC to amygdala (consistent with that observed in adults), the reverse information flow, from the amygdala to dACC and vmPFC, was dominant in childhood. The age-related switch in information flow suggests a potential shift from bottom-up co-excitatory to top-down regulatory frontoamygdala connectivity and may indicate a profound change in the circuitry supporting maturation of emotional behavior. These findings provide novel insight into the developmental construction of amygdala-cortical connections and implications for the ways in which childhood experiences may influence subsequent prefrontal function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dylan G. Gee
- Yale University, Department of Psychology, 2 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511
- To whom correspondence should be addressed: ,
| | - Catherine Hanson
- Rutgers University, Department of Psychology, 101 Warren Street, Newark, NJ 07102
| | - Leyla Roksan Caglar
- Rutgers University, Department of Psychology, 101 Warren Street, Newark, NJ 07102
| | - Dominic S. Fareri
- Adelphi University, Department of Psychology, Blodgett Hall, Garden City, NY 11530
| | | | | | - Bonnie Goff
- University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095
| | - Christina J. Caldera
- University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095
| | - Daniel S. Lumian
- University of Denver, Department of Psychology, 2155 S. Race Street, Denver, CO 80210
| | - Jessica Flannery
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Department of Psychology, 235 E. Cameron Ave, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
| | - Stephen J. Hanson
- Rutgers University, Department of Psychology, 101 Warren Street, Newark, NJ 07102
| | - Nim Tottenham
- Columbia University, Department of Psychology, 406 Schermerhorn Hall, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
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14
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Petrican R, Fornito A, Jones N. Psychological Resilience and Neurodegenerative Risk: A Connectomics-Transcriptomics Investigation in Healthy Adolescent and Middle-Aged Females. Neuroimage 2022; 255:119209. [PMID: 35429627 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Revised: 04/05/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Adverse life events can inflict substantial long-term damage, which, paradoxically, has been posited to stem from initially adaptative responses to the challenges encountered in one's environment. Thus, identification of the mechanisms linking resilience against recent stressors to longer-term psychological vulnerability is key to understanding optimal functioning across multiple timescales. To address this issue, our study tested the relevance of neuro-reproductive maturation and senescence, respectively, to both resilience and longer-term risk for pathologies characterised by accelerated brain aging, specifically, Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Graph theoretical and partial least squares analyses were conducted on multimodal imaging, reported biological aging and recent adverse experience data from the Lifespan Human Connectome Project (HCP). Availability of reproductive maturation/senescence measures restricted our investigation to adolescent (N =178) and middle-aged (N=146) females. Psychological resilience was linked to age-specific brain senescence patterns suggestive of precocious functional development of somatomotor and control-relevant networks (adolescence) and earlier aging of default mode and salience/ventral attention systems (middle adulthood). Biological aging showed complementary associations with the neural patterns relevant to resilience in adolescence (positive relationship) versus middle-age (negative relationship). Transcriptomic and expression quantitative trait locus data analyses linked the neural aging patterns correlated with psychological resilience in middle adulthood to gene expression patterns suggestive of increased AD risk. Our results imply a partially antagonistic relationship between resilience against proximal stressors and longer-term psychological adjustment in later life. They thus underscore the importance of fine-tuning extant views on successful coping by considering the multiple timescales across which age-specific processes may unfold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raluca Petrican
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom.
| | - Alex Fornito
- The Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences, and Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Natalie Jones
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom
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15
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Turk E, Vroomen J, Fonken Y, Levy J, van den Heuvel MI. In sync with your child: The potential of parent-child electroencephalography in developmental research. Dev Psychobiol 2022; 64:e22221. [PMID: 35312051 DOI: 10.1002/dev.22221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 10/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Healthy interaction between parent and child is foundational for the child's socioemotional development. Recently, an innovative paradigm shift in electroencephalography (EEG) research has enabled the simultaneous measurement of neural activity in caregiver and child. This dual-EEG or hyperscanning approach, termed parent-child dual-EEG, combines the strength of both behavioral observations and EEG methods. In this review, we aim to inform on the potential of dual-EEG in parents and children (0-6 years) for developmental researchers. We first provide a general overview of the dual-EEG technique and continue by reviewing the first empirical work on the emerging field of parent-child dual-EEG, discussing the limited but fascinating findings on parent-child brain-to-behavior and brain-to-brain synchrony. We then continue by providing an overview of dual-EEG analysis techniques, including the technical challenges and solutions one may encounter. We finish by discussing the potential of parent-child dual-EEG for the future of developmental research. The analysis of multiple EEG data is technical and challenging, but when performed well, parent-child EEG may transform the way we understand how caregiver and child connect on a neurobiological level. Importantly, studying objective physiological measures of parent-child interactions could lead to the identification of novel brain-to-brain synchrony markers of interaction quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise Turk
- Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Jean Vroomen
- Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Yvonne Fonken
- Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Jonathan Levy
- Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), Herzliya, Israel.,Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Aalto, Finland
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16
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Reindl V, Wass S, Leong V, Scharke W, Wistuba S, Wirth CL, Konrad K, Gerloff C. Multimodal hyperscanning reveals that synchrony of body and mind are distinct in mother-child dyads. Neuroimage 2022; 251:118982. [PMID: 35149229 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.118982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2021] [Revised: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Hyperscanning studies have begun to unravel the brain mechanisms underlying social interaction, indicating a functional role for interpersonal neural synchronization (INS), yet the mechanisms that drive INS are poorly understood. The current study, thus, addresses whether INS is functionally-distinct from synchrony in other systems - specifically the autonomic nervous system and motor behavior. To test this, we used concurrent functional near-infrared spectroscopy - electrocardiography recordings, while N = 34 mother-child and stranger-child dyads engaged in cooperative and competitive tasks. Only in the neural domain was a higher synchrony for mother-child compared to stranger-child dyads observed. Further, autonomic nervous system and neural synchrony were positively related during competition but not during cooperation. These results suggest that synchrony in different behavioral and biological systems may reflect distinct processes. Furthermore, they show that increased mother-child INS is unlikely to be explained solely by shared arousal and behavioral similarities, supporting recent theories that postulate that INS is higher in close relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa Reindl
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Neuropsychology Section, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; JARA-Brain Institute II, Molecular Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, RWTH Aachen & Research Centre Juelich, Germany; Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore S639818, Republic of Singapore.
| | - Sam Wass
- Division of Psychology, University of East London, London E16 2RD, United Kingdom
| | - Victoria Leong
- Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore S639818, Republic of Singapore; Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
| | - Wolfgang Scharke
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Neuropsychology Section, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; Chair of Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
| | - Sandra Wistuba
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Neuropsychology Section, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
| | - Christina Lisa Wirth
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Neuropsychology Section, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
| | - Kerstin Konrad
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Neuropsychology Section, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; JARA-Brain Institute II, Molecular Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, RWTH Aachen & Research Centre Juelich, Germany
| | - Christian Gerloff
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Neuropsychology Section, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; JARA-Brain Institute II, Molecular Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, RWTH Aachen & Research Centre Juelich, Germany; Chair II of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
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17
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Ip KI, Sisk LM, Horien C, Conley MI, Rapuano KM, Rosenberg MD, Greene AS, Scheinost D, Constable RT, Casey BJ, Baskin-Sommers A, Gee DG. Associations among Household and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantages, Resting-state Frontoamygdala Connectivity, and Internalizing Symptoms in Youth. J Cogn Neurosci 2022; 34:1810-1841. [PMID: 35104356 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01826] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Exposure to socioeconomic disadvantages (SED) can have negative impacts on mental health, yet SED are a multifaceted construct and the precise processes by which SED confer deleterious effects are less clear. Using a large and diverse sample of preadolescents (ages 9-10 years at baseline, n = 4038, 49% female) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, we examined associations among SED at both household (i.e., income-needs and material hardship) and neighborhood (i.e., area deprivation and neighborhood unsafety) levels, frontoamygdala resting-state functional connectivity, and internalizing symptoms at baseline and 1-year follow-up. SED were positively associated with internalizing symptoms at baseline and indirectly predicted symptoms 1 year later through elevated symptoms at baseline. At the household level, youth in households characterized by higher disadvantage (i.e., lower income-to-needs ratio) exhibited more strongly negative frontoamygdala coupling, particularly between the bilateral amygdala and medial OFC (mOFC) regions within the frontoparietal network. Although more strongly positive amygdala-mOFC coupling was associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms at baseline and 1-year follow-up, it did not mediate the association between income-to-needs ratio and internalizing symptoms. However, at the neighborhood level, amygdala-mOFC functional coupling moderated the effect of neighborhood deprivation on internalizing symptoms. Specifically, higher neighborhood deprivation was associated with higher internalizing symptoms for youth with more strongly positive connectivity, but not for youth with more strongly negative connectivity, suggesting a potential buffering effect. Findings highlight the importance of capturing multilevel socioecological contexts in which youth develop to identify youth who are most likely to benefit from early interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ka I Ip
- Yale University, New Haven, CT
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18
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Petrican R, Miles S, Rudd L, Wasiewska W, Graham KS, Lawrence AD. Pubertal timing and functional neurodevelopmental alterations independently mediate the effect of family conflict on adolescent psychopathology. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2021; 52:101032. [PMID: 34781251 PMCID: PMC10436252 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.101032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Revised: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 11/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
This study tested the hypothesis that early life adversity (ELA) heightens psychopathology risk by concurrently altering pubertal and neurodevelopmental timing, and associated gene transcription signatures. Analyses focused on threat- (family conflict/neighbourhood crime) and deprivation-related ELAs (parental inattentiveness/unmet material needs), using longitudinal data from 1514 biologically unrelated youths in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Typical developmental changes in white matter microstructure corresponded to widespread BOLD signal variability (BOLDsv) increases (linked to cell communication and biosynthesis genes) and region-specific task-related BOLDsv increases/decreases (linked to signal transduction, immune and external environmental response genes). Increasing resting-state (RS), but decreasing task-related BOLDsv predicted normative functional network segregation. Family conflict was the strongest concurrent and prospective contributor to psychopathology, while material deprivation constituted an additive risk factor. ELA-linked psychopathology was predicted by higher Time 1 threat-evoked BOLDSV (associated with axonal development, myelination, cell differentiation and signal transduction genes), reduced Time 2 RS BOLDsv (associated with cell metabolism and attention genes) and greater Time 1 to Time 2 control/attention network segregation. Earlier pubertal timing and neurodevelopmental alterations independently mediated ELA effects on psychopathology. Our results underscore the differential roles of the immediate and wider external environment(s) in concurrent and longer-term ELA consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raluca Petrican
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom.
| | - Sian Miles
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom
| | - Lily Rudd
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom
| | - Wiktoria Wasiewska
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom
| | - Kim S Graham
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew D Lawrence
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom
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19
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Tashjian SM, Galván A. Frontopolar Cortex Response to Positive Feedback Relates to Nonincentivized Task Persistence. Cereb Cortex 2021; 32:2293-2309. [PMID: 34581407 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
When individuals make decisions whether to persist at a task, their decision-making is informed by whether success is pending or accomplished. If pending, the brain facilitates behavioral persistence; if the goal is accomplished or no longer desired, the brain enables switching away from the current task. Feedback, which is known to differentially engage reward neurocircuitry, may modulate goal-directed behavior such as task persistence. However, prior studies are confounded by offering external incentives for persistence. This study tested whether neural response to feedback differed as a function of nonincentivized task persistence in 99 human participants ages 13-30 (60 females). Individuals who persisted engaged the frontopolar cortex (FPC) to a greater extent during receipt of task-relevant positive feedback compared with negative feedback. For individuals who quit, task-irrelevant monetary reward engaged the FPC to a greater extent compared with positive feedback. FPC activation in response to positive feedback is identified as a key contributor to task persistence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah M Tashjian
- Department of Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Adriana Galván
- Department of Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.,Brain Research Institute, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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20
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Li W, Xie K, Ngetich RK, Zhang J, Jin Z, Li L. Inferior Frontal Gyrus-Based Resting-State Functional Connectivity and Medium Dispositional Use of Reappraisal Strategy. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:681859. [PMID: 34220436 PMCID: PMC8248357 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.681859] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 05/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The previous neuroimaging functional connectivity analyses have indicated that the association between the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and other brain regions results in better emotion regulation in reappraisal tasks. However, no study has explored the relationship between IFG-based resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and the dispositional use of reappraisal strategy. Therefore, the present study examined the potential associations between rsFC patterns of both left and right IFG and dispositional reappraisal use. One hundred healthy participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) acquisition. An approach of the seed-based rsFC analysis was recruited to estimate the functional connectivity maps of bilateral IFG with other brain regions, and the reappraisal scores from the ERQ were then correlated with the functional maps. Our findings showed that IFG-based rsFC was positively correlated with dispositional reappraisal only in the range of 4 to 5.5 points [medium reappraisal group (MRG)]. Specifically, medium dispositional reappraisal was positively correlated with rsFC between left/right IFG and bilateral temporal gyrus. Besides, medium dispositional reappraisal was positively correlated with rsFC between left IFG and bilateral superior parietal lobe (SPL), middle cingulate cortex (MCC), and right insula, as well as between right IFG and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In conclusion, these results indicate that bilateral IFG plays an important role in the medium use of the reappraisal strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Zhenlan Jin
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Center for Psychiatry and Psychology, School of Life Sciences and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Ling Li
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Center for Psychiatry and Psychology, School of Life Sciences and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
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21
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Geng F, Botdorf M, Riggins T. How Behavior Shapes the Brain and the Brain Shapes Behavior: Insights from Memory Development. J Neurosci 2021; 41:981-990. [PMID: 33318054 PMCID: PMC7880274 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2611-19.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2019] [Revised: 10/05/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Source memory improves substantially during childhood. This improvement is thought to be closely related to hippocampal maturation. As previous studies have mainly used cross-sectional designs to assess relations between source memory and hippocampal function, it remains unknown whether changes in the brain precede improvements in memory or vice versa. To address this gap, the current study used an accelerated longitudinal design (n = 200, 100 males) to follow 4- and 6-year-old human children for 3 years. We traced developmental changes in source memory and intrinsic hippocampal functional connectivity and assessed differences between the 4- and 6-year-old cohorts in the predictive relations between source memory changes and intrinsic hippocampal functional connectivity in the absence of a demanding task. Consistent with previous studies, there were age-related increases in source memory and intrinsic functional connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical regions known to be involved during memory encoding. Novel findings showed that changes in memory ability early in life predicted later connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical regions and that intrinsic hippocampal functional connectivity predicted later changes in source memory. These findings suggest that behavioral experience and brain development are interactive, bidirectional processes, such that experience shapes future changes in the brain and the brain shapes future changes in behavior. Results also suggest that both timing and location matter, as the observed effects depended on both children's age and the specific brain ROIs. Together, these findings add critical insight into the interactive relations between cognitive processes and their underlying neurologic bases during development.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Cross-sectional studies have shown that the ability to remember the contextual details of previous experiences (i.e., source memory) is related to hippocampal development in childhood. It is unknown whether hippocampal functional changes precede improvements in memory or vice versa. By using an accelerated longitudinal design, we found that early source memory changes predicted later intrinsic hippocampal functional connectivity and that this connectivity predicted later source memory changes. These findings suggest that behavioral experience and brain development are interactive, bidirectional processes, such that experience shapes future changes in the brain and the brain shapes future behavioral changes. Moreover, these interactions varied as a function of children's age and brain region, highlighting the importance of a developmental perspective when investigating brain-behavior interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fengji Geng
- Department of Curriculum and Learning Sciences, Zhejiang University, Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou, 310058
- Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health, Hangzhou, 310052
| | - Morgan Botdorf
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
| | - Tracy Riggins
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
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22
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Russell JD, Herringa RJ. Editorial: The Preschool Emotional Brain. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2021; 60:29-31. [PMID: 32890671 PMCID: PMC8344655 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2020.08.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2020] [Accepted: 08/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
There is broad consensus that children's ability to regulate emotion, particularly negative affect, can have enormous implications for the cascading processes underlying social and emotional development. With the burgeoning autonomy of toddlerhood comes a rudimentary understanding of the varieties of emotional experience, and initial awareness that a child's actions can augment or attenuate the intensity of those experiences. Successful forays into emotion regulation are crucial for healthy psychological development, allowing children to accommodate life's difficulties by purposefully altering their emotional state (ie, coping) when necessary. By contrast, persistent negative affect in childhood is known to increase the risk for depression by late adolescence.1 Neuroimaging studies in youth and adults have implicated a key circuit in the generation and regulation of negative affect including the amygdala, a subcortical structure that detects emotionally salient information, and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a cortical region known to exert regulatory influence on the amygdala. Synchronous activation of these regions, reflecting functional transmission of information between them, is conceptually and empirically linked to individual differences in the intensity and purposeful modulation of emotion.2 Furthermore, amygdala reactivity is associated with negative affect in preschoolers,3 whereas emotion-related amygdala-mPFC connectivity may shape the subsequent development of resting (intrinsic) amygdala-mPFC connectivity, particularly in childhood.4.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin D Russell
- University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin
| | - Ryan J Herringa
- University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin.
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23
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Gaffrey MS, Barch DM, Luby JL, Petersen SE. Amygdala Functional Connectivity Is Associated With Emotion Regulation and Amygdala Reactivity in 4- to 6-Year-Olds. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2021; 60:176-185. [PMID: 32119912 PMCID: PMC7483219 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2020.01.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2019] [Revised: 01/21/2020] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Emotion dysregulation has been suggested to be a potent risk factor for multiple psychiatric conditions. Altered amygdala-prefrontal cortex (PFC) connectivity has been consistently linked to emotion dysregulation. Recent data indicate that amygdala-PFC functional connectivity undergoes a prolonged period of development, with amygdala reactivity during early childhood potentially shaping this unfolding process. Little is known about the relationships between amygdala-PFC functional connectivity, amygdala reactivity, and emotion regulation during early childhood. This information is likely critical for understanding early emotion dysregulation as a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. The current study examined the relationships between amygdala functional connectivity, amygdala reactivity, and emotion regulation in preschoolers. METHOD A total of 66 medication-naive 4- to 6-year-olds participated in a study where resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and parent-reported child emotion regulation ability data were collected. fMRI data collected during a face viewing task was also available for 24 children. RESULTS Right amygdala-medial PFC (mPFC) functional connectivity was positively associated with child emotion regulation ability and negatively associated with child negative affect and right amygdala reactivity to facial expressions of emotion. Right amygdala-mPFC functional connectivity also statistically mediated the relationship between heightened right amygdala reactivity and elevated child negative affect. CONCLUSION Study findings suggest that amygdala-mPFC functional connectivity during early childhood, and its relationships with amygdala reactivity and emotion regulation during this highly sensitive developmental period, may play an important role in early emotional development. These results inform the neurodevelopmental biology of emotion regulation and its potential relationship with risk for psychopathology.
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24
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Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2020; 47:100909. [PMID: 33395612 PMCID: PMC7785957 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2020] [Revised: 10/10/2020] [Accepted: 12/22/2020] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Early life stress increases risk for later psychopathology, due in part to changes in dopaminergic brain systems that support reward processing and motivation. Work in animals has shown that early life stress has a profound impact on the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which provides dopamine to regions including nucleus accumbens (NAcc), anterior hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), with cascading effects over the course of development. However, little is known about how early stress exposure shifts the developmental trajectory of mesocorticolimbic circuitry in humans. In the current study, 88 four- to nine-year-old children participated in resting-state fMRI. Parents completed questionnaires on their children's chronic stress exposure, including socioeconomic status (SES) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). We found an age x SES interaction on VTA connectivity, such that children from higher SES backgrounds showed a positive relationship between age and VTA-mPFC connectivity. Similarly, we found an age x ACEs exposure interaction on VTA connectivity, such that children with no ACEs exposure showed a positive relationship between age and VTA-mPFC connectivity. Our findings suggest that early stress exposure relates to the blunted maturation of VTA connectivity in young children, which may lead to disrupted reward processing later in childhood and beyond.
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25
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Gee DG. Caregiving influences on emotional learning and regulation: Applying a sensitive period model. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2020; 36:177-184. [PMID: 33718534 DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Early caregiving experiences play a central role in shaping corticolimbic development and emotional learning and regulation. Given dynamic changes in corticolimbic maturation, the effects of caregiving experiences are likely to depend on the developmental timing of exposure. Cross-species evidence has identified timing-related differences in the effects of caregiving adversity. However, the extent to which developmental differences in associations between caregiving adversity and corticolimbic circuitry align with a sensitive period model has remained unclear. Converging evidence from studies of caregiver deprivation points to a sensitive period for caregiving influences on corticolimbic circuitry and emotional development during infancy. By contrast, differential associations between maltreatment and corticolimbic circuitry at specific ages in childhood and adolescence may reflect experience-dependent mechanisms of plasticity. Delineating sensitive periods of development and the precise experience-related mechanisms by which caregiving experiences influence corticolimbic development is essential for refining conceptual models and understanding risk and resilience following early adversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dylan G Gee
- Yale University, Department of Psychology, 2 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511
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26
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Dörfel D, Gärtner A, Scheffel C. Resting State Cortico-Limbic Functional Connectivity and Dispositional Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies: A Replication and Extension Study. Front Behav Neurosci 2020; 14:128. [PMID: 32848654 PMCID: PMC7399345 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2020] [Accepted: 06/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroimaging functional connectivity analyses have shown that the negative coupling between the amygdala and cortical regions is linked to better emotion regulation (ER) in experimental task settings. However, less is known about the neural correlates of ER traits or dispositions. The present study aimed to: (1) replicate the findings of differential cortico-limbic coupling during resting-state depending on the dispositional use of emotion regulation strategies. Furthermore, the study aimed to: (2) extend prior findings by examining whether differences in cortico-limbic coupling during resting-state predict experiential and neuronal ER success in a standard ER task. To this end, N = 107 healthy adults completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), underwent an 8-min resting-state fMRI acquisition, and completed a reappraisal task during fMRI. Functional connectivity maps of basolateral and centromedial amygdala nuclei were estimated with a seed-based approach regarding associations with regions of the prefrontal cortex and were then correlated with ERQ scores as well as experiential and neuronal ER success. All hypotheses and the analysis plan are preregistered at https://osf.io/8wsgu. Opposed to prior findings, we were not able to replicate a correlation of dispositional ER strategy use with functional connectivity between the amygdala and PFC regions (p > 0.05, FWE-corrected). Furthermore, there was no association of experiential and neuronal reappraisal success with functional connectivity between amygdala and insula as well as PFC (p > 0.05, FWE-corrected). The present preregistered study calls into question the reported association between individual differences in resting-state cortico-limbic connectivity and dispositional use of ER strategies. However, ongoing advances in functional brain imaging and distributed network approaches may leverage the identification of reliable functional connectivity patterns that underlie successful emotion regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denise Dörfel
- Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Anne Gärtner
- Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
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Wang J, Gu Y, Dong W, Zhao M, Tian J, Sun T, Yu X, Ouyang G, Wang H. Lower Small-Worldness of Intrinsic Brain Networks Facilitates the Cognitive Protection of Intellectual Engagement in Elderly People Without Dementia: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2020; 28:722-731. [PMID: 32173205 DOI: 10.1016/j.jagp.2020.02.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2019] [Revised: 02/04/2020] [Accepted: 02/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Lifetime intellectual engagement may be associated with cognitive ability late in life. However, the current evidence on whether cognitive activities will improve and/or maintain cognitive function is heterogeneous. Drawing on knowledge of the brain's intrinsic small-world organization which combines regional specialization and efficient global information transfer, we aimed to explore that whether individual differences in the small-worldness of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) networks would explain the variability in the strength of the association between intellectual engagement and cognitive functioning. METHODS Sixty-five elderly people without dementia were enrolled and scanned with a 52-channel near-infrared spectroscopy system. The number, frequency, and participation hours of intellectual activities were investigated to measure intellectual engagement. Global cognition was assessed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. The general linear models and the simple slope analysis were employed to measure the modulatory role of network properties. RESULTS The small-worldness of the brain network emerged as a moderator of the association between intellectual engagement and cognition. Exclusively among elderly people with lower small-worldness, greater intellectual engagement, including the frequency and participation hours of activities, was associated with greater global cognitive function. Furthermore, we observed that elderly people with lower small-worldness exhibited decreased rsFC across the bilateral frontopolar areas and increased rsFC across the bilateral parietal cortex. CONCLUSION The individual differences in the small-worldness of rsFC networks might explain the varying strength of the association between intellectual engagement and cognitive functioning. Our findings imply that the intrinsic small-worldness of the brain network might be a potential neurobiological contributor that interacts with the intellectual engagement in enhancing the cognitive ability in late life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Wang
- Peking University Institute of Mental Health (Sixth Hospital) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY HW), Beijing, China; Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory for Translational Research on Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia (JW, MZ, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China
| | - Yue Gu
- Key Laboratory of Computer Vision and System (Ministry of Education), School of Computer Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology (YG), Tianjin, China
| | - Wentian Dong
- Peking University Institute of Mental Health (Sixth Hospital) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY HW), Beijing, China
| | - Mei Zhao
- Peking University Institute of Mental Health (Sixth Hospital) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY HW), Beijing, China; Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory for Translational Research on Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia (JW, MZ, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China; Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne (MZ), Melbourne, Australia
| | - Ju Tian
- Peking University Institute of Mental Health (Sixth Hospital) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY HW), Beijing, China
| | - Tingting Sun
- Peking University Institute of Mental Health (Sixth Hospital) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY HW), Beijing, China; Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory for Translational Research on Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia (JW, MZ, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China
| | - Xin Yu
- Peking University Institute of Mental Health (Sixth Hospital) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY HW), Beijing, China; Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory for Translational Research on Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia (JW, MZ, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China
| | - Gaoxiang Ouyang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University (GO), Beijing, China
| | - Huali Wang
- Peking University Institute of Mental Health (Sixth Hospital) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University) (JW, WD, MZ, JT, TS, XY HW), Beijing, China; Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory for Translational Research on Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia (JW, MZ, TS, XY, HW), Beijing, China.
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28
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Tottenham N. Early Adversity and the Neotenous Human Brain. Biol Psychiatry 2020; 87:350-358. [PMID: 31399257 PMCID: PMC6935437 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.06.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2019] [Revised: 06/20/2019] [Accepted: 06/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Human brain development is optimized to learn from environmental cues. The protracted development of the cortex and its connections with subcortical targets has been argued to permit more opportunity for acquiring complex behaviors. This review uses the example of amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex circuitry development to illustrate a principle of human development-namely, that the extension of the brain's developmental timeline allows for the (species-expected) collaboration between child and parent in co-construction of the human brain. The neurobiology underlying affective learning capitalizes on this protracted timeline to develop a rich affective repertoire in adulthood. Humans are afforded this luxuriously slow development in part by the extended period of caregiving provided by parents, and parents aid in scaffolding the process of maturation during childhood. Just as adequate caregiving is a potent effector of brain development, so is adverse caregiving, which is the largest environmental risk factor for adult mental illness. There are large individual differences in neurobiological outcomes following caregiving adversity, indicating that these pathways are probabilistic, rather than deterministic, and prolonged plasticity in human brain development may also allow for subsequent amelioration by positive experiences. The extant research indicates that the development of mental health cannot be considered without consideration of children in the context of their families.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nim Tottenham
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York.
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29
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Honeycutt JA, Demaestri C, Peterzell S, Silveri MM, Cai X, Kulkarni P, Cunningham MG, Ferris CF, Brenhouse HC. Altered corticolimbic connectivity reveals sex-specific adolescent outcomes in a rat model of early life adversity. eLife 2020; 9:52651. [PMID: 31958061 PMCID: PMC7010412 DOI: 10.7554/elife.52651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2019] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Exposure to early-life adversity (ELA) increases the risk for psychopathologies associated with amygdala-prefrontal cortex (PFC) circuits. While sex differences in vulnerability have been identified with a clear need for individualized intervention strategies, the neurobiological substrates of ELA-attributable differences remain unknown due to a paucity of translational investigations taking both development and sex into account. Male and female rats exposed to maternal separation ELA were analyzed with anterograde tracing from basolateral amygdala (BLA) to PFC to identify sex-specific innervation trajectories through juvenility (PD28) and adolescence (PD38;PD48). Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) was assessed longitudinally (PD28;PD48) in a separate cohort. All measures were related to anxiety-like behavior. ELA-exposed rats showed precocial maturation of BLA-PFC innervation, with females affected earlier than males. ELA also disrupted maturation of female rsFC, with enduring relationships between rsFC and anxiety-like behavior. This study is the first providing both anatomical and functional evidence for sex- and experience-dependent corticolimbic development. Having a traumatic childhood increases the risk a person will develop anxiety disorders later in life. Early life adversity affects men and women differently, but scientists do not yet know why. Learning more could help scientists develop better ways to prevent or treat anxiety disorders in men and women who experienced childhood trauma. Anxiety occurs when threat-detecting brain circuits turn on. These circuits begin working in infancy, and during childhood and adolescence, experiences shape the brain to hone the body’s responses to perceived threats. Two areas of the brain that are important hubs for anxiety-related brain circuits include the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Now, Honeycutt et al. show that rats that experience early life adversity develop stronger connections between the BLA and PFC, and these changes occur earlier in female rats. In the experiments, one group of rats was repeatedly separated from their mothers and littermates (an early life trauma), while a second group was not. Honeycutt et al. examined the connections between the BLA and PFC in the two groups at three different time periods during their development: the juvenile stage, early adolescence, and late adolescence. The experiments showed stronger connections between the BLA and PFC begin to appear earlier in juvenile traumatized female rats. But these changes did not appear in their male counterparts until adolescence. Lastly, the rats that developed these strengthened BLA-PFC connections also behaved more anxiously later in life. This may mean that the ideal timing for interventions may be different for males and females. More work is needed to see if these results translate to humans and then to find the best times and methods to help people who experienced childhood trauma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer A Honeycutt
- Developmental Neuropsychobiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
| | - Camila Demaestri
- Developmental Neuropsychobiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
| | - Shayna Peterzell
- Developmental Neuropsychobiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
| | - Marisa M Silveri
- Neurodevelopmental Laboratory on Addictions and Mental Health, McLean Hospital, Belmont, United States.,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
| | - Xuezhu Cai
- Center for Translational Neuroimaging, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
| | - Praveen Kulkarni
- Center for Translational Neuroimaging, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
| | - Miles G Cunningham
- Laboratory for Neural Reconstruction, Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, United States
| | - Craig F Ferris
- Center for Translational Neuroimaging, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
| | - Heather C Brenhouse
- Developmental Neuropsychobiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
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30
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Richardson H. Development of brain networks for social functions: Confirmatory analyses in a large open source dataset. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2019; 37:100598. [PMID: 30522854 PMCID: PMC6969289 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2018] [Revised: 10/28/2018] [Accepted: 11/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Human observers show robust activity in distinct brain networks during movie-viewing. For example, scenes that emphasize characters' thoughts evoke activity in the "Theory of Mind" (ToM) network, whereas scenes that emphasize characters' bodily sensations evoke activity in the "Pain Matrix." A prior exploratory fMRI study used a naturalistic movie-viewing stimulus to study the developmental origins of this functional dissociation, and the links between cortical and cognitive changes in children's social development (Richardson et al., 2018). To replicate and extend this work, the current study utilized a large publicly available dataset (n = 241, ages 5-20 years) (Alexander et al., 2017) who viewed "The Present" (Frey, 2014) and completed a resting state scan (n = 200) while undergoing fMRI. This study provides confirmatory evidence that 1) ToM and pain networks are functionally dissociated early in development, 2) selectivity increases with age, and in ToM regions, with a behavioral index of social reasoning. Additionally, while inter-region correlations are similar when measured during the movie and at rest, only inter-region correlations measured during movie-viewing correlated with functional maturity. This study demonstrates the scientific benefits of open source data in developmental cognitive neuroscience, and provides insight into the relationship between functional and intrinsic properties of the developing brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hilary Richardson
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 43 Vassar Street, 46-4021, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States.
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31
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Geng F, Redcay E, Riggins T. The influence of age and performance on hippocampal function and the encoding of contextual information in early childhood. Neuroimage 2019; 195:433-443. [PMID: 30905835 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.03.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2018] [Revised: 01/27/2019] [Accepted: 03/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies in school-aged children and adults consistently implicate hippocampus, cortical regions, and their interaction as being critical for memory. However, few studies have examined this neural network in younger children (<8 years), despite the fact that behavioral studies consistently report substantial improvements in memory earlier in life. This study aimed to fill this gap by integrating task-based (i.e., memory encoding task) and task-free fMRI scans in 4- to 8-year-old children. Results showed that during memory encoding the hippocampus and several cortical regions (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus, IFG) were activated, consistent with findings in older individuals. Novel findings during memory encoding showed: 1) additional regions (i.e., orbital frontal gyrus, OFG) were recruited, 2) hippocampal activation varied due to age and performance, and 3) differentiation of connectivity between hippocampal subregions and IFG was greater in older versus younger participants, implying increased speicalization with age. Novel findings from task-free fMRI data suggested the extent of functional differentiation along the longitudinal axis of the hippocampus, particularly between hippocampus and OFG, was moderated by both age and performance. Our findings support and extend previous research, suggesting that maturation of hippocampal activity, connectivity, and differentiation may all contribute to development of memory during early childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fengji Geng
- Department of Curriculum and Learning Sciences, Zhejiang University, 148 Tianmushan Road, Xixi Campus, Hangzhou, 310007, China
| | - Elizabeth Redcay
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, 4094 Campus Drive, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
| | - Tracy Riggins
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, 4094 Campus Drive, College Park, MD, 20742, USA.
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32
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Abstract
The transition from childhood to adulthood represents the developmental time frame in which the majority of psychiatric disorders emerge. Recent efforts to identify risk factors mediating the susceptibility to psychopathology have led to a heightened focus on both typical and atypical trajectories of neural circuit maturation. Mounting evidence has highlighted the immense neural plasticity apparent in the developing brain. Although in many cases adaptive, the capacity for neural circuit alteration also induces a state of vulnerability to environmental perturbations, such that early-life experiences have long-lasting implications for cognitive and emotional functioning in adulthood. The authors outline preclinical and neuroimaging studies of normative human brain circuit development, as well as parallel efforts covered in this issue of the Journal, to identify brain circuit alterations in psychiatric disorders that frequently emerge in developing populations. Continued translational research into the interactive effects of neurobiological development and external factors will be crucial for identifying early-life risk factors that may contribute to the emergence of psychiatric illness and provide the key to optimizing treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heidi C Meyer
- The Department of Psychiatry and the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York
| | - Francis S Lee
- The Department of Psychiatry and the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York
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33
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Callaghan B, Meyer H, Opendak M, Van Tieghem M, Harmon C, Li A, Lee FS, Sullivan RM, Tottenham N. Using a Developmental Ecology Framework to Align Fear Neurobiology Across Species. Annu Rev Clin Psychol 2019; 15:345-369. [PMID: 30786246 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050718-095727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Children's development is largely dependent on caregiving; when caregiving is disrupted, children are at increased risk for numerous poor outcomes, in particular psychopathology. Therefore, determining how caregivers regulate children's affective neurobiology is essential for understanding psychopathology etiology and prevention. Much of the research on affective functioning uses fear learning to map maturation trajectories, with both rodent and human studies contributing knowledge. Nonetheless, as no standard framework exists through which to interpret developmental effects across species, research often remains siloed, thus contributing to the current therapeutic impasse. Here, we propose a developmental ecology framework that attempts to understand fear in the ecological context of the child: their relationship with their parent. By referring to developmental goals that are shared across species (to attach to, then, ultimately, separate from the parent), this framework provides a common grounding from which fear systems and their dysfunction can be understood, thus advancing research on psychopathologies and their treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bridget Callaghan
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; , , , .,Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne University, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - Heidi Meyer
- Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA; , ,
| | - Maya Opendak
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University, Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; .,Nathan S. Klein Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962, USA;
| | | | - Chelsea Harmon
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; , , ,
| | - Anfei Li
- Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA; , ,
| | - Francis S Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA; , ,
| | - Regina M Sullivan
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University, Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; .,Nathan S. Klein Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962, USA;
| | - Nim Tottenham
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; , , ,
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34
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Silvers JA, Guassi Moreira JF. Capacity and tendency: A neuroscientific framework for the study of emotion regulation. Neurosci Lett 2019; 693:35-39. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.09.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2017] [Revised: 09/06/2017] [Accepted: 09/08/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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35
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Odriozola P, Dajani DR, Burrows CA, Gabard-Durnam LJ, Goodman E, Baez AC, Tottenham N, Uddin LQ, Gee DG. Atypical frontoamygdala functional connectivity in youth with autism. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2018; 37:100603. [PMID: 30581125 PMCID: PMC6570504 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2018] [Revised: 11/11/2018] [Accepted: 12/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Functional connectivity (FC) between the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex underlies socioemotional functioning, a core domain of impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although frontoamygdala circuitry undergoes dynamic changes throughout development, little is known about age-related changes in frontoamygdala networks in ASD. Here we characterize frontoamygdala resting-state FC in a cross-sectional sample (ages 7–25) of 58 typically developing (TD) individuals and 53 individuals with ASD. Contrary to hypotheses, individuals with ASD did not show different age-related patterns of frontoamygdala FC compared with TD individuals. However, overall group differences in frontoamygdala FC were observed. Specifically, relative to TD individuals, individuals with ASD showed weaker frontoamygdala FC between the right basolateral (BL) amygdala and the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC). These findings extend prior work to a broader developmental range in ASD, and indicate ASD-related differences in frontoamygdala FC that may underlie core socioemotional impairments in children and adolescents with ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Odriozola
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA.
| | - Dina R Dajani
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA
| | | | | | - Emma Goodman
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Adriana C Baez
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA
| | - Nim Tottenham
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Lucina Q Uddin
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA; Neuroscience Program, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami FL, 33136, USA
| | - Dylan G Gee
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
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36
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Functional connectivity in central executive network protects youth against cardiometabolic risks linked with neighborhood violence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:12063-12068. [PMID: 30397136 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810067115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Although violent crime has declined in recent decades, it remains a recurring feature of daily life in some neighborhoods. Mounting evidence indicates that such violence has a long reach, which goes beyond family and friends of the victim and undermines the health of people in the surrounding community. However, like all forms of adversity, community violence elicits a heterogeneous response: Some remain healthy, but others deteriorate. Despite much scientific attention, the neural circuitries that contribute to differential adaptation remain poorly understood. Drawing on knowledge of the brain's intrinsic functional architecture, we predicted that individual differences in resting-state connectivity would explain variability in the strength of the association between neighborhood violence and cardiometabolic health. We enrolled 218 urban youth (age 12-14 years, 66% female; 65% black or Latino) and used geocoding to characterize their exposure to neighborhood murder over the past five years. Multiple aspects of cardiometabolic health were assessed, including obesity, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome. Functional MRI was used to quantify the connectivity of major intrinsic networks. Consistent with predictions, resting-state connectivity within the central executive network (CEN) emerged as a moderator of adaptation. Across six distinct outcomes, a higher neighborhood murder rate was associated with greater cardiometabolic risk, but this relationship was apparent only among youth who displayed lower CEN resting-state connectivity. By contrast, there was little evidence of moderation by the anterior salience and default mode networks. These findings advance basic and applied knowledge about adaptation by highlighting intrinsic CEN connectivity as a potential neurobiological contributor to resilience.
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37
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Gabard-Durnam LJ, O'Muircheartaigh J, Dirks H, Dean DC, Tottenham N, Deoni S. Human amygdala functional network development: A cross-sectional study from 3 months to 5 years of age. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2018; 34:63-74. [PMID: 30075348 PMCID: PMC6252269 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2018] [Revised: 06/11/2018] [Accepted: 06/12/2018] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Although the amygdala's role in shaping social behavior is especially important during early post-natal development, very little is known of amygdala functional development before childhood. To address this gap, this study uses resting-state fMRI to examine early amygdalar functional network development in a cross-sectional sample of 80 children from 3-months to 5-years of age. Whole brain functional connectivity with the amygdala, and its laterobasal and superficial sub-regions, were largely similar to those seen in older children and adults. Functional distinctions between sub-region networks were already established. These patterns suggest many amygdala functional circuits are intact from infancy, especially those that are part of motor, visual, auditory and subcortical networks. Developmental changes in connectivity were observed between the laterobasal nucleus and bilateral ventral temporal and motor cortex as well as between the superficial nuclei and medial thalamus, occipital cortex and a different region of motor cortex. These results show amygdala-subcortical and sensory-cortex connectivity begins refinement prior to childhood, though connectivity changes with associative and frontal cortical areas, seen after early childhood, were not evident in this age range. These findings represent early steps in understanding amygdala network dynamics across infancy through early childhood, an important period of emotional and cognitive development.
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Affiliation(s)
- L J Gabard-Durnam
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - J O'Muircheartaigh
- Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences & Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK; Centre for the Developing Brain, Department of Perinatal Imaging and Health, School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, UK.
| | - H Dirks
- Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Brown University School of Engineering, Providence, USA
| | - D C Dean
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53702, USA; Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53702, USA
| | - N Tottenham
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA
| | - S Deoni
- Department of Pediatrics, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, USA
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38
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Telzer EH, McCormick EM, Peters S, Cosme D, Pfeifer JH, van Duijvenvoorde ACK. Methodological considerations for developmental longitudinal fMRI research. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2018; 33:149-160. [PMID: 29456104 PMCID: PMC6345379 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2017] [Revised: 01/31/2018] [Accepted: 02/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
There has been a large spike in longitudinal fMRI studies in recent years, and so it is essential that researchers carefully assess the limitations and challenges afforded by longitudinal designs. In this article, we provide an overview of important considerations for longitudinal fMRI research in developmental samples, including task design, sampling strategies, and group-level analyses. We first discuss considerations for task designs, weighing the pros and cons of many commonly used tasks, as well as outlining how the tasks may be impacted by repeated exposure. Secondly, we review the types of group-level analyses that can be conducted on longitudinal fMRI data, analyses which must account for repeated measures. Finally, we review and critique recent longitudinal studies that have emerged in the past few years.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Sabine Peters
- Leiden University, The Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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39
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Reindl V, Gerloff C, Scharke W, Konrad K. Brain-to-brain synchrony in parent-child dyads and the relationship with emotion regulation revealed by fNIRS-based hyperscanning. Neuroimage 2018; 178:493-502. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 113] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2017] [Revised: 05/16/2018] [Accepted: 05/25/2018] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
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40
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Rohr CS, Arora A, Cho IYK, Katlariwala P, Dimond D, Dewey D, Bray S. Functional network integration and attention skills in young children. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2018; 30:200-211. [PMID: 29587178 PMCID: PMC6969078 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2017] [Revised: 02/12/2018] [Accepted: 03/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Children acquire attention skills rapidly during early childhood as their brains undergo vast neural development. Attention is well studied in the adult brain, yet due to the challenges associated with scanning young children, investigations in early childhood are sparse. Here, we examined the relationship between age, attention and functional connectivity (FC) during passive viewing in multiple intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) in 60 typically developing girls between 4 and 7 years whose sustained, selective and executive attention skills were assessed. Visual, auditory, sensorimotor, default mode (DMN), dorsal attention (DAN), ventral attention (VAN), salience, and frontoparietal ICNs were identified via Independent Component Analysis and subjected to a dual regression. Individual spatial maps were regressed against age and attention skills, controlling for age. All ICNs except the VAN showed regions of increasing FC with age. Attention skills were associated with FC in distinct networks after controlling for age: selective attention positively related to FC in the DAN; sustained attention positively related to FC in visual and auditory ICNs; and executive attention positively related to FC in the DMN and visual ICN. These findings suggest distributed network integration across this age range and highlight how multiple ICNs contribute to attention skills in early childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christiane S Rohr
- Department of Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
| | - Anish Arora
- Department of Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Ivy Y K Cho
- Department of Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Prayash Katlariwala
- Department of Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Dennis Dimond
- Department of Neuroscience, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Deborah Dewey
- Department of Paediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Signe Bray
- Department of Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Department of Paediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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41
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Park AT, Leonard JA, Saxler PK, Cyr AB, Gabrieli JDE, Mackey AP. Amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex connectivity relates to stress and mental health in early childhood. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018. [PMID: 29522160 PMCID: PMC5928403 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsy017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Early life stress has been associated with disrupted functional connectivity between the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), but it is unknown how early in development stress-related differences in amygdala–mPFC connectivity emerge. In a resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) analysis with 79 four- to seven-year-old children, we found a significant correlation between more adverse experiences and weaker amygdala–mPFC rs-FC. We also found that weaker amygdala–mPFC rs-FC was associated with higher levels of aggressive behavior and attention problems. These findings suggest that the impact of stress on emotional circuitry is detectable in early childhood and that this impact is associated with mental health difficulties. Connectivity in this circuit may be useful as a marker for mental health risk and for tracking the efficacy of early interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne T Park
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Julia A Leonard
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Patricia K Saxler
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Abigail B Cyr
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - John D E Gabrieli
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Allyson P Mackey
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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42
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Abstract
Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in youth; however, progress in treatment for childhood anxiety has stalled over the past decade. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project represents a shift toward a dimensional and interdisciplinary approach to psychiatric disorders; this shift can reframe developmental psychopathology for childhood anxiety and facilitate novel advances in its classification and treatment. Here we highlight constructs in the Systems for Social Processes and the Negative Valence System domains of RDoC, as they relate to childhood anxiety disorders. Childhood anxiety relates to both RDoC domains. In terms of social processes, through natural reliance on parents to reduce children's fear, attachment represents one particular social process, which plays a central role in anxiety among youth. In terms of negative valence, considerable research links threat conditioning to pediatric anxiety. Finally, fronto-amygdala circuitry relates to all three entities, as it has been shown to underly both attachment processes and threat learning, while it also has been consistently implicated in anxiety disorders across development. Through integrative and translational approaches, RDoC provides unique opportunities and simultaneous challenges for advancing the understanding and treatment of childhood anxiety disorders.
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43
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Meyer HC, Lee FS, Gee DG. The Role of the Endocannabinoid System and Genetic Variation in Adolescent Brain Development. Neuropsychopharmacology 2018; 43:21-33. [PMID: 28685756 PMCID: PMC5719094 DOI: 10.1038/npp.2017.143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 126] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2017] [Revised: 05/17/2017] [Accepted: 06/23/2017] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
During adolescence, both rodent and human studies have revealed dynamic changes in the developmental trajectories of corticolimbic structures, which are known to contribute to the regulation of fear and anxiety-related behaviors. The endocannabinoid (eCB) system critically regulates stress responsivity and anxiety throughout the life span. Emerging evidence suggests that during adolescence, changes in eCB signaling contribute to the maturation of local and corticolimbic circuit populations of neurons, such as mediating the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission within the prefrontal cortex. This function of the eCB system facilitates efficient communication within and between brain regions and serves a central role in establishing complex and adaptive cognitive and behavioral processing. Although these peri-adolescent changes in eCB signaling promote brain development and plasticity, they also render this period a particularly sensitive one for environmental perturbations to these normative fluctuations in eCB signaling, such as stress, potentially leading to altered developmental trajectories of neural circuits governing emotional behaviors. In this review, we focus on the role of eCB signaling on the regulation of stress and anxiety-related behaviors both during and after adolescence. Moreover, we discuss the functional implications of human genetic variation in the eCB system for the risk for anxiety and consequences of stress across development and into adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heidi C Meyer
- Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA
| | - Francis S Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA
- Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA
| | - Dylan G Gee
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
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44
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Fareri DS, Gabard-Durnam L, Goff B, Flannery J, Gee DG, Lumian DS, Caldera C, Tottenham N. Altered ventral striatal-medial prefrontal cortex resting-state connectivity mediates adolescent social problems after early institutional care. Dev Psychopathol 2017; 29:1865-1876. [PMID: 29162189 PMCID: PMC5957481 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579417001456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Early caregiving adversity is associated with increased risk for social difficulties. The ventral striatum and associated corticostriatal circuitry, which have demonstrated vulnerability to early exposures to adversity, are implicated in many aspects of social behavior, including social play, aggression, and valuation of social stimuli across development. Here, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the degree to which early caregiving adversity was associated with altered coritocostriatal resting connectivity in previously institutionalized youth (n = 41) relative to youth who were raised with their biological families from birth (n = 47), and the degree to which this connectivity was associated with parent-reported social problems. Using a seed-based approach, we observed increased positive coupling between the ventral striatum and anterior regions of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in previously institutionalized youth. Stronger ventral striatum-mPFC coupling was associated with parent reports of social problems. A moderated-mediation analysis showed that ventral striatal-mPFC connectivity mediated group differences in social problems, and more so with increasing age. These findings show that early institutional care is associated with differences in resting-state connectivity between the ventral striatum and the mPFC, and this connectivity seems to play an increasingly important role in social behaviors as youth enter adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominic S. Fareri
- Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530
| | | | - Bonnie Goff
- Department of Psychology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095
| | - Jessica Flannery
- Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403
| | - Dylan G. Gee
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511
| | - Daniel S. Lumian
- Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208
| | - Christina Caldera
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095
| | - Nim Tottenham
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027
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45
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Tottenham N. The Brain's Emotional Development. CEREBRUM : THE DANA FORUM ON BRAIN SCIENCE 2017; 2017:cer-08-17. [PMID: 30210657 PMCID: PMC6132040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
From our earliest days, the brain rapidly develops thinking, mobility, and communication skills. But not quite as quick to develop are the parts of the brain that regulate and process our emotions. New research is helping scientists learn about areas that are crucial to emotional development, and how our surroundings fit into the picture. The findings could have far-reaching implications for both parents and policy-makers.
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46
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Leyton
- Correspondence to: M. Leyton, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 1033 Pine Ave West, Montreal, QC H3A 1A1;
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47
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Tottenham N, Gabard-Durnam LJ. The developing amygdala: a student of the world and a teacher of the cortex. Curr Opin Psychol 2017; 17:55-60. [PMID: 28950973 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2016] [Accepted: 06/05/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC) function subserving emotional behavior has largely been examined from the perspective of their adult roles, with a tremendous focus on the regulatory influence of the PFC over amygdala activity. Here we consider the circuit's function in its developmental context, when maximal learning about emotion and incentives from the environment is necessary. We argue that during development the amygdala exhibits an overwhelming influence over the developmental destiny of circuitry function, and the amygdala's learning and experiential history are conveyed to the cortex to modulate subsequent PFC development. We present recent findings on the different developmental trajectories of the amygdala and PFC, their functional connectivity, and the timing of environmental influences as evidence supporting our position.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nim Tottenham
- Columbia University, Department of Psychology, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA.
| | - Laurel J Gabard-Durnam
- Harvard University/Boston Children's Hospital, Division of Developmental Medicine, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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48
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Abstract
Sleep habits developed in adolescence shape long-term trajectories of psychological, educational, and physiological well-being. Adolescents’ sleep behaviors are shaped by their parents’ sleep at both the behavioral and biological levels. In the current study, we sought to examine how neural concordance in resting-state functional connectivity between parent-child dyads is associated with dyadic concordance in sleep duration and adolescents’ sleep quality. To this end, we scanned both parents and their child (N = 28 parent-child dyads; parent Mage = 42.8 years; adolescent Mage = 14.9 years; 14.3% father; 46.4% female adolescent) as they each underwent a resting-state scan. Using daily diaries, we also assessed dyadic concordance in sleep duration across two weeks. Our results show that greater daily concordance in sleep behavior is associated with greater neural concordance in default-mode network connectivity between parents and children. Moreover, greater neural and behavioral concordances in sleep is associated with more optimal sleep quality in adolescents. The current findings expand our understanding of dyadic concordance by providing a neurobiological mechanism by which parents and children share daily sleep behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tae-Ho Lee
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), NC 27599, USA
| | - Michelle E Miernicki
- Department of Psychology, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL 61801, USA; Human Resources and Industrial Relations, UIUC, IL 61801, USA
| | - Eva H Telzer
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), NC 27599, USA; Department of Psychology, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL 61801, USA.
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49
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Gee DG. Sensitive Periods of Emotion Regulation: Influences of Parental Care on Frontoamygdala Circuitry and Plasticity. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev 2017; 2016:87-110. [PMID: 27589500 DOI: 10.1002/cad.20166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Early caregiving experiences play a central role in shaping emotional development, stress physiology, and refinement of limbic circuitry. Converging evidence across species delineates a sensitive period of heightened neuroplasticity when frontoamygdala circuitry is especially amenable to caregiver inputs early in life. During this period, parental buffering regulates emotional behaviors and stress physiology as emotion regulation circuitry continues to mature. By contrast, disorganized or poor quality caregiving has profound and lasting consequences on the maturation of frontoamygdala circuitry essential for emotion regulation, even following termination of this early life stressor (e.g., adoption from orphanage). This article highlights how interactions between caregiving experiences and the biological state of the developing brain have broad implications for long-term health.
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50
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Families that fire together smile together: Resting state connectome similarity and daily emotional synchrony in parent-child dyads. Neuroimage 2017; 152:31-37. [PMID: 28254510 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.02.078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2016] [Revised: 02/21/2017] [Accepted: 02/26/2017] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite emerging evidence suggesting a biological basis to our social tiles, our understanding of the neural processes which link two minds is unknown. We implemented a novel approach, which included connectome similarity analysis using resting state intrinsic networks of parent-child dyads as well as daily diaries measured across 14 days. Intrinsic resting-state networks for both parents and their adolescent child were identified using independent component analysis (ICA). Results indicate that parents and children who had more similar RSN connectome also had more similar day-to-day emotional synchrony. Furthermore, dyadic RSN connectome similarity was associated with children's emotional competence, suggesting that being neurally in-tune with their parents confers emotional benefits. We provide the first evidence that dyadic RSN similarity is associated with emotional synchrony in what is often our first and most essential social bond, the parent-child relationship.
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