Cardiovascular reactivity and adolescent boys' physical health

Neural correlates of stress and favorite-food cue exposure in adolescents: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Adolescence is a critical period of neurodevelopment for stress and appetitive processing, as well as a time of increased vulnerability to stress and engagement in risky behaviors. This study was conducted to examine brain activation patterns during stress and favorite-food-cue experiences relative to a neutral-relaxing condition in adolescents. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was employed using individualized script-driven guided imagery to compare brain responses with such experiences in 43 adolescents. Main effects of condition and gender were found, without a significant gender-by-condition interaction. Stress imagery, relative to neutral, was associated with activation in the caudate, thalamus, left hippocampus/parahippocampal gyrus, midbrain, left superior/middle temporal gyrus, and right posterior cerebellum. Appetitive imagery of favorite food was associated with caudate, thalamus, and midbrain activation compared with the neutral-relaxing condition. To understand neural correlates of anxiety and craving, subjective (self-reported) measures of stress-induced anxiety and favorite-food-cue-induced craving were correlated with brain activity during stress and appetitive food-cue conditions, respectively. High self-reported stress-induced anxiety was associated with hypoactivity in the striatum, thalamus, hippocampus, and midbrain. Self-reported favorite-food-cue-induced craving was associated with blunted activity in cortical-striatal regions, including the right dorsal and ventral striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, motor cortex, and left anterior cingulate cortex. These findings in adolescents indicate the activation of predominantly subcortical-striatal regions in the processing of stressful and appetitive experiences and link hypoactive striatal circuits to self-reported stress-induced anxiety and cue-induced favorite-food craving.

Children's memory for a mild stressor: the role of sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal

Although numerous studies have examined the relations between stress and memory in children, few studies have investigated physiological responses as predictors of children's memory for stressful events. In this study, 4- to 8-year-olds completed laboratory challenges and experienced a fire-alarm incident while their sympathetic and parasympathetic reactions were monitored. Shortly afterward, children's memory of the alarm incident was tested. As children's age and family income increased, memory performance improved. High sympathetic activation during the laboratory challenges was associated with enhanced memory. Also, a trend indicated that, among older children, greater general parasympathetic withdrawal was associated with poorer memory, but among younger children, parasympathetic withdrawal was unrelated to memory. Findings highlight the need to measure both sympathetic and parasympathetic responses when evaluating children's memory for mild stressors and to include a wide age range so that developmental changes in the relations between stress and memory in childhood can be identified.

Vigilance to a persisting personal threat: unmasking cardiovascular consequences in adolescents with the Social Competence Interview

We report the first systematic study of hemodynamic responses to the Social Competence Interview, using the original Ewart protocol, which focuses attention on a persisting personal threat. Physiologic changes in 212 African American and Caucasian urban adolescents during the Social Competence Interview, mirror tracing, and reaction time tasks showed that the Social Competence Interview elicits a pronounced vasoconstrictive response pattern, with diminished cardiac activity, that is more typical of alert mental vigilance than of active coping. This pattern was observed in all race and gender subgroups. Results suggest that the Social Competence Interview may be a broadly useful procedure for investigating the role of threat-induced vigilance in cardiovascular and other diseases.

Prophecies of childhood: how children's social environments and biological propensities affect the health of populations

During the past decade, important steps have been taken globally to improve the status of children. Concurrently, significant advances have been made toward understanding how child development is shaped by transactions between biological and environmental influences. Despite such advances, ongoing adversities in the lives of children worldwide undermine the development of individuals and thus the health of nations. The primary tenets of this paper are that: children continue to suffer a disproportionate share of the world's adversities; exposure to early adversities is not only associated with increased morbidity during childhood, but also across the lifespan; and recent advances in understanding the operation and ontogeny of stress-response systems can help explain how adversity is translated into lifelong effects on health. Acknowledging the long-lasting sequelae of childhood adversity has important implications for public health and society.

Associations between physiological reactivity and children's behavior: advantages of a multisystem approach

The past decade has seen a notable increase in interest in and research concerning the physiological correlates of behavior problems in childhood. The present article reviews what this growing body of research has revealed. The main tenet is that disruptions in both sympathetic and adrenocortical regulation appear to be common among children with internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The associations between such neuroendocrine alterations and behavior are discussed and their implications for the fields of stress physiology, neuroendocrinology, and developmental psychopathology are outlined. It is proposed that substantial advances can be made by investigating patterns of physiological responses among multiple, concurrent systems rather than individual response systems.

The impact of an emotional self-management skills course on psychosocial functioning and autonomic recovery to stress in middle school children

Unmanaged emotional reactions to stress not only lead to behavior problems in young people but also create physiological conditions that inhibit learning and potentially increase the risk of disease later in life. For these reasons, the integration of emotional self-management skills training programs has become an increased priority in some schools. In this study, middle school students enrolled in a course in emotional competence skills learned techniques designed to intercept stressful responses during emotionally challenging situations. Behavioral outcomes were assessed using the Achievement Inventory Measure and autonomic function was measured by heart rate variability (HRV) analysis during and after a stressful interview. Following the program, students exhibited significant improvements in areas including stress and anger management, risky behavior, work management and focus, and relationships with family, peers and teachers. These improvements were sustained over the following six months. Students using the skills taught in the course to recover from acute emotional stress were also able to positively modulate their physiological stress responses. As compared to a control group, trained students demonstrated significantly increased HRV and more rhythmic, sine wave-like heart rhythm patterns during recovery. This response pattern reflects increased parasympathetic activity, heart rhythm coherence, and entrainment of other biological oscillatory systems to the primary heart rhythm frequency. Increased physiological coherence is associated with improved cognitive performance, emotional balance, mental clarity and health outcomes. These physiological shifts could promote the sustained psychological and behavioral improvements associated with the use of emotional management skills. It is suggested that learning emotional competence skills in childhood establishes healthier physiological response patterns which can benefit learning and long-term health. Results provide support for the integration in school curricula of courses designed to teach effective self-management skills to children.