Reward-related neural correlates of early life stress in school-aged children

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Michael T. Liuzzi¹  Jillian Lee Wiggins²  Jacqueline B. Duong³  Maria Kryza-Lacombe³  Miguel T. Villodas⁴  Emma Chad-Friedman⁵  Lea R. Dougherty⁵  Nicholas M. Morelli⁵ 

[1] Corresponding author.;Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA, 92182, United States;Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA, 92182, United States;Psychology Department, University of Maryland College Park, Biology/Psychology Building, 4094 Campus Drive, College Park, MD, 20742, United States;San Diego State University, University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, 6363 Alvarado Court, Suite 103, San Diego, CA, 92120, United States;

关键词: Early life stress;    fMRI;    Reward;    Connectivity;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Objectives: Early life stress likely contributes to dysfunction in neural reward processing systems. However, studies to date have focused almost exclusively on adolescents and adults, measured early life stress retrospectively, and have often failed to control for concurrent levels of stress. The current study examined the contribution of prospectively measured cumulative life stress in preschool-age children on reward-related neural activation and connectivity in school-age children. Methods: Children (N = 46) and caregivers reported children’s exposure to early life stress between birth and preschool age (mean = 4.8 years, SD = 0.80). At follow-up (mean age = 7.52 years, SD = .78), participants performed a child-friendly monetary incentive delay task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results: Children with higher levels of cumulative early life stress, controlling for concurrent stressful life events, exhibited aberrant patterns of neural activation and connectivity in reward- and emotion-related regions (e.g., prefrontal cortex, temporal pole, culmen), depending on the presence of a potential reward and whether or not the target was hit or missed. Conclusions: Findings suggest that stress exposure during early childhood may impact neural reward processing systems earlier in development than has previously been demonstrated. Understanding how early life stress relates to alterations in reward processing could guide earlier, more mechanistic interventions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown