Center for Functional Neuroimaging, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Neuroimage. 2010 Jan 1;49(1):1144-50. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.07.003. Epub 2009 Jul 9.
The effects of early life experience on later brain structure and function have been studied extensively in animals, yet the relationship between childhood experience and normal brain development in humans remains largely unknown. Using a unique longitudinal data set including ecologically valid in-home measures of early experience during childhood (at age 4 and 8 years) and high-resolution structural brain imaging during adolescence (mean age 14 years), we examined the effects on later brain morphology of two dimensions of early experience: parental nurturance and environmental stimulation. Parental nurturance at age 4 predicts the volume of the left hippocampus in adolescence, with better nurturance associated with smaller hippocampal volume. In contrast, environmental stimulation did not correlate with hippocampal volume. Moreover, the association between hippocampal volume and parental nurturance disappears at age 8, supporting the existence of a sensitive developmental period for brain maturation. These findings indicate that variation in normal childhood experience is associated with differences in brain morphology, and hippocampal volume is specifically associated with early parental nurturance. Our results provide neuroimaging evidence supporting the important role of warm parental care during early childhood for brain maturation.
早期生活经历对后期大脑结构和功能的影响在动物中已经得到了广泛研究，但儿童期经历与人类正常大脑发育之间的关系在很大程度上仍不清楚。本研究使用了一个独特的纵向数据集，其中包括儿童期（4 岁和 8 岁时）在家中进行的生态有效早期经历测量，以及青春期（平均年龄 14 岁）的高分辨率结构脑成像，研究了早期经历的两个方面（父母养育和环境刺激）对后期大脑形态的影响。4 岁时的父母养育程度可以预测青春期左海马体的体积，养育程度较好与海马体体积较小相关。相比之下，环境刺激与海马体体积无关。此外，海马体体积与父母养育之间的关联在 8 岁时消失，这支持了大脑成熟的敏感发育阶段的存在。这些发现表明，正常儿童期经历的差异与大脑形态的差异有关，而海马体体积与早期父母养育特别相关。我们的研究结果提供了神经影像学证据，支持在儿童早期进行温暖的父母关怀对大脑成熟的重要作用。
