Green Shulamite A, Goff Bonnie, Gee Dylan G, Gabard-Durnam Laurel, Flannery Jessica, Telzer Eva H, Humphreys Kathryn L, Louie Jennifer, Tottenham Nim
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016 Oct;57(10):1135-44. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12578. Epub 2016 Jun 4.
Significant disruption in caregiving is associated with increased internalizing symptoms, most notably heightened separation anxiety symptoms during childhood. It is also associated with altered functional development of the amygdala, a neurobiological correlate of anxious behavior. However, much less is known about how functional alterations of amygdala predict individual differences in anxiety. Here, we probed amygdala function following institutional caregiving using very subtle social-affective stimuli (trustworthy and untrustworthy faces), which typically result in large differences in amygdala signal, and change in separation anxiety behaviors over a 2-year period. We hypothesized that the degree of differentiation of amygdala signal to trustworthy versus untrustworthy face stimuli would predict separation anxiety symptoms.
Seventy-four youths mean (SD) age = 9.7 years (2.64) with and without previous institutional care, who were all living in families at the time of testing, participated in an fMRI task designed to examine differential amygdala response to trustworthy versus untrustworthy faces. Parents reported on their children's separation anxiety symptoms at the time of scan and again 2 years later.
Previous institutional care was associated with diminished amygdala signal differences and behavioral differences to the contrast of untrustworthy and trustworthy faces. Diminished differentiation of these stimuli types predicted more severe separation anxiety symptoms 2 years later. Older age at adoption was associated with diminished differentiation of amygdala responses.
A history of institutional care is associated with reduced differential amygdala responses to social-affective cues of trustworthiness that are typically exhibited by comparison samples. Individual differences in the degree of amygdala differential responding to these cues predict the severity of separation anxiety symptoms over a 2-year period. These findings provide a biological mechanism to explain the associations between early caregiving adversity and individual differences in internalizing symptomology during development, thereby contributing to individualized predictions of future clinical outcomes.
照料的重大中断与内化症状增加有关，最显著的是儿童期分离焦虑症状加剧。它还与杏仁核功能发育改变有关，杏仁核是焦虑行为的神经生物学关联物。然而，关于杏仁核功能改变如何预测焦虑的个体差异，人们了解得要少得多。在此，我们使用非常微妙的社会情感刺激（可信和不可信面孔）探究机构照料后的杏仁核功能，这些刺激通常会导致杏仁核信号出现很大差异，并在两年内观察分离焦虑行为的变化。我们假设杏仁核对可信与不可信面孔刺激信号的分化程度能够预测分离焦虑症状。
74名年龄平均（标准差）为9.7岁（2.64）、有或无机构照料经历的青少年，在测试时均生活在家庭中，参与了一项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）任务，该任务旨在检查杏仁核对可信与不可信面孔的差异反应。父母在扫描时以及两年后报告孩子的分离焦虑症状。
既往机构照料与杏仁核信号差异以及对不可信和可信面孔对比的行为差异减小有关。这些刺激类型的分化减弱预示着两年后分离焦虑症状更严重。收养时年龄较大与杏仁核反应的分化减弱有关。
机构照料史与杏仁核对通常在对照样本中表现出的可信社会情感线索的差异反应减少有关。杏仁核对这些线索的差异反应程度的个体差异可预测两年内分离焦虑症状的严重程度。这些发现提供了一种生物学机制，以解释早期照料逆境与发育过程中内化症状学个体差异之间的关联，从而有助于对未来临床结果进行个性化预测。
