Blankenship Sarah L, Chad-Friedman Emma, Riggins Tracy, Dougherty Lea R
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.
Dev Psychobiol. 2019 Jan;61(1):125-140. doi: 10.1002/dev.21788. Epub 2018 Oct 4.
Rodent models indicate that parenting shapes offspring outcomes by programming the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response to stress and, ultimately, altering brain structure and function. The present study tested this hypothesis and explored possible timing-dependent associations in a longitudinal sample of children (N = 63). At Time 1 (M = 4.23 ± 0.84 years) and Time 2 (M = 7.20 ± 0.89 years), children completed parent-child interaction tasks and a laboratory stressor after which salivary cortisol samples were collected. At Time 2, children also completed a structural MRI. Analyses revealed timing- and region-dependent associations between early and concurrent parenting and cortisol reactivity and hippocampal subregion volumes. Moreover, greater negative parenting during early childhood predicted greater cortisol reactivity three years later, which, in turn, led to reduced left hippocampal tail volume. Findings suggest that the hippocampus is sensitive to environmental influences during early childhood, a result that parallels findings from rodent models.
啮齿动物模型表明，养育方式通过对下丘脑 - 垂体 - 肾上腺轴对应激的反应进行编程，最终改变大脑结构和功能，从而塑造后代的结果。本研究验证了这一假设，并在一个纵向儿童样本（N = 63）中探索了可能的时间依赖性关联。在时间1（M = 4.23±0.84岁）和时间2（M = 7.20±0.89岁）时，儿童完成亲子互动任务和一项实验室应激源测试，之后收集唾液皮质醇样本。在时间2时，儿童还完成了一次结构磁共振成像（MRI）。分析揭示了早期和同时期养育方式与皮质醇反应性以及海马亚区体积之间的时间和区域依赖性关联。此外，幼儿期更多的负面养育方式预示着三年后更高的皮质醇反应性，这反过来又导致左侧海马尾部体积减小。研究结果表明，海马体在幼儿期对环境影响敏感，这一结果与啮齿动物模型的研究结果相似。
