Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York; Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2019 Jul;4(7):664-671. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.02.001. Epub 2019 Feb 20.
The human brain remains highly plastic for a protracted developmental period. Thus, although early caregiving adversities that alter amygdala development can result in enduring emotion regulation difficulties, these trajectories should respond to subsequent enriched caregiving. Exposure to high-quality parenting can regulate (i.e., decrease) children's amygdala reactivity, a process that, over the long term, is hypothesized to enhance emotion regulation. We tested the hypothesis that even following adversity, the parent-child relationship would be associated with decreases in amygdala reactivity to parent cues, which would in turn predict lower future anxiety.
Participants were 102 children (6-10 years of age) and adolescents (11-17 years of age), for whom data were collected at one or two time points and who either had experienced institutional care before adoption (n = 45) or had lived always with their biological parents (comparison; n = 57). We examined how amygdala reactivity to visual cues of the parent at time 1 predicted longitudinal change (from time 1 to time 2) in parent-reported child anxiety across 3 years.
At time 1, on average, amygdala reactivity decrements to parent cues were not seen in children who had received institutional care but were seen in children in the comparison group. However, some children who previously experienced institutional care did show decreased amygdala reactivity to parent cues (∼40%), which was associated with greater child-reported feelings of security with their parent. Amygdala decreases at time 1 were followed by steeper anxiety reductions from time 1 to time 2 (i.e., 3 years).
These data provide a neurobiological mechanism by which the parent-child relationship can increase resilience, even in children at significant risk for anxiety symptoms.
人类大脑在很长的发育期内仍具有高度的可塑性。因此，尽管早期的养育逆境会改变杏仁核的发育，导致持续的情绪调节困难，但这些轨迹应该对后续丰富的养育做出反应。接触高质量的育儿可以调节（即减少）儿童的杏仁核反应性，这一过程长期以来被假设可以增强情绪调节能力。我们检验了这样一个假设，即在逆境之后，亲子关系仍与杏仁核对父母线索的反应性降低有关，而这反过来又预示着未来焦虑程度较低。
参与者为 102 名儿童（6-10 岁）和青少年（11-17 岁），他们的数据在一个或两个时间点收集，其中一些在被收养前经历过机构照料（n=45），另一些则一直与亲生父母生活在一起（对照组；n=57）。我们研究了在 3 年内，杏仁核对父母视觉线索的反应性在时间 1 时如何预测父母报告的儿童焦虑的纵向变化（从时间 1 到时间 2）。
在时间 1 时，平均而言，接受机构照料的儿童没有出现对父母线索的杏仁核反应性下降，但对照组的儿童出现了这种下降。然而，一些以前经历过机构照料的儿童确实表现出对父母线索的杏仁核反应性下降（约 40%），这与他们对父母的安全感增强有关。时间 1 时的杏仁核下降与从时间 1 到时间 2（即 3 年）时的焦虑减轻更为陡峭有关。
这些数据提供了一个神经生物学机制，说明亲子关系可以增强韧性，即使是对焦虑症状有较高风险的儿童也是如此。
