Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
Brain Behav. 2019 Jun;9(6):e01311. doi: 10.1002/brb3.1311. Epub 2019 May 14.
Adolescence is a time of heightened sensitivity in biological stress systems and the emergence of stress-related psychopathology. Thus, understanding environmental factors in adolescence that might be associated with adolescents'' stress systems is important. Maternal stress levels may be involved. However, the relationship between maternal stress and the adolescent brain is unknown.
The present study examined the association between mothers' self-reported stress levels and mothers' cortisol stress reactivity and their early adolescents' brain structure and functional activation to stressful negative emotional images. Participants included 66 mothers and their 12- to 14-year old adolescents. Mother's perceived stress and salivary cortisol reactivity to a stressful task were collected. Then, adolescents' brain structure and function were assessed in a magnetic resonance imaging session.
Functional whole-brain analyses revealed that mothers' higher reported perceived stress, but not cortisol reactivity, predicted adolescents' higher responses in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to stressful negative emotional stimuli. There were no statistically significant associations for structural analyses.
Given the finding of maternal stress reactivity related to adolescent mPFC function-an integral structure related to stress responses-parent stress may play a role in the development of neural stress systems in adolescence, with potential implications for development of psychopathology.
青春期是生物应激系统高度敏感和出现应激相关精神病理学的时期。因此，了解青春期可能与青少年应激系统相关的环境因素非常重要。母亲的压力水平可能与之有关。然而，母亲的压力与青少年大脑之间的关系尚不清楚。
本研究探讨了母亲自我报告的压力水平与母亲的皮质醇应激反应以及她们的青少年对有压力的负性情绪图像的大脑结构和功能激活之间的关系。参与者包括 66 位母亲及其 12 至 14 岁的青少年。收集了母亲的感知压力和唾液皮质醇对压力任务的反应。然后，在磁共振成像检查中评估了青少年的大脑结构和功能。
功能全脑分析显示，母亲报告的感知压力较高，但皮质醇反应性没有，这预示着青少年对有压力的负性情绪刺激的中前额叶皮质（mPFC）反应较高。结构分析没有显示出统计学上显著的相关性。
鉴于发现母亲的应激反应与青少年的 mPFC 功能有关——这是与应激反应有关的重要结构——父母的压力可能在青少年时期的神经应激系统发育中发挥作用，这可能对精神病理学的发展产生影响。
