Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2022 Aug;34(3):981-996. doi: 10.1017/S0954579420001583. Epub 2021 Jan 25.
Childhood adversity is thought to undermine youth socioemotional development via altered neural function within regions that support emotion processing. These effects are hypothesized to be developmentally specific, with adversity in early childhood sculpting subcortical structures (e.g., amygdala) and adversity during adolescence impacting later-developing structures (e.g., prefrontal cortex; PFC). However, little work has tested these theories directly in humans. Using prospectively collected longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) ( = 4,144) and neuroimaging data from a subsample of families recruited in adolescence ( = 162), the current study investigated the trajectory of harsh parenting across childhood (i.e., ages 3 to 9) and how initial levels versus changes in harsh parenting across childhood were associated with corticolimbic activation and connectivity during socioemotional processing. Harsh parenting in early childhood (indexed by the intercept term from a linear growth curve model) was associated with less amygdala, but not PFC, reactivity to angry facial expressions. In contrast, change in harsh parenting across childhood (indexed by the slope term) was associated with less PFC, but not amygdala, activation to angry faces. Increases in, but not initial levels of, harsh parenting were also associated with stronger positive amygdala-PFC connectivity during angry face processing.
童年逆境被认为会通过改变支持情绪处理的区域内的神经功能来破坏青年的社会情感发展。这些影响被假设为具有发展特异性，即儿童早期的逆境塑造了皮质下结构（例如杏仁核），而青春期的逆境则影响了后来发育的结构（例如前额叶皮层；PFC）。然而，很少有研究在人类中直接检验这些理论。本研究使用来自脆弱家庭和儿童福利研究（FFCWS）的前瞻性纵向数据（n = 4144）和青少年招募的亚组的神经影像学数据（n = 162），调查了整个童年时期（即 3 至 9 岁）苛刻养育的轨迹，以及初始水平和整个童年时期苛刻养育的变化如何与社会情感处理过程中的皮质边缘激活和连接相关。早期儿童期的严厉养育（由线性增长曲线模型的截距项表示）与愤怒面部表情的杏仁核反应性降低有关，但与 PFC 无关。相比之下，整个童年时期苛刻养育的变化（由斜率项表示）与愤怒面孔的 PFC 激活减少有关，但与杏仁核无关。愤怒面孔处理过程中，严厉养育的增加（而非初始水平）也与更强的积极杏仁核-前额叶皮层连接有关。
