Faculty Collaboration Database

Differential Patterns of Delayed Emotion Circuit Maturation in Abused Girls With and Without Internalizing Psychopathology. Am J Psychiatry 2021 Nov;178(11):1026-1036

Date

08/20/2021

Pubmed ID

34407623

Pubmed Central ID

PMC8570983

DOI

10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.20081192

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85119247585 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   62 Citations

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Childhood abuse represents one of the most potent risk factors for developing psychopathology, especially in females. Evidence suggests that exposure to early-life adversity may be related to advanced maturation of emotion processing neural circuits. However, it remains unknown whether abuse is related to early circuit maturation and whether maturation patterns depend on the presence of psychopathology.

METHODS: A multisite sample of 234 girls (ages 8-18 years) completed clinical assessment, maltreatment histories, and high-resolution T₁-weighted structural MRI. Girls were stratified by abuse history and internalizing disorder diagnosis into typically developing (no abuse/no diagnosis), resilient (abuse/no diagnosis), and susceptible (abuse/current diagnosis) groups. Machine learning models of normative brain development were aggregated in a stacked generalization framework trained to predict chronological age using gray matter volume in whole-brain, emotion, and language circuit parcellations. Brain age gap estimations (BrainAGEs; predicted age minus true chronological age) were calculated as indices of relative circuit maturation.

RESULTS: Childhood abuse was related to reduced BrainAGE (delayed maturation) specific to emotion circuits. Delayed emotion circuit BrainAGE was further related to increased hyperarousal symptoms. Childhood physical neglect was associated with increased whole-brain BrainAGE (advanced maturation). Neural contributors to emotion circuit BrainAGE differed in girls with and without an internalizing diagnosis, especially in the lateral prefrontal, parietal, and insular cortices and the hippocampus.

CONCLUSIONS: Abuse exposure in girls is associated with a delayed structural maturation pattern specific to emotion circuitry, a potentially adaptive mechanism enhancing threat generalization. Physical neglect, on the other hand, is associated with a broader brain-wide pattern of advanced structural maturation. The differential influence of fronto-parietal cortices and the hippocampus on emotion circuit maturity in resilient girls may represent neurodevelopmental markers of reduced psychiatric risk following abuse.

Author List

Keding TJ, Heyn SA, Russell JD, Zhu X, Cisler J, McLaughlin KA, Herringa RJ

Author

Ryan J. Herringa PhD, MD Chief, Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adolescent
Anxiety Disorders
Brain
Child
Child Abuse
Child Development
Depressive Disorder
Emotions
Female
Gray Matter
Humans
Language Development
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Organ Size
Psychopathology
Resilience, Psychological
Risk Factors
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic