Accelerated maturation in functional connectivity following early life stress: Circuit specific or broadly distributed?

Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Apr:48:100922. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100922. Epub 2021 Jan 20.

Abstract

Psychosocial acceleration theory and other frameworks adapted from life history predict a link between early life stress and accelerated maturation in several physiological systems. Those findings led researchers to suggest that the emotion-regulatory brain circuits of previously-institutionalized (PI) youth are more mature than youth raised in their biological families (non-adopted, or NA, youth) during emotion tasks. Whether this accelerated maturation is evident during resting-state fMRI has not yet been established. Resting-state fMRI data from 83 early adolescents (Mage = 12.9 years, SD = 0.57 years) including 41 PI and 42 NA youth, were used to examine seed-based functional connectivity between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Additional whole-brain analyses assessed group differences in functional connectivity and associations with cognitive performance and behavior. We found group differences in amygdala - vmPFC connectivity that may be consistent with accelerated maturation following early life stress. Further, whole-brain connectivity analyses revealed group differences associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, the majority of whole-brain results were not consistent with an accelerated maturation framework. Our results suggest early life stress in the form of institutional care is associated with circuit-specific alterations to a frontolimbic emotion-regulatory system, while revealing limited differences in more broadly distributed networks.

Keywords: Early life stress; Graph theory; Institutional care; Resting-state fMRI.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences*
  • Amygdala / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain Mapping
  • Child
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Neural Pathways
  • Prefrontal Cortex