Cargando…

Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity

Early life stress increases risk for later psychopathology, due in part to changes in dopaminergic brain systems that support reward processing and motivation. Work in animals has shown that early life stress has a profound impact on the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which provides dopamine to regio...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Park, Anne T., Tooley, Ursula A., Leonard, Julia A., Boroshok, Austin L., McDermott, Cassidy L., Tisdall, M. Dylan, Mackey, Allyson P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7785957/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33395612
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100909
_version_ 1783632530661965824
author Park, Anne T.
Tooley, Ursula A.
Leonard, Julia A.
Boroshok, Austin L.
McDermott, Cassidy L.
Tisdall, M. Dylan
Mackey, Allyson P.
author_facet Park, Anne T.
Tooley, Ursula A.
Leonard, Julia A.
Boroshok, Austin L.
McDermott, Cassidy L.
Tisdall, M. Dylan
Mackey, Allyson P.
author_sort Park, Anne T.
collection PubMed
description Early life stress increases risk for later psychopathology, due in part to changes in dopaminergic brain systems that support reward processing and motivation. Work in animals has shown that early life stress has a profound impact on the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which provides dopamine to regions including nucleus accumbens (NAcc), anterior hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), with cascading effects over the course of development. However, little is known about how early stress exposure shifts the developmental trajectory of mesocorticolimbic circuitry in humans. In the current study, 88 four- to nine-year-old children participated in resting-state fMRI. Parents completed questionnaires on their children's chronic stress exposure, including socioeconomic status (SES) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). We found an age x SES interaction on VTA connectivity, such that children from higher SES backgrounds showed a positive relationship between age and VTA-mPFC connectivity. Similarly, we found an age x ACEs exposure interaction on VTA connectivity, such that children with no ACEs exposure showed a positive relationship between age and VTA-mPFC connectivity. Our findings suggest that early stress exposure relates to the blunted maturation of VTA connectivity in young children, which may lead to disrupted reward processing later in childhood and beyond.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7785957
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Elsevier
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77859572021-01-08 Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity Park, Anne T. Tooley, Ursula A. Leonard, Julia A. Boroshok, Austin L. McDermott, Cassidy L. Tisdall, M. Dylan Mackey, Allyson P. Dev Cogn Neurosci Original Research Early life stress increases risk for later psychopathology, due in part to changes in dopaminergic brain systems that support reward processing and motivation. Work in animals has shown that early life stress has a profound impact on the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which provides dopamine to regions including nucleus accumbens (NAcc), anterior hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), with cascading effects over the course of development. However, little is known about how early stress exposure shifts the developmental trajectory of mesocorticolimbic circuitry in humans. In the current study, 88 four- to nine-year-old children participated in resting-state fMRI. Parents completed questionnaires on their children's chronic stress exposure, including socioeconomic status (SES) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). We found an age x SES interaction on VTA connectivity, such that children from higher SES backgrounds showed a positive relationship between age and VTA-mPFC connectivity. Similarly, we found an age x ACEs exposure interaction on VTA connectivity, such that children with no ACEs exposure showed a positive relationship between age and VTA-mPFC connectivity. Our findings suggest that early stress exposure relates to the blunted maturation of VTA connectivity in young children, which may lead to disrupted reward processing later in childhood and beyond. Elsevier 2020-12-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7785957/ /pubmed/33395612 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100909 Text en © 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Original Research
Park, Anne T.
Tooley, Ursula A.
Leonard, Julia A.
Boroshok, Austin L.
McDermott, Cassidy L.
Tisdall, M. Dylan
Mackey, Allyson P.
Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity
title Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity
title_full Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity
title_fullStr Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity
title_full_unstemmed Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity
title_short Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity
title_sort early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7785957/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33395612
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100909
work_keys_str_mv AT parkannet earlychildhoodstressisassociatedwithblunteddevelopmentofventraltegmentalareafunctionalconnectivity
AT tooleyursulaa earlychildhoodstressisassociatedwithblunteddevelopmentofventraltegmentalareafunctionalconnectivity
AT leonardjuliaa earlychildhoodstressisassociatedwithblunteddevelopmentofventraltegmentalareafunctionalconnectivity
AT boroshokaustinl earlychildhoodstressisassociatedwithblunteddevelopmentofventraltegmentalareafunctionalconnectivity
AT mcdermottcassidyl earlychildhoodstressisassociatedwithblunteddevelopmentofventraltegmentalareafunctionalconnectivity
AT tisdallmdylan earlychildhoodstressisassociatedwithblunteddevelopmentofventraltegmentalareafunctionalconnectivity
AT mackeyallysonp earlychildhoodstressisassociatedwithblunteddevelopmentofventraltegmentalareafunctionalconnectivity