Deprivation and Threat: Dimensions of Early Experience and Neural Development

剥夺和威胁：早期经历和神经发育的维度

基本信息

批准号：
9895868
负责人：
Katie McLaughlin
金额：
$ 58.43万
依托单位：
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2018
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2018-12-01 至 2022-11-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9895868
关键词：
Address Age Amygdaloid structure Animal Experimentation Animals Area Brain Child Child Abuse Chronic Cognitive Data Development Dimensions Disease Emotional Environment Environmental Exposure Exposure to Extinction (Psychology)Failure Fright Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Funding Growth Knowledge Learning Link Longitudinal cohort Measures Mediating Mental Health Methods Modeling National Institute of Mental Health Negative Valence Neurophysiology - biologic function Neuropsychology Parietal Parietal Lobe Pathway interactions Performance Poverty Prefrontal Cortex Preventive Intervention Process Psychopathology Research Risk Sampling Severities Specific qualifier value Stimulus Strategic Planning Structure Support System System Testing Thick Time Trauma United States National Institutes of Health abuse neglect base childhood adversity cognitive control conditioned fear deprivation design early childhood early experience emotion regulation experience neural circuit neural network neurodevelopment neuroimaging novel public health relevance relating to nervous system social synaptic pruning trauma exposure white matter

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Extensive research finds robust links between mental health and childhood adversity (CA), encompassing diverse exposures from child abuse to poverty. Despite the strength and consistency of these findings, the mechanisms producing such links remain poorly specified. In particular, past research has failed to identify how specifi environmental experiences influence specific neural processes. Such limitations arise from the difficulty of precisely quantifying relevant CA and neural variables in children. The current proposal addresses these limitations by capitalizing on a unique, well characterized NIH-funded longitudinal cohort of children where multiple aspects of CA have been precisely assessed and use of rigorous neuroimaging methods to quantify functioning in specific neural circuits. We will use these methods to test a novel conceptual framework delineating how specific types of environmental experience influence specific neural processes, addressing Objective 1 of the NIMH Strategic Plan. Our model argues that different types of CA have distinct effects on neural development. The central distinction we make is between trauma and deprivation. Trauma exposure involves harm or threat of harm, resulting in fear learning mediated by limbic pathways that are well characterized in animals and conserved across species. We argue that child trauma alters development of circuits in the Negative Valence System that support emotional learning encompassing amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, deprivation involves absence of expected cognitive and social inputs and environmental complexity. Animal research shows that deprivation disrupts development in PFC and parietal cortex by hijacking the typical process of synaptic pruning. Thus we predict that social-cognitive deprivation influences Cognitive Control Systems, resulting in age-specific reductions in thickness and volume of dorsolateral PFC and superior parietal cortex and reduced performance on cognitive control tasks supported by these areas. Clearly, trauma and deprivation are correlated. Our unique design will measure these experiences on separate dimensions informed by rich preliminary data indicating distinct effects of trauma and deprivation on neural development even in samples with high exposure co-occurrence. Our proposed conceptual model will be tested by acquiring structural and functional MRI data on an existing sample of 300 children (1/3 in poverty, 1/3 near poverty, and 1/3 middle class) followed since early childhood with significant variability in CA exposure. Psychopathology has been measured in previous waves of the study and will be collected multiple times during the study period. Study findings will provide critical information about how specific dimensions of environmental experience influence specific neural processes. Elucidating these mechanisms will not only build knowledge of how adverse environments alter neural development in ways that increase risk for psychopathology, but will also suggest possible targets for preventive interventions aimed at reducing psychopathology risk in children exposed to trauma and deprivation.

描述（由申请人提供）：广泛的研究发现心理健康与童年逆境（CA）之间存在密切的联系，包括从虐待儿童到贫困的各种风险，尽管这些研究结果具有说服力和一致性，但产生这种联系的机制仍然不明确。特别是，过去的研究未能确定特定的环境经历如何影响特定的神经过程，这种局限性是由于难以精确量化儿童的相关 CA 和神经变量而产生的，当前的建议通过利用独特的、明确的特征来解决这些局限性。 NIH 资助的儿童纵向队列对 CA 的多个方面进行了精确评估，并使用严格的神经影像方法来量化特定神经回路的功能。我们将使用这些方法来测试一个新的概念框架，该框架描述了特定类型的环境体验如何影响特定的环境体验。我们的模型认为不同类型的 CA 对神经发育有不同的影响，主要区别在于创伤暴露和剥夺会导致恐惧。学习介导的我们认为，儿童创伤改变了代表杏仁核和腹内侧前额皮质（PFC）的情绪学习回路的发育，而剥夺则涉及预期认知的缺失。动物研究表明，剥夺会通过劫持突触修剪的典型过程来破坏前额皮层和顶叶皮层的发育。社会认知剥夺会影响认知控制系统，导致背外侧前额皮层和上顶叶皮层的厚度和体积随年龄的减少，并降低这些区域支持的认知控制任务的表现，显然，我们独特的设计是相关的。通过丰富的初步数据来衡量这些经验，这些数据表明创伤和剥夺对神经发育的明显影响，即使在具有高暴露共现性的样本中，我们提出的概念模型也将通过获取结构和功能 MRI 数据进行测试。现有的 300 名儿童样本（1/3 处于贫困状态，1/3 处于贫困状态，1/3 是中产阶级）从幼儿期起就进行了追踪，其心理病理学暴露程度存在显着差异，该样本已在前几波研究中进行了测量，并将被收集。研究结果将提供有关环境体验的特定维度如何影响特定神经过程的关键信息，不仅可以了解不利环境如何改变神经发育，从而增加精神病理学的风险。还提出了可能的目标预防性干预措施旨在降低遭受创伤和剥夺的儿童的精神病理学风险。