A preliminary study of threat-anticipatory responding in Latina youth: associations with age, anxiety, and cortical thickness

Abstract

Variation in prefrontal cortex neuroanatomy has been previously associated with elevated physiological responses to anticipated aversive events. The extent to which such associations extend beyond the specific ecology of treatment-seeking youth from upper-middle socioeconomic backgrounds is unknown. The current study tests the replicability of neuroanatomical correlates of anticipatory responding and the moderating roles of age and anxiety severity in a community sample of Latina girls, a historically underrepresented group exhibiting high levels of untreated anxiety. Forty pre-adolescent Latina girls (MAge = 10.01, s.d. = 1.25, range = 8–12 years) completed a structural magnetic resonance imaging scan. Participants also completed a differential threat and safety learning paradigm, during which skin conductance and subjective fear responding were assessed. Anxiety severity was assessed via the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex thickness was associated with reduced physiological responsivity to anticipated threat. Age- and anxiety-dependent associations emerged between dorsomedial prefrontal cortex thickness and individual differences in subjective fear responding to anticipated threat. This preliminary study extends work on neuroanatomical contributions to physiological threat responsivity to a community sample of Latina youth and highlights potential considerations for early identification efforts in this population when threat neurocircuitry is still developing.