Cognitive Function Is Preserved in Older Adults With a Reported History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Feeney, Joanne; Kamiya, Yumiko; Robertson, Ian H.; Kenny, Rose Anne

doi:10.1002/jts.21861

Cited by 49 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…In animal models, these impairments are especially apparent if either social defeat or prolonged social isolation is experienced during early to mid-adolescence, and are commonly observed in measures of working memory in the radial arm maze, T-maze, and object recognition paradigms, in measures of inhibitory control within the 5-choice serial reaction time and rodent gambling paradigms, and in pre-pulse inhibition (Table 3). Similar deficits in working memory and inhibitory control are noted in human studies (Table 4; although see Feeney et al, 2013), with some indication that selective attention may also be impaired in adults reporting chronic exposure to juvenile stressors (e.g. Schalinski et al, 2017; Viola et al, 2013, although this latter study was complicated by simultaneous treatment for crack cocaine use).…”

Section: Impact Of Chronic Juvenile Stress On Prefrontal Cortex Ansupporting

confidence: 64%

Impact of juvenile chronic stress on adult cortico-accumbal function: Implications for cognition and addiction

Watt

Weber

Davies

et al. 2017

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

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Repeated exposure to stress during childhood is associated with increased risk for neuropsychiatric illness, substance use disorders and other behavioral problems in adulthood. However, it is not clear how chronic childhood stress can lead to emergence of such a wide range of symptoms and disorders in later life. One possible explanation lies in stress-induced disruption to the development of specific brain regions associated with executive function and reward processing, deficits in which are common to the disorders promoted by childhood stress. Evidence of aberrations in prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens function following repeated exposure of juvenile (pre- and adolescent) organisms to a variety of different stressors would account not only for the similarity in symptoms across the wide range of childhood stress-associated mental illnesses, but also their persistence into adulthood in the absence of further stress. Therefore, the goal of this review is to evaluate the current knowledge regarding disruption to executive function and reward processing in adult animals or humans exposed to chronic stress over the juvenile period, and the underlying neurobiology, with particular emphasis on the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. First, the role of these brain regions in mediating executive function and reward processing is highlighted. Second, the neurobehavioral development of these systems is discussed to illustrate how juvenile stress may exert long-lasting effects on prefrontal cortex-accumbal activity and related behavioral functions. Finally, a critical review of current animal and human findings is presented, which strongly supports the supposition that exposure to chronic stress (particularly social aggression and isolation in animal studies) in the juvenile period produces impairments in executive function in adulthood, especially in working memory and inhibitory control. Chronic juvenile stress also results in aberrations to reward processing and seeking, with increased sensitivity to drugs of abuse particularly noted in animal models, which is in line with greater incidence of substance use disorders seen in clinical studies. These consequences are potentially mediated by monoamine and glutamatergic dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, providing translatable therapeutic targets. However, the predominant use of male subjects and social-based stressors in preclinical studies points to a clear need for determining how both sex differences and stressor heterogeneity may differentially contribute to stress-induced changes to substrates mediating executive function and reward processing, before the impact of chronic juvenile stress in promoting adult psychopathology can be fully understood.

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Section: Impact Of Chronic Juvenile Stress On Prefrontal Cortex Ansupporting

confidence: 64%

Impact of juvenile chronic stress on adult cortico-accumbal function: Implications for cognition and addiction

Watt

Weber

Davies

et al. 2017

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This fairly typical finding is explained by the prolonged stress-linked damage to the body caused by being subjected to early abuse. So the picture here fitted with what we already knew, except in one respect: despite their other problems, they were cognitively better on a number of cognitive tests including their ability to remember lists of words, their speed of thinking, and their ability to control their attention ('executive function') than non-abused people in the study of the same age, social and educational background (Feeney et al 2013) Because of the size of the study-nearly 7,000 people-we could rule out other physical, social and mental factors that might have caused the differences.…”

Section: Why Is Higher Cortisol Associated With Better Performance Insupporting

confidence: 69%

The stress test: Can stress ever be beneficial?

Robertson¹

2017

JBA

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Abstract:The human brain needs an optimal amount of challenge in order to perform optimally. This is because challenge activates the neurotransmitter noradrenaline (NA) which, at optimal levels, facilitates good brain performance; in contrast, when levels of NA are either too low (sleepy, jaded, bored, mood low) or too high (stressed, anxiety, pressure), the brain underperforms because of the key neuromodulatory effect of noradrenaline. Moderate amounts of stress can actually increase performance and attention to such a 'sweet spot' and hence to higher levels of cognitive performance with resulting improved confidence. Stress arises when people perceive the demands made upon them to exceed their ability to cope with these demands. But this in turn depends upon appraisal of the stress and in particular whether the stressors are seen as challenges to be overcome or threats to be avoided. A 'challenge' mindset makes it easier for individuals to use adversity to attain this optimal zone of performance and build resilience. Furthermore, moderately stressful events in a person's life have a number of potentially beneficial effects including emotional resilience, better chronic pain tolerance and even enhanced cognitive function.

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“…Existing studies assessing associations of psychosocial adversity in childhood and later cognitive and physical health have either not considered possible confounding by childhood SEP or have focused on single adverse experiences such as sexual abuse or physical abuse, without considering a possible total effect of multiple adverse experiences ( Feeney, Kamiya, Robertson, & Kenny, 2013 ). Assessing total psychosocial adversity acknowledges that adverse experiences tend to co-occur and that experiencing multiple forms of adversity may have a greater adverse effect on physical and cognitive aging than experiencing only one.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adversity in childhood and measures of aging in midlife: Findings from a cohort of british women.

Anderson¹,

Heron²,

Ben-Shlomo³

et al. 2017

Psychology and Aging

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Very few studies have assessed whether socioeconomic and psychosocial adversity during childhood are associated with objective measures of aging later in life. We assessed associations of socioeconomic position (SEP) and total psychosocial adversity during childhood, with objectively measured cognitive and physical capability in women during midlife. Adverse childhood experiences were retrospectively reported at mean ages 28–30 years in women from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents And Children (N = 2,221). We investigated associations of childhood SEP and total psychosocial adversity, with composite measures of cognitive and physical capability at mean age 51 years. There was evidence that, compared with participants whose fathers had professional occupations, participants whose fathers had managerial/technical, skilled nonmanual, skilled manual, and partly or unskilled manual occupations had, on average, lower physical and cognitive capability. There was a clear trend for increasing magnitudes of association with lowering childhood SEP. There was also evidence that greater total psychosocial adversity in childhood was associated with lower physical capability. Total psychosocial adversity in childhood was not associated with cognitive capability. Lower SEP in childhood is detrimental to cognitive and physical capability in midlife, at least in part, independently of subsequent SEP in adulthood. Greater psychosocial adversity in childhood is associated with poorer physical capability, independently of social disadvantage in childhood. Our findings highlight the need for interventions to both identify and support children experiencing socioeconomic or psychosocial of adversity as early as possible.

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Cognitive Function Is Preserved in Older Adults With a Reported History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Cited by 49 publications

References 67 publications

Impact of juvenile chronic stress on adult cortico-accumbal function: Implications for cognition and addiction

Impact of juvenile chronic stress on adult cortico-accumbal function: Implications for cognition and addiction

The stress test: Can stress ever be beneficial?

Adversity in childhood and measures of aging in midlife: Findings from a cohort of british women.

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