Early life stress and development: preclinical science

Guzman, Dora; Howell, Brittany R.; Sánchez, Mar M.

doi:10.1002/9781118356142.ch3

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 121 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We did not observe any instances in which subjects were the receivers of abusive behaviors from anyone other than their own maltreating foster dams. Physical abuse and rejection are highly comorbid in nonhuman primates, similarly to humans (Guzman et al, 2016;Howell et al, 2016) and thus represent a homogenous maltreatment experience. This comorbidity provides face validity for human studies in which physical abuse and neglect also co-occur (Cicchetti and Toth, 1995).…”

Section: Behavioral Observations: Characterization Of Maternal Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling the effects of early caregiving experience and heritable factors on brain white matter development in rhesus monkeys

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Early social experiences, particularly maternal care, shape behavioral and physiological development in primates. Thus, it is not surprising that adverse caregiving, such as child maltreatment leads to a vast array of poor developmental outcomes, including increased risk for psychopathology across the lifespan. Studies of the underlying neurobiology of this risk have identified structural and functional alterations in cortico-limbic brain circuits that seem particularly sensitive to these early adverse experiences and are associated with anxiety and affective disorders. However, it is not understood how these neurobiological alterations unfold during development as it is very difficult to study these early phases in humans, where the effects of maltreatment experience cannot be disentangled from heritable traits. The current study examined the specific effects of experience ("nurture") versus heritable factors ("nature") on the development of brain white matter (WM) tracts with putative roles in socioemotional behavior in primates from birth through the juvenile period. For this we used a randomized crossfostering experimental design in a naturalistic rhesus monkey model of infant maltreatment, where infant monkeys were randomly assigned at birth to either a mother with a history of maltreating her infants, or a competent mother. Using a longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) atlas-based tract-profile approach we identified widespread, but also specific, maturational changes on major brain tracts, as well as alterations in a measure of WM integrity (fractional anisotropy, FA) in the middle longitudinal fasciculus (MdLF) and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), of maltreated animals, suggesting decreased structural integrity in these tracts due to early adverse experience. Exploratory voxelwise analyses confirmed the tract-based approach, finding additional effects of early adversity, biological mother, social dominance rank, and sex in other WM tracts. These results suggest tract-specific effects of postnatal maternal care experience versus heritable or

show abstract

Section: Behavioral Observations: Characterization Of Maternal Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling the effects of early caregiving experience and heritable factors on brain white matter development in rhesus monkeys

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Given the prevalence of both maltreatment in childhood and mental illness in adulthood, understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of this connection is important as it may suggest targets for new therapeutic interventions. Ethical constraints on conducting studies with humans have highlighted the need for reliable and robust animal models that researchers can utilize to identify relevant neurobiological processes (Guzman et al, 2016 ). Since the work of Harlow and colleagues beginning in the 1940s, which involved raising infant macaques with cloth and wire mothers (reviewed in van der Horst and van der Veer, 2008 ), researchers have sought to develop useful animal models of early life adversity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%