Early-life stress is associated with impairment in cognitive control in adolescence: An fMRI study

Abstract

Early-life stress (ES) has been associated with diverse forms of psychopathology. Some investigators suggest that these associations reflect the effects of stress on the neural circuits that support cognitive control. However, very few prior studies have examined the associations between ES, cognitive control, and underlying neural architecture. The present study compares adolescents with a documented history of ES to typical adolescents on a cognitive control task using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twelve ES adolescents who were adopted because of early caregiver deprivation (9 females, age = 13 years ± 2.58) and 21 healthy control adolescents without a history of ES (10 females, age = 13 years ± 1.96) who resided with their biological parents performed the change task (Nelson et al., 2007) -a variant of the stop taskduring fMRI. Behaviourally, ES adolescents took longer to switch from a prepotent response ("go") to an alternative response ("change") than control adolescents. During correct "change" responses vs. correct "go" responses, this behavioural group difference was accompanied by higher activation in ES subjects than controls. These differences were noted in regions involved in primary sensorimotor processes (pre-and postcentral gyri), conflict monitoring (dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus), inhibitory and response control (inferior prefrontal cortex and striatum), and somatic representations (posterior insula). Furthermore, correct "change" responses vs. incorrect "change" responses recruited the inferior prefrontal cortex (BA 44/46) more strongly in ES subjects than controls. These data suggest impaired cognitive control in youth who experienced ES.

Interpersonal early‐life trauma alters amygdala connectivity and sustained attention performance

“…Human brain imaging studies subsequently showed that I‐ELT was associated with altered structural integrity in the limbic system (Aas et al., 2012; Andersen et al., 2008; Bremner et al., 1997; Carrion, Weems, & Reiss, 2007; Corbo et al., 2014; Dannlowski et al., 2012; Driessen et al., 2004; Lupien et al., 2011; Tottenham et al., 2010; Veer et al., 2015). Functional imaging studies have further shown that, when processing emotional stimuli (e.g., angry faces), I‐ELT was associated with increased activity in the amygdala (Bremner et al., 2005; Grant, Cannistraci, Hollon, Gore, & Shelton, 2011; Maheu et al., 2010), and with decreased activity of the hippocampus (Bremner et al., 1999; Bremner et al., 2003; Carrion, Haas, Garrett, Song, & Reiss, 2010) and anterior cingulate cortex (Bremner, Vythilingam, Vermetten, Southwick, McGlashan, Nazeer, et al., 2003; Bremner, et al., 2003; Bremner et al., 2004; Mueller et al., 2010). However, these studies have been limited by the consistent use of emotional stimuli, preventing assessments of whether I‐ELT‐related limbic dysfunction potentially impacts more general aspects of cognition.…”

Childhood Abuse Is Related to Working Memory Impairment for Positive Emotion in Female University Students

“…These pathways center around 1), reduced cognitive control and self-regulatory abilities and 2), dysfunctional emotion processing. Although limited, on the one hand, previous work in individuals with experience of ES has documented impairments in cognitive control such as inhibition (Carrion, Garrett, Menon, Weems, & Reiss, 2008;De Bellis, Hooper, Spratt, & Woolley, 2009;Jovanovic et al, 2012;Lewis, Dozier, Ackerman, & Sepulveda-Kozakowski, 2007;Mueller et al, 2012), response shifting (Mueller et al, 2010), and working memory (Majer, Nater, Lin, Capuron, & Reeves, 2010).…”

Traumatic Experiences Disrupt Amygdala – Prefrontal Connectivity

“…The early-life stress group took longer to switch from a prepotent response to an alternative response than the control group. Observation of neural activity revealed greater activation of several regions involved in cognitive control including the dlPFC and the striatum in the early-life stress group than in controls (Mueller et al, 2010). A previous study investigating the functional neuroanatomical correlates of response inhibition in thirty right-handed medication-naive youths (10-16 years, n=16) with post-traumatic symptoms (PTSS) and in a gender-matched control group of healthy youths (n=14) found that the PTSS subjects performed similarly to the control subjects in the Go/NoGo task.…”