Integrative Brain Dynamics in Childhood Bullying Victimization: Cognitive and Emotional Convergence Associated With Stress Psychopathology

Abstract

Bullying victimization is a form of psychological stress that is associated with poor outcomes in the areas of mental health and learning. Although the emotional maladjustment and memory impairment following interpersonal stress are well documented, the mechanisms of complex cerebral dysfunctions have neither been outlined nor studied in depth in the context of childhood bullying victimization. As a contribution to the cross-disciplinary field of developmental psychology and neuroscience, we review the neuropathophysiology of early life stress, as well as general psychological stress to synthesize the data and clarify the versatile dynamics within neuronal networks linked to bullying victimization. The stress-induced neuropsychological cascade and associated cerebral networks with a focus on cognitive and emotional convergence are described. The main findings are that stress-evoked neuroendocrine reactivity relates to neuromodulation and limbic dysregulation that hinder emotion processing and executive functioning such as semantic cognition, cognitive flexibility, and learning. Developmental aspects and interacting neural mechanisms linked to distressed cognitive and emotional processing are pinpointed and potential theory-of-mind nuances in targets of bullying are presented. The results show that childhood stress psychopathology is associated with a complex interplay where the major role belongs to, but is not limited to, the amygdala, fusiform gyrus, insula, striatum, and prefrontal cortex. This interplay contributes to the sensitivity toward facial expressions, poor cognitive reasoning, and distress that affect behavioral modulation and emotion regulation. We integrate the data on major brain dynamics in stress neuroactivity that can be associated with childhood psychopathology to help inform future studies that are focused on the treatment and prevention of psychiatric disorders and learning problems in bullied children and adolescents.

Stress-related cellular pathophysiology as a crosstalk risk factor for neurocognitive and psychiatric disorders

“…The neurocognitive responses play a crucial role in early-life stress/adverse childhood experiences. Specifically, the neurodevelopmental aspects increase brain vulnerability to cognitive and emotional dysregulation, which is a risk for childhood stress psychopathology (for details, see [ 2 ]). The neurocognitive impact of stress reactivity is also prominent in various neuropsychiatric conditions.…”

“…Additionally, behavioral sensitization appears to persist longer than the HPA axis sensitization and is often a latent phenomenon revealed by a novel stressor [e.g., 47 , also see 50 ]. In other words, stress adaptation declines in the context of chronic stress, which reduces a person’s ability to recover after a novel stressor exposure and can increase their susceptibility to mood disorders and other stress-related health problems [e.g., 1 , 2 ].…”

“…Stress is a physiological response that engages the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system to address salient stimuli (i.e., stressors) that are either potential or actual threats to our physical and/or psychological well-being. Psychological stressors trigger negative effects on mental health known as psychological stress [e.g., 1 , 2 ]. The magnitude and prevalence of psychological stress effects are well documented.…”

“…Substantial research indicates that psychological stress, which can involve extreme and/or chronic experiences of aversive feelings, can evoke neural responses associated with pain perception [e.g., 7 , 8 ], mentalizing, psychiatric disorders, and cognitive deteriorations [e.g., 1 , 2 , 9 , 10 ]. Stress is also a risk factor for both acute and progressive cerebral pathologies such as stroke and neurodegenerative disease [e.g., 9 , 11 – 14 ], which reciprocal interplay to accelerate cognitive manifestation of dementia [e.g., 15 , 16 ].…”

Bullying victimization CBT: a proposed psychological intervention for adolescent bullying victims

“…Bullying during adolescence is associated with a comprehensive cluster of symptoms including loneliness, suicide ideation and intent (Moore et al, 2017 ), depressive symptomology (Ferraz de Camargo and Rice, 2020 ), generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and more recently separation anxiety, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder symptomology (Ferraz de Camargo et al, 2022 ). Bullying victimization is associated with reduced cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation capacity (Palamarchuk and Vaillancourt, 2022 ), and behavioral issues (Idsoe et al, 2021 ). Many of these outcomes may persist into adulthood (Moore et al, 2013 , 2017 ).…”