Testing a Conceptual Model of Early Adversity, Neural Function, and Psychopathology: Protocol for a Retrospective Observational Cohort Study.

Background: Early adversity, broadly defined as a set of negative exposures during childhood, is extremely common and increases risk for psychopathology across the life span. Previous research suggests that separate dimensions of adversity increase risk through developmental plasticity mechanisms shaping unique neurobiological pathways. Specifically, research suggests that deprivation is associated with deficits in higher order cognition, while threat is associated with atypicality in fear learning and emotion dysregulation.

Alterations in fear learning as a mechanism linking childhood exposure to violence with PTSD symptoms: a longitudinal study.

Background: Fear learning is a core component of conceptual models of how adverse experiences may influence psychopathology. Specifically, existing theories posit that childhood experiences involving childhood trauma are associated with altered fear learning processes, while experiences involving deprivation are not. Several studies have found altered fear acquisition in youth exposed to trauma, but not deprivation, although the specific patterns have varied across studies.

Cognitive stimulation as a mechanism linking socioeconomic status and neural function supporting working memory: a longitudinal fMRI study.

Childhood experiences of low socioeconomic status are associated with alterations in neural function in the frontoparietal network and ventral visual stream, which may drive differences in working memory. However, the specific features of low socioeconomic status environments that contribute to these disparities remain poorly understood. Here, we examined experiences of cognitive deprivation (i.

Pre-pandemic brain structure and function and adolescent psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for youths and families, dramatically increasing exposure to stressors and stress-related psychopathology. Increasing work has leveraged pre-pandemic neuroimaging data to predict adolescent psychopathology and stress responses during the pandemic, with a particular focus on internalizing symptoms. We review this recent literature on pre-pandemic brain structure and function and adolescent internalizing psychopathology during the pandemic.

Distinct Associations of Deprivation and Threat With Alterations in Brain Structure in Early Childhood.

Objective: The dimensional model of adversity and psychopathology hypothesizes deprivation and threat impact distinct neurobiological pathways, such as brain structure. This hypothesis has not been examined longitudinally or in young children. This study tested longitudinal associations between threat and deprivation measured in preschool and brain structure in childhood.

Child Anxiety and Depression Symptom Trajectories and Predictors over 15 Months of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Repeated measures are required to monitor and map trajectories of mental health symptoms that are sensitive to the changing distal and proximal stressors throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Understanding symptoms in young children is particularly important given the short- and long-term implications of early-onset internalizing symptoms. This study utilized an intensive longitudinal approach to assess the course and environmental correlates of anxiety and depression symptoms in 133 children, ages 4-11 (M = 7.

Association of adversity with psychopathology in early childhood: Dimensional and cumulative approaches.

Background: The association between adversity and psychopathology in adolescents and adults is characterized by equifinality. These associations, however, have not been assessed during early childhood when psychopathology first emerges. Defining adversity using both dimensional and cumulative risk approaches, we examined whether specific types of adversity are differentially associated with psychopathology in preschool-aged children.

Threat Responsivity Predicts Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Hyperarousal Symptoms in Children after Hurricane Florence.

Following a traumatic event, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are common. Considerable research has identified a relationship between physiological responses during fear learning and PTSD. Adults with PTSD display atypical physiological responses, such as increased skin conductance responses (SCR) to threatening cues during fear learning (Orr et al.

Predictors of family violence in North Carolina following initial COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.

Background: Although there is evidence that family violence increased in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, few studies have characterized longitudinal trends in family violence across the course of initial stay-at-home orders.

Objective: The purpose of the present study is to investigate patterns and predictors of family violence, such as child maltreatment and harsh punishment, during the first eight weeks of the pandemic after initial stay-at-home orders in North Carolina.

Participants And Setting: Participants included 120 families with children ages 4-11 (53% non-White, 49% female) and a primary caregiver (98% female) living in rural and suburban areas in North Carolina.

Epigenome editing of the CFTR-locus for treatment of cystic fibrosis.

Background: Mechanisms governing the diversity of CFTR gene expression throughout the body are complex. Multiple intronic and distal regulatory elements are responsible for regulating differential CFTR expression across tissues.

Methods: Drawing on published data, 18 high-priority genomic regions were identified and interrogated for CFTR-enhancer function using CRISPR/dCas9-based epigenome editing tools.

Early adversity and children's emotion regulation: Differential roles of parent emotion regulation and adversity exposure.

Exposure to early life adversity (ELA) is associated with increased rates of psychopathology and poor physical health. The present study builds on foundational work by Megan Gunnar identifying how ELA results in poor long-term outcomes through alterations in the stress response system, leading to major disruptions in emotional and behavioral regulation. Specifically, the present study tested the direct effects of ELA against the role of parent socialization to shed light on the mechanisms by which ELA leads to emotion regulation deficits.

Psychosocial deprivation and receptive language ability: a two-sample study.

Background: The quality of early caregiving experiences is a known contributor to the quality of the language experiences young children receive. What is unknown is whether, and if so, how psychosocial deprivation early in life is associated with long-lasting receptive language outcomes.

Methods: Two prospective longitudinal studies examining early psychosocial deprivation/neglect in different contexts (i.

Deprivation and psychopathology in the Fragile Families Study: A 15-year longitudinal investigation.

Background: Early adversity consistently predicts youth psychopathology. However, the pathways linking unique dimensions of early adversity, such as deprivation, to psychopathology are understudied. Here, we evaluate a theoretical model linking early deprivation exposure with psychopathology prospectively through language ability.

Differential Associations of Deprivation and Threat With Cognitive Control and Fear Conditioning in Early Childhood.

Early-life adversity (ELA) is strongly associated with risk for psychopathology. Within adversity, deprivation, and threat may lead to psychopathology through different intermediary pathways. Specifically, deprivation, defined as the absence of expected cognitive and social inputs, is associated with lower performance on complex cognitive tasks whereas threatening experiences, defined as the presence of experiences that reflect harm to the child, are associated with atypical fear learning and emotional processes.

Brain structure mediates the association between socioeconomic status and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with greater risk for symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). One mechanism through which SES may confer risk for ADHD is by influencing brain structure. Alterations to cortical thickness, surface area and subcortical volume have been associated with low SES and with the presence of ADHD across multiple studies.

Brain Mechanisms of Attention Orienting Following Frustration: Associations With Irritability and Age in Youths.

Objective: Childhood irritability is a common, impairing problem with changing age-related manifestations that predict long-term adverse outcomes. However, more investigation of overall and age-specific neural correlates is needed. Because youths with irritability exhibit exaggerated responses to frustrating stimuli, the authors used a frustration functional MRI (fMRI) paradigm to examine associations between irritability and neural activation and tested the moderating effect of age.

Emotion Reactivity and Regulation in Adolescent Girls Following an Interpersonal Rejection.

Failures in emotion regulation, especially as a result of interpersonal stress, are implicated as transdiagnostic risk factors for psychopathology. This study examines the effects of an experimentally timed targeted interpersonal rejection on emotion reactivity and regulation in typically developing adolescent girls. Girls ( n = 33, ages 9-16 years, M = 12.

Anxiety symptoms and children's eye gaze during fear learning.

Background: The eye region of the face is particularly relevant for decoding threat-related signals, such as fear. However, it is unclear if gaze patterns to the eyes can be influenced by fear learning. Previous studies examining gaze patterns in adults find an association between anxiety and eye gaze avoidance, although no studies to date examine how associations between anxiety symptoms and eye-viewing patterns manifest in children.

Latent structure of negative valence measures in childhood.

Background: Internalizing disorders (IDs), consisting of the syndromes of anxiety and depression, are common, debilitating conditions often having onsets in adolescence. Scientists have developed dimensional self-report instruments that assess putative negative valence system (NVS) trait-like constructs as complimentary phenotypes to clinical symptoms. These include various measures that index temperamental predispositions to IDs and correlate with neural substrates of fear, anxiety, and affective regulation.

Test-retest reliability and validity of a frustration paradigm and irritability measures.

Background: Data on the reliability and validity of assessments for irritability, particularly behavioral paradigms, are limited. This study examined the test-retest reliability and validity of a frustration paradigm (the Affective Posner 2 task) and two irritability measures [the Affective Reactivity Index (ARI) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) irritability].

Methods: Participants were 109 youth from a general population sample of twins (aged 9-14 years).

The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) in Children: Reliability and Heritability.

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits comprise the core symptoms of psychopathy, yet no study has estimated the heritability of CU traits in a community sample of children using an instrument designed solely to assess CU traits. The current study uses data from 339 twin pairs aged 9-14 to examine the reliability and heritability of the parent-report Inventory of Callous-unemotional Traits (ICU) at two assessments approximately 3 weeks apart. Time-specific measurement error was taken into account to obtain a more accurate estimate of the heritability reflecting the latent liability to CU traits.

The Twin Study of Negative Valence Emotional Constructs.

The Twin Study of Negative Valence Emotional Constructs is a multi-site study designed to examine the relationship between a broad selection of potential measures designed to assess putative endophenotypes for negative valence systems (NVS) and early symptoms of internalizing disorders (IDs). In this article, we describe the sample characteristics, data collection protocols, and measures used. Pre-adolescent Caucasian twin pairs were recruited through the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry; data collection began in February of 2013.

Identification of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Circulating Blood from Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Metastasis is facilitated by cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) in the tumor microenvironment through mechanisms yet to be elucidated. In this study, we used a size-based microfilter technology developed by our group to examine whether circulating CAF identified by FAP and α-SMA co-expression (cCAF) could be distinguished in the peripheral blood of patients with metastatic breast cancer. In a pilot study of patients with breast cancer, we detected the presence of cCAFs in 30/34 (88%) patients with metastatic disease (MET group) and in 3/13 (23%) patients with localized breast cancer (LOC group) with long-term disease-free survival.