Timing in childhood adversity associated with resilience to fear later in life

Timing in childhood adversity associated with resilience to fear later in life

Research has shown that young people who face adversity such as traumatic or stressful events during brain development are 40% more likely to develop anxiety disorders in adulthood. But most people who endure these experiences during childhood and adolescence prove resilient to these mental health effects.

A new Yale study finds that this adversity during brain development may influence how susceptible people are to anxiety and other psychiatric problems as adults.

According to the study, published March 5 in the journal Communications Psychology, experiencing low to moderate levels of adversity in middle childhood (between ages 6 and 12) and adolescence can foster resilience to fear later in life.

The researchers found that people who developed resilience to mental health problems showed different patterns of brain activation when asked to distinguish between danger and safety, a process known to be disrupted in people with anxiety disorders.

Higher levels of childhood adversity are associated with a higher risk of mental health problems in adulthood, but our results suggest that the story is more nuanced. “

Lucinda Sisk, a Ph.D. candidate in Yale’s Department of Psychology and lead author of the study

"Our results suggest that a distinct pattern of discrimination between threat and safety cues—specifically, greater activation of the prefrontal cortex in response to safety—is related to lower levels of anxiety and helps us better understand the heterogeneity we have seen in mental health among people who grew up exposed to adversity."

For the study, researchers assessed patterns of adversity exposure in 120 adults across four developmental stages: early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Using neuroimaging technology, they examined participants' corticolimbic circuits (a network of brain regions that integrates emotions, cognition and memory) and extracted measures of neural activation as participants viewed cues signaling either threat or safety. This provided insights into the danger-safety discrimination that is related to exposure to adversity, they said.

The researchers then analyzed the data using a person-centered model that identified coherent groups among participants. Specifically, the model identified three latent profiles among participants: those with lower longevity, higher neural activation of threat, and lower neural activation of safety; Those who experienced low to moderate levels of adversity in middle childhood and adolescence had lower neural activation of threat and higher neural activation of safety. and those with a higher adversity score and minimal neural activation for both threat and safety. People in the second profile had lower anxiety than those in the other two profiles, the researchers found.

"The people who experienced low or moderate levels of adversity in middle childhood and adolescence statistically had lower levels of anxiety than the first group, which had the lowest overall adversity, or the third group, which had the highest exposure to adversity," Sisk said.

The study shows that scientists can analyze the variability in mental health outcomes among people experiencing adversity as their brains develop, said Dylan Gee, associate professor of psychology (tenured) in Yale's School of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and co-senior author of the study.

It also offers novel insights that help identify people who may be at higher risk for developing anxiety disorders and other psychiatric problems, Gee said.

"This is one of the first studies to show both that the timing of exposure to adversity really matters, as well as the neural processes underlying risk or resilience to anxiety following adversity," she said. “If the same stressor at age 5 occurs at age 15, it impacts a brain that is at a very different point in its development.

"This study provides insight into the vulnerable periods when the brain is particularly plastic, and children's experiences are likely to have the greatest impact on their mental health later in life," she added. "It also shows that the brain's ability to effectively distinguish between what is safe and what is dangerous may protect against the development of anxiety disorders after childhood adversity."

Arielle Baskin-Somers, associate professor of psychology (tenured) in Fas, is co-senior author of the study. Other study co-authors include Taylor J. Keding, Sonia Ruiz, Paola Odriozola, Sahana Kribakaran, Emily M. Cohodes, Sarah McCauley, Jason T. Haberman and Camila Caballero, all of Yale; Sadie J. Zacharek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Hopewell R. Hodges of the University of Minnesota; and Jasmyne C. Pierre of the City College of New York.

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