背景:儿童和青少年时期的暴力暴露与精神病理学的患病率和严重程度增加有关。神经生物学相关因素表明,情绪相关的大脑电路的异常成熟,比如杏仁核-前额叶皮质(PFC),可能是暴露后精神症状发展的基础;然而,目前尚不清楚杏仁核-PFC电路成熟与暴力背景下的精神病风险有何关系.
方法:本研究使用从费城神经发育队列(PNC;N=1,133青年)收集的数据,分析了杏仁核-PFC电路成熟度的个体差异。利用深度学习建立杏仁核-PFC静息态功能连接的神经发育模型,经过训练可以预测典型发展中的年轻人的实际年龄(既没有暴力暴露也没有精神病诊断)。使用大脑年龄差距估计(BrainAGE),相对电路成熟的指标,询问了非典型神经发育的模式。
结果:暴力暴露与基底外侧杏仁核(BLA)-PFC电路的延迟成熟有关,由增加的BLA-内侧眶额皮质功能连接驱动。精神症状增加,另一方面,与BLA-PFC功能连接的晚期成熟有关,由BLA-背侧PFC功能连通性降低驱动。
结论:暴露于暴力后延迟额杏仁核成熟表明非典型,然而适应性,发展威胁评估流程,潜在反映了年幼儿童更大的威胁泛化特征。随着症状的增加,高级回路成熟表明,在情绪回路适应逆境后,疾病的潜在神经发育机制不同。由于预先存在的早期成熟的脆弱性而加剧。解开逆境和精神病理学对神经发育的影响对于帮助青少年从暴力中恢复过来并防止疾病持续到成年至关重要。
BACKGROUND: Violence exposure during childhood and adolescence is associated with increased prevalence and severity of psychopathology. Neurobiological correlates suggest that abnormal maturation of emotion-related brain circuitry, such as amygdala-prefrontal cortex (PFC), may underlie the development of psychiatric symptoms after exposure; however, it remains unclear how amygdala-PFC circuit maturation is related to psychiatric risk in the context of violence.
METHODS: This study analyzed individual differences in amygdala-PFC circuit maturity using data collected from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC; N=1,133 youth). Neurodevelopment models of amygdala-PFC resting-state functional connectivity were built using deep learning, trained to predict chronological age in typically developing youth (neither violence exposed nor having a psychiatric diagnosis). Using the brain age gap estimate (BrainAGE), an index of relative circuit maturation, patterns of atypical neurodevelopment were interrogated.
RESULTS: Violence exposure was associated with delayed maturation of basolateral amygdala (BLA) - PFC circuits, driven by increased BLA - medial orbitofrontal cortex functional connectivity. Increased psychiatric symptoms, on the other hand, was associated with advanced maturation of BLA - PFC functional connectivity, driven by decreased BLA - dorsolateral PFC functional connectivity.
CONCLUSIONS: Delayed frontoamygdala maturation after exposure to violence suggests atypical, yet adaptive, development of threat appraisal processes, potentially reflecting greater threat generalization characteristic of younger children. Advanced circuit maturation with increasing symptoms suggests divergent neurodevelopmental mechanisms underlying illness after emotion-circuits have adapted to adversity, exacerbated by pre-existing vulnerabilities to early maturation. Disentangling the effects of adversity and psychopathology on neurodevelopment is crucial for helping youth recover from violence and preventing illness from continuing into adulthood.