Increased activation of the fear neurocircuitry in children exposed to violence

• Published in: Depression and anxiety Vol. 37; no. 4; pp. 303 - 312
• Main Authors: Rooij, Sanne J. H., Smith, Ryan D., Stenson, Anaïs F., Ely, Timothy D., Yang, Xinyi, Tottenham, Nim, Stevens, Jennifer S., Jovanovic, Tanja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Hindawi Limited 01-04-2020
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adolescent; Aggression; Amygdala; Amygdala - diagnostic imaging; Brain Mapping; Brain stem; brain structure; Child; Child & adolescent psychiatry; childhood trauma; Children; Fear; Functional anatomy; functional magnetic resonance imaging; Hippocampus; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Mental disorders; Neural networks; Neuroimaging; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; response inhibition; Retrospective Studies; Structure-function relationships; Trauma; Traumatic brain injury; ventromedial prefrontal cortex; Violence; childhood trauma; amygdala; hippocampus; ventromedial prefrontal cortex; brain structure; functional magnetic resonance imaging; response inhibition
• ISSN: 1091-4269; 1520-6394
• DOI: 10.1002/da.22994

Most studies investigating the effect of childhood trauma on the brain are retrospective and mainly focus on maltreatment, whereas different types of trauma exposure such as growing up in a violent neighborhood, as well as developmental stage, could have differential effects on brain structure and function. The current magnetic resonance imaging study assessed the effect of trauma exposure broadly and violence exposure more specifically, as well as developmental stage on the fear neurocircuitry in 8‐ to 14‐year‐old children and adolescents (N = 69). We observed reduced hippocampal and increased amygdala volume with increasing levels of trauma exposure. Second, higher levels of violence exposure were associated with increased activation in the amygdala, hippocampus, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during emotional response inhibition. This association was specifically observed in children younger than 10 years. Finally, increased functional connectivity between the amygdala and brainstem was associated with higher levels of violence exposure. Based on the current findings, it could be hypothesized that trauma exposure during childhood results in structural changes that are associated with later risk for psychiatric disorders. At the same time, it could be postulated that growing up in an unsafe environment leads the brain to functionally adapt to this situation in a way that promotes survival, where the long‐term costs or consequences of these adaptations are largely unknown and an area for future investigations.