Early life stress and trauma and enhanced limbic activation to emotionally valenced faces in depressed and healthy children.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Previous studies have examined the relationships between structural brain characteristics and early life stress in adults. However, there is limited evidence for functional brain variation associated with early life stress in children. We hypothesized that early life stress and trauma would be associated with increased functional brain activation response to negative emotional faces in children with and without a history of depression.

Method

Psychiatric diagnosis and life events in children (starting at age 3-5 years) were assessed in a longitudinal study. A follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study acquired data (N = 115 at ages 7-12, 51% girls) on functional brain response to fearful, sad, and happy faces relative to neutral faces. We used a region-of-int

SUBMITTER: Suzuki H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4086855 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature