Maltreatment Exposure, Brain Structure, and Fear Conditioning in Children and Adolescents.

ABSTRACT: Alterations in learning processes and the neural circuitry that supports fear conditioning and extinction represent mechanisms through which trauma exposure might influence risk for psychopathology. Few studies examine how trauma or neural structure relates to fear conditioning in children. Children (n=94) aged 6-18 years, 40.4% (n=38) with exposure to maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, or domestic violence), completed a fear conditioning paradigm utilizing blue and yellow bells as conditioned stimuli (CS+/CS-) and an aversive alarm noise as the unconditioned stimulus. Skin conductance responses (SCR) and self-reported fear were acquired. Magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from 60 children. Children without maltreatment exposure exhibited strong differential conditionin

SUBMITTER: McLaughlin KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4908632 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature