Differences in frontal and limbic brain activation in a small sample of monozygotic twin pairs discordant for severe stressful life events.

ABSTRACT: Monozygotic twin pairs provide a valuable opportunity to control for genetic and shared environmental influences while studying the effects of nonshared environmental influences. The question we address with this design is whether monozygotic twins selected for discordance in exposure to severe stressful life events during development (before age 18) demonstrate differences in brain activation during performance of an emotional word-face Stroop task. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess brain activation in eighteen young adult twins who were discordant in exposure to severe stress such that one twin had two or more severe events compared to their control co-twin who had no severe events. Twins who experienced higher levels of stress during development, co

SUBMITTER: Godinez DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5145909 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature