Amygdala Reward Reactivity Mediates the Association Between Preschool Stress Response and Depression Severity.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Research in adolescents and adults has suggested that altered neural processing of reward following early life adversity is a highly promising depressive intermediate phenotype. However, very little is known about how stress response, neural processing of reward, and depression are related in very young children. The present study examined the concurrent associations between cortisol response following a stressor, functional brain activity to reward, and depression severity in children 4 to 6 years old.

Methods

Medication-naïve children 4 to 6 years old (N = 52) participated in a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess neural reactivity to reward, including gain, loss, and neutral outcomes. Parent-reported child depression severity and child co

SUBMITTER: Gaffrey MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5723551 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature