Interpersonal early adversity demonstrates dissimilarity from early socioeconomic disadvantage in the course of human brain development: A meta-analysis.
Anna VannucciAndrea FieldsEleanor HansenAriel KatzJohn KerwinAyumi TachidaNathan MartinNim TottenhamPublished in: Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews (2023)
It has been established that early-life adversity impacts brain development, but the role of development itself has largely been ignored. We take a developmentally-sensitive approach to examine the neurodevelopmental sequelae of early adversity in a preregistered meta-analysis of 27,234 youth (birth to 18-years-old), providing the largest group of adversity-exposed youth to date. Findings demonstrate that early-life adversity does not have an ontogenetically uniform impact on brain volumes, but instead exhibits age-, experience-, and region-specific associations. Relative to non-exposed comparisons, interpersonal early adversity (e.g., family-based maltreatment) was associated with initially larger volumes in frontolimbic regions until ∼10-years-old, after which these exposures were linked to increasingly smaller volumes. By contrast, socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g., poverty) was associated with smaller volumes in temporal-limbic regions in childhood, which were attenuated at older ages. These findings advance ongoing debates regarding why, when, and how early-life adversity shapes later neural outcomes.
Keyphrases
- early life
- physical activity
- mental health
- resting state
- young adults
- metabolic syndrome
- magnetic resonance
- white matter
- functional connectivity
- computed tomography
- type diabetes
- air pollution
- brain injury
- insulin resistance
- pregnant women
- adipose tissue
- blood brain barrier
- contrast enhanced
- gestational age
- pregnancy outcomes
- weight loss
- glycemic control