Background
An early family environment marked by harsh parenting has been related to risk for
multiple mental disorders in adulthood, risks that may be mediated, in part, by deficits
in emotion regulation skills. This study examined neural mechanisms underlying these
consequences of “risky” families (RF) by exploring neural activity to tasks involving
responses to emotional stimuli.
Methods
Participants completed an assessment of RF and participated in a functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation that examined 1) amygdala reactivity to observation
of fearful/angry faces; 2) amygdala and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC)
reactivity to labeling emotions displayed in these faces; and 3) the relation between
RVLPFC and amygdala activity during the labeling task.
Results
Offspring from nonrisky families showed expected amygdala reactivity to observing
fearful/angry faces and expected activation of RVLPFC while labeling the emotions,
which was significantly negatively correlated (−.44) with amygdala activation. Offspring
from risky families showed little amygdala activation during the observation task
and a strong positive correlation (+.66) between RVLPFC and amygdala activation in
the labeling task, suggesting a possible dysregulation in the neural systems involved
in responses to emotional stimuli.
Conclusions
Offspring from risky families exhibit atypical responses to emotional stimuli that
are evident at the neural level.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 06, 2006
Accepted:
September 29,
2005
Received in revised form:
September 19,
2005
Received:
July 18,
2005
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
