Abstract
Background
Altered aversive learning represents a potential mechanism through which childhood
trauma (CT) might influence risk for psychopathology. This study examines the temporal
dynamics of neural activation and patterns of functional connectivity during aversive
learning in children with and without exposure to CT involving interpersonal violence
and evaluates whether these neural patterns mediate the association of CT with psychopathology
in a longitudinal design.
Methods
A total of 147 children (aged 8–16 years, 77 with CT) completed a fear conditioning
procedure during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Dynamic patterns of
neural activation were examined, and functional connectivity was assessed with generalized
psychophysiological interaction analyses. We evaluated whether the associations between
CT and psychopathology symptoms at baseline and 2-year follow-up were mediated by
neural activation and connectivity during aversive learning.
Results
Children exposed to trauma displayed blunted patterns of neural activation over time
to the conditioned threat versus safety stimuli (CS+>CS−) in the right amygdala. In
addition, trauma was associated with reduced functional connectivity of right amygdala
with the hippocampus, posterior parahippocampal gyrus, and posterior cingulate cortex
and with elevated connectivity with the anterior cingulate cortex to CS+>CS−. The
longitudinal association between CT and later externalizing symptoms was mediated
by blunted activation in the right amygdala. Reduced amygdala-hippocampal connectivity
mediated the association of CT with transdiagnostic anxiety symptoms, and elevated
amygdala–anterior cingulate cortex connectivity mediated the association of CT with
generalized anxiety symptoms.
Conclusions
CT is associated with poor threat-safety discrimination and altered functional coupling
between salience and default mode network regions during aversive learning. These
altered dynamics may be key mechanisms linking CT with distinct forms of psychopathology.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 24, 2021
Accepted:
September 14,
2021
Received in revised form:
August 26,
2021
Received:
May 4,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Society of Biological Psychiatry.
