Developmental pathways to amygdala-prefrontal function and internalizing symptoms in adolescence

Nat Neurosci. 2012 Dec;15(12):1736-41. doi: 10.1038/nn.3257. Epub 2012 Nov 11.

Abstract

Early life stress (ELS) and function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis predict later psychopathology. Animal studies and cross-sectional human studies suggest that this process might operate through amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) circuitry implicated in the regulation of emotion. Here we prospectively investigated the roles of ELS and childhood basal cortisol amounts in the development of adolescent resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC), assessed by functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI), in the amygdala-PFC circuit. In females only, greater ELS predicted increased childhood cortisol levels, which predicted decreased amygdala-vmPFC rs-FC 14 years later. For females, adolescent amygdala-vmPFC functional connectivity was inversely correlated with concurrent anxiety symptoms but positively associated with depressive symptoms, suggesting differing pathways from childhood cortisol levels function through adolescent amygdala-vmPFC functional connectivity to anxiety and depression. These data highlight that, for females, the effects of ELS and early HPA-axis function may be detected much later in the intrinsic processing of emotion-related brain circuits.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adolescent Behavior / physiology*
  • Adolescent Behavior / psychology
  • Amygdala / growth & development*
  • Anxiety / epidemiology
  • Anxiety / metabolism*
  • Anxiety / psychology
  • Depression / epidemiology
  • Depression / metabolism*
  • Depression / psychology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hydrocortisone / metabolism*
  • Male
  • Neural Pathways / growth & development
  • Prefrontal Cortex / growth & development*
  • Prospective Studies
  • Stress, Psychological / epidemiology
  • Stress, Psychological / metabolism
  • Stress, Psychological / psychology

Substances

  • Hydrocortisone