Neural activation during processing of emotional faces as a function of resilience in adolescents

Steve Eaton; Harriet Cornwell; Jack Rogers; Stephane De Brito; Nicola Toschi; Christina Stadler; Nora Raschle; Kerstin Konrad; Gregor Kohls; Areti Smaragdi; Karen Gonzalez-Madruga; Maaike Oosterling; Anne Martinelli; Anka Bernhard; Christine M Freitag; Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis; Graeme Fairchild

doi:10.1007/s00787-025-02703-y

Neural activation during processing of emotional faces as a function of resilience in adolescents

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2025 Apr 10. doi: 10.1007/s00787-025-02703-y. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Steve Eaton¹, Harriet Cornwell², Jack Rogers³, Stephane De Brito³, Nicola Toschi⁴, Christina Stadler⁵, Nora Raschle⁵, Kerstin Konrad⁶, Gregor Kohls⁷, Areti Smaragdi⁸, Karen Gonzalez-Madruga⁹, Maaike Oosterling², Anne Martinelli^{10

11}, Anka Bernhard¹⁰, Christine M Freitag¹⁰, Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis², Graeme Fairchild²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Bath, 10 West, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK. eatons@cardiff.ac.uk.
² Department of Psychology, University of Bath, 10 West, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.
³ School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
⁴ Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Rome, Italy.
⁵ Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁶ Child Neuropsychology Section, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital RWTH, Aachen, Germany.
⁷ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TUD Dresden University of Technology, German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ), Partner site Leipzig/Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
⁸ Child Development Institute, Toronto, Canada.
⁹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
¹⁰ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany.
¹¹ School of Psychology, Fresenius University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany.

PMID: 40210730
DOI: 10.1007/s00787-025-02703-y

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies suggest that resilience to adversity is linked to reduced emotional reactivity or enhanced emotion regulation. However, such studies are scarce and mainly use adult samples and categorical definitions of resilience. Using a novel, data-driven approach to define resilience dimensionally, based on cumulative adversity exposure across childhood and psychopathology, we investigated associations between resilience and brain activation during facial emotion processing in youth. We also tested for sex differences in the relationship between resilience and brain activation. fMRI data were acquired from 208 youths (aged 9-18 years; Mean age = 13.28), while viewing angry, fearful, and neutral faces. Whole-brain analyses were performed, followed by region-of-interest analyses focusing on the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Resilience was positively correlated with bilateral inferior frontal gyrus responses to fearful (versus neutral) faces, and negatively correlated with right superior temporal gyrus, left hippocampal, and right inferior frontal gyrus responses to neutral faces (versus fixation). Sex-by-resilience interactions were observed in the medial prefrontal cortex: males showed positive, while females showed negative, associations between resilience and brain activation, though these results did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. These findings provide further evidence that resilience in youth is associated with enhanced emotion regulation at a neural level.

Keywords: Adversity; Emotion; Face processing; Resilience; Youth; fMRI.

Abstract

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