Early childhood stress affects brain's response to rewards

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/du-ecs101915.php

Public Release: 19-Oct-2015
Early childhood stress affects brain's response to rewards
Study finds lingering changes in brain activity
Duke University

A Duke University-led study has pinpointed how early childhood stress affects the adult brain's response to rewards. Their findings suggest a possible pathway by which childhood stress may increase risk of depression and other mental health problems in adulthood.

Many studies have connected early life stress to later mental health issues for adults, but little is understood about the reasons for this connection. The new study published in the current issue of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the relations between early life stress and reward-related brain activity in adults.

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Hanson and colleagues found that early stress, specifically between kindergarten and grade three, was most strongly associated with muted responses to rewards in adulthood. Previous studies have identified this type of brain activity as a marker for increased risk of depression and anxiety.

"In participants with the greatest levels of early stress, we saw the lowest levels of activity in the ventral striatum in response to a reward," Hanson said.

"We think reward-related ventral striatum activity is an important marker of mental health," Hanson explained. "Past studies have focused on the processing of threat and negative emotion after early stress. Generating positive emotions may potentially buffer some of the effects of stress."

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