Neural Responses to Emotional Stimuli Are Associated with Childhood Family Stress

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.09.027

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 60, Issue 3, 1 August 2006, Pages 296-301

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.09.027 Get rights and content

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.

Section snippets

Neural Correlates of Threat Detection and Emotion Regulation

One neural region consistently associated with threat detection is the amygdala. The amygdala has been shown to respond to a variety of stimuli indicating threat, including pictures depicting physical threats (Hariri et al 2002, Ochsner et al 2002) and fear and anger faces presented either supraliminally or subliminally (Hariri et al 2000, Whalen et al 1998). The amygdala is also sensitive to novel stimuli that possess potential threat value (Whalen 1999). Once activated, the amgydala sets in

Participants

Prospective participants responded to flyers placed around campus. In the initial screening telephone interview, following Institutional Review Board (IRB) regulations for nonclinical samples, the entire list of exclusion criteria was read to prospective participants; they were asked to indicate if any of the conditions was true of them but not to indicate which one. The list included having received a diagnosis of a serious physical or mental health problem; use of medications affecting

Behavioral Data

Reaction time data from the gender- and emotion-labeling conditions revealed that there were no reaction time differences between those low or high on the risky family assessment (p’s > .9). Moreover, there were no significant between-group differences in the number of errors made during the gender- or emotion-labeling conditions (p’s > .48).

Neuroimaging Data: Observe Condition

As noted, the observation of fearful or angry faces typically produces activation of the amygdala. Replicating previous findings, two regions of the

Discussion

An early family environment marked by harsh, chaotic, or conflict-ridden parenting has been reliably related to mental and physical health risks across the life span (Felitti et al 1998, Repetti et al 2002). Deficits in emotion regulation skills have been posited to be one mechanism that may link childhood environment to these adverse outcomes (Repetti et al 2002). The present study investigated potential neural mechanisms that may underpin these relations and found evidence for potential

Limitations

There are several limitations to these findings. The risky family assessments and the fMRI component of the study were completed at different points in time. Previous research, however, indicates that risky family assessments are stable across time (Taylor et al 2004). Second, assessment of family environment involves reconstruction by these young adult participants and thus may engage certain biases. Most problematic is the potential for a negative emotional overlay to contribute to response

Conclusions

In conclusion, this research suggests that growing up in a risky family environment marked by harsh parenting may have effects on processes involving threat detection and responses to emotional stimuli at the neural level. When faced with a passive observation task of threatening stimuli, offspring from risky families appeared to tune out the stimuli or at least the emotional aspects of the stimuli. When forced to actively engage with threatening stimuli in the emotion-labeling task, offspring

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Original articleNeural Responses to Emotional Stimuli Are Associated with Childhood Family Stress

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Neural Correlates of Threat Detection and Emotion Regulation

Participants

Behavioral Data

Neuroimaging Data: Observe Condition

Discussion

Limitations

Conclusions

Am J Prev Med

Neuroimage

Neuroimage

Soc Sci Med

NeuroImage

Am J Med

Are avoidance and numbing distinct PTSD symptom clusters?

J Trauma Stress

Maternal resources, parenting practices, and child competence in rural, single-parent African-American families

Child Dev

Recognition and posing of emotional expression by abused children and their mothers

Dev Psychol

The development of anxietyThe role of control in the early environment

Psychol Bull

The role of the amygdala and its efferent projections in fear and anxiety

The family ecology of boys’ peer relations in middle childhood

Child Dev

Affect expression in the family, children’s understanding of emotions, and their interactions with others

Merrill Palmer Q

Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion

Science

Social economics of childhood glucocorticoid stress responses and health

Am J Phys Anthropol

Modulating emotional responsesEffects of a neocortical network on the limbic system

Neuroreport

Original article
Neural Responses to Emotional Stimuli Are Associated with Childhood Family Stress