A Link Between Childhood Adversity and Trait Anger Reflects Relative Activity of the Amygdala and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

Kim, M. Justin; Scult, Matthew A.; Knodt, Annchen R.; Radtke, Spenser R.; d’Arbeloff, Tracy; Brigidi, Bartholomew D.; Hariri, Ahmad R.

doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2018.03.006

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…Such heightened amygdala reactivity (in the context of weaker prefrontal regulation) may lead to higher levels of threat reactive aggression (Chen, Coccaro, Lee, & Jacobson, 2012), trait anger, and conflictual interactions that in turn may either increase the likelihood of stress generation or reduce the likelihood of an individual being able to elicit and sustain positive relationships as shown by psychological research among maltreated children (Hecht, Cicchetti, Rogosch, & Crick, 2014). In a recent imaging study of young adults aged 18–22, among participants with higher CTQ scores, low levels of self-reported trait anger (the dispositional tendency to experience a wide range of situations as annoying or frustrating) was found to be correlated with both lower threat-related amygdala activity and higher executive control–related dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) activity (Kim et al, 2018; McCrory, 2018). However, whether these domain-specific neural variations actually mediate meaningful differences in measures of real-world social functioning such as social network size or the quality of close personal relationships was not tested.…”

Section: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Fmri) Studies Of Chilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurocognitive Adaptation and Mental Health Vulnerability Following Maltreatment: The Role of Social Functioning

et al. 2019

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Childhood maltreatment is associated with a lifetime increase in risk of mental health disorder. We propose that such vulnerability may stem in large part from altered patterns of social functioning. Here, we highlight key findings from the psychological and epidemiological literature indicating that early maltreatment experience compromises social functioning and attenuates social support in ways that increase mental health vulnerability. We then review the extant neuroimaging studies of children and adolescents, focusing on three domains implicated in social functioning: threat processing, reward processing, and emotion regulation. We discuss how adaptations in these domains may increase latent vulnerability to mental health problems by impacting on social functioning via increased stress susceptibility as well as increased stress generation. Finally, we explore how computational psychiatry approaches, alongside systematically reported measures of social functioning, can complement studies of neural function in the creation of a mechanistic framework aimed at informing approaches to prevention and intervention.

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Section: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Fmri) Studies Of Chilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurocognitive Adaptation and Mental Health Vulnerability Following Maltreatment: The Role of Social Functioning

et al. 2019

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“…Anger, like depression, is likely to be provoked when people who experienced childhood trauma encounter subsequent negative life events. Experiences of childhood trauma might result in a character structure that makes it easier to feel angry in stressful situations ( 24 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent stressful life events have been suggested to stimulate conditions for subsequent depression, anxiety, or anger ( 1 , 13 – 17 ). In addition, early traumatic events are known to have strong, long-term effects on emotional well-being ( 18 , 19 ), being associated depression, anxiety ( 20 – 22 ), and anger ( 23 , 24 ). A previous study reported that childhood adversity leads to higher levels of anger and aggression ( 23 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A previous study reported that childhood adversity leads to higher levels of anger and aggression ( 23 ). Childhood adversity and anger have also been reported to be associated with neurobiological changes, such as altered activity in the amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex ( 24 ). Recent stressors can also provoke anger ( 4 , 25 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects Of Early Trauma and Recent Stressors on Depression, Anxiety, and Anger

Seok

Jeon²,

Lee

et al. 2020

Front. Psychiatry

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Background Early life traumatic events and recent stressful events are known to have especially strong effects on emotional wellbeing. However, little is known about the interaction of early and recent stressors on emotions. We aimed to examine the interactive effects of early trauma and recent stressors on depression, anxiety, and anger. Methods One hundred and seventy adults were recruited and asked to complete the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the state anxiety subscale of the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), and the state anger subscale of the State–Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-S). Early traumas and recent stressors were assessed during face-to-face interviews. Multiple regression analysis was performed to test whether early trauma, recent stressors, and the interaction of the two would predict CES-D, STAI-S, and STAXI-S scores. Results In the multiple regression models, STAI-S scores were predicted only by recent stressors ( R 2 = 0.063, p = 0.001). In contrast, CES-D and STAXI-S scores were predicted only by the synergistic interaction of early trauma with recent stressors ( R 2 = 0.075, p < 0.001; R 2 = 0.039, p = 0.01, respectively). Conclusions A synergistic interaction effect between early trauma and recent stressful events on current depression and anger was observed, indicating that the combined effects of early trauma and recent stressors are stronger than their individual effects. In contrast, anxiety was affected mainly by recent stressors. Our findings suggest that the form that emotional disturbance takes can vary depending on the timing of stressors.

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“…To be eligible for the DNS, participants were required to be free of the following conditions: 1) medical diagnoses of cancer, stroke, head injury with loss of consciousness, untreated migraine headaches, diabetes requiring insulin treatment, chronic kidney, or liver disease; 2) use of psychotropic, glucocorticoid, or hypolipidemic medication; and 3) conditions affecting cerebral blood flow and metabolism (e.g., hypertension). As DNS followed a standardized procedure, we note that the following description of the methods is also described elsewhere (e.g., Kim et al, 2018). Task 6 The face matching task used in the DNS consisted of four task blocks interleaved with five control blocks.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meta-analytic activation maps can help identify affective processes captured by contrast-based task fMRI: the case of threat-related facial expressions

Kim

Knodt

Hariri

2019

Preprint

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Meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is an effective method for capturing the distributed patterns of brain activity supporting discrete cognitive and affective processes. One opportunity presented by the resulting meta-analysis maps (MAMs) is as a reference for better understanding the nature of individual contrast maps (ICMs) derived from specific task fMRI data. Here, we compared MAMs from 148 neuroimaging studies representing the broad emotion categories of fear, anger, disgust, happiness, and sadness with ICMs from fearful > neutral and angry > neutral facial expressions from an independent dataset of task fMRI (n = 1263). Analyses revealed that both fear and anger ICMs exhibited the greatest pattern similarity to fear MAMs. As the number of voxels included for the computation of pattern similarity became more selective, the specificity of MAM-ICM correspondence decreased. Notably, amygdala activity long considered critical for processing threat-related facial expressions was neither sufficient nor necessary for detecting MAM-ICM pattern similarity effects. Our analyses suggest that both fearful and angry facial expressions are best captured by distributed patterns of brain activity associated with fear. More generally, our analyses demonstrate how MAMs can be leveraged to better understand affective processes captured by ICMs in task fMRI data.

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A Link Between Childhood Adversity and Trait Anger Reflects Relative Activity of the Amygdala and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract: These brain activity patterns suggest that simultaneous consideration of their underlying cognitive processes-namely, threat processing and executive control-may be useful in strategies designed to mitigate the negative mental health consequences of childhood adversity.

Cited by 12 publications

References 26 publications

Neurocognitive Adaptation and Mental Health Vulnerability Following Maltreatment: The Role of Social Functioning

Neurocognitive Adaptation and Mental Health Vulnerability Following Maltreatment: The Role of Social Functioning

Effects Of Early Trauma and Recent Stressors on Depression, Anxiety, and Anger

Meta-analytic activation maps can help identify affective processes captured by contrast-based task fMRI: the case of threat-related facial expressions

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