Cumulative stress in childhood is associated with blunted reward-related brain activity in adulthood

Abstract

Early life stress (ELS) is strongly associated with negative outcomes in adulthood, including reduced motivation and increased negative mood. The mechanisms mediating these relations, however, are poorly understood. We examined the relation between exposure to ELS and reward-related brain activity, which is known to predict motivation and mood, at age 26, in a sample followed since kindergarten with annual assessments. Using functional neuroimaging, we assayed individual differences in the activity of the ventral striatum (VS) during the processing of monetary rewards associated with a simple card-guessing task, in a sample of 72 male participants. We examined associations between a cumulative measure of ELS exposure and VS activity in adulthood. We found that greater levels of cumulative stress during childhood and adolescence predicted lower reward-related VS activity in adulthood. Extending this general developmental pattern, we found that exposure to stress early in development (between kindergarten and grade 3) was significantly associated with variability in adult VS activity. Our results provide an important demonstration that cumulative life stress, especially during this childhood period, is associated with blunted reward-related VS activity in adulthood. These differences suggest neurobiological pathways through which a history of ELS may contribute to reduced motivation and increased negative mood.

Neurobehavioral markers of resilience to depression amongst adolescents exposed to child abuse.

“…Adults who have experienced childhood maltreatment show less reactivity to reward cues in the left pallidum and rate reward cues less positively than adults without maltreatment histories (Dillon, et al, 2009). fMRI studies examining basal ganglia regions of interest have reported associations between emotional neglect (Hanson, Hariri, et al, 2015) and early life institutionalization (Goff, et al, 2013) with blunted ventral striatum reactivity to reward and positive social stimuli across adolescence. In healthy young adults, family adversity was negatively associated with reactivity in the ventral striatum and putamen during anticipation of reward; during reward delivery, activation of the right pallidum and bilateral putamen increased with early family adversity (Boecker, et al, 2014).…”

Depression Risk Predicts Blunted Neural Responses to Gains and Enhanced Responses to Losses in Healthy Children

“…However, it is likely that other factors that co-occur with maternal depression also relate to blunted reward responding, such as exposure to stress/trauma or specific parenting styles. 49,50 This familial environment and parental characteristics may also mediate/moderate the relationship between striatal reward response and depression risk. Future studies investigating both maternal and child response to reward, along with other genetic and environmental factors, are needed to evaluate these potential mechanisms.…”

Stress and the adolescent brain

“…Young adults with a history of childhood stress exhibit blunted ventral striatal response when processing a monetary reward (Boecker et al, 2014; Hanson et al, 2016). Research in younger samples shows that this effect of stress on reward-related circuitry can emerge during adolescence.…”