The Mediating Role of Neural Activity on the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Impulsivity

Abstract

Child maltreatment is associated with a variety of risk behaviors in young adulthood; however, the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms of this relation are not well understood. The primary aim of the present study was to examine the direct and indirect effects between maltreatment in childhood and downstream impulsivity via neural activity during a cognitive task. In a sample of emerging adult women from the rural southeastern United States, childhood abuse and neglect were assessed using the childhood trauma questionnaire. Outcome measures of neural activity during a functional magnetic resonance imaging N-back verbal working memory (WM) task and trait impulsivity on the Impulsive Behavior Scale were assessed approximately 1 year later. Results indicate that adults with higher levels of reported childhood maltreatment demonstrate worse behavioral performance and lower neural response during a difficult verbal WM task. Furthermore, neural activity significantly mediated the relation between abuse and neglect in childhood and trait impulsivity. These new findings demonstrate an association between neurocognitive functioning and reported childhood abuse and neglect, and indicate that such changes may underlie the relation between maltreatment and trait-level impulsivity.

The Devastating Clinical Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect: Increased Disease Vulnerability and Poor Treatment Response in Mood Disorders

“…Studies investigating differences in function within, and functional connectivity between, these regions following childhood maltreatment are emerging with more recent results suggesting these changes may relate to risk for psychopathology. It was recently reported that decreased prefrontal responses during a verbal working memory task mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and trait impulsivity in young adult women [203]. In a study investigating functional responses to emotional faces in 182 adults with a range of anxiety symptoms, increased amygdala and decreased dorsolateral prefrontal activity to fearful and angry faces were reported-as well as increased insula to fearful and increased ventral, but decreased dorsal, anterior cingulate activity to angry faces-to mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and anxiety symptoms [204].…”

Is There an Ace Up Our Sleeve? A Review of Interventions and Strategies for Addressing Behavioral and Neurobiological Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Youth

“…In response to threatening faces, maltreated youth exhibit a response bias compared with non-maltreated youth, as well as increased activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) when viewing fearful expressions (Hart, Lim, Mehta, Simmons, Mirza, & Rubia, 2018). Decreased PFC responses during a verbal working memory task in maltreated youth relates to trait impulsivity (Hallowell, Oshri, Liebel, Liu, Duda, Clark, & Sweet, 2019), while reduced activation in the ACC in maltreated youth relates to poorer inhibitory control during the Stroop task (Zhai, Yip, Lacadie, Sinha, Mayes, & Potenza, 2019). Maltreated youth show further evidence of impaired cognitive control with longer response times and elevated responses in the dorsal ACC, inferior PFC, and striatum when switching from prepotent to alternative responses (Mueller, Maheu, Dozier, Peloso, Mandell, & Leibenluft, 2010).…”

Introduction to the Special Issue on Understanding Neurobiological Implication of Maltreatment: From Preschool to Emerging Adulthood

“…The papers in this special issue represent diverse methodological approaches to studying neurobiological pathways linking child maltreatment to adjustment and psychopathology outcome across the life span. Several papers involve longitudinal data to delineate patterns over time, leading to various outcomes including alcohol use (DeBellis et al, 2019; Oshri et al, 2019), shyness (Poole, MacMillan, & Schmidt, 2018), trait impulsivity (Hallowell et al, 2019), internalizing and externalizing problems (Demers et al, 2019; Oshri et al, 2019; Peverill, Sheridan, Busso, & McLaughlin, 2019), and adaptive functioning (Demers et al, 2019). Another important aspect in the investigation of the neurobiology of child maltreatment is the concept of multilevel analysis.…”

“…Impulsivity, the focus of the next paper (Hallowell et al, 2019), is a multifactorial construct implicated in substance use disorders (Lee, Hoppenbrouwers, & Franken, 2019) and child maltreatment (Liu, 2019). In this study, Hallowell and colleagues (2019) investigated the impact of child maltreatment on impulsivity via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a verbal working memory task in a sample of emerging adult females (ages 18–25 years). Higher levels of self-reported childhood maltreatment were positively associated with impulsivity, poorer working memory performance, and overall lower neural response.…”