Journal
NEUROIMAGE
Volume 105, Issue -, Pages 112-119Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.10.020
Keywords
Post-institutionalized youth; Early life stress; Early deprivation; Early adversity; Structural brain development
Funding
- NIMH Center grant [P50-MH079513]
- University of Minnesota's Center for Cognitive Sciences via a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award [T32-HD007151]
- University of Minnesota Graduate School Fellowships
- University of Minnesota's Center for Neurobehavioral Development [T32-MH73129]
- College of Liberal Arts
- Minnesota Medical Foundation
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For children reared in institutions for orphaned or abandoned children, multiple aspects of the early environment deviate from species-typical experiences, which may lead to alterations in neurobehavioral development. Although the effects of early deprivation and early life stress have been studied extensively in animal models, less is known about implications for human brain development. This structural neuroimaging study examined the long-term neural correlates of early adverse rearing environments in a large sample of 12-14 year old children (N - 110) who were internationally adopted from institutional care as young children (median age at adoption = 12 months) relative to a same age, comparison group reared with their biological families in the United States. History of institutional rearing was associated with broad changes in cortical volume even after controlling for variability in head size. Results suggested that prefrontal cortex was especially susceptible to early adversity, with significant reductions in volume (driven primarily by differences in surface area rather than cortical thickness) in post-institutionalized youth. Hippocampal volumes showed an association with duration of institutional care, with later-adopted children showing the smallest volumes relative to non-adopted controls. Larger amygdala volumes were not detected in this sample of post-institutionalized children. These data suggest that this temporally discrete period of early deprivation is associated with persisting alterations in brain morphology even years after exposure. Furthermore, these alterations are not completely ameliorated by subsequent environmental enrichment by early adolescence. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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