Interpersonal early adversity demonstrates dissimilarity from early socioeconomic disadvantage in the course of human brain development: A meta-analysis

It has been established that early-life adversity impacts brain development, but the role of development itself has largely been ignored. We take a developmentally-sensitive approach to examine the neurodevelopmental sequelae of early adversity in a preregistered meta-analysis of 27,234 youth (birth to 18-years-old), providing the largest group of adversity-exposed youth to date. Findings demonstrate that early-life adversity does not have an ontogenetically uniform impact on brain volumes, but instead exhibits age-, experience-, and region-specific associations. Relative to non-exposed comparisons, interpersonal early adversity (e.g., family-based maltreatment) was associated with initially larger volumes in frontolimbic regions until similar to 10-years-old, after which these exposures were linked to increasingly smaller volumes. By contrast, socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g., poverty) was associated with smaller volumes in temporal-limbic regions in childhood, which were attenuated at older ages. These findings advance ongoing debates regarding why, when, and how early-life adversity shapes later neural outcomes.

Automated summary

It has been established that early-life adversity has varying effects on brain volumes, depending on age, experience, and region. Interpersonal early adversity, such as family-based maltreatment, initially leads to larger volumes in frontolimbic regions until around 10 years old, after which these exposures are associated with smaller volumes. On the other hand, socioeconomic disadvantage, like poverty, is linked to smaller volumes in temporal-limbic regions in childhood, but this association diminishes with age. These findings contribute to ongoing debates about the impact of early-life adversity on later neural outcomes.