A new paper has been accepted in the Nature: Scientific Reports
Title:
Early-life and pubertal stress differentially modulate grey matter development in human adolescents
Abstract:
Animal and human studies have shown that both early-life traumatic events and 3 ongoing stress episodes affect neurodevelopment, however, it remains unclear 4 whether and how they modulate normative adolescent neuro-maturational 5 trajectories. We characterized effects of early-life (age 0-5) and ongoing 6 stressors (age 14-17) on longitudinal changes (age 14 to17) in grey matter 7 volume (GMV) of healthy adolescents (n=37). Timing and stressor type were 8 related to differential GMV changes. More personal early-life stressful events 9 were associated with larger developmental reductions in GMV over anterior 10 prefrontal cortex, amygdala and other subcortical regions; whereas ongoing 11 stress from the adolescents’ social environment was related to smaller 12 reductions over the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex. These findings 13 suggest that early-life stress accelerates pubertal development, whereas an 14 adverse adolescent social environment disturbs brain maturation with potential 15 mental health implications: delayed anterior cingulate maturation was 16 associated with more antisocial traits – a juvenile precursor of psychopathy.
Reference:
Anna Tyborowskaa, Inge Volman, Hannah C. M. Niermann, J. Loes Pouwels, Sanny Smeekens, Antonius H. N. Cillessen, Ivan Toni, Karin Roelofs. Early-life and pubertal stress differentially modulate grey matter development in human adolescents. Scientific Reports.