Citation

Moreno-López L, Ioannidis K, Askelund AD, Smith AJ, Schueler K, van Harmelen AL. Biol. Psychiatry Cogn. Neurosci. Neuroimaging 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Electronic address: av391@medschl.cam.ac.uk.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Society of Biological Psychiatry, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.12.008

PMID

32115373

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is one of the strongest predictors of adult mental illness, although not all adults with CM develop psychopathology. Here, we describe the structure and function of the emotional brain regions that may contribute to resilient functioning after CM. We review studies that report medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus (limbic regions) structure, function, and/or connections in resilient adults (i.e., those reporting CM without psychopathology) versus vulnerable adults (i.e., those reporting CM with psychopathology) or healthy adults (those without CM and with no psychopathology). We find that resilient adults have larger hippocampal gray and white matter volume and greater connectivity between the central executive network and the limbic regions. In addition, resilient adults have improved ability to regulate emotions through medial prefrontal cortex-limbic downregulation, lower hippocampal activation to emotional faces, and increased amygdala habituation to stress. We highlight the need for longitudinal designs that examine resilient functioning across domains and consider gender, type, timing, and nature of CM assessments and further stressors to further improve our understanding of the role of the emotional brain in resilient functioning after CM.

Copyright © 2019 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Abuse; Brain function; Brain structure; Childhood maltreatment; Neglect; Neurobiology; Psychopathology; Resilience