Individual differences in threat and reward neural circuitry activation: Testing dimensional models of early adversity, anxiety and depression

TY - JOUR

T1 - Individual differences in threat and reward neural circuitry activation

T2 - Testing dimensional models of early adversity, anxiety and depression

AU - Young, Katherine S.

AU - Ward, Camilla

AU - Vinograd, Meghan

AU - Chen, Kelly

AU - Bookheimer, Susan Y.

AU - Nusslock, Robin

AU - Zinbarg, Richard E.

AU - Craske, Michelle G.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number R01MH100117, awarded to MGC, SYB, RN and REZ. KSY is supported by funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London. MV is supported by the Office of Academic Affiliations, Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment, Department of Veterans Affairs. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. European Journal of Neuroscience published by Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2022/5

Y1 - 2022/5

N2 - Altered functioning of the brain's threat and reward circuitry has been linked to early life adversity and to symptoms of anxiety and depression. To date, however, these relationships have been studied largely in isolation and in categorical-based approaches. It is unclear to what extent early life adversity and psychopathology have unique effects on brain functioning during threat and reward processing. We examined functional brain activity during a face processing task in threat (amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and reward (ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex) regions of interest among a sample (N = 103) of young adults (aged 18–19 years) in relation to dimensional measures of early life adversity and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Results demonstrated a significant association between higher scores on the deprivation adversity dimension and greater activation of reward neural circuitry during viewing of happy faces, with the largest effect sizes observed in the orbitofrontal cortex. We found no significant associations between the threat adversity dimension, or symptom dimensions of anxiety and depression, and neural activation in threat or reward circuitries. These results lend partial support to theories of adversity-related alterations in neural activation and highlight the importance of testing dimensional models of adversity and psychopathology in large sample sizes to further our understanding of the biological processes implicated.

AB - Altered functioning of the brain's threat and reward circuitry has been linked to early life adversity and to symptoms of anxiety and depression. To date, however, these relationships have been studied largely in isolation and in categorical-based approaches. It is unclear to what extent early life adversity and psychopathology have unique effects on brain functioning during threat and reward processing. We examined functional brain activity during a face processing task in threat (amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and reward (ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex) regions of interest among a sample (N = 103) of young adults (aged 18–19 years) in relation to dimensional measures of early life adversity and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Results demonstrated a significant association between higher scores on the deprivation adversity dimension and greater activation of reward neural circuitry during viewing of happy faces, with the largest effect sizes observed in the orbitofrontal cortex. We found no significant associations between the threat adversity dimension, or symptom dimensions of anxiety and depression, and neural activation in threat or reward circuitries. These results lend partial support to theories of adversity-related alterations in neural activation and highlight the importance of testing dimensional models of adversity and psychopathology in large sample sizes to further our understanding of the biological processes implicated.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122876104&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/ejn.15592

DO - 10.1111/ejn.15592

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85122876104

SN - 0953-816X

VL - 55

SP - 2739

EP - 2753

JO - European Journal of Neuroscience

JF - European Journal of Neuroscience

IS - 9-10

ER -