Early Social Adversity, Altered Brain Functional Connectivity, and Mental Health

Nathalie E Holz; Oksana Berhe; Seda Sacu; Emanuel Schwarz; Jonas Tesarz; Christine M Heim; Heike Tost

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.10.019

Early Social Adversity, Altered Brain Functional Connectivity, and Mental Health

Biol Psychiatry. 2023 Mar 1;93(5):430-441. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.10.019. Epub 2022 Nov 9.

Authors

Nathalie E Holz¹, Oksana Berhe², Seda Sacu³, Emanuel Schwarz², Jonas Tesarz⁴, Christine M Heim⁵, Heike Tost⁶

Affiliations

¹ Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Schleswig Holstein, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
² Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
³ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
⁴ Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
⁵ Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Medical Psychology, Berlin, Germany; College of Health and Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany. Electronic address: Heike.Tost@zi-mannheim.de.

PMID: 36581495
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.10.019

Abstract

Early adverse environmental exposures during brain development are widespread risk factors for the onset of severe mental disorders and strong and consistent predictors of stress-related mental and physical illness and reduced life expectancy. Current evidence suggests that early negative experiences alter plasticity processes during developmentally sensitive time windows and affect the regular functional interaction of cortical and subcortical neural networks. This, in turn, may promote a maladapted development with negative consequences on the mental and physical health of exposed individuals. In this review, we discuss the role of functional magnetic resonance imaging-based functional connectivity phenotypes as potential biomarker candidates for the consequences of early environmental exposures-including but not limited to-childhood maltreatment. We take an expanded concept of developmentally relevant adverse experiences from infancy over childhood to adolescence as our starting point and focus our review of functional connectivity studies on a selected subset of functional magnetic resonance imaging-based phenotypes, including connectivity in the limbic and within the frontoparietal as well as default mode networks, for which we believe there is sufficient converging evidence for a more detailed discussion in a developmental context. Furthermore, we address specific methodological challenges and current knowledge gaps that complicate the interpretation of early stress effects on functional connectivity and deserve particular attention in future studies. Finally, we highlight the forthcoming prospects and challenges of this research area with regard to establishing functional connectivity measures as validated biomarkers for brain developmental processes and individual risk stratification and as target phenotypes for mechanism-based interventions.

Keywords: Biomarker; Brain development; Early adversity; Functional connectivity; Neurobiology; Stress.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biomarkers
Brain / diagnostic imaging
Brain Mapping
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Mental Disorders*
Mental Health*
Neural Pathways / diagnostic imaging

Substances

Biomarkers