The impact of childhood deprivation on adult neuropsychological functioning is associated with ADHD symptom persistence

Background: Institutional deprivation in early childhood is associated with neuropsychological deficits in adolescence. Using 20-year follow-up data from a unique natural experiment – the large scale adoption of children exposed to extreme deprivation in Romanian institutions in the 1980s – we examined, for the first time, whether such deficits are still present in adulthood and whether they are associated with deprivation-related symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Methods: Adult neuropsychological functioning was assessed across five domains (inhibitory control, facial emotion recognition, decision-making, prospective memory and IQ) in 70 previously-institutionalized adoptees (mean age= 25.3, 50% female) and 22 non-deprived UK adoptees (comparison group, mean age= 24.6, 41% female). ADHD and ASD symptoms were assessed using parent-completed questionnaires.Results: Early institutionalization was associated with impaired performance on all tasks in adulthood. Prospective memory deficits persisted after controlling for IQ. ADHD and ASD symptoms were positively correlated. After controlling for ASD symptoms, ADHD symptoms remained associated with deficits in IQ, prospective memory, proactive inhibition, decision-making quality and emotionrecognition. ASD symptoms were not independently associated with neuropsychological deficits when accounting for their overlap with ADHD symptoms. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the link between childhood deprivation and adult ADHD symptoms was statistically explained by deprivation-related differences in adult IQ and prospective memory.Conclusions: These results represent some of the most compelling evidence to date of the enduring power of early, time-limited childhood adversity to impair neuropsychological functioning across the lifespan – effects that are linked specifically to deprivation-related adult ADHD symptoms

Identifying cortical structure markers of resilience to adversity in young people using surface-based morphometry

Previous research on the neurobiological bases of resilience in youth has largely used categorical definitions of resilience and voxel-based morphometry methods that assess gray matter volume. However, it is important to consider brain structure more broadly as different cortical properties have distinct developmental trajectories. To address these limitations, we used surface-based morphometry and data-driven, continuous resilience scores to examine associations between resilience and cortical structure. Structural MRI data from 286 youths (Mage = 13.6 years, 51% female) who took part in the European multi-site FemNAT-CD study were pre-processed and analyzed using surface-based morphometry. Continuous resilience scores were derived for each participant based on adversity exposure and levels of psychopathology using the residual regression method. Vertex-wise analyses assessed for correlations between resilience scores and cortical thickness, surface area, gyrification and volume. Resilience scores were positively associated with right lateral occipital surface area and right superior frontal gyrification and negatively correlated with left inferior temporal surface area. Moreover, sex-by-resilience interactions were observed for gyrification in frontal and temporal regions. Our findings extend previous research by revealing that resilience is related to surface area and gyrification in frontal, occipital and temporal regions that are implicated in emotion regulation and face or object recognition

Early childhood deprivation is associated with alterations in adult brain structure despite subsequent environmental enrichment

Early childhood deprivation is associated with higher rates of neurodevelopmental and mental disorders in adulthood. The impact of childhood deprivation on the adult brain and the extent to which structural changes underpin these effects is currently unknown. To investigate these questions, we utilized MRI data collected from young adults, who were exposed to severe deprivation in early childhood in the Romanian orphanages of the Ceaușescu era and then subsequently adopted by UK families. 67 Romanian adoptees (with between 3-41 months of deprivation) were compared to 21 non-deprived UK adoptees. Romanian adoptees had substantially smaller total brain volumes (TBV) than non-deprived adoptees (8.6% reduction) and TBV was strongly negatively associated with deprivation duration. This effect persisted after covarying for potential environmental and genetic confounds. In whole-brain analyses, deprived adoptees showed lower right inferior frontal surface area and volume, but greater right inferior temporal lobe thickness, surface area, and volume than the non-deprived adoptees. Right medial prefrontal volume and surface area were positively associated with deprivation duration. No deprivation-related effects were observed in limbic regions. Global reductions in TBV statistically mediated the observed relationship between institutionalization and both lower IQ and higher levels of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. The deprivation-related increase in right inferior temporal volume appeared to be compensatory, as it was associated with lower levels of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. We provide compelling evidence that time-limited severe deprivation in the first years of life is related to alterations in adult brain structure, despite extended enrichment in adoptive homes in the intervening years

The impact of childhood deprivation on adult neuropsychological functioning is associated with ADHD symptom persistence

Background: Institutional deprivation in early childhood is associated with neuropsychological deficits in adolescence. Using 20-year follow-up data from a unique natural experiment – the large-scale adoption of children exposed to extreme deprivation in Romanian institutions in the 1980s –we examined, for the first time, whether such deficits are still present in adulthood and whether they are associated with deprivation- related symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: Adult neuropsychological functioning was assessed across five domains (inhibitory control, emotion recognition, decision-making, prospective memory and IQ) in 70 previously-institutionalized adoptees (mean age= 25.3, 50% female) and 22 non-deprived UK adoptees (comparison group, mean age= 24.6, 41% female). ADHD and ASD symptoms were assessed using parent-completed questionnaires. Results: Early institutionalization was associated with impaired performance on all tasks in adulthood. Prospective memory deficits persisted after controlling for IQ. ADHD and ASD symptoms were positively correlated. After controlling for ASD symptoms, ADHD symptoms remained associated with deficits in IQ, prospective memory, proactive inhibition, decision-making quality and emotion recognition. ASD symptoms were not independently associated with neuropsychological deficits when accounting for their overlap with ADHD symptoms. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the link between childhood deprivation and adult ADHD symptoms was statistically explained by deprivation-related differences in adult IQ and prospective memory. Conclusions: These results represent some of the most compelling evidence to date of the enduring power of early, time-limited childhood adversity to impair long-term neuropsychological functioning across the lifespan – effects that are linked specifically to deprivation-related adult ADHD symptoms

Tracking emotions in the brain - Revisiting the Empathic Accuracy Task

Many empathy tasks lack ecological validity due to their use of simplistic stimuli and static analytical approaches. Empathic accuracy tasks overcome these limitations by using autobiographical emotional video clips. Usually, a single measure of empathic accuracy is computed by correlating the participants' continuous ratings of the narrator's emotional state with the narrator's own ratings.In this study, we validated a modified empathic accuracy task. A valence-independent rating of the narrator's emotional intensity was added to provide comparability between videos portraying different primary emotions and to explore changes in neural activity related to variations in emotional intensity over time. We also added a new neutral control condition to investigate general emotional processing. In the scanner, 34 healthy participants watched 6 video clips of people talking about an autobiographical event (2 sad, 2 happy and 2 neutral clips) while continuously rating the narrator's emotional intensity.Fluctuation in perceived emotional intensity correlated with activity in brain regions previously implicated in cognitive empathy (bilateral superior temporal sulcus, temporoparietal junction, and temporal pole) and affective empathy (right anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus). When emotional video clips were compared to neutral video clips, we observed higher activity in similar brain regions. Empathic accuracy, on the other hand, was only positively related to activation in regions that have been implicated in cognitive empathy.Our modified empathic accuracy task provides a new method for studying the underlying components and dynamic processes involved in empathy. While the task elicited both cognitive and affective empathy, successful tracking of others' emotions relied predominantly on the cognitive components of empathy. The fMRI data analysis techniques developed here may prove valuable in characterising the neural basis of empathic difficulties observed across a range of psychiatric conditions

A prospective study of the impact of severe childhood deprivation on brain white matter in adult adoptees: Widespread localized reductions in volume but unaffected microstructural organization

Background: Early childhood neglect can impact brain development across the lifespan. Using voxel-based approaches we recently reported that severe and time-limited institutional deprivation in early childhood was linked to substantial reductions in total brain volume in adulthood, more than twenty years later. Here we extend this analysis to explore deprivation-related regional white matter volume and microstructural organization using diffusion-based techniques. Methods: A combination of tensor-based morphometry analysis and tractography was conducted on diffusion weighted imaging data from 59 young adults who spent between 3 and 41 months in the severely depriving Romanian institutions of the 1980’s before being adopted into UK families, and 20 non-deprived age-matched UK controls.Results: Independent of total volume, institutional deprivation was associated with smaller volumes in localized regions across a range of white matter tracts including (1) long-ranging association fibers such as bilateral inferior longitudinal fasciculus, bilateral inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, left superior longitudinal fasciculi, and left arcuate fasciculus; (2) tracts of the limbic circuitry including fornix and cingulum; and (3) projection fibers with the corticospinal tract particularly affected. Tractographic analysis found no evidence of altered microstructural organization of any tract in terms of hindrance modulated orientational anisotropy (HMOA), fractional anisotropy (FA) or mean diffusivity (MD). Discussion: We provide further evidence for the effects of early neglect on brain development and their persistence in adulthood despite many years of environmental enrichment associated with successful adoption. Localized white matter effects appear limited to volumetric changes with microstructural organization unaffected.<br/

A prospective study of the impact of severe childhood deprivation on brain white matter in adult adoptees: Widespread localized reductions in volume but unaffected microstructural organization Impact of early deprivation on adult white matter

Early childhood neglect can impact brain development across the lifespan. Using voxel-based approaches we recently reported that severe and time-limited institutional deprivation in early childhood was linked to substantial reductions in total brain volume in adulthood, >20 years later. Here, we extend this analysis to explore deprivation-related regional white matter volume and microstructural organization using diffusion-based techniques. A combination of tensor-based morphometry (TBM) analysis and tractography was conducted on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) data from 59 young adults who spent between 3 and 41 months in the severely depriving Romanian institutions of the 1980s before being adopted into United Kingdom families, and 20 nondeprived age-matched United Kingdom controls. Independent of total volume, institutional deprivation was associated with smaller volumes in localized regions across a range of white matter tracts including (1) long-ranging association fibers such as bilateral inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), bilateral inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), left superior longitudinal fasciculi (SLFs), and left arcuate fasciculus; (2) tracts of the limbic circuitry including fornix and cingulum; and (3) projection fibers with the corticospinal tract particularly affected. Tractographic analysis found no evidence of altered microstructural organization of any tract in terms of hindrance modulated orientational anisotropy (HMOA), fractional anisotropy (FA), or mean diffusivity (MD). We provide further evidence for the effects of early neglect on brain development and their persistence in adulthood despite many years of environmental enrichment associated with successful adoption. Localized white matter effects appear limited to volumetric changes with microstructural organization unaffected

The English and Romanian Adoptees Brain Imaging Study – Alterations in adult brain structure associated with early childhood deprivation

The English and Romanian Adoptees Brain Imaging Study investigates the effects of early institutional deprivation on brain structure in young adulthood. This study analysed MRI data of young adults, who were exposed to severe deprivation in early childhood in the Romanian orphanages of the Ceaușescu era before being adopted by UK families. This dataset contains brain structural summary data of 67 Romanian adoptees and 21 non-deprived UK adoptees. Additionally, this dataset contains information on neurodevelopmental symptom domains, deprivation duration, birth weight, weight at entry into the UK and polygenic scores for total brain volume