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Structural differences in adult orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortex predicted by infant temperament at 4
Carl E Schwartz1, Pratap S Kunwar, Douglas N Greve
1Developmental Neuroimaging and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Psychiatric Neuroscience Program, Bldg 149, 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. carl_schwartz@hms.harvard.edu
Insights
Infant temperament, assessed at 4 months, is linked to adult brain structure. High-reactive infants show thicker right ventromedial cortex, while low-reactive infants have thicker left orbitofrontal cortex by age 18.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Behavioral Genetics
Background:
- Temperament, a biologically based behavioral pattern, is observable in infancy.
- High-reactive infants exhibit heightened responses to stimuli, while low-reactive infants show muted responses.
- These early temperamental differences can predict later behavioral inhibition or approach tendencies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between infant temperament (high vs. low reactivity) and cerebral cortex structure in adulthood.
- Specifically, to examine differences in the ventromedial and orbitofrontal cortex at age 18 years.
Main Methods:
- Utilized structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on 76 young adults.
- Infant temperament was assessed at 4 months via direct laboratory observation.
- Measured cortical thickness as the primary outcome.
Main Results:
- Adults with low-reactive infant temperaments exhibited greater left orbitofrontal cortex thickness compared to high-reactive individuals.
- Adults with high-reactive infant temperaments displayed greater right ventromedial prefrontal cortex thickness than low-reactive individuals.
Conclusions:
- This study provides the first evidence linking infant temperament to adult cerebral cortex architecture.
- These findings suggest that early-life temperament influences brain development into adulthood.
- Understanding these mechanisms may offer insights into mood/anxiety disorders and personality formation.
Context:
The term temperament refers to a biologically based predilection for a distinctive pattern of emotions, cognitions, and behaviors first observed in infancy or early childhood. High-reactive infants are characterized at age 4 months by vigorous motor activity and crying in response to unfamiliar visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli, whereas low-reactive infants show low motor activity and low vocal distress to the same stimuli. High-reactive infants are biased to become behaviorally inhibited in the second year of life, defined by timidity with unfamiliar people, objects, and situations. In contrast, low-reactive infants are biased to develop into uninhibited children who spontaneously approach novel situations.
Objective:
To examine whether differences in the structure of the ventromedial or orbitofrontal cerebral cortex at age 18 years are associated with high or low reactivity at 4 months of age.
Design:
Structural magnetic resonance imaging in a cohort of 18-year-olds enrolled in a longitudinal study. Temperament was determined at 4 months of age by direct observation in the laboratory.
Setting:
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital.
Participants:
Seventy-six subjects who were high-reactive or low-reactive infants at 4 months of age.
Main Outcome Measure:
Cortical thickness.
Results:
Adults with a low-reactive infant temperament, compared with those categorized as high reactive, showed greater thickness in the left orbitofrontal cortex. Subjects categorized as high reactive in infancy, compared with those previously categorized as low reactive, showed greater thickness in the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
Conclusions:
To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that temperamental differences measured at 4 months of age have implications for the architecture of human cerebral cortex lasting into adulthood. Understanding the developmental mechanisms that shape these differences may offer new ways to understand mood and anxiety disorders as well as the formation of adult personality.
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