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Material hardship, prefrontal cortex-amygdala structure, and internalizing symptoms in children
Rebecca D Lichtin1, Emily C Merz2, Xiaofu He3
1Department of Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Developmental Psychobiology
|August 6, 2020
Summary
Material hardship is linked to internalizing problems in children. Lower uncinate fasciculus (UNC) microstructure integrity mediates this link in girls, suggesting neural impacts on emotion regulation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychiatry
Background:
- Material hardship, difficulty affording basic resources, elevates children's risk for internalizing problems.
- The uncinate fasciculus (UNC) and connected regions like the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and amygdala are implicated in emotion processing and regulation.
- Understanding the neural underpinnings of material hardship's impact on child mental health is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the associations between material hardship, brain structure (UNC, OFC, amygdala), and internalizing symptoms in children.
- To explore potential mediating roles of UNC microstructure in the relationship between material hardship and internalizing symptoms.
- To examine sex differences in these associations.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study of 94 children aged 5-9 years from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Parent-reported measures of material hardship and children's internalizing symptoms.
- Neuroimaging techniques including T1-weighted MRI and diffusion tensor imaging to assess UNC fractional anisotropy (FA), OFC surface area, and amygdala volume.
Main Results:
- Greater material hardship correlated with lower UNC FA, smaller amygdala volume, and increased internalizing symptoms.
- Lower UNC FA significantly mediated the association between material hardship and internalizing symptoms in girls, but not in boys.
- These associations remained significant after controlling for age, sex, and family income-to-needs ratio.
Conclusions:
- Material hardship may adversely affect white matter microstructure and gray matter structure in neural networks vital for emotion processing.
- Altered UNC microstructure may be a key mechanism linking material hardship to internalizing symptoms, particularly in girls.
- Findings highlight the neurobiological impact of socioeconomic adversity on child development and mental health.
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