Childhood adversity predicts striatal functional connectivity gradient changes after acute stress.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Brain Imaging

Background:

• Childhood adversity (CA) is a primary risk factor for psychiatric vulnerability, causing maladaptive changes in emotion, motivation, and stress regulation.
• Previous research suggests a striatum-centered network is involved in psychopathology outcomes linked to CA, particularly under acute stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the interplay between childhood adversity, acute stress, and striatal function in psychiatric disorders.
• To explore functional topographic organizations of striatal connectivity using connectopic gradients.
• To identify potential biomarkers for psychopathology by examining stress-induced changes in motivation systems.

Main Methods:

• Utilized connectopic gradients on resting-state fMRI scans from 150 psychiatric patients and 26 controls, before and after stress induction.
• Analyzed striatal connectivity gradients in relation to different types and frequencies of CA using Spearman correlation.
• Employed linear mixed models and moderation models to assess the influence of symptom severity and comorbidity.

Main Results:

• Emotional neglect, a type of CA, negatively predicted post-stress gradient shape and altered anterior-posterior striatal gradient orientation.
• These correlations were more pronounced in individuals with elevated comorbidity.
• Stress-induced changes in the striatal network were identified as potential biomarkers.

Conclusions:

• Childhood adversity significantly impacts the striatal network's functional organization, particularly under stress.
• Comorbidity plays a crucial role in moderating the relationship between CA, stress, and striatal connectivity.
• Findings offer new perspectives on characterizing striatal network alterations in response to adverse experiences and may lead to novel psychopathology biomarkers.