Social circuits under developmental threat: Bridging rodent and human neuroscience

Over the past decade, research has increasingly focused on the neurodevelopmental pathways through which specific dimensions of childhood adversity, such as threat (i.e., interpersonal violence), contribute to psychopathology risk in children and adolescents. Rodent models of rough maternal care have provided novel insights, suggesting that threat disrupts the neural circuitry underlying fear learning and emotional reactivity. While some of these findings have been translated, neurodevelopmental mechanisms identified in rodent research remain unexplored in the human neuroscience literature. In this review, we draw on the rodent literature to propose novel mechanisms through which childhood threat shapes brain development and influence long-term risk for psychopathology.