Article 3a: Childhood maltreatment, latent vulnerability and the shift to preventative psychiatry - the contribution of functional brain imaging (McCrory, 2017)

Question 1

Design of the study

Answer 1

This study looks at neuroimages of children with a history of maltreatment and their latent vulnerability to:
- Threat processing
- Reward processing
- Emotion regulation
- Executive control
These latent vulnerabilities and neurocognitive changes after maltreatment have an adaptive effect in adverse environment (like an adaptive response to anger), but also long-term risks later in life.

Question 2

Threat processing

Answer 2

In maltreated people, there is a heightened and depressed neural response to threat, alongside with higher amygdala activation.

Question 3

Reward processing

Answer 3

In maltreated people, a blunted neural response was often found in anticipation of receipt of rewards (mostly in the striatum). alongside with pattern associated with depressive symptomatology.

(In an environment where rewards are unpredictable and scarce, reduced anticipation of rewards is aligned with learned consequences. This reduces dissapointment of not getting a reward, but also reduced the drive for behaviour towards reward.)

Question 4

Emotion regulation

Answer 4

In maltreated people, an increased activation of the ACC during emotion regulation was found, possibly reflecting greater effortful processing.

Question 5

Executive control

Answer 5

In maltreated people, increased dorsal ACC activity was found during monitoring and inhibition tasks.

Question 6

Conclusion

Answer 6

• There is clear evidence for changes in neurocognitive functioning after maltreatment, even without the occurrence of psychopathology.
• These changes are consistent with the disturbances seen in people with psychiatric disorders, and can predict future psychiatric symptomatology.