exam 4 Flashcards
Implicated Physiological Systems:
Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenocortical Axis
*stress hormones (e.g. cortisal)
Inflammatory response (cytokines)
Autonomic Nervous system
- Parasympathetic : res-and-digest; calming
- Symppathetic: Fight-flight-freeze; arousal
taxonomy of stress response:
Positive
Tolerable
Toxic
Positive: brief and mild to moderate in magnitude; responsive adult facilitates recover to baseline levels.
Tolerable: non-normative; greater magnitude of threat/adversity; buffering caregiver reduces risk of excessive, long-term activation and increase sense of control.
Toxic: Frequent or prolonged activation in the absence of buffering, supportive caregiving (e.g. ACES)
Preventing Toxic Stress: Three pronged approach:
Simultaneous investment in evidence-based care & basic research to create better interventions.
-increase public awareness of the lifelong consequences of adversity.
Basic science to elucidate causal mechanisms, informing design & evaluation of integrated interventions for identified subgroups.
-Creates sense of urgency, builds broader-support when causes are well documented.
Continuous experimentation, learning from failures, greater effect sizes.
-synergy results in new knowledge & insights that can improve care.
Adoption studies: Bucherest Early Intervention Study:
Age of adoption matters
-earlier= better outcomes
Changes
- Cognition (language & IQ)
- Brain structure
Late adoptions
- Worse emotional regulation
- Increased anxiety
- Deficits in neural structures associated with emotion
Adoption studies: Bucherest : Environmental adoption study:
comparing effects of higher vs. lower SES environment
Children from lower SES backgrounds adopted into higher SES families
- Group A: adopted @ 4 months
- Group B: siblings remaining in the lower SES household (genetic control group)
Better academic outcomes in children adopted into higher SES families
Sibling remaining in lower SES households perform worse in school & had lower IQ scores
-Lower academic performance NOT a genetic factor
Adoption studies: Bucherest: Later age Adoption study:
Children that were neglected or abused in infancy
Adopted at 4-6 years old
- Later than previous studies
- into homes of varying SES
Control children adopted at <7 months of age
IQ assessed in adolescence (11-18 years)
After adoption, IQ scores improved
Children adopted into Higher SES families showed larger gains in IQ
still worse outcome for later adoptions
importance of early intervention:
Many cognitive abilities develop in critical periods
-Different critical periods fro different skills, but most occur earlier in life
Earlier remediation is more effective
-Later remediation may result in gains, but less effective & more costly
Early interventions provide a foundation of skills that foster learning
- Leads to self-reinforcing motivation
- Early mastery of basic skills makes later learning more efficient
Early intervention is lower in cost than later intervention
- Gains sustained when followed by high quality learning experiences
- Results in larger economic returns than later interventions
Focus of early interventions:–WHO:
Children who do not receive substantial investment in early years
-Identify cases by parenting quality not occupation of household income.
Focus of early interventions: –WHAT types of thngs do we target and focus on
Programs that target the early years yield the highest returns
- Impacting the lives of parents leads to a permanent change in home environment that supports healthier development
- Focus on building self-control, character, motivation–“non-cognitive skills”
Focus of early interventions:–HOW:
Build a base of productive skills & traits for disadvantaged children
-Important to respect the sanctity of early family life & cultural diversity.
Focus of early interventions:–KEY to choosing what families get chosen for interventions
quality of parenting is the best measure of disadvantage for children
-Better predictor then income.
what is the Perry Preschool Project:
Michgan
High quality pre-K program
African-American 3-5 year olds from lower SES
- 5 hours/day, 5 days/week
- All teachers college degree
- Focus on active learning
- 6:1 student-teacher ratio
Random assignment to program or control group
$14,830 per child
Active participatory learning
Learning environment with well defined ‘interest areas’
daily routine
plan-do-review
adult-child interaction
Conflict resolution
effects by the end of Perry Preschool project:
Higher IQ & vocabulary scores
but effect sizes dwindled over time..
Effect at age 27 for perry preschool project:
Higher high school graduation rates
One more year of schooling
less time in special education
50% fewer teen pregnancies
Effects at age 40 for perry preschool project:
higher mean income
less likely to have served prison time
less likely to have received gov’t assistance
Abecedarian Project:
North Carolina (1972-1977)
Investive program
-Infancy to age 5
Focus on high-risk families
- Lower SES
- 98% African american
- 83% single mothers
Full day, full-year program
-Cognitive & linguistic focus
-6:1 student-teacher ratio
Plus social services, pediatric care, parent group
$17,099 per child
Individualized curriculum for each child
Learning “games”
-Incorporated to child’s day
language emphasis
-within framework of focusing on social, emotional, and cognitive development
Effects by end of Abecedarian Projects: preschool:
Modestly higher IQ, vocabulary, & memory scores
Effects by end of Abecedarian Projects: age 12& 15:
Higher Iq, reading, & math scores
fewer grade retention
Effects by end of Abecedarian Projects: at age 21:
Higher IQ, reading, &math scores
One-half year more schooling
Greater 4-year college attendance
Fewer teen parents
Fewer cigarette smokers
Fewer health risks & symptoms of depression
Abecedarian project…mothers:
Mothers whose children participated in the program achieved higher education & employment status than mothers whose children were not in the program.
Head start parent benefits:
Parents more likely to finish college degree if children admitted to head start by age 3
parents of children enrolled at age 4 more likely to be less educated
Broad Framework of neuroplasticity:
- Different brain systems & related abilities display different degrees & time periods of neuroplasticity
- Neuroplasticity confers the possibility for a system to be both enhanced & vulnerable to deficit
- Early environmental enrichment in the form of interventions can protect and enhance the plastic and thus potentially vulnerable neurocognitive systems in children with, or at risk for, developmental deficits.
Profiles of Plasticity:
Constrained
- Limited ability to be modified or changed
- Central vision, hearing
Modifiable by & dependent on experience during particular time periods
- Multiple time periods –different periods for different systems
- Attention; Language: grammatical processing
Modifiable throughout life
- Can change & be modified at any point
- Language: semantic processing
Double edge sword of Neuroplasticity:
Enhanceble (e.g. musicians)
and
Susceptible (e.g. ADHD)
What does william james say about attention and education:
“An education which should improve the faculty (attention) would be the education par excellence.”
Hybrid Intervention:
Parents & children making connections –Highlighting Attention (PCMC-A)
weekly parent training
weekly parent training
weekly child attention training
8 weeks long
Attention Training :
learn three focal points
-Eyes, body & brain
SELF REGULATION
- Become aware when you’re losing attention
- Gain the ability to refocus
Increase ability to attend to one activity
Increase balance
Increase ability to remain quiet & still
Recognize & regulate emotions
Sensory activities & bodily awareness
-External awareness & internal awareness
Parent training:
Provide high levels of positive reinforcement & specific praise
Use language differently to encourage high-quality interactions
Use consistent discipline with clear expectations & natural consequences
Provide frequent opportunities for children to choose, think, Solve Problems
Parent training Hypotheses:
Training parents in these strategies will change their parenting behaviours & stress levels
These parenting changes will have a “trickle down” effect on children
Children’s increased emotional regulation and decreased stress will lead to improved cognition, language, & brains organization
what are the results of parent training:
Parents:
More equal turn-taking when talking to child
reported less overall stress after training
Children:
Fewer problem behaviours
Better social skills in the classroom
Increased IQ scores
Improved receptive language skills
Increased brain function for attention
“A habit of basing one’s convictions upon evidence would go a long way toward curing the ills of the world” –?
Betrand Russell
acute stress:
examples:
- increased heart rate
- increased blood pressure
- transfer of energy to muscles
- inhibited ‘long-term’ systems
- immune defenses strengthen
- cognition & senses enhanced
What is chrnic stress:
A result of acute stress.
Cortisol as an indirect indicator:
Indirect indicator of how “stressed” you are
Cortisol as a direct indicator;
Mire direct indicator of how much you body is trying to chill out.
stressed synapses will:
increase in presynaptic glutamate (glutamate in synapse is toxic)
Stressor increases circulating levels of corticosterone
stressed brains:
PFC volume mediates stress-related EF deficits: reduced gray & white matter volume
Hippocampus volume increases w/income; no affects on amygdala
OFC volume reduced with early life stress.
The amygdala…what is related to anxiety:
Central Nucleus of the Amygdala metabolic rate related to anxiety
Amount of stress experienced early in life increases functional coupling within Amygdala, and this predicts individual differences in anxious behaviours.
Social Buffering effects:
Some individuals succumb to stress, whereas others thrive
Access to social support dampens the stress response
Early social experiences critical for highly effective buffering
Early caregiving predicts:
self-esteem, emotion regulation & competent relationships.
Abnormal rearing is related to:
Abnormal rearing is associated to:
impaired social development
with absent social buffering of the HPA axis
Social Buffering effects; Oxcytocin facts:
Oxytocin release in stimulated by social contact
oxytocin has stress-reducing properties based on animal & human studies.
early social experience is associated with Oxytocin function later in life
Social buffering effect and PFC facts:
PFC activity is implicated in stress-buffering and negative affect regulation
Early caregiving shapes connections between PFC and HPA-activating areas
Early caregiving is critical, Infants with secure attachment are more likely to exhibit high levels of:
Emotion regulation
Positive affect
Self-esteem
Self-resilience at school
Competent peer relationships
Social support later in life
Quality of caregiving early in life predicts:
positive, secure representations of one’s romantic partner (age 26-28)
Early caregiving is Critical, Maltreated children exhibit impairments in social development:
More likely to classify as insecurely attached in infancy & pre-school
Less social effectiveness
Greater aggression
Poor emotional regulation
Higher rates of drug use depression, and self-harm
Social Input Reduces HPA Reactivity:
Behaviourally inhibited human infants with a secure attachment style show lower cortisol reactivity to stressors
Men display reduced cortisol response to public speaking stress when supported by romantic partner
Women show the same effect only if it includes an additional massage
Individuals high in psychosocial resources (e.g. self-esteem) show lower cortisol reactivity to stressors
Social input stimulates oxytocin:
Oxytocin increase are associated with mating and pair bonding in a diverse range os species.
Human-Canine gaze sharing increases oxytocin in both parties; associated with quality of bond
Increase in oxytocin are associated with more sensitive material and paternal play behaviour
Mother daughter phone call after a stressor increase child oxytocin
expression of trust and generosity towards strangers is associated with increased oxytocin during laboratory economic games
massage robustly increases oxytocin release in adult humans.
Oxytocin as a stress reducer:
Central administration of oxytocin inhibits the HPA response in voles & rats
Treating socially-isolated hamsters with oxytocin eliminates stress-induced cortisol increase and facilitates faster wound healing
Intranasal administration of Oxytocin dampens HPA response in human males
Breastfeeding women show reduced cortisol response to stress
Early Care-giving Impacts Oxytocin:
Communal rearing in female mice results in higher oxytocin receptor binding in areas of the brain involved in reward and fear condition
High maternal licking and grooming in rodents associated with increasing oxytocin receptor binding in the brain
Adult women who have experienced child maltreatment exhibit lower levels of oxytocin
Early caregiving affects buffering:
peer-reared monkeys do not show reduced cortisol response to stressors when in the presence of a social companion
children reared in orphanages do not show increase in oxytocin and decrease in cortisol when interacting with caregiver (whereas control group of kids exhibit these effects robustly)
the bidirectional connection between the brain and the body is:
the vagus nerve.
the tenth cranial nerve is :
the vagus
what is Vagal brake?
Activation of the Vagus slows down heartrate….activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
higher Vagus activity (‘vagal tone’) is associated with:
Greater positive emotional expressiveness
Greater tempermental reactivity
Attachment status
Empathic responding
Social competence
Attentional Capacity
Behavioral inhibition
Reduced aggression
Lower Vagus activity (‘Vagal tone’) is associated with:
Hostility
Agression
Depression
Anxiety
Panic
Bulimia & anorexia
Hypnotic susceptibility
Functional dyspepsia
“Smart vagus” innervates:
Areas of the body crucial for
social functioning:
- Larynx
- Face/jaw
- Inner-ear
it also supports emotional & attentional processing
Vagus increases influence when you __________ and decreases influence when you ____________
Exhale (heart rate slows down)
Inhale (Heart rate speeds up)
RSA & temperament:
Temperament reflects individual differences in emotional & attentional reactivity, & self-regulation
-Maps fairly directly on to concept of Vagal tone
Reelationship between RSA & temperament changes over the course of development
According to Shonkoff’s Ecobiodevelopmental Framework, what mediates the relationship between early stressful experiences (i.e., “Ecology”) and later health-threatening behaviours (i.e., “Health & Development”)?
Mediated by the effects of early stressful experiences on physiological responses that mediate the long-term health consequences.
Which cranial nerve connects brain to body:
the vagus
Parasympathetic nervous system acts to :
Slow down heart rate.
What is healthy cardiovascular profile>
Variable heart rate and flexible reactivity.
RSA:
repiratory sinus arrhythmia.
High RSA in infants is related to greater reactivity generably, examples are:
-More crying when pacifier taken away
-Greater pain reactivity to circumcision
-Greater reactivity to feeding tube procedure
Larger cortisol response to heel-stick
High RSA in infants is related to difficult temperment, examples would be:
More negative reactivity to arm restraint
More likely to cry when viewing novel images
High RSA in infants also reflects greater positive reactivity, examples are:
More positive reactions during peek-a-boo
Greater positive facial expressivity
More joy & interest with strangers
High RSA infants are more reactive overall, examples are:
Heart rate influenced more by auditory stimuli
Heart rate influenced more by visual stimuli
High RSA in infants show greater attentional capacity & processing speed, examples are:
Habituation rates similar to older infants
less distracted by interrupting stimuli
RSA reflects infants capacity to engage environment, examples of this are:
Higher RSA related to higher “approach” ratings
Low RSA observed in inhibited infants (lower approach, high fear)
Low RSA observed in infants low on social & affective expressiveness
Greater RSA in toddlers reflects greater social competency:
High infant RSA redicts competency at 3 years
More interactive play during preschool
High RSA in toddlers related to better attentional capacity:
Better performance on sustained attention tasks
Low RSA observed in children with ADHD
Tone=
Reactivity=
traits
States
Vagal Brake:
Increased RSA = slower heart rate.
RSA augmentation:
Sustained attention
Restful state for focusing, anylizing
Moderate RSA withdrawal:
Challenging cognitive effort; stressor
Increased metabolic output
Excessive RSA withdrawal:
Engagement of fight-flight response
-Regardless of if danger is present
Low baseline RSA may predispose an individual to this sort of reaction
RSA predicts
RSA predicts behavioral reactivity & negative emotionality in infancy
RSA predicts positive emotionality & social comepetecne in later childhood
Across a lifespan, RSA indicates:
competent emotional expression & active engagement with the environment
RSA withdrawal is associated with :
Negative emotions.
RSA augmentation is associated with :
Positive emotions .
A panic attack is more likely associated with :
Excessive RSA withdrawal.
In Gray’s Approach/ Avoidance:
BIS & BAS mediatedd by the sympathetic nervous system
Vagus is a newly evolved structure modulating this more primitive system.
Gray’s Motivational Theory implications:
ADHD & conduct disorder both associated with reduced behavioural inhibition (BIS) and altered approach systems (BAS)
-conduct disorder also seen with reduced RSA and Greater RSA reactivity.
Risk of comorbidity due to RSA
Promising for interventions, given that RSA is malleable with regulatory skill training.
Summary of effects of innequality:
shorter life expectancy
reduced ratings of ‘happiness’
Greater health& social problems
Lower math & literacy scores
Higher high school dropout rates
Increased risk for child maltreatment
Reduced time spent on childcare
