Early childhood stress affects brain's response to rewards
"We found that greater levels of cumulative stress during childhood and adolescence predicted lower reward-related ventral striatum activity in adulthood," said study lead author Jamie Hanson, a postdoctoral researcher at Duke's Center for Child and Family Policy and the Duke Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.
Hanson and colleagues found that early stress, specifically between kindergarten and grade three, was most strongly associated with muted responses to rewards in adulthood. Previous studies have identified this type of brain activity as a marker for increased risk of depression and anxiety.
"In participants with the greatest levels of early stress, we saw the lowest levels of activity in the ventral striatum in response to a reward," Hanson said.
"We think reward-related ventral striatum activity is an important marker of mental health," Hanson explained. "Past studies have focused on the processing of threat and negative emotion after early stress. Generating positive emotions may potentially buffer some of the effects of stress."
