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Levels of early-childhood behavioral inhibition predict distinct neurodevelopmental pathways to pediatric anxiety.
- Source :
-
Psychological medicine [Psychol Med] 2020 Jan; Vol. 50 (1), pp. 96-106. Date of Electronic Publication: 2019 Jan 08. - Publication Year :
- 2020
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Abstract
- Background: Anxiety symptoms gradually emerge during childhood and adolescence. Individual differences in behavioral inhibition (BI), an early-childhood temperament, may shape developmental paths through which these symptoms arise. Cross-sectional research suggests that level of early-childhood BI moderates associations between later anxiety symptoms and threat-related amygdala-prefrontal cortex (PFC) circuitry function. However, no study has characterized these associations longitudinally. Here, we tested whether level of early-childhood BI predicts distinct evolving associations between amygdala-PFC function and anxiety symptoms across development.<br />Methods: Eighty-seven children previously assessed for BI level in early childhood provided data at ages 10 and/or 13 years, consisting of assessments of anxiety and an fMRI-based dot-probe task (including threat, happy, and neutral stimuli). Using linear-mixed-effects models, we investigated longitudinal changes in associations between anxiety symptoms and threat-related amygdala-PFC connectivity, as a function of early-childhood BI.<br />Results: In children with a history of high early-childhood BI, anxiety symptoms became, with age, more negatively associated with right amygdala-left dorsolateral-PFC connectivity when attention was to be maintained on threat. In contrast, with age, low-BI children showed an increasingly positive anxiety-connectivity association during the same task condition. Behaviorally, at age 10, anxiety symptoms did not relate to fluctuations in attention bias (attention bias variability, ABV) in either group; by age 13, low-BI children showed a negative anxiety-ABV association, whereas high-BI children showed a positive anxiety-ABV association.<br />Conclusions: Early-childhood BI levels predict distinct neurodevelopmental pathways to pediatric anxiety symptoms. These pathways involve distinct relations among brain function, behavior, and anxiety symptoms, which may inform diagnosis and treatment.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1469-8978
- Volume :
- 50
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Psychological medicine
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 30616705
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291718003999