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Child Maltreatment and Neural Networks Underlying Emotion Regulation /
Dynamic Alterations in Neural Networks Supporting Aversive Learning in Children Exposed to Trauma: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Psychopathology
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Description: Altered aversive learning represents a potential mechanism through which childhood trauma (CT) might influence risk for psychopathology. This study examines the temporal dynamics of neural activation and patterns of functional connectivity during aversive learning in children with and without exposure to CT involving interpersonal violence, and evaluates whether these neural patterns mediate the association of CT with psychopathology in a longitudinal design. 147 children (aged 8-16 years, 77 with CT) completed a fear conditioning procedure during an fMRI scan. Dynamic patterns of neural activation were examined, and functional connectivity was assessed with generalized psychophysiological interaction analyses. We evaluated whether the associations between CT and psychopathology symptoms at baseline and two-year follow-up were mediated by neural activation and connectivity during aversive learning. Children exposed to trauma displayed blunted patterns of neural activation over time to CS+>CS- in right amygdala. Additionally, trauma was associated with reduced functional connectivity of right amygdala with hippocampus, posterior parahippocampal gyrus, and posterior cingulate cortex and elevated connectivity with anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to CS+>CS-. The longitudinal association between CT and later externalizing symptoms was mediated by blunted activation in right amygdala. Reduced amygdala-hippocampal connectivity mediated the association of CT with transdiagnostic anxiety symptoms, and elevated amygdala-ACC connectivity mediated the association of CT with generalized anxiety symptoms. Childhood trauma is associated with poor threat-safety discrimination and altered functional coupling between salience and default mode network regions during aversive learning. These altered dynamics may be key mechanisms linking CT with distinct forms of psychopathology.