Childhood adversities and brain development

Deficits in executive functioning are correlated with childhood adversities. The first years of life are when the brain develops the fastest (Lipkowtiz & Poppe, 2014). When something adverse happens in one’s life, executive functions and the prefrontal cortex are the first to suffer. Stress, sadness, loneliness, sleep deprivation, and not being physically fit may all lead to disorders in executive functioning and consequently to poor reasoning and problem solving, forgetting things, and an impaired ability to exercise discipline and self-control (Diamond, 2013). 

Early childhood is when children peak in aggression, lack cognitive understanding of their behavior and may be hard to manage (Diamond, 2013). These features may challenge parents. Thus, early childhood is a critical period for understanding the influence of parenting on callous, unemotional behaviors. Antisocial behaviors are correlated to the inability to internalize rules and develop a conscience, which, in their turn, are correlated to an overly harsh parenting style (Waller & Hyde, 2017). 

Childhood adversities, such as neglect and abuse, are related to global deficits in executive functioning (Wade et al., 2019). Researchers differentiate between the effects of different types of childhood adversities on brain development. While sexual and emotional abuse have a detrimental impact on the brain, such as “reduced cortical thickness in the ventromedial and ventrolateral PFC and temporal cortex” (Gold et al., 2016. p.326), child deprivation and child threat have distinct neurocognitive consequences (Sheridan et al., 2017). 

Deprivation is defined as the lack of social and cognitive stimulation and learning opportunities (Sheridan et al., 2017). (Nemeroff, 2019) defines neglect as “as the failure of a parent or another person with responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the degree that the child’s health, safety, and well-being are threatened with harm” (p.893). 

The different times when neglect happens have different impacts on brain development (Hambrick et al., 2019). In this article, we will discuss early and pervasive neglect. Child deprivation is connected to a pervasive abnormality in brain development (Calem et al., 2017; Fairchild & Passamoti, 2017; Geoffroy et al., 2016; Hambrick et al., 2019). It impacts the circuit formed by the different structures of the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex (Calem et al., 2017; Fairchild & Passamoti, 2017; Geoffroy et al., 2016; Hambrick et al., 2019). 

It also causes a global deficit in executive functioning and later psychopathology, specifically higher risk of impulsivity and antisocial behavior (Calem et al., 2017; Fairchild & Passamoti, 2017; Geoffroy et al., 2016; Hambrick et al., 2019; Nemeroff, 2016; Vela, 2014; Sheridan et al., 2017; Wade et al., 2019). 

Neglect has a detrimental effect on brain development. If neglect happens during the first two months of life, it negatively affects sensory integration and creates self-regulation problems (Hambrick et al., 2019). Moreover, early neglect, especially the first year of life, causes a form of stress that leads the infant’s brain or the child to release excessive stress hormones when the brain is in a sensitive period of development (Calem et al., 2017). 

Consequently, it is detrimental to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) activities (Nemeroff, 2016). It also contributes to a difference in the developmental ratio of the gray matter and the white matter (Mackey et al., 2017). The gray matter is underdeveloped while the white matter is overdeveloped (Mackey et al., 2017).  

Childhood adversity, which includes neglect and deprivation, in the first year of life is correlated with abnormal development of the circuit formed by the five limbic structures: hypothalamus, amygdala, septal nuclei, anterior cingulate gyrus, and hippocampus. This circuit is involved in expressing emotion (Vela, 2014). 

The hypothalamus is almost fully developed at birth (Vela, 2014). Its function depends on the attachment to the caregiver (Vela, 2014). “Through this structure, the newborn infant is capable of expressing aversion versus pleasure and rage versus quiescence” (Vela, 2014, pp. 521-522). The amygdala plays a role in regulating social behavior (Vela, 2014). It detects the danger and the threats and “generate appropriate physiological/emotional responses” (Vela, 2014, p. 523). 

Damage to the amygdala can result in a lack of appropriate assessment of the surrounding, a lack of detection of danger, and consequently a lack of fear and inappropriate responses to social situations (Vela, 2014). In the same circuit, one of the roles of the septal nucleus is inhibitory. It reduces extreme emotions caused by the amygdala and inhibits severe reactions by influencing the hypothalamus (Vela, 2014).

The anterior cingulate plays a critical role in balancing logical thoughts and emotional impulses (Tarullo et al., 2009). It is involved in controlling behavior in challenging situations. It helps make adjustments when a strategy is not working (Tarullo et al., 2009). The superior part of the anterior cingulate cortex becomes more active between 3 to 6 years (Tarullo et al., 2009). Childhood neglect causes a reduction in the anterior cingulate cortex volume (Nemeroff, 2016) and consequently a dysregulation of self-control abilities (Tarullo et al., 2009). 

Adversities in childhood can induce a reduction in hippocampus volume, which leads to improper formation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The latter is in charge of subcortical control and is directly engaged in working memory, cognitive reappraisal, strategizing, and task execution. Reduced hippocampal development leads to improper emotion regulation and cognitive reappraisal, resulting in increased aggressiveness, excessive emotional reactivity, and poor impulse control. (Burrus, 2018).

Mona Gebrael El Hachem, Psy.D., LMHC

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References

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Disclaimer: The content presented in this article is extracted 

From the March 2022 of the dissertation titled "Executive 

Functioning and Antisocial Personality Disorder", authored 

By Mona Gebrael El Hachem, Psy.D., LMHC.