Exposure and sensitivity to early-life stress (ELS) are related to increased risk for psychopathology in adolescence. While cross-sectional studies have reported blunted nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation in the context of these associations, researchers have not yet assessed the effects of ELS on developmental trajectories of activation. We examined whether trajectories are affected by stress and the moderating role of biological sex in predicting vulnerability to symptoms of psychopathology. Adolescents ( = 173) completed 3 assessments at 2-year intervals across puberty (ages 9–18 years). At baseline, we assessed objective ELS and stress sensitivity using the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory for Children. At all time points, we assessed NAcc activation using the Monetary Incentive Delay task and externalizing, internalizing, and total problems using the Youth Self-Report. We examined correlations between NAcc trajectories (extracted using linear mixed-effects models) with ELS and stress sensitivity and conducted multivariate regression analysis to examine the interaction of NAcc trajectories and biological sex in predicting symptoms of psychopathology. Symptoms increased over adolescence. Stress sensitivity, but not objective ELS, was associated with decreasing trajectories of NAcc activation. Biological sex interacted with NAcc trajectories to predict psychopathology; boys, but not girls, with decreasing NAcc activation had more severe externalizing problems in adolescence. These findings were replicated in the putamen and caudate but not in the medial prefrontal cortex or control brain regions. NAcc activation may be a sex-specific marker of externalizing problems in adolescence. Efforts to reduce stress sensitivity may help to decrease symptoms of psychopathology in adolescent boys.

中文翻译：

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性别特异性对外化问题的脆弱性：对青春期早期压力和伏隔核激活的敏感性

对生命早期压力（ELS）的暴露和敏感性与青春期精神病理学风险增加有关。虽然横断面研究报告了这些关联背景下钝核伏隔核 (NAcc) 的激活，但研究人员尚未评估 ELS 对激活发育轨迹的影响。我们研究了轨迹是否受到压力的影响以及生物性别在预测精神病理症状脆弱性方面的调节作用。青少年 (= 173) 在整个青春期（9-18 岁）每隔 2 年完成 3 次评估。在基线时，我们使用儿童创伤事件筛查量表评估了客观 ELS 和压力敏感性。在所有时间点，我们使用货币激励延迟任务评估 NAcc 激活，并使用青年自我报告评估外化、内化和总体问题。我们检查了 NAcc 轨迹（使用线性混合效应模型提取）与 ELS 和压力敏感性之间的相关性，并进行了多元回归分析，以检查 NAcc 轨迹与生物性别在预测精神病理学症状中的相互作用。青春期后症状加重。压力敏感性（而非客观 ELS）与 NAcc 激活轨迹减少相关。生物性别与 NAcc 轨迹相互作用来预测精神病理学；NAcc 激活减少的男孩（而非女孩）在青春期会出现更严重的外化问题。这些发现在壳核和尾状核中得到了重复，但在内侧前额叶皮层或控制大脑区域中没有得到重复。NAcc 激活可能是青春期外化问题的性别特异性标志。降低压力敏感性的努力可能有助于减少青春期男孩的精神病理学症状。