Objective

Early adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked to the development of both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. In our prior work, we found that ACEs predicted reductions in the volume of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), a brain region important for impulse control and emotion regulation. Here we tested the hypothesis that ACEs might influence child behavioral outcomes through an impact on IFG functional connectivity, which may influence impulsive or risk-taking behavior.

Method

We examined the effects of prospectively assessed ACEs on IFG connectivity in childhood, and their relationship to the trajectory of subsequent psychopathology from late school age and early adolescence, using data from an 11-year longitudinal study of children starting in preschool that included 3 waves of resting state functional connectivity across childhood and early adolescence.

Results

ACEs predicted functional connectivity of both left and right IFG. Multi-level modeling of symptoms across 3 waves of assessments indicated that more ACEs predicted both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, altered IFG connectivity specifically predicted greater externalizing symptoms over time in middle childhood and early adolescence, as compared to internalizing symptoms. Longitudinal modeling indicating that the relationships between externalizing and functional connectivity were maintained across 3 waves of functional connectivity assessment.

Conclusion

These findings underscore the relationship of ACEs to later psychopathology, and suggest that connectivity of the IFG, a region known to play an important role in impulse control and emotion regulation, may play a key role in the risk trajectory of ACEs to externalizing problems. However, further work is needed to understand whether these relationships reflect a direct effect of ACEs or whether ACEs are a marker for other environmental or genetic factors that may also influence brain development and behavior.

中文翻译：

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早期儿童不良经历，额下回旋连接性以及心理病理学外在轨迹

客观的

儿童早期不良经历（ACE）与内在和外在的心理病理学发展有关。在我们之前的工作中，我们发现ACEs预测了额下回（IFG）的体积减少，额下回是大脑中对冲动控制和情绪调节很重要的区域。在这里，我们测试了以下假设：ACE可能通过对IFG功能连接性的影响来影响儿童的行为结局，而IFG功能连接性可能会影响冲动或冒险行为。

方法

我们使用一项为期11年的对学龄前儿童进行的纵向研究，其中包括3个波峰，研究了前瞻性评估的ACEs对儿童期IFG连通性的影响及其与学龄后期和青春期以后的精神病理学轨迹的关系。在儿童期和青春期之前处于静止状态的功能连接。

结果

ACE可以预测左右IFG的功能连接性。在3次评估浪潮中对症状进行多级建模表明，更多的ACE预测了症状的内在化和外在化。然而，与内在症状相比，改变的IFG连接性特别预测了在儿童中期和青春期随着时间的推移会出现更多的外在症状。纵向建模表明，在3个功能连接评估浪潮中保持了外部化与功能连接之间的关系。

结论

这些发现强调了ACEs与后来的心理病理学之间的关系，并表明IFG的连通性可能在ACEs外部化问题的风险轨迹中发挥关键作用，而IFG的这一已知区域在冲动控制和情绪调节中起着重要作用。但是，需要做进一步的工作来了解这些关系是否反映了ACEs的直接作用，或者ACEs是否是其他也可能影响大脑发育和行为的环境或遗传因素的标志。