Trial reportNature communications2018
Early deprivation disruption of associative learning is a developmental pathway to depression and social problems.
Trial report in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Dimensions of early life adversity and cardiometabolic health in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Early deprivation alters structural brain development from middle childhood to adolescence.Science advances · 2022Trial
- Heightened sensitivity to the caregiving environment during adolescence: implications for recovery following early-life adversity.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2021Trial
- Social communication deficits following early-life deprivation and relation to psychopathology: a randomized clinical trial of foster care.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2020Trial
- Long-term effects of institutional rearing, foster care, and brain activity on memory and executive functioning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Trial
- Associations between Early Psychosocial Deprivation, Cognitive and Psychiatric Morbidity, and Risk-taking Behavior in Adolescence.Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53Trial
- Adolescents' ventral striatal reward neural activity moderates the association between lifetime trauma exposure and lower depression after 6 months.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- A protocol for the Teen Bugs study: An integrative, multi-omics approach to understanding the role of the gut microbiome and mesocorticolimbic system in adolescent mental health following early adverse caregiving.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Sex-specific associations of childhood adversity with frontostriatal network organization and anhedonia in young adulthood.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cognitive and affective neurodevelopment in youth exposed to deprivation and threat.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Correction of Reward Processing Deficits in Youth with Disruptive Behavior and Trauma Exposure: A Pilot Study of Neural Responses to Fluoxetine.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Adolescent stress exposure induces persistent, sex-specific cognitive deficits.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2025Article
- Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making in Anorexia Nervosa.Current psychiatry reports · 2025Review
- Longitudinal associations between birth-to-six cortical growth and childhood neurocognitive function.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Identifying cognitive, affective, and developmental mechanisms linking threat and deprivation with adolescent psychopathology.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Article
- Studying the influence of single social interactions on approach and avoidance behavior: A multimodal investigation in immersive virtual reality.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Associative learning via eyeblink conditioning differs by age from infancy to adulthood.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- The mind, brain, and body study: A protocol for examining the effects of the gut-brain-immune axis on internalizing symptoms in youth exposed to caregiving-related early adversity.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- The impact of psychosocial adversity on brain and behaviour: an overview of existing knowledge and directions for future research.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Exposure to psychosocial deprivation is associated with elevations in numerous forms of impairment throughout the life-course. Disruptions in associative learning may be a key mechanism through which adversity, particularly psychosocial deprivation, increases risk for impairment. Existing data consistent with this claim come entirely from correlational studies. Here, we present the first experimental evidence relating psychosocial deprivation and disruptions in multiple forms of associative learning. Using data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, we demonstrate that randomized placement into a family caregiving environment during the infant/toddler period as compared to prolonged institutional care normalizes two forms of associative learning in early adolescence: reward responsivity and implicit motor learning. These forms of associative learning significantly mediate the effect of institutional rearing on depressive symptoms and peer relationships. In sum, we provide evidence for a novel pathway linking early experience to psychopathology and peer relationships through basic associative learning mechanisms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.