ArticleBiological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging2019
Decreased Amygdala Reactivity to Parent Cues Protects Against Anxiety Following Early Adversity: An Examination Across 3 Years.
Article in Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 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
46 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 86 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adverse Life Experiences and Brain Function: A Meta-Analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: Task-based fMRI Studies in Youths With Irritability.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Early Parenting Intervention Effects on Brain Responses to Maternal Cues Among High-Risk Children.The American journal of psychiatry · 2020Trial
- Neural correlates of resilience to trauma during adolescence: A multi-modal study.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Social circuits under developmental threat: Bridging rodent and human neuroscience.Developmental review : DR · 2025Article
- Sex-Specific Effects of Early-Life Unpredictability on Hippocampal and Amygdala Responses to Novelty in Adolescents.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Narrative Review: A Neurobiological Perspective on Resilience in Youth.JAACAP open · 2025Review
- Attachment as Prediction: Insights from Cognitive and Developmental Neuroscience.Current directions in psychological science · 2025Article
- Social Buffering of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Longitudinal Effects and Neural Mediators.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- 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
- Functional brain network organization and multidomain resilience to neighborhood disadvantage in youth.The American psychologist · 2024Article
- Exposure to community violence as a mechanism linking neighborhood disadvantage to amygdala reactivity and the protective role of parental nurturance.Developmental psychology · 2024Article
- Leveraging the developmental neuroscience of caregiving to promote resilience among youth exposed to adversity.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- Behavioral and neurostructural correlates of childhood physical violence victimization: Interaction with family functioning.Developmental psychobiology · 2023Article
- Functional neuroimaging of resilience to trauma: convergent evidence and challenges for future research.Psychological medicine · 2023Review
- Prenatal maternal depression predicts neural maturation and negative emotion in infants.Infant behavior & development · 2023Article
- The stress-buffering role of friendships in young people with childhood threat experiences: a preliminary report.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2023Article
- Conceptualizing psychological resilience through resting-state functional MRI in a mentally healthy population: a systematic review.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Review
- Neurodevelopmental mechanisms linking early experiences and mental health: Translating science to promote well-being among youth.The American psychologist · 2022Article
- Negative caregiving and stress reactivity moderate the relation between early life stress and externalizing in adolescence.Developmental psychobiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
12 authors at 10 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe human brain remains highly plastic for a protracted developmental period. Thus, although early caregiving adversities that alter amygdala development can result in enduring emotion regulation difficulties, these trajectories should respond to subsequent enriched caregiving. Exposure to high-quality parenting can regulate (i.e., decrease) children's amygdala reactivity, a process that, over the long term, is hypothesized to enhance emotion regulation. We tested the hypothesis that even following adversity, the parent-child relationship would be associated with decreases in amygdala reactivity to parent cues, which would in turn predict lower future anxiety.
methodsParticipants were 102 children (6-10 years of age) and adolescents (11-17 years of age), for whom data were collected at one or two time points and who either had experienced institutional care before adoption (n = 45) or had lived always with their biological parents (comparison; n = 57). We examined how amygdala reactivity to visual cues of the parent at time 1 predicted longitudinal change (from time 1 to time 2) in parent-reported child anxiety across 3 years.
resultsAt time 1, on average, amygdala reactivity decrements to parent cues were not seen in children who had received institutional care but were seen in children in the comparison group. However, some children who previously experienced institutional care did show decreased amygdala reactivity to parent cues (∼40%), which was associated with greater child-reported feelings of security with their parent. Amygdala decreases at time 1 were followed by steeper anxiety reductions from time 1 to time 2 (i.e., 3 years).
conclusionsThese data provide a neurobiological mechanism by which the parent-child relationship can increase resilience, even in children at significant risk for anxiety symptoms.
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.