ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2020
Effects of early life adversity on immune function and cognitive performance: results from the ALSPAC cohort.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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13 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of Parental Engagement in an Electronic Health (EHealth) Intervention on Physical Activity, Dietary Behaviors, and Sleep in Preschool-Aged Children.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Trial
- Cumulative stressor exposure and cognitive functioning in late childhood: The role of inflammation.The British journal of developmental psychology · 2025Article
- Early Life Adversity, Microbiome, and Inflammatory Responses.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- The role of mild stressors in children's cognition and inflammation: positive and negative impacts depend on timing of exposure.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2023Article
- The impact of early adversity and education on genetic and brain morphological predictors of cognitive ability.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2023Article
- Microglia and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: translating scientific progress into novel therapeutic interventions.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2023Review
- Early life adversity as a risk factor for cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.Translational neurodegeneration · 2023Review
- Photobiomodulation attenuates oligodendrocyte dysfunction and prevents adverse neurological consequences in a rat model of early life adversity.Theranostics · 2023Article
- The effect of cumulative early life adversities, and their differential mediation through hair cortisol levels, on childhood growth and cognition: Three-year follow-up of a birth cohort in rural India.Wellcome open research · 2022Article
- Are Brain and Cognitive Reserve Shaped by Early Life Circumstances?Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
- Early-Life Adversity Leaves Its Imprint on the Oral Microbiome for More Than 20 Years and Is Associated with Long-Term Immune Changes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Microglial-expressed genetic risk variants, cognitive function and brain volume in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.Translational psychiatry · 2021Article
- The Role of Cytokines in the Pathogenesis of Schizophrenia.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEarly life adversity (ELA) is a significant risk factor for mental health disorders. One hypothesised mechanism by which this occurs is via an effect on immune response. In this analysis of epidemiological data, we tested whether ELA was associated with cognitive performance, and if so, whether these effects were influenced by immune function.
methodsWe investigated the longitudinal relationship between ELA, inflammatory markers, and cognition in data from Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents And Children (ALSPAC; n ~ 5000). ELA was defined in terms of physical/emotional abuse, harsh parenting, or domestic violence before 5 years. Social cognition was measured in terms of theory of mind, and general cognitive ability was measured using IQ. Inflammatory markers included serum C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 levels.
resultsA significant association was observed between IQ and harsh parenting, whereby children who were physically disciplined had lower IQ scores (accounting for relevant social factors). Both immune markers were associated with variation in cognition, however, neither accounted for the effects of ELA on cognition. DISCUSSION: This study highlights the impact of ELA on cognition. In the absence of evidence that these effects are explained by inflammation, other mechanisms by which the effects of ELA are mediated are discussed.
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