ReviewBiological psychiatry2020
Plasticity of the Reward Circuitry After Early-Life Adversity: Mechanisms and Significance.
Review in Biological psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 87 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
87 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 116 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of childhood adversity: Two specific neural patterns.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Pooled it
- The resting-state brain activity signatures for addictive disorders.Med (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Pooled it
- Enduring effects of early-life adversity on reward processes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of animal studies.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Loss of pleasure (Anhedonia): A sex-dependent, cross-species consequence of unpredictable signals to the perinatal brain.Neurobiology of stress · 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
- Early Reward Learning and the Origins of Obesity: Food, Non-Food Reward, and Developing Self-Regulation.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Early life adversity increases striatal dopamine D1 receptor density and promotes social alcohol drinking in mice, especially males.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Peptide signaling in the paraventricular thalamus contributes to disrupted adult reward behaviors after early-life adversity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Anhedonia underlies the association between childhood unpredictability and adult PTSD symptoms: Evidence from three independent longitudinal cohorts.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Early life adversity impairs visually evoked innate defensive behaviors via oxytocin signaling.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Sex and Stress Govern the Function and Innervation of a Basolateral Amygdala to Nucleus Accumbens Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone/GABA-Expressing Projection.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Neonatal striatal volume is associated with infant anhedonia.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- The 'hand-brain-emotion' axis: a theoretical model for handicraft art-based intervention in anxiety disorders through neuroplasticity and autonomic regulation.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Early life adversity increases striatal dopamine D1 receptor density and promotes social alcohol drinking in mice, especially males.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Neural effect of childhood maltreatment on neurovascular coupling in adolescent depression.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Early life stress modulates behavioral sensitivity to alcohol and promotes escalation of alcohol drinking.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The evolving neurobiology of early-life stress.Neuron · 2025Review
- From Childhood Woes to Adult Blues: Unmasking the Role of Early Traumas, P2X7 Receptor, and Neuroinflammation in Anxiety and Depression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Early-life stress sensitizes response to future stress: Evidence and mechanisms.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Review
- The link between early-life adversity and later alcohol use disorder: A role for microglia?Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
27 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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 at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Disrupted operation of the reward circuitry underlies many aspects of affective disorders. Such disruption may manifest as aberrant behavior including risk taking, depression, anhedonia, and addiction. Early-life adversity is a common antecedent of adolescent and adult affective disorders involving the reward circuitry. However, whether early-life adversity influences the maturation and operations of the reward circuitry, and the potential underlying mechanisms, remain unclear. Here, we present novel information using cutting-edge technologies in animal models to dissect out the mechanisms by which early-life adversity provokes dysregulation of the complex interactions of stress and reward circuitries. We propose that certain molecularly defined pathways within the reward circuitry are particularly susceptible to early-life adversity. We examine regions and pathways expressing the stress-sensitive peptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), which has been identified in critical components of the reward circuitry and interacting stress circuits. Notably, CRF is strongly modulated by early-life adversity in several of these brain regions. Focusing on amygdala nuclei and their projections, we provide evidence suggesting that aberrant CRF expression and function may underlie augmented connectivity of the nucleus accumbens with fear/anxiety regions, disrupting the function of this critical locus of pleasure and reward.
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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.