Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32455344›Full record

ArticleAnnual review of developmental psychology2019

Childhood Adversity and Neural Development: A Systematic Review.

Katie A McLaughlin, David Weissman, Debbie Bitrán

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Annual review of developmental psychology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 456 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
456citing papers in PubMed, 9 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

456 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  3. 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 · 2026
    Pooled it
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  6. The effects of childhood adversity: Two specific neural patterns.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025
    Pooled it
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  16. Critical windows: timing of child maltreatment exposure and adult mental health.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026
    Article
  17. Article
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  19. Promotion of long-term health in early life.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  20. Article

396 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Katie A McLaughlinDepartment of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
David WeissmanDepartment of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Debbie BitránDepartment of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.

Funding

Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms Underlying Stress Vulnerability during AdolescenceR37MH119194 · NIMH · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI Katie McLaughlin · 2020 to 2026
$10.6M
Child Trauma and the Development of Neural Systems Underlying Emotion RegulationR01MH103291 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI MCLAUGHLIN, KATIE · 2014 to 2018
$3.8M
Deprivation and Threat: Dimensions of Early Experience and Neural DevelopmentR01MH106482 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI MCLAUGHLIN, KATIE · 2016 to 2020
$3.1M
Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms Underlying Stress Vulnerability during AdolescenceR56MH119194 · NIMH · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI MCLAUGHLIN, KATIE · 2019 to 2019
$1.5M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH103291NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH106482NIMH NIH HHS R37 MH119194NIMH NIH HHS R56 MH119194
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

An extensive literature on childhood adversity and neurodevelopment has emerged over the past decade. We evaluate two conceptual models of adversity and neurodevelopment-the dimensional model of adversity and stress acceleration model-in a systematic review of 109 studies using MRI-based measures of neural structure and function in children and adolescents. Consistent with the dimensional model, children exposed to threat had reduced amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and hippocampal volume and heightened amygdala activation to threat in a majority of studies; these patterns were not observed consistently in children exposed to deprivation. In contrast, reduced volume and altered function in frontoparietal regions were observed consistently in children exposed to deprivation but not children exposed to threat. Evidence for accelerated development in amygdala-mPFC circuits was limited but emerged in other metrics of neurodevelopment. Progress in charting neurodevelopmental consequences of adversity requires larger samples, longitudinal designs, and more precise assessments of adversity.

Indexed as

adverse childhood experiencesamygdalaearly-life stresshippocampusneurodevelopment

Identifiers

PMID32455344
PMCPMC7243625

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.