ReviewFrontiers in psychiatry2021
Impact of Early Life Stress on Reward Circuit Function and Regulation.
Review in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
86 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled 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
- The Differential Relation of Emotional, Physical, and Sexual Abuse Histories to Antidepressant Treatment Remission and Persistence of Anhedonia in Major Depression: A CAN-BIND-1 Report.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2023Trial
- Early life experiences, the neural epigenome and affective disorder risk.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Nociceptin orphanin F/Q Pathways are dysregulated by stress and modulate reward responsiveness and motivated behavior across species.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Transcriptional Reprogramming of GPCR Signaling Pathways in the Frontal Cortex of Morphine Dependent Mice.Biomolecules & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Loss of pleasure (Anhedonia): A sex-dependent, cross-species consequence of unpredictable signals to the perinatal brain.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Prenatal and early life phthalate exposure and early life stress: no interactions with adolescent internalizing symptoms.Environment international · 2026Article
- Altered Postnatal Chromatin Development in the Nucleus Accumbens Primes Enduring Stress Sensitivity.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- 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 life adversity disrupts adult social reward motivation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Early Reward Learning and the Origins of Obesity: Food, Non-Food Reward, and Developing Self-Regulation.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Positive affect as a developmental mediator of early adversity and internalizing psychopathology.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Cognitive and affective neurodevelopment in youth exposed to deprivation and threat.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Early Life Stress and Adversity in Children: Neuroendocrine Mechanisms, Epigenetic Regulation, and Lifespan Developmental Outcomes-A Narrative Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Striatal Prediction Error Tracking Moderates the Influence of Social Exposure on Adolescent Substance Use Curiosity.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Early life adversity increases striatal dopamine D1 receptor density and promotes social alcohol drinking in mice, especially males.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Psychobiological mechanisms underlying the association between early life stress and depression in adolescence.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Prefrontal cortex development and its implications in mental illness.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Creative expressive therapy in schools to address childhood trauma: a mixed methods study of a whole school trauma-informed approach.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
26 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
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Early life stress - including experience of child maltreatment, neglect, separation from or loss of a parent, and other forms of adversity - increases lifetime risk of mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. A major component of this risk may be early life stress-induced alterations in motivation and reward processing, mediated by changes in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA). Here, we review evidence of the impact of early life stress on reward circuit structure and function from human and animal models, with a focus on the NAc. We then connect these results to emerging theoretical models about the indirect and direct impacts of early life stress on reward circuit development. Through this review and synthesis, we aim to highlight open research questions and suggest avenues of future study in service of basic science, as well as applied insights. Understanding how early life stress alters reward circuit development, function, and motivated behaviors is a critical first step toward developing the ability to predict, prevent, and treat stress-related psychopathology spanning mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders.
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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.