Affiliation:
1. Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK
2. Anna Freud National
Centre for Children and Families, London, UK
Abstract
Background:
Childhood maltreatment is associated with altered neurocognitive functioning,
which is thought to reflect, in part, adaptation to early adverse environmental experiences. However,
we continue to lack a precise mechanistic understanding linking atypical neurocognitive processing
with social functioning and psychiatric outcomes following early adversity.
Objective:
The present work investigated interpersonal problem-solving, resting-state functional connectivity
(rsFC), and mental health symptoms in adolescents with documented maltreatment experience
and explored whether altered neural function contributes in part to poorer social functioning.
Methods:
Forty adolescents (aged 12-17) with documented experiences of abuse or neglect and a carefully
matched group of 42 non-maltreated peers participated in this study that measured task-based interpersonal
problem-solving skills and rsFC.
Results:
Adolescents with maltreatment experience showed poorer interpersonal problem-solving performance,
which partly accounted for their elevated mental health symptoms. Resting-state seed-based
analyses revealed that adolescents with maltreatment experience showed a significant increase in rsFC
between medial Default Mode Network (DMN) hubs, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), with a
posterior cluster, including the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), precuneus (PCu), retrosplenial cortex
(RSC), and lingual gyrus (LG). Moderation analyses revealed that maltreatment-related increased
DMN rsFC partly accounted for poorer performance in interpersonal problem-solving.
Conclusion:
Poorer interpersonal problem-solving, partly accounted for by atypical coupling between
DMN medial hubs, was associated with maltreatment exposure. Interventions tailored to enhance interpersonal
problem-solving represents a promising avenue to promote resilience and reduce the likelihood
of mental health disorder following maltreatment experience.
Funder
UK ESRC, Economic and Social Research Council
UK ESRC and NSPCC
Publisher
Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
Subject
Pharmacology (medical),Psychiatry and Mental health,Neurology (clinical),Neurology,Pharmacology,General Medicine