Childhood Adversity and Neural Development: Deprivation and Threat as Distinct Dimensions of Early Experience

By Katie A. McLaughlin, Margaret A Sheridan, Hilary K. Lambert. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 2014

1,187 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A growing body of research has examined the impact of childhood adversity on neural structure and function. Advances in our understanding of the neurodevelopmental consequences of adverse early environments require the identification of dimensions of environmental experience that influence neural development differently and mechanisms other than the frequently-invoked stress pathways. We propose a novel conceptual framework that differentiates between deprivation (absence of expected environmental inputs and complexity) and threat (presence of experiences that represent a threat to one’s physical integrity) and make predictions grounded in basic neuroscience principles about their distinct effects on neural development. We review animal research on fear learning and sensory deprivation as well as human research on childhood adversity and neural development to support these predictions. We argue that these previously undifferentiated dimensions of experience exert strong and distinct influences on neural development that cannot be fully explained by prevailing models focusing only on stress pathways. Our aim is not to exhaustively review existing evidence on childhood adversity and neural development, but to provide a novel framework to guide future research.

Subfields: Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/69b7150efee4a482268406c084c223669bbe9868

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Behavioral Neuroscience

1. J. Holt‐Lunstad
2. W. Mendes
3. Katie A. McLaughlin
4. George M. Slavich
5. David G. Weissman
6. E. Epel
7. Debbie Bitran
8. Michael W. Kraus

In Clinical Psychology

1. David G. Weissman
2. Debbie Bitran
3. J. Holt‐Lunstad
4. Katie A. McLaughlin
5. George M. Slavich
6. E. Epel

In Education

1. David G. Weissman
2. Debbie Bitran
3. Katie A. McLaughlin
4. George M. Slavich

Citations in the corpus

• Childhood Adversity and Neural Development: A Systematic Review (2019, background): “Experiences of threat are expected to have strong influences on neural systems that are involved in threat detection and learning, salience processing, and emotion regulation (McLaughlin et al. 2014a, Sheridan & McLaughlin 2014).”
• More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science (2018, background): “Exposure to traumatic stressors, particularly when they occur early in life (e.g., prenatal, childhood), appears to affect the brain in important ways (Lupien et al., 2009; McLaughlin et al., 2014b), including how the brain perceives and reacts to future threats and stressors.”
• Why Social Relationships Are Important for Physical Health: A Systems Approach to Understanding and Modifying Risk and Protection (2018, background): “Social trends in most Western cultures suggest that individuals are becoming more socially disconnected (McPherson et al. 2006, Perissinotto et al. 2012, Pew Res.”