Abstract
Studies of early life extremes such as trauma, abuse, and neglect highlight the critical importance of quality caregiving in the normal development of brain circuits supporting emotional behavior and mental health. The impact of normative variability in early life caregiving on biobehavioral processes, however, is poorly understood. Here, we provide initial evidence that even subtle variability in normative early life caregiving may shape threat-related brain function and, potentially, associated psychopathology in adolescence. Specifically, we report that greater familial warmth is associated with heightened amygdala reactivity specifically to interpersonal threat, particularly in adolescents having experienced relatively low recent stress. These findings extend the literature on the effects of early life caregiving extremes on brain function to subtle, normative variability, but suggest that presumably protective factors are associated with increased risk-related amygdala reactivity. We consider these paradoxical associations with regard to studies of basic associative threat learning as well as effects of parental overprotection on psychological developmental.
Significance Statement Behavioral research illustrates powerful effects of caregiving on psychological development. However, the biological mediators of such effects have almost exclusively been examined using caregiving extremes such as trauma, abuse, or neglect. Here, we provide evidence that even subtle, normative variability in caregiving is associated with how the brain processes threat during adolescence. Specifically, we find that higher familial warmth is associated with greater amygdala reactivity to interpersonal threat, particularly in adolescents having experienced relatively low stress. Our results suggest that while even normative variability in caregiving shapes brain function, factors typically considered protective are paradoxically associated with risk-related amygdala reactivity. These patterns are, nevertheless, supported by studies of associative threat learning and effects of parental overprotection on psychological development.