一项研究发现了童年期早期不良经历对人类行为和发育的持久影响。
儿童期早期压力，诸如在孤儿院抚养的儿童受到的杂乱无章的照顾，已经与后期生活中的精神病理学联系在了一起，但是这些结果的神经生物学基础仍不清楚。
Matthew Malter Cohen及其同事研究了16名11岁或更年轻的在孤儿院抚养的儿童以及没有生活在孤儿院的10名儿童的对照组。为了考虑到人类研究固有的遗传和环境因素，这组作者通过限制母鼠可获得的筑巢材料从而为断奶前的小鼠模拟了这些儿童在孤儿院接受到的贫困的养育。
这组作者报告说，在生命早期接触杂乱无章的父母照顾的小鼠出现了焦虑行为和杏仁核功能的出现早且长期持续的变化，这对应着孤儿院养育的儿童的情绪反应的增加和杏仁核的变化。这些变化在这些儿童面临的压力因素消失之后长期存在，而且在大脑的前额叶调控区域发育时没有消失。
这组作者说，这些发现凸显了早期生活压力如何能够导致大脑回路的变化以及情绪失调，并且提示这些儿童可能会从及早的干预项目中获益。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences of the United States of America doi: 10.1073/pnas.1310163110
Early-life stress has persistent effects on amygdala function and development in mice and humans
Matthew Malter Cohena，b，1， Deqiang Jingb， Rui R. Yangb， Nim Tottenhama，c，1，2， Francis S. Leeb，1，2， and B. J. Caseya，b
Relatively little is known about neurobiological changes attributable to early-life stressors (e.g.， orphanage rearing)， even though they have been associated with a heightened risk for later psychopathology. Human neuroimaging and animal studies provide complementary insights into the neural basis of problem behaviors following stress， but too often are limited by dissimilar experimental designs. The current mouse study manipulates the type and timing of a stressor to parallel the early-life stress experience of orphanage rearing， controlling for genetic and environmental confounds inherent in human studies. The results provide evidence of both early and persistent alterations in amygdala circuitry and function following early-life stress. These effects are not reversed when the stressor is removed nor diminished with the development of prefrontal regulation regions. These neural and behavioral findings are similar to our human findings in children adopted from orphanages abroad in that even following removal from the orphanage， the ability to suppress attention toward potentially threatening information in favor of goal-directed behavior was diminished relative to never-institutionalized children. Together， these findings highlight how early-life stress can lead to altered brain circuitry and emotion dysregulation that may increase the risk for psychopathology.
