Resilience, Adversity and Affective Processing in Childhood
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Eamon McCrory (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
De Brito SA
(2013)
Reduced orbitofrontal and temporal grey matter in a community sample of maltreated children.
in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines
Eamon McCrory (Author)
(2011)
Developmental science : children and the law
Eamon McCrory (Author)
(2012)
The neurobiology and genetics of childhood maltreatment
Kelly PA
(2013)
Cortical thickness, surface area, and gyrification abnormalities in children exposed to maltreatment: neural markers of vulnerability?
in Biological psychiatry
McCrory E
(2011)
Heightened neural reactivity to threat in child victims of family violence
in Current Biology
McCrory E
(2012)
The link between child abuse and psychopathology: A review of neurobiological and genetic research
in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
McCrory E
(2010)
Research review: the neurobiology and genetics of maltreatment and adversity.
in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines
McCrory E
(2011)
The impact of childhood maltreatment: a review of neurobiological and genetic factors.
in Frontiers in psychiatry
McCrory E
(2010)
The neurobiology of maltreatment and adolescent violence.
in Lancet (London, England)
McCrory E
(2011)
Child Psychology and Psychiatry - Frameworks for Practice
| Description | Child maltreatment continues to represent a major societal problem. Maltreatment is a well established risk factor for a range of problems later in life, including depression and anxiety. Yet we know relatively little about how maltreatment can impact brain development in ways that may increase a child's later vulnerability or resilience. In our research we investigated how the experience of maltreatment may have influenced how children process emotion. We recruited children between the ages of 10 and 14 years of age, including a group of children who had experienced maltreatment at home and a group of matched peers. We used functional (fMRI) and structural (sMRI) magnetic resonance imaging, and other measures to investigate brain function and structure. Our findings demonstrated that when processing threat cues, maltreated children show significantly increased activation in brain regions implicated in pain anticipation and anxiety disorders. Indeed, these same regions show increased response to threat in soldiers exposed to combat. In a separate task, using pre-attentively presented stimuli, we found heightened neural responses in the amygdala in the maltreated sample, suggesting profound differences in how emotional stimuli are processed - even outside of conscious awareness. When we looked at brain structure, maltreated children showed decreased brain volume in brain regions that play a key role in decision-making and memory. These findings demonstrate that maltreatment is likely to alter how children's brains process emotion. Our evidence points to a pattern of changes that may increase a child's vulnerability to later depression and anxiety. We are continuing to analyse our data in relation to resilience, and hope that this work will inform better approaches to interventions. Specifically, we are working to identify neural markers of resilience in those children who have experienced maltreatment but appear to be functioning normally, despite their early adverse experiences. |
| Exploitation Route | Children's charities including a variety of voluntary sector organisations have a direct interest in establishing a better understanding of the multi-dimensional impact of child maltreatment. This work will help support their case for intervention for children who have experienced maltreatment and early adversity. Many of these charities lobby government to increase provision for children in need, particular those who experience abuse. This work also provides additional evidence of the impact of maltreatment relevant to increasing public and media awareness of this societal problem. It also provides an important source of new evidence for frontline practitioners. Policy makers including the Department of Children, Schools and Families, The Department of Health, and the Department of Justice will have a direct interest in the focus of the current research. Findings from the proposed study will be well placed to inform future policy and government priorities in relation to interventions for children who have experienced or are at risk from maltreatment. Carers, including those adults who look after children who have had experienced maltreatment (including parents, foster carers and adoptive parents, as well as kinship carers) often find it a challenging experience to understand and manage their child's emotional and behavioural problems. A fuller understanding of the links between adversity and emotional development may help contextualise some of these difficulties, making them easier to manage. Ultimately the primary beneficiaries should be those who have experienced abuse. This will be realised by achieving impact in relation to the above. In addition, however, adults with prior childhood histories can be helped to better contextualise the impact of their early adverse experiences. This research provides some of the first functional imaging data of children exposed to maltreatment at home. Clinicians and practitioners who work with children, adolescents and with adults who have a history of maltreatment have a direct interest in this work. Relevant professions include social workers, health visitors, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and psychotherapists. In the short to medium term our research will help inform a clinical model of how maltreatment influences emotional brain systems and its link to increased vulnerability to psychological and behavioural problems. For example, our finding of greater neural response to threat cures in maltreated children is consistent with observations of greater hypervigilence to environmental threat that may compromise everyday functioning and academic performance. In the longer-term we hope that gains from this project will contribute to improved clinical assessment of emotional disturbance, better clinical guidelines in meeting the needs of children experiencing maltreatment (including systemic intervention), and more effective individual interventions with those children most at risk for long term psychiatric problems following maltreatment. One future goal is to follow a similar group of children in a longitudinal design in order to determine whether these neural markers associated with maltreatment represent prodromal markers of psychiatric risk. From a practical perspective, this would increase the case for intervention for a subset of children before psychiatric disorders become manifest. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Description | Drawing evidence from genetics and neurobiology in understanding the impact of child abuse and neglect |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to Haringey Local Safeguarding Children's Board (LSCB). Haringey LSCB brings together key managers, practitioners and policy makers responsible for the welfare of children and co-ordinating adequate child protection across services. This lecture highlighted recent work in the field and highlighted findings from our own research most relevant to frontline practitioners engaged in child protection and safe guarding work. Increased engagement by practitioners with the evidence base. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Emotional processing, environmental adversity and psychopathology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | There are individual differences in characteristic emotional processing and reactivity styles which may promote either vulnerability or resilience to psychopathology. This symposium will focus on examining how environmental adversity influences emotional processing and the relationship between emotional processing to psychopathology or resilient outcomes. Difficulties in effectively processing emotionally valenced information and down-regulating negative emotions once they have arisen are characteristic of psychopathology and may interfere with the ability to adaptively respond to stressful experiences. This symposium will examine emotional processing in late childhood and early adolescence using an inter-disciplinary approach and specifically examine characteristic emotional processing styles associated with different forms of environmental adversity. Each paper will use a different methodological approach (functional MRI, behavioral tasks and EEG). The first paper will examine the effect of childhood maltreatment on the neural correlates of implicit emotional processing. The second will examine how emotional processing and characteristic "affective style" relate to depression in a group of adolescent offspring of depressed parents. The third will use event related brain potentials to assess responses to reward, frustration and risk taking in a group of young adolescents some of whom have experienced adverse rearing conditions. Together, these papers examine how different kinds of environmental adversity influence emotional development and lead to atypical patterns of emotional processing. They also discuss how research focusing on young people exposed to adversity can inform prevention efforts and resilience research. Discussion of findings and integrating with current evidence base. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Lecture to staff in Royal Free Hospital |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Interesting discussion and debate on the neuroscience evidence following the talk. Increased interest in evidence based practice and use of research to inform decision making. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maltreatment, brain development and the law : towards an informed developmental framework |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Lecture as part of a series organised by ESRC bringing together neuroscientists, clinicians, lawyers and policy makers. Sparked important discussion around importance of developmental neuroscience on policy. Discussion of impact of developmental neuroscience on policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Neural adaptation in children exposed to family violence? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | A review and presentation of findings from the grant and discussion of their implications. Discussion regarding implications for current understanding. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | The neurobiology and genetics of maltreatment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Health professionals |
| Results and Impact | Lecture / workshop with Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) and Maudsley practitioners Engagement with neuroscience evidence and consideration of its impact on practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | The neurobiology and genetics of maltreatment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to research lab at Yale University Child Study Center Discussion regarding links across research in the area. Consolidation of links with Yale. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | The neurobiology and genetics of maltreatment : risk and resilience |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to the Association of Child Psychologists in Private Practice. A CPD event for a broad range of educational and clinical psychologists involved in assessing and treating children, including work for court. Helpful discussion on impact of evidence on practice. Discussion of impact of neuroscience findings on practice and formulation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.drru-research.org |
| Description | Understanding the impact of child adversity on development : a consideration of genetic and neurobiological evidence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Overview of recent research in the field of neuroscience, genetics and childhood maltreatment to frontline practitioners working with looked after children. Lecture to Hackney Child and Adolescent Mental Health service Increased engagement by practitioners with the evidence base. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |