2-068 - Social Origins of Developmental Risk for Mental and Physical Illnesses

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

After 20 years of study it is now well accepted that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have long-term impact throughout the lifespan on mental health, physical health, academic achievement, and lifetime productivity. Many states are involved in transforming social and health systems to prevent and mitigate these effects. There is an urgent need for more science to understand the details of how early life stresses affect the brain. ACEs have their impact on vulnerable circuits that govern mental health, cognitive function, emotion regulation, and cardiovascular and metabolic regulatory systems. This panel will show the importance of the timing of stress exposure, critical periods of intervention, and sex on various brain systems in young children, monkeys and mice; and how changes in parental interaction with children can modify the long-term consequences of early life stress exposure across species. Assessment of internalizing disorders and brain imaging in children suggests that ACEs can interfere with white matter development in critical brain regions, which may serve to increase risk for emotional difficulties. Studies in rodents demonstrate alterations in metabolic capacities and sleep rhythms subsequent to early life stress. Studies in monkeys show that the neural circuits that are most plastic during early life stress exposure sustain the greatest change in gene expression, providing a mechanism whereby the timing of stress exposure can lead to markedly different outcomes in long-term behavior and function. Together, these complementary cross species studies examine principles of adaptation to ACEs, at molecular, cellular and whole organism resolution.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Chairs

• Judy L Cameron, University of Pittsburgh

• Pat R. Levitt, University of Southern California

Individual Presentations

• Adversity, Timing of Intervention and Long-Term Effects on Brain, Behavior and Physical Health in Children - Presenting Author: Nathan Fox, University of Maryland

• The Biological Impact of Early Life Stress Depends on the Timing of Stress Exposure - Presenting Author: Judy L Cameron, University of Pittsburgh

• Influence of Early-Life Stress on Sleep and Attention Regulation in Mice - Presenting Author: Takao Hensch, Harvard University

• Developmental and Enduring Metabolic Adaptations to Early Life Stress - Presenting Author: Pat R. Levitt, University of Southern California