Sensory Over-Responsivity and its Relationship with Socio-Emotional Functioning in Youth with Early Caregiving Adversity

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Abstract

Early caregiving adversity (ECA) is associated with alterations in emotional processing and associated neural correlates (Tottenham et al., 2009), placing youth at risk for maladaptive outcomes (Callaghan et al., 2019). Challenges in sensory processing, such as sensory over-responsivity (SOR) are prevalent in ECA (Yochman & Pat-Horenczyk, 2020), and are also associated with internalizing symptoms and difficulty with adaptive functioning (Wilbarger et al., 2010). Nevertheless, little is known about how SOR affects brain and behavior in ECA in relation to important aspects of daily functioning such as socio-emotional and adaptive skills. Indeed, ECA, anxiety, and SOR are all associated with atypical amygdala reactivity, which may help explain their co-occurrence (Green et al., 2015; Tottenham et al., 2011). This study examined differences in adaptive functioning, anxiety, and SOR in youth adopted from foster care (AFC) relative to comparison non-adopted youth, as well as how these symptoms related to amygdala reactivity during emotion identification.

Participants included 42 AFC and 32 comparison youth. The groups did not differ on age (Mage=12.08 years, range=7.16-17.56) and 23% identified as White, 20% Black, 10% biracial, 8% Asian, and 15% Latinx. Parents reported on adaptive functioning using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition (Sparrow et al., 2005), SOR using the Sensory Processing-3D Inventory (Schoen et al., 2008), and anxiety using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (Birmaher et al., 1999). Fifteen AFC and 18 comparison participants completed an emotion identification task (Li & Tottenham, 2013) during fMRI and were asked to quickly identify the emotion of a face morphing from neutral to angry or happy. Half of the faces were presented with aversive background sounds to examine the effect of sensory distraction on face processing. Halfway through the task, a video “prime” of the participant’s own happy and angry faces was used to direct attention to the salient emotions.

The AFC group had significantly lower adaptive functioning and higher SOR and anxiety relative to the comparison group. Within the AFC group, SOR was correlated with anxiety (r=-.55, p=.04), but not with adaptive functioning. We conducted a 2(Pre-prime vs. Post-prime) x2(Sound vs. No Sound) x2(Left vs. Right amygdala) repeated-measures ANCOVA, with Group (AFC vs. Comparison) as a between-group variable, with adaptive functioning, SOR, and anxiety as covariates. Results revealed significant effects of laterality and a GroupXLaterality interaction, therefore follow-up repeated-measures ANCOVAs were run separately by Group and Laterality (Figure 1). In the AFC group only, right amygdala reactivity was greater than left and was related to higher SOR and anxiety. There were no other significant main effects or interactions.

Findings highlight SOR as a concern for youth with ECA, as it presents at high rates, is associated with anxiety, and predicts amygdala hyper-reactivity to faces over and above anxiety symptoms. Amygdala hyper-reactivity to emotional faces in youth with ECA is well documented, and here we expand prior findings showing that this hyper-reactivity may be intensified by SOR and anxiety, suggesting a mechanism through which these symptoms influence adaptive social functioning.

Authors

• Laura A Alba, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Genevieve Patterson, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joey Narez, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kaitlin K. Cummings, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jiwon Jung, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nana J. Okada, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adriana S Méndez Leal, University of California - Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Silvers, University of California - Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan Bookheimer, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mirella Dapretto, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nim Tottenham, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shulamite Green, University of California - Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author