Early life stress and psychiatric disorder modulate cortical responses to affective stimuli.
Altered affective processing has been proposed as mediating between early life stress (ELS) and subsequent psychopathology. The present study examined whether ELS influences affective cortical processing differently in psychiatric patients and healthy subjects. The number of stressful experiences before onset of puberty was assessed in 50 inpatients with diagnoses of Major Depressive Disorder, schizophrenia, drug addiction, or Borderline Personality Disorder and in 20 healthy comparison subjects. Subjects monitored pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures during magnetoencephalographic recording. Suppression of right-posterior activity 160-210 ms after stimulus onset was associated with certain diagnoses and high ELS. Results confirmed specific contributions of ELS versus adult stress, comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder, or depression.
Weber
Katja
K
Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
Miller
Gregory A
GA
Schupp
Harald T
HT
Borgelt
Jens
J
Awiszus
Barbara
B
Popov
Tzvetan
T
Elbert
Thomas
T
Rockstroh
Brigitte
B
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D017668:Age of Onset; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology