title: Effect of Hippocampal and Amygdala Connectivity on the Relationship Between Preschool Poverty and School-Age Depression.
abstract: In this study, the authors tested the hypothesis that poverty experienced in early childhood, as measured by income-to-needs ratio, has an impact on functional brain connectivity at school age, which in turn mediates influences on child negative mood/depression.
  
  
  
  Participants were from a prospective longitudinal study of emotion development. Preschoolers 3-5 years of age were originally ascertained from primary care and day care sites in the St. Louis area and then underwent annual behavioral assessments for up to 12 years. Healthy preschoolers and those with a history of depression symptoms underwent neuroimaging at school age. Using functional MRI, the authors examined whole brain resting-state functional connectivity with the left and right hippocampus and amygdala.
  
  
  
  Lower income-to-needs ratio at preschool age was associated with reduced connectivity between hippocampus and amygdala and a number of regions at school age, including the superior frontal cortex, lingual gyrus, posterior cingulate, and putamen. Lower income-to-needs ratio predicted greater negative mood/depression severity at school age, as did connectivity between the left hippocampus and the right superior frontal cortex and between the right amygdala and the right lingual gyrus. Connectivity mediated the relationship between income-to-needs ratio and negative mood/depression at the time of scanning.
  
  
  
  These findings suggest that poverty in early childhood, as assessed by at least one measure, may influence the development of hippocampal and amygdala connectivity in a manner leading to negative mood symptoms during later childhood.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Psychiatry; the Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; the Department of Psychology; and the Program in Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Deanna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barch
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Psychiatry; the Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; the Department of Psychology; and the Program in Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pagliaccio
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Psychiatry; the Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; the Department of Psychology; and the Program in Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Belden
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Psychiatry; the Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; the Department of Psychology; and the Program in Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Harms
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Psychiatry; the Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; the Department of Psychology; and the Program in Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gaffrey
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Psychiatry; the Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; the Department of Psychology; and the Program in Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Chad M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Sylvester
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Psychiatry; the Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; the Department of Psychology; and the Program in Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tillman
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Psychiatry; the Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; the Department of Psychology; and the Program in Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luby
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*