Psych 134K Midterm

Psychosocial Deprivation

lack of adequate opportunity for social and intellectual stimulation aka nurture

ex: romanian orphanage, PIY, hospitalisim

Romanian Orphans

Previously Institutionalized Youth

Harry Harlow Monkey Experiment

Monkey prefers soft terry cloth mother without food over wire mesh mother with bottle. Monkey prefers to have close contact with "loving" caregiver over food

Tuberculosis Hospitalism effect

During tuberculosis outbreak, the children that were in the hospital were isolated and got worse due to lack of nurture

when the ones at home (although they don't have all the medical things) they got better

Stress: Portrait of a Killer

Research done on baboons which reflects the chronic stress within western human due to hierarchy

- subordinate baboons/people = more stress, less dopamine, shorter life span

- dominate baboons/people = less stress, happier

too much cortisol --> negative health outcomes, weight in abdomen, clogged arteries, shorter telomere length, shorter life span

Different types of stress

-Positive: job promotion, getting to class, a meeting

-Tolerable: a car accident, natural disaster, a death (species expectant: we expect it)

-Toxic: chronic illness, trauma, poverty

parasympathetic nervous system stops working and the habitual negative feedback loop starts

Bucharest Early Intervention Project

children were randomly assigned to foster care our to stay in institution

- the younger the child the better the outcome

- gains in cognitive functioning but not social emotional

- sensitive period for socio-emotional closed

Psychosocial Dwarfism

stunted growth due to lack of nurture, so body reallocates resources to survival functions. physical growth is not necessary for survival

Function of HPA axis

The method for sustaining alert during threat:

- The amygdala activates the hypothalamus in response to stress

- the hypothalamus releases CRH into the anterior pituitary gland

- the anterior pituitary gland releases ACTH to the adrenal gland

- adrenal gland and kidney releases cortisol into the blood stream

- cortisol causes metabolic effects (suppresses sex drive, immunity, digestion, and growth)

Human response to threat (snake example)

- visual input of snake goes through optic nerve

- image goes to thalamus where its detected as threat or not

- sends it to the amygdala if it is a threat (skips visual cortex)

- amygdala triggers sympathetic nervous system

- stress response activates

Habituated negative feedback loop

release of too much cortisol due to chronic stress

unregulated HPA axis response

sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous system

-sympathetic: fight or flight, stress response

-parasympathetic: rest and digest, quiets the stress response, brings you back to resting state

Sensitive vs. Critical Periods

What is negelct?

most common form of maltreatment

Different forms of abuse?

physical - most common

psychological (emotional)

sexual

The majority of perpetrators are parent

Allostatic load

Alters homeostasis so there is a new set point in response to constant or cumulative chronic stress

- change in set point in response to allostasis

*not tolerance, just more sensitized --> higher baseline*

What is adversity?

A negative violation of the expectable environment

includes malnutrition, chronic illness, maltreatment

What is stress?

the physiological results of a perceived as threatening or harmful

- all adversity is a form of stress

Gene driven brain development

-genes provide the blueprint for basic brain architecture

-prenatal environment is important

ex: cortisol passing to baby bloodstream and can activate amygdala

Synapse formation vs Synaptic pruning

formation: cells begin to connect to each other creating synapses (connections) overproduction

pruning: brain becomes specializes and prunes unnecessary synapse and strengthens necessary ones

Deprivation vs Threat

neglect is deprivation

abuse is threat

Dimensional model

We can split different forms of adversity into two types:

Deprivation: the absence of something that should be there

Threat: when something is there that shouldn't be

Neglect: high in deprivation, we are missing a dedicated caregiver to nurture us

Abuse: high in threat

Amygdala Dependent Learning

stage 1-3: early infancy, infancy, attachment learning, Weaning

stage 2: adolscence, adulthood

What is attachment learning?

rats/people are attached to mother regardless if if they are abusive or not. you will always form an attachment

Consequences of attachment learning in early infancy

no short term

long term: appetitive behavior (attraction) towards stimuli regardless of their valence

- people that were abused are attracted to abusers/become abusive

Consequences of attachment learning in early infancy

short term: consequences only during high stress situations

- strange situation/attachment style

Consequences of attachment learning in weaning

decreases social exploration

Consequences of attachment learning in adolescence and adulthood

adolescence: depressive behavior (continues into adulthood)

adulthood: enhanced aggression, aberrant threat response, approaches threat, poor maternal protection

Lab abuse paradigm (in rats)

mother has insufficient nest, resources taken away -->> caused stress/abusive behavior --> releases cortisol --> transferred to pups through milk

Attachment learning in rats

Stage 1: Sensitive period: amygdala off because they rely on mother to protect from threat. No differences.

Stage 2: Transitional sensitive period: where we see a change in rats with/without abusive mother. Good mother: amygdala turns on when separate and still don't detect threat, and off if mother in present. Abusive mother: amygdala on regardless

Stage 3: Post-sensitive period: Amygdala on regardless of mother's presence for both rats (aversion learning). No difference

Attention vs aversion learning

attention: good mothers act as buffers, rat does not have to pay attention to threat

aversion: abusive mothers lead to rats having an on amygdala regardless of mothers presences because she is a threat

Maternal buffering

Primary caregivers buffer the activation of the amygdala

What are ACEs?

Adverse Childhood Experiences

ACEs pyramid

added disrupted neurodevelopment and prenatal environment, then added generational embodiment/historical trauma and social conditions/local contexts

PFC-amygdala connectivity

Neglect: Connectivity comes on too early to make up for lack of adult presence

Abuse: connectivity doesn't come early but comes too strong and the amygdala overpowers the PFC. Exaggerated negative connectivity in adolescence

Aberrant threat response

altered functioning in social complex environments

dominance hierarchies

Failure to show subordination

increased aggression

When rats of abusive mothers become mothers, they too become poor caregivers

Anehodia

inability to feel positive emotions ( not sadness or feeling bad)

Inverted U of stress

-if stress is too low you're under-motivated/ low moral

-if stress is too high there will be burnout/overload

-optimal stress in the middle keeps you motivated

Allostasis

any stimuli that alters homeostasis in adaption to the environment

Experiment Expectant

we dont know what were being born to --> brain structure changes based on our unique experiences

Deprivation v Threat

-deprivation: absence of expected cognitive or social input (lack of nurture)

-threat: events that involve actual or threatened death, injury, or harm

Secondary altriciality

long period of dependency that human children have to their mother for survival

- babies need more than just food, water, clothing they also need nurture

Outcomes of social deprivation (social and physical)

-disturbances in social relatedness

-inc risk for externalizing disorders (adhd, odd, cd)

-inc risk for internalizing disorder (depression and anxiety)

-IQ deficits

-language deficits

-symptom mimicking autism

-psychosocial dwarfism

Outcomes of social deprivation (survival and adaptations)

-indescreminant friendliness (overly friendly to get social interaction)

-decreased response to sensory stimuli (dont cry)

-reduced chance of becoming overstimulated

-inc reactivity and sensitivity to emotional stimuli (others emotions, threats, avoid danger and better understand other behaviors)

Amygdala of PIY

-inc volume and reactivity

-dose-response (later child was adopted --> larger amygdala)

-inc response to stress (no parents so they have to be the adult)

-early maturation of pre-frontal cortex and amygdala connectivity (adult like PFC)

epigenetic changes in PIY

-diminished telomere length

-accelerated death

-accelerated aging

long term effects of PIY

- atypical emotional reactivity

- odd social behavior

- inc stress

-fearfull behavior

- limited relationships

*persist into adulthood*

Depression vs Anxiety in Previously Institutionalized Youth

higher depressive scores

no anxiety

high positive and negative until adolescence, then low positive valence because thats when the sensitive period for the ventral striatum

activation of nucleus accumbent doesn't fire how it should

Stress Acceleration Hypothesis

Adversity may lead to a reprioritization of developmental strategy away from a juvenile state (favoring a slow developmental pace and prolonged childhood) towards more adult-like functioning within fear/stress-related domains

- Resources need to be redirected towards survival

- later in life, the PFC is actually smaller because all the resources were used in childhood

- Molars come in sooner and teeth loss later in life

Life History Theory

fMRI / facial go/nogo task

people were given different facial expressions and told not to press for fearful face

- people were better at withholding response to positive v negative face

- PIY are especially bad at withholding response to fearful face --> due to larger amygdala sending stronger signal

-neglect: higher stress reactivity, inc fearful behavior, inc sensitivity to neg info, inc anxious behavior --> persists into adulthood - larger amygdala = inc anxiety

anxiety (dsm V def)

persistant worry about everyday challenges out of proportion to the perceived threat --> often associated with depression

RDoC framework

biopsychosocial model of looking at mental illness, looking at the holistic picture rather than just checking off a list of symptoms

nucleus accumbens

- deals with stress

- sensitive to stress

ventral striatum

- pleasure center

- sensitive to stress

- adolescence is the sensitive period

- adolescence is the most pleasure we will ever feel

How early life adversity causes adolescence emergent depression

early life adversity --> HPA axis dysregulation --> altered BDNF secretion --> dysregualted mesolimbic dopamine --> ventral striatic hypoactivation --> adolescence depression

Life history theory

Exposure to abuse favors traits consistent with faster maturation while exposure to neglect should favor traits that conserve resources

Contradicts the Stress Acceleration Hypothesis, MUST differentiate between abuse and neglect

Abuse: expectation to have shorter life span → quickens reproductive process. faster cell death

Neglect: I need more time to mature → pushes back reproductive process. normal cell death

Adverse Childhood Experiences Study

asked people 10 most common adversity questions about: Abuse: to emotional, physical, sexual

Household challenges: mother violence, substance abuse, mental illness, separation/divorce, incarcerated household member

Neglect: physical, and emotional

Odds of having ACEs

once you one have, the odds you have another are high, once you have two etc...

dose response relationship until you have 6, then it levels off

6+ ACES = die 20 years earlier

psychological maltreatment

repeated pattern of behavior conveyed to children that they are worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or only of value in meeting another needs

- attacks childrens basic developing development need for love and affection

neglect definition

failure to provide basic physical and social are that is considered, based on community standards, the minimal necessary for children to thrive