The relationship between early and recent life stress and emotional expression processing: A functional connectivity study

The aim of this study was to characterize neural activation during the processing of negative facial expressions in a non-clinicalgroup of individuals characterized by two factors: the levels of stress experienced in early life and in adulthood. Two models ofstress consequences were investigated: the match/mismatch and cumulative stress models. The match/mismatch model assumesthat early adversities may promote optimal coping with similar events in the future through fostering the development of copingstrategies. The cumulative stress model assumes that effects of stress are additive, regardless of the timing of the stressors.Previous studies suggested that stress can have both cumulative and match/mismatch effects on brain structure and functioningand, consequently, we hypothesized that effects on brain circuitry would be found for both models. We anticipated effects on theneural circuitry of structures engaged in face perception and emotional processing. Hence, the amygdala, fusiform face area,occipital face area, and posterior superior temporal sulcus were selected as seeds for seed-based functional connectivity analyses.The interaction between early and recent stress was related to alterations during the processing of emotional expressions mainlyin to the cerebellum, middle temporal gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus. For cumulative stress levels, such alterations wereobserved in functional connectivity to the middle temporal gyrus, lateral occipital cortex, precuneus, precentral and postcentralgyri, anterior and posterior cingulate gyri, and Heschl’s gyrus. This study adds to the growing body of literature suggesting thatboth the cumulative and the match/mismatch hypotheses are useful in explaining the effects of stres