Early life stress affects 50% of children in the United States, and is associated with a number of adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Indeed, traumatic experiences in early life are significant predictors of both child- and adult-onset psychiatric conditions, and increase individuals’ risk for developing depression.

Although researchers have documented associations between early life stress and anomalous brain structure and function in adolescents, there is variability in the regions and circuits that have been identified in these studies and in the direction and nature of their associations with early life stress. For example, whereas some researchers have posited that early life stress delays brain development, others have suggested that early life stress accelerates brain development.

Importantly, adolescence is characterized by brain plasticity and changes to the social environment and brain reorganization in response to exposure to stressful contexts may be adaptive.

In this project, we will assess how early life stress influences brain development to better understand the etiology of depression.