Background: Low childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with increased risk for psychopathology, due in part to heightened exposure to environmental adversity. Adverse experiences can be characterized along dimensions, including threat and deprivation, that contribute to psychopathology via distinct mechanisms. The current study investigated a neural mechanism through which threat and deprivation may contribute to socioeconomic disparities in psychopathology.Methods: Participants were 177 youths (83 female) aged 10-13 years recruited from a cohort followed since age 3. SES was assessed using the income-to-needs ratio at age 3. At age 10-13, restrospective and current exposure to adverse experiences and symptoms of psychopathology were assessed. At this same timepoint, participants also completed a face processing task (passive viewing of fearful and neutral faces) during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Results: Lower childhood SES was associated with greater exposure to threat and deprivation experiences. Both threat and deprivation were associated with higher depression symptoms, whereas threat experiences were uniquely linked to PTSD symptoms. Greater exposure to threat, but not deprivation, was associated with higher activation in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and precuneus to fearful compared to neutral faces. Precuneus activation in this contrast mediated the association between SES and PTSD symptoms. Conclusion: Precuneus and dmPFC are hubs of the default mode network thought to be involved in internally directed attention and cognition. Greater engagement of these regions in response to threat cues may contribute to PTSD symptomatology. Threat and contributes to socioeconomic disparities in adolescent psychopathology through distinct neural mechanisms from deprivation.
Exposure to violence as an environmental pathway linking low socioeconomic status with altered neural processing of threat and adolescent psychopathology