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Emotion-related brain organization and behavioral responses to socioemotional stimuli in pediatric cancer survivors with posttraumatic stress symptoms.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Pediatric cancer is a life-changing, stressful experience for children and their families. Although most children adjust well, psychologically, a significant subset report posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), with nearly 75% reexperiencing traumatic parts of cancer and/or its treatment. However, little research has examined the effects of pediatric cancer and related PTSS on emotional processing, and on functional properties of key emotional centers in the brain (e.g., amygdala). PROCEDURE:We examined cancer-related PTSS, behavioral responses during an emotion-processing task, and resting-state functional connectivity of the amygdala in 17 pediatric cancer survivors (ages 6-11) and 17 age- and sex-matched controls. RESULTS:Cancer survivors, relative to controls, were more likely to rate ambiguous (i.e., neutral) faces as negative (i.e., "negativity bias"). Higher reexperiencing PTSS was associated with faster responses to neutral faces. Although there were no group differences in amygdala centrality, within survivors, both higher reexperiencing PTSS and faster reaction times were associated with increased centrality of the amygdala-a functional property associated with hubs of information processing in the brain. In an exploratory mediation analysis, we found that amygdala centrality mediated the link between reaction time and PTSS, suggesting that changes in the brain may be a proximal marker of the expression of emotion-related symptomology. CONCLUSIONS:Negativity bias in cancer survivors may reflect their stressful experiences with cancer and/or its treatment. This negativity bias may represent a susceptibility to changes in emotion-related brain functioning, which may, in turn, lead to PTSS.

SUBMITTER: Marusak HA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6249085 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Emotion-related brain organization and behavioral responses to socioemotional stimuli in pediatric cancer survivors with posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Marusak Hilary A HA Iadipaolo Allesandra S AS Paulisin Shelley S Harper Felicity W FW Taub Jeffrey W JW Dulay Kristopher K Elrahal Farrah F Peters Craig C Sala-Hamrick Kelsey K Crespo Laura M LM Rabinak Christine A CA

Pediatric blood & cancer 20180930 1

<h4>Background</h4>Pediatric cancer is a life-changing, stressful experience for children and their families. Although most children adjust well, psychologically, a significant subset report posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), with nearly 75% reexperiencing traumatic parts of cancer and/or its treatment. However, little research has examined the effects of pediatric cancer and related PTSS on emotional processing, and on functional properties of key emotional centers in the brain (e.g., amygda ...[more]

PMID: 30270517

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Dataset Information

Emotion-related brain organization and behavioral responses to socioemotional stimuli in pediatric cancer survivors with posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Publications

Emotion-related brain organization and behavioral responses to socioemotional stimuli in pediatric cancer survivors with posttraumatic stress symptoms.

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