Caregiving influences on emotional learning and regulation: Applying a sensitive period model

Abstract

Early caregiving experiences play a central role in shaping corticolimbic development and emotional learning and regulation. Given dynamic changes in corticolimbic maturation, the effects of caregiving experiences are likely to depend on the developmental timing of exposure. Cross-species evidence has identified timing-related differences in the effects of caregiving adversity. However, the extent to which developmental differences in associations between caregiving adversity and corticolimbic circuitry align with a sensitive period model has remained unclear. Converging evidence from studies of caregiver deprivation points to a sensitive period for caregiving influences on corticolimbic circuitry and emotional development during infancy. By contrast, differential associations between maltreatment and corticolimbic circuitry at specific ages in childhood and adolescence may reflect experience-dependent mechanisms of plasticity. Delineating sensitive periods of development and the precise experience-related mechanisms by which caregiving experiences influence corticolimbic development is essential for refining conceptual models and understanding risk and resilience following early adversity.

Keywords: adolescence; adversity; brain development; caregiving; childhood; corticolimbic circuitry; stress.

Figure 1.. Caregiver influences on corticolimbic circuitry related to emotion regulation across development.

Cross-species evidence suggests a sensitive period during infancy through which caregiving has particularly strong influences on corticolimbic development (including mPFC-amygdala connectivity) and longer-term emotional behavior. Caregivers regulate amygdala function during infancy (demonstrated in rodents, hypothesized in humans) and childhood (demonstrated in humans), and not in adolescence. The shift away from reliance on caregivers for extrinsic regulation may be accompanied by increased capacity for intrinsic emotion regulation around the transition to adolescence. Social buffering continues across the lifespan, with different primary attachment figures potentially serving a regulatory function at distinct developmental stages. Due to heightened plasticity to caregiving influences early in life, severe disruptions in caregiving during infancy may interfere with learning reliable, safe caregiver cues in a way that interferes with normative caregiver shaping of emotional learning and regulation later in development. Adapted with permission from Gee, 2016.