Preliminary examination of the effects of an early parenting intervention on amygdala-orbitofrontal cortex resting-state functional connectivity among high-risk children: A randomized clinical trial

Abstract

We examined the long-term causal effects of an evidence-based parenting program delivered in infancy on children's emotion regulation and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) during middle childhood. Families were referred to the study by Child Protective Services (CPS) as part of a diversion from a foster care program. A low-risk group of families was also recruited. CPS-involved families were randomly assigned to receive the target (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up, ABC) or a control intervention (Developmental Education for Families, DEF) before infants turned 2. Both interventions were home-based, manualized, and 10-sessions long. During middle childhood, children underwent a 6-min resting-state functional MRI scan. Amygdala seed-based rs-fc analysis was completed with intervention group as the group-level predictor of interest. Fifty-seven children (N_ABC = 21; N_DEF = 17; N_COMP = 19; M_age = 10.02 years, range = 8.08-12.14) were scanned successfully. The DEF group evidenced negative left amygdala↔OFC connectivity, whereas connectivity was near zero in the ABC and comparison groups (ABCvsDEF: Cohen's d = 1.17). ABC may enhance high-risk children's regulatory neurobiology outcomes ∼8 years after the intervention was completed.

Keywords: Parenting intervention; adversity; amygdala↔OFC functional connectivity; emotion regulation; imaging; resting-state.

Figure 1.

Intervention effects and cluster-masked mean estimates. (a) Location of the significant rs-fc cluster that survived multiple comparisons correction indicated with red. The blue area denotes the coverage of the Julich-Brain probabilistic OFC mask that was used. R=right. (b) Bar plot with overlaid distribution plot of cluster parameter estimates. The values correspond to the extracted rs-fc values at the OFC region where the significant intervention effect was found between the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC), Developmental Education for Families (DEF), and low-risk comparison (COMP) groups.