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Emotion‐related brain organization and behavioral responses to socioemotional stimuli in pediatric cancer survivors with posttraumatic stress symptoms
Author(s) -
Marusak Hilary A.,
Iadipaolo Allesandra S.,
Paulisin Shelley,
Harper Felicity W.,
Taub Jeffrey W.,
Dulay Kristopher,
Elrahal Farrah,
Peters Craig,
SalaHamrick Kelsey,
Crespo Laura M.,
Rabinak Christine A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.27470
Subject(s) - socioemotional selectivity theory , amygdala , cancer survivor , cancer , mediation , medicine , psychology , clinical psychology , neuroscience , political science , law
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.