Infancy amygdala and prefrontal cortex grow significantly
Question asked:
“During infancy, the brain's emotional areas, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, experience significant growth.”
Summary
In infancy, both the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex undergo rapid structural and functional development, with the frontal lobe showing the fastest rate of gray‑matter growth and newborn amygdala connectivity influencing early emotional responses. This significant growth of emotional brain regions during the first months of life is well documented in the scientific literature.
Sources 56 searched
- Maturation of the adolescent brain - PMC - NIH
There are several executive functions of the human prefrontal cortex that remain under construction during adolescence, as illustrated in Figures 3 and 4. The fact that brain development is not complete until near the age of 25 years refers specifically to the development of the prefrontal ...
- Early developmental emergence of human amygdala–prefrontal connectivity after maternal deprivation - PMC
Accelerated amygdala–prefrontal ... fMRI, emotion regulation, stress, neurodevelopment · Under typical conditions, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) connections with the amygdala are immature during childhood and become adult-like during adolescence....
- Rapid Infant Prefrontal Cortex Development and Sensitivity to Early Environmental Experience - PMC
Multiple structural MRI studies with newborns and young infants have failed to document the expected adult pattern of prefrontal structural asymmetry (where the right hemisphere is greater than the left in adults and older children) (Gilmore et al., 2007; Li, Nie, et al., 2014; Matsuzawa et al., 2001; Tanaka, Matsui, Uematsu, Noguchi, & Miyawaki, 2013), which may reflect the relative structural immaturity of the newborn prefrontal cortex. Cross-sectional studies (Nishida et al., 2006) of infants born between 31–42 weeks gestation and imaged in the first months of life have reported that the fastest rate of cortical gray matter growth occurs in the frontal lobe of the brain (4.44 ml/week), followed by the parietal (2.93 ml/week), temporal (2.29 ml/week), occipital (2.40 ml/week) and limbic regions (.58 ml/week).
- An epigenetic mechanism for differential maturation of amygdala–prefrontal connectivity in childhood socio-emotional development | Translational Psychiatry
Functional connectivity between ... regulation that undergoes changes throughout development, with a mature profile typically emerging at 10 years of age....
- Developmental changes in functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala following fear extinction - ScienceDirect
Extinction was not associated with changes in extinction-related plasticity in the PL-amygdala pathways in any age group. No changes were seen in LII/III of the IL, but extinction-related plasticity in LV amygdala-projecting IL neurons decreased ...
- Newborn amygdala connectivity and early emerging fear - ScienceDirect
Here, we investigate newborn Am-Ins ... Questionnaire (ECBQ) (N=62). Stronger newborn amygdala connectivity predicts higher fear and sadness at 6-months-of-age and less change from 6 to 24-months-of-age....
- Alterations in amygdala-prefrontal circuits in infants exposed to prenatal maternal depression - PubMed
Regions in purple/fuchsia indicate differences in connectivity strength in N-PMD versus PMD infants. Box plots (right column) demonstrate that relative to N-PMD infants, exposed infants (PMD) show increased inverse connectivity between the left amygdala and the dPFC and between the right amygdala and the midcingulate cortex/prefrontal cortex (MCC/PFC).
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