What is it about?
Fronto-amygdala and fronto-hippocampus circuits are crucial for emotion regulation and cognition. Nonetheless, we don't fully understand how they develop. We show that the circuits become unique and specialized across maturation. Specifically, the more cognition-related hippocampus circuit matures rapidly after birth, while the stress-related amygdala circuit shows protracted development even continuing in young adulthood.
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Why is it important?
We outline distinct windows of plasticity or vulnerability for the frontolimbic circuit, which is important both in health and disease. Early childhood is pivotal for ensuring healthy cognition, while the emotion-related circuit remains susceptible to stressful life events even in young adulthood.
Perspectives
Brain development can be highly complex and difficult to understand. I hope this article provides a clearer insight into some aspects of brain development that previously remained inconclusive. For parents, clinicians, lawmakers, and growing minds, this work is hopefully another reason to take a lifespan development perspective. That means acknowledging that maturation can be an ongoing process, with distinct paces for diverse dimensions of life.
Wonyoung Kim
University of Melbourne
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Differentiation of frontolimbic functional connectivity from birth to early adulthood links with adversity exposure and cognition, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2600520123.
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