A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Neonatal amygdala and fear processing across early childhood




AuthorsHashempour, Niloofar; Tuulari, Jetro J.; Merisaari, Harri; Lewis, John D.; Nolvi, Saara; Häikiö, Tuomo; Scheinin, Noora M.; Korja, Riikka; Karlsson, Hasse; Karlsson, Linnea; Kataja, Eeva-Leena

PublisherSpringer Nature

Publication year2026

Journal: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

ISSN1018-8827

eISSN1435-165X

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-026-03041-3

Publication's open availability at the time of reportingOpen Access

Publication channel's open availability Partially Open Access publication channel

Web address https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-026-03041-3

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/523194605

Self-archived copy's licenceCC BY

Self-archived copy's versionPublisher`s PDF


Abstract

The amygdala plays a crucial role in emotional processing, particularly in detecting threat-related stimuli and regulating responses to them. Fear processing is a vital function emerging during the latter half of the first postnatal year and becomes progressively more regulated and context-dependent with maturation across early childhood. The neural underpinnings of early-emerging individual differences in fear processing remain underexplored. Our previous study showed an association between newborn left amygdala volume and increased disengagement from fearful vs. non-fearful faces at 8 months. This study builds on our previous findings by extending the analysis longitudinally. We investigated whether neonatal amygdala volume and microstructural properties, indexed by mean diffusivity, are associated with attentional biases toward fearful faces at 30 and 60 months. Neonatal MRI was acquired at 2–8 weeks of age using 3T MRI. The same cohort completed eye-tracking at follow-ups (n = 57 at 30 months; n = 54 at 60 months). Our results show that larger newborn left amygdala volume was associated with decreased disengagement from fearful (vs. non-fearful) faces at 30 months (p = .041), but not at 60 months (p = .553). Moreover, sex-specific analyses indicated that higher mean diffusivity in the left amygdala was associated with lower fear bias at 60 months in boys (p = .046). These findings highlight the dynamic nature of amygdala-related fear processing across early development. Associations between neonatal amygdala characteristics and fear bias appeared age-dependent and sex-specific, consistent with developmental changes in fear processing, with fear bias typically elevated in infancy and becoming less pronounced by around five years of age.


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Funding information in the publication
Open Access funding provided by University of Turku (including Turku University Central Hospital).


Last updated on 08/05/2026 03:14:31 PM