Neural correlates of anxiety in rhesus macaques exposed to early social adversity: A longitudinal DTI study across adolescence.

Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and behavioral observation, this study investigated the longitudinal effects of early social adversity (ESA) on risk for anxiety and the neural mechanisms underlying this relationship across adolescence. Diffusion MRI data were collected from 21 macaques comprising two groups that differed in exposure to ESA; mother-reared and nursery-reared. Each monkey was scanned at 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 years old, with anxiety-like behavior assessed at each time-point. Results suggest that ESA has long-term effects on WM fractional anisotropy (FA) in several regions, with differences in frontolimbic and frontostriatal WM tracts modulating the relationship between ESA and anxiety .