Zhu J, et al. - Through a cohort study of 202 young adults, researchers recognized the type and age of exposure to childhood maltreatment that was related to hyperactive and hypoactive amygdala responses in young adulthood. Fifty-two of the 202 individuals reported no exposure to maltreatment and 150 reported exposure to one or more maltreatment types. Eight individuals with a Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure (MACE) score of 0 and 51 with a MACE score of more or greater had a history of major depression, eight unexposed individuals and 46 with MACE scores of one or greater had a history of one or more anxiety disorders. Retrospective self-report of physical maltreatment and peer emotional abuse between 3 and 6 years of age and at 13 and 15 years, respectively, were correlated with amygdala activation to emotional faces vs shapes. Early exposure was related to blunted response, whereas later exposure was correlated with the augmented response. Prepubertal vs postpubertal maltreatment was related to an opposite response on the voxelwise response pattern in clustering stimuli of the same type and in differentiating between stimuli of various types. Hence, prepubertal vs postpubertal developmental variations in the relationship between maltreatment and amygdala response to threatening or salient stimuli existed. Knowing the role of adversity in various sensitive exposure periods and the potential adaptive importance of attenuated vs enhanced amygdala response may aid in clarifying why maltreatment may be a risk factor for many varied disorders and foster the creation of targeted interventions to obtain the emergence of psychopathology in at-risk youths.