Racial Discrimination and Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Salience Network Nodes in Trauma-Exposed Black Adults in the United States

Webb, E. Kate; Bird, Claire; deRoon‐Cassini, Terri; Weis, Carissa; Huggins, Ashley A.; Fitzgerald, Jacklynn M.; Miskovich, Tara A.; Bennett, Kenneth P.; Krukowski, Jessica; Torres, Lucas; Larson, Christine L.

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.44759

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…As expected, there were significant ethnoracial differences in neighborhood disadvantage. Future work should continue to investigate how structural inequities are associated with threat processing and consider interactions between other racism-related stressors (eg, racial discrimination), which have been shown to be associated with changes in the insula and ACC . Together, our findings suggest that exposure to neighborhood disadvantage may be associated with increased neural readiness to respond to threat via modification of ACC and insula reactivity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Neural Correlates of Threat and Reward Processing in Survivors of Recent Trauma

Webb,

Ely,

Rowland

et al. 2023

JAMA Netw Open

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ImportanceDifferences in neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics are important considerations in understanding differences in risk vs resilience in mental health. Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with alterations in the function and structure of threat neurocircuitry.ObjectiveTo investigate associations of neighborhood disadvantage with white and gray matter and neural reactivity to positive and negative stimuli in the context of trauma exposure.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsIn this cross-sectional study, survivors of trauma who completed sociodemographic and posttraumatic symptom assessments and neuroimaging were recruited as part of the Advancing Understanding of Recovery After Trauma (AURORA) study between September 2017 and June 2021. Data analysis was performed from October 25, 2022, to February 15, 2023.ExposureNeighborhood disadvantage was measured with the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) for each participant home address.Main Outcomes and MeasuresParticipants completed separate threat and reward tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Diffusion-weighted and high-resolution structural images were also collected. Linear models assessed the association of ADI with reactivity, microstructure, and macrostructure of a priori regions of interest after adjusting for income, lifetime trauma, sex at birth, and age. A moderated-mediation model tested whether ADI was associated with neural activity via microstructural changes and if this was modulated by PTSD symptoms.ResultsA total of 280 participants (183 females [65.4%]; mean [SD] age, 35.39 [13.29] years) completed the threat task and 244 participants (156 females [63.9%]; mean [SD] age, 35.10 [13.26] years) completed the reward task. Higher ADI (per 1-unit increase) was associated with greater insula (t274 = 3.20; β = 0.20; corrected P = .008) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; t274 = 2.56; β = 0.16; corrected P = .04) threat-related activity after considering covariates, but ADI was not associated with reward reactivity. Greater disadvantage was also associated with altered microstructure of the cingulum bundle (t274 = 3.48; β = 0.21; corrected P = .001) and gray matter morphology of the ACC (cortical thickness: t273 = −2.29; β = −0.13; corrected P = .02; surface area: t273 = 2.53; β = 0.13; corrected P = .02). The moderated-mediation model revealed that ADI was associated with ACC threat reactivity via cingulum microstructural changes (index of moderated mediation = −0.02). However, this mediation was only present in individuals with greater PTSD symptom severity (at the mean: β = −0.17; standard error = 0.06, t= −2.28; P = .007; at 1 SD above the mean: β = −0.28; standard error = 0.08; t = −3.35; P &lt; .001).Conclusions and RelevanceIn this study, neighborhood disadvantage was associated with neurobiology that supports threat processing, revealing associations of neighborhood disadvantage with neural susceptibility for PTSD and suggesting how altered structure-function associations may complicate symptoms. Future work should investigate specific components of neighborhood disadvantage that may be associated with these outcomes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Neural Correlates of Threat and Reward Processing in Survivors of Recent Trauma

Webb,

Ely,

Rowland

et al. 2023

JAMA Netw Open

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“…Participants were drawn from a larger longitudinal study examining risk and resilience markers for the development of PTSD after injury (Bird et al., 2021; Webb et al., 2021, 2022; Weis, et al., 2021; Weis, Huggins, et al., 2021; Weis, Webb, et al., 2022). Participants for the larger study were recruited from a Level 1 trauma center in a city in the midwestern United States following treatment and discharge from the emergency department (ED) after experiencing a traumatic injury.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Event centrality and posttraumatic stress symptoms after traumatic injury: A longitudinal investigation

Stevens

Timmer-Murillo

Tomas

et al. 2022

Journal of Traumatic Stress

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The development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) can occur following a traumatic injury, which may include an increase in negative cognitions. One cognitive construct shown to be associated with the development of PTSS is event centrality, or the degree to which an individual views a traumatic experience as central to their life story. Although cross‐sectional work has demonstrated a robust connection between event centrality and PTSS, the directionality of this association remains unclear. Most previous work has investigated centrality as a predictor of PTSS, although one recent study suggests that PTSS may, in fact, predict event centrality. The current longitudinal study enrolled adult civilian participants (N = 191) from a Level 1 trauma center following a traumatic injury and assessed both event centrality and PTSS at three points posttrauma (3, 12, and 18 months). A time‐constrained random intercept cross‐lagged panel analysis showed that PTSS predicted event centrality over the 18‐month follow‐up period, B = 0.16, p = .021, but event centrality did not predict PTSS, B = ‐0.27, p = .340. These findings suggest that the development of PTSS following trauma exposure may lead to the perception of the traumatic event as central to an individual's story over time. Further longitudinal research is necessary to determine what variables may influence the connection between PTSS and event centrality.

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“…Mounting evidence shows the effects of lived experiences on psychological processes ( Torres et al, 2011 ; Berger and Sarnyai, 2015 ; Harnett et al, 2019 ; Mekawi et al, 2020 ; Bird et al, 2021 ; Fani et al, 2021 , 2022 ; Webb et al, 2022b ). As such, methodological tools can both be subject to bias against certain phenotypes shared by marginalized races and capture individual differences resulting from experiences that may co-vary with those phenotypes.…”

Section: Bias In Neuroscientific Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equity, diversity, and inclusion in developmental neuroscience: Practical lessons from community-based participatory research

Scala¹,

Mullins²,

Firat³

et al. 2023

Front. Integr. Neurosci.

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Exclusion of racialized minorities in neuroscience directly harms communities and potentially leads to biased prevention and intervention approaches. As magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other neuroscientific techniques offer progressive insights into the neurobiological underpinnings of mental health research agendas, it is incumbent on us as researchers to pay careful attention to issues of diversity and representation as they apply in neuroscience research. Discussions around these issues are based largely on scholarly expert opinion without actually involving the community under study. In contrast, community-engaged approaches, specifically Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), actively involve the population of interest in the research process and require collaboration and trust between community partners and researchers. This paper outlines a community-engaged neuroscience approach for the development of our developmental neuroscience study on mental health outcomes in preadolescent Latina youth. We focus on “positionality” (the multiple social positions researchers and the community members hold) and “reflexivity” (the ways these positions affect the research process) as conceptual tools from social sciences and humanities. We propose that integrating two unique tools: a positionality map and Community Advisory Board (CAB) into a CBPR framework can counter the biases in human neuroscience research by making often invisible–or taken-for-granted power dynamics visible and bolstering equitable participation of diverse communities in scientific research. We discuss the benefits and challenges of incorporating a CBPR method in neuroscience research with an illustrative example of a CAB from our lab, and highlight key generalizable considerations in research design, implementation, and dissemination that we hope are useful for scholars wishing to take similar approaches.

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Racial Discrimination and Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Salience Network Nodes in Trauma-Exposed Black Adults in the United States

Cited by 25 publications

References 99 publications

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Neural Correlates of Threat and Reward Processing in Survivors of Recent Trauma

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Neural Correlates of Threat and Reward Processing in Survivors of Recent Trauma

Event centrality and posttraumatic stress symptoms after traumatic injury: A longitudinal investigation

Equity, diversity, and inclusion in developmental neuroscience: Practical lessons from community-based participatory research

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