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Ferschmann L, Grydeland H, MacSweeney N, Beck D, Bos MGN, Norbom LB, Aksnes ER, Bekkhus M, Havdahl A, Crone EA, von Soest T, Tamnes CK. The importance of timing of socioeconomic disadvantage throughout development for depressive symptoms and brain structure. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 69:101449. [PMID: 39303431 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2024] [Revised: 06/28/2024] [Accepted: 09/10/2024] [Indexed: 09/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Prior studies have reported associations between socioeconomic disadvantage, brain structure and mental health outcomes, but the timing of these relations is not well understood. Using prospective longitudinal data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), this preregistered study examined whether socioeconomic disadvantage related differentially to depressive symptoms (n=3012-3530) and cortical and subcortical structures (n=460-733) in emerging adults, depending on the timing of exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage. Family income in early childhood and own income measured concurrently were both significantly related to depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood. Similar results were observed for perceived financial strain. In contrast, only family income in early childhood was associated with brain structure in emerging adulthood, with positive associations with intracranial volume and total and regional cortical surface area. The findings suggest that both objective and subjective aspects of one's financial standing throughout development relate to depressive symptoms in adulthood, but that specifically early life family income is related to brain structural features in emerging adulthood. This suggests that associations between socioeconomic disadvantage and brain structure originate early in neurodevelopment, highlighting the role of timing of socioeconomic disadvantage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lia Ferschmann
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
| | - Håkon Grydeland
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Niamh MacSweeney
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Dani Beck
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Marieke G N Bos
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Linn B Norbom
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Eira R Aksnes
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Mona Bekkhus
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Alexandra Havdahl
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Eveline A Crone
- Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Tilmann von Soest
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Christian K Tamnes
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
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Kang E, Yun B, Cha J, Suk HI, Shin EK. Neurodevelopmental imprints of sociomarkers in adolescent brain connectomes. Sci Rep 2024; 14:20921. [PMID: 39251706 PMCID: PMC11385853 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-71309-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2024] [Accepted: 08/27/2024] [Indexed: 09/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Neural consequences of social disparities are not yet rigorously investigated. How socioeconomic conditions influence children's connectome development remains unknown. This paper endeavors to gauge how precisely the connectome structure of the brain can predict an individual's social environment, thereby inversely assessing how social influences are engraved in the neural development of the Adolescent brain. Utilizing Adolescent Brain and Cognition Development (ABCD) data (9099 children residing in the United States), we found that social conditions both at the household and neighborhood levels are significantly associated with specific neural connections. Solely with brain connectome data, we train a linear support vector machine (SVM) to predict socio-economic conditions of those adolescents. The classification performance generally improves when the thresholds of the advantageous and disadvantageous environments compartmentalize the extreme cases. Among the tested thresholds, the 20th and 80th percentile thresholds using the dual combination of household income and neighborhood education yielded the highest Area Under the Precision-Recall Curve (AUPRC) of 0.8224. We identified 8 significant connections that critically contribute to predicting social environments in the parietal lobe and frontal lobe. Insights into social factors that contribute to early brain connectome development is critical to mitigate the disadvantages of children growing up in unfavorable neighborhoods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eunsong Kang
- Department of Brain Cognitive Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Byungyeon Yun
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Jiook Cha
- Department of Psychology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Heung-Il Suk
- Department of Artificial Intelligence, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
| | - Eun Kyong Shin
- Department of Sociology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
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Ku B, Yuan Q, Christensen GM, Dimitrov L, Risk B, Huels A. Exposure profiles of social-environmental neighborhood factors and psychotic-like experiences. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.08.21.24312315. [PMID: 39228699 PMCID: PMC11370530 DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.21.24312315] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/05/2024]
Abstract
Importance Recent research has demonstrated that domains of social determinants of health (SDOH) (e.g., air pollution and social context) are associated with psychosis. However, SDOHs have often been studied in isolation. Objective To identify distinct exposure profiles, estimate their associations with persistent distressing psychotic-like experiences (PLE), and evaluate whether involvement with physical activities partially explains this association. Design Setting and Participants This population-based study used data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Participants were recruited from 22 US sites between September 2016 and January 2022. Data from baseline and three follow-ups were included. Exposures Area-level geocoded variables spanning various domains of SDOH, including socioeconomic status (SES), education, crime, built environment, social context, and crime, were clustered using a self-organizing map method to identify exposure profiles. Main Outcomes and Measures Persistent distressing PLE was derived from the Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief Child Version across four years. Generalized linear mixed modeling tested the association between exposure profiles and persistent distressing PLE as well as physical activities (i.e., team and individual sports), adjusting for individual-level covariates including age, sex, race/ethnicity, highest level of parent education, family-relatedness, and study sites. Results Among 8,145 participants (baseline mean [SD] age, 9.92 [0.63] years; 3,868 (47.5%) females; 5,566 (68.3%) White, 956 (11.7%) Black, 159 (2.0%) Asian, and 1,480 (18.4%) Hispanic participants), five exposure profiles were identified. Compared to the reference Profile 1 (suburban affluent areas, 2521 children, 30.9%), Profile 3 (rural areas with low walkability and high ozone; 1459 children, 17.9%; adjusted OR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.09-1.64) and Profile 4 (urban areas with high SES deprivation, high crime, and high pollution; 715 children, 8.8%; adjusted OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.08-1.81), were associated with persistent distressing PLE. Team sports mediated 6.14% of the association for Profile 3. Conclusion and Relevance This study found that neighborhoods characterized by rural areas with low walkability and urban areas with high socioeconomic deprivation, air pollutants, and crime were associated with persistent distressing PLE. Further research is needed to explore the pathways through which different environmental factors may impact the development of psychosis.
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Ertel KA, Okuzono SS, Beyer LN, Pintro K, Cuevas AG, Slopen N. Neighborhood Opportunity and Obesity in Early Adolescence: Differential Associations by Sex. J Adolesc Health 2024; 75:314-322. [PMID: 38852089 DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2024.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2023] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 04/04/2024] [Indexed: 06/10/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE Though research indicates that certain aspects of adverse neighborhood conditions may influence weight development in childhood and adolescence, it is unknown if the Child Opportunity Index (COI), a composite measure of 29 indicators of neighborhood conditions, is associated with weight outcomes in adolescence. We hypothesized that lower COI would be associated with higher overweight and obesity in cross-sectional and longitudinal modeling in a national sample of 9 year olds and 10 year olds and that this association would be different by sex. METHODS Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (n = 11,857), we examined the cross-sectional association between COI quintile and overweight and obesity in 9 year olds and 10 year olds. Additionally, we used hazard ratios to examine incident overweight and obesity across three waves of data collection. RESULTS Due to the interaction between sex and COI (p < .05), we present sex-specific models. There was a stepwise bivariate association, in which higher COI was associated with lower obesity prevalence. This pattern held in multilevel models, with a stronger association in females. In models adjusted for individual and household characteristics, female adolescents in the lowest quintile COI neighborhoods had 1.81 (95% confidence interval: 1.32, 2.48) times the odds of obesity compared to those in the highest quintile. In longitudinal models, the COI was associated with incident obesity in females only: adjusted hazard ratio = 4.27 (95% confidence interval: 1.50, 12.13) for lowest compared to highest COI. DISCUSSION Neighborhood opportunity is associated with risk of obesity in pre-adolescence into mid-adolescence. Females may be particularly influenced by neighborhood conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen A Ertel
- Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts.
| | - Sakurako S Okuzono
- Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Logan Nicole Beyer
- Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Kedie Pintro
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Adolfo G Cuevas
- Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, New York University School of Global Public Health, New York, New York; Center for Anti-racism, Social Justice, and Public Health, New York University School of Global Public Health, New York, New York
| | - Natalie Slopen
- Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Iverson IA, Gaudet CE, Cook NE, Iverson GL. Social Determinants of Health and Perceived Cognitive Difficulties in High School Students in the United States. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2024; 39:575-585. [PMID: 38237639 DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acad100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 07/26/2024] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted the Adolescent Behavior and Experiences Survey (ABES) to examine disruption and adversity during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the association between social determinants of health (SDoH) and cognitive problems attributed to physical or mental health problems among high school students. METHOD The ABES was an online survey. Perceived cognitive problems were assessed with the question: "Because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem, do you have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?" A SDoH index was created by summing endorsements to 12 variables. RESULTS Participants were 6,992 students, age 14-18, with 3,294 boys (47%) and 3,698 girls (53%). Many adolescents reported experiencing cognitive problems (i.e., 45%), with girls (56%) more likely to report cognitive difficulties than boys (33%) [χ2(1) = 392.55, p < 0.001]. Having poor mental health was strongly associated with cognitive problems in both girls [81%, χ2(1, 3680) = 650.20, p < 0.001] and boys [67%, χ2(1, 3267) = 418.69, p < 0.001]. There was a positive, linear association between the number of SDoH experienced and reporting cognitive problems. Binary logistic regressions were used to identify predictors of cognitive difficulty for both boys and girls (e.g., being bullied electronically, experiencing food insecurity during the pandemic, being treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity, and being in a physical fight). CONCLUSIONS A strikingly high proportion of adolescents reported experiencing problems with their cognitive functioning. After adjusting for current mental health problems, several SDoH remained associated with adolescents' reported cognitive difficulties, including experiencing racism, bullying, parental job loss, and food insecurity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ila A Iverson
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Charles E Gaudet
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Mass General for Children Sports Concussion Program, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Nathan E Cook
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Mass General for Children Sports Concussion Program, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Grant L Iverson
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Mass General for Children Sports Concussion Program, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Schoen Adams Research Institute at Spaulding Rehabilitation, Charlestown, MA, USA
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Harnett NG, Merrill LC, Fani N. Racial and ethnic socioenvironmental inequity and neuroimaging in psychiatry: a brief review of the past and recommendations for the future. Neuropsychopharmacology 2024:10.1038/s41386-024-01901-7. [PMID: 38902354 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-024-01901-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2024] [Revised: 06/04/2024] [Accepted: 06/05/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024]
Abstract
Neuroimaging is a major tool that holds immense translational potential for understanding psychiatric disorder phenomenology and treatment. However, although epidemiological and social research highlights the many ways inequity and representativeness influences mental health, there is a lack of consideration of how such issues may impact neuroimaging features in psychiatric research. More specifically, the potential extent to which racialized inequities may affect underlying neurobiology and impact the generalizability of neural models of disorders is unclear. The present review synthesizes research focused on understanding the potential consequences of racial/ethnic inequities relevant to neuroimaging in psychiatry. We first discuss historical and contemporary drivers of inequities that persist today. We then discuss the neurobiological consequences of these inequities as revealed through current research, and note emergent research demonstrating the impact such inequities have on our ability to use neuroimaging to understand psychiatric disease. We end with a set of recommendations and practices to move the field towards more equitable approaches that will advance our abilities to develop truly generalizable neurobiological models of psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathaniel G Harnett
- Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Livia C Merrill
- Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Negar Fani
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
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Harnett NG, Fani N, Rowland G, Kumar P, Rutherford S, Nickerson LD. Population-level normative models reveal race- and socioeconomic-related variability in cortical thickness of threat neurocircuitry. Commun Biol 2024; 7:745. [PMID: 38898062 PMCID: PMC11187116 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06436-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Accepted: 06/11/2024] [Indexed: 06/21/2024] Open
Abstract
The inequitable distribution of economic resources and exposure to adversity between racial groups contributes to mental health disparities within the United States. Consideration of the potential neurodevelopmental consequences, however, has been limited particularly for neurocircuitry known to regulate the emotional response to threat. Characterizing the consequences of inequity on threat neurocircuitry is critical for robust and generalizable neurobiological models of psychiatric illness. Here we use data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study 4.0 release to investigate the contributions of individual and neighborhood-level economic resources and exposure to discrimination. We investigate the potential appearance of race-related differences using both standard methods and through population-level normative modeling. We show that, in a sample of white and Black adolescents, racial inequities in socioeconomic factors largely contribute to the appearance of race-related differences in cortical thickness of threat neurocircuitry. The race-related differences are preserved through the use of population-level models and such models also preserve associations between cortical thickness and specific socioeconomic factors. The present findings highlight that such socioeconomic inequities largely underlie race-related differences in brain morphology. The present findings provide important new insight for the generation of generalizable neurobiological models of psychiatric illness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathaniel G Harnett
- Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Negar Fani
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Grace Rowland
- Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
| | - Poornima Kumar
- Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- McLean Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
| | - Saige Rutherford
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Donders Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Lisa D Nickerson
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- McLean Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
- Applied Neuroimaging Statistics Research Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
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Baranyi G, Buchanan CR, Conole ELS, Backhouse EV, Maniega SM, Valdés Hernández MDC, Bastin ME, Wardlaw J, Deary IJ, Cox SR, Pearce J. Life-course neighbourhood deprivation and brain structure in older adults: the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. Mol Psychiatry 2024:10.1038/s41380-024-02591-9. [PMID: 38773266 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-024-02591-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Revised: 04/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/23/2024]
Abstract
Neighbourhood disadvantage may be associated with brain health but the importance of exposure at different stages of the life course is poorly understood. Utilising the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, we explored the relationship between residential neighbourhood deprivation from birth to late adulthood, and global and local neuroimaging measures at age 73. A total of 689 participants had at least one valid brain measures (53% male); to maximise the sample size structural equation models with full information maximum likelihood were conducted. Residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in mid- to late adulthood was associated with smaller total brain (β = -0.06; SE = 0.02; sample size[N] = 658; number of pairwise complete observations[n]=390), grey matter (β = -0.11; SE = 0.03; N = 658; n = 390), and normal-appearing white matter volumes (β = -0.07; SE = 0.03; N = 658; n = 390), thinner cortex (β = -0.14; SE = 0.06; N = 636; n = 379), and lower general white matter fractional anisotropy (β = -0.19; SE = 0.06; N = 665; n = 388). We also found some evidence on the accumulating impact of neighbourhood deprivation from birth to late adulthood on age 73 total brain (β = -0.06; SE = 0.02; N = 658; n = 276) and grey matter volumes (β = -0.10; SE = 0.04; N = 658; n = 276). Local analysis identified affected focal cortical areas and specific white matter tracts. Among individuals belonging to lower social classes, the brain-neighbourhood associations were particularly strong, with the impact of neighbourhood deprivation on total brain and grey matter volumes, and general white matter fractional anisotropy accumulating across the life course. Our findings suggest that living in deprived neighbourhoods across the life course, but especially in mid- to late adulthood, is associated with adverse brain morphologies, with lower social class amplifying the vulnerability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gergő Baranyi
- Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health, School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
| | - Colin R Buchanan
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Eleanor L S Conole
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Ellen V Backhouse
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Susana Muñoz Maniega
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Edinburgh Imaging, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - María Del C Valdés Hernández
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Edinburgh Imaging, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Mark E Bastin
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Edinburgh Imaging, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Joanna Wardlaw
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Edinburgh Imaging, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Ian J Deary
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Simon R Cox
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Jamie Pearce
- Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health, School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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Elansary M, Wei WS, Pierce LJ, McCoy DC, Nelson CA. Association of Neighborhood Opportunity with Infant Brain Activity and Cognitive Development. J Dev Behav Pediatr 2024; 45:e217-e224. [PMID: 38347666 DOI: 10.1097/dbp.0000000000001249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/22/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with lower neurocognitive scores and differences in brain structure among school-age children. Associations between positive neighborhood characteristics, infant brain activity, and cognitive development are underexplored. We examined direct and indirect associations between neighborhood opportunity, brain activity, and cognitive development. METHODS This longitudinal cohort study included infants from 2 primary care clinics in Boston and Los Angeles. Using a sample of 65 infants, we estimated path models to examine associations between neighborhood opportunity (measured by the Child Opportunity Index), infant electroencephalography (EEG) at 6 months, and infant cognitive development (measured using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning) at 12 months. A mediation model tested whether EEG power explained associations between neighborhood opportunity and infant cognition. RESULTS Neighborhood opportunity positively predicted infant absolute EEG power across multiple frequency bands: low ( b = 0.12, 95% CI 0.01-0.24, p = 0.04, = 0.21); high ( b = 0.11, 95% CI 0.01-0.21, p = 0.03, = 0.23); ( b = 0.10, 95% CI 0.00-0.19, p = 0.04, = 0.20); and ( b = 0.12, 95% CI 0.02-0.22, p = 0.02, = 0.24). The results remained statistically significant after applying a Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate of 0.10 to adjust for multiple comparisons. No significant associations emerged between neighborhood opportunity, relative EEG power, and infant cognition. Mediation was not significant. CONCLUSION Neighborhood opportunity is positively associated with some forms of infant brain activity, suggesting that positive neighborhood characteristics may play a salient role in early development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mei Elansary
- Department of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
| | - Wendy S Wei
- Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
| | - Lara J Pierce
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA; and
| | - Dana C McCoy
- Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
| | - Charles A Nelson
- Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA; and
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
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10
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Polemiti E, Hese S, Schepanski K, Yuan J, Schumann G. How does the macroenvironment influence brain and behaviour-a review of current status and future perspectives. Mol Psychiatry 2024:10.1038/s41380-024-02557-x. [PMID: 38658771 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-024-02557-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2023] [Revised: 04/03/2024] [Accepted: 04/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
The environment influences brain and mental health, both detrimentally and beneficially. Existing research has emphasised the individual psychosocial 'microenvironment'. Less attention has been paid to 'macroenvironmental' challenges, including climate change, pollution, urbanicity, and socioeconomic disparity. Notably, the implications of climate and pollution on brain and mental health have only recently gained prominence. With the advent of large-scale big-data cohorts and an increasingly dense mapping of macroenvironmental parameters, we are now in a position to characterise the relation between macroenvironment, brain, and behaviour across different geographic and cultural locations globally. This review synthesises findings from recent epidemiological and neuroimaging studies, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing evidence between the macroenvironment and the structure and functions of the brain, with a particular emphasis on its implications for mental illness. We discuss putative underlying mechanisms and address the most common exposures of the macroenvironment. Finally, we identify critical areas for future research to enhance our understanding of the aetiology of mental illness and to inform effective interventions for healthier environments and mental health promotion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elli Polemiti
- Centre of Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience CCM, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Sören Hese
- Institute of Geography, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | | | - Jiacan Yuan
- Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences & Institute of Atmospheric Sciences & CMA-FDU Joint Laboratory of Marine Meteorology & IRDR-ICOE on Risk Interconnectivity and Governance on Weather/Climate Extremes Impact and Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Gunter Schumann
- Centre of Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience CCM, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
- Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Institute for Science and Technology of Brain-inspired Intelligence (ISTBI), Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
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Cai Q, Qian M, Chen M. Association between socioeconomic status and post-stroke depression in middle-aged and older adults: results from the China health and retirement longitudinal study. BMC Public Health 2024; 24:1007. [PMID: 38605383 PMCID: PMC11010318 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-18503-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Post-stroke depression (PSD) is a common neuropsychiatric complication that affects approximately one-third of stroke patients. The treatment and prognosis of this disease are poor. Socioeconomic status (SES) is closely related to health outcomes; however, only a few previous studies have focused on the association between SES and PSD. Given the substantial population of stroke patients in China, it is crucial to examine the potential risk factors associated with PSD. Conducting studies on this population and investigating the influence of economic conditions can provide valuable guiding theoretical insights into PSD prevention and management. METHODS We used data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study and selected appropriate samples for analysis. Depression was estimated using the Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-10, a validated tool for assessing depression in the general population. Multiple logistic regression analysis was employed to assess the association between SES and PSD and to evaluate any urban-rural differences. RESULTS Of the 749 respondents, 370 (49.4%) had depression. Stroke patients with a middle school education demonstrated a greater risk of developing depression than those with a primary school education or below after adjusting for all control variables (odds ratio (OR) = 1.60, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-2.51, P = 0.036). However, stroke patients with a high school education or above had a lower risk of developing depression than those with a primary school education or below (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.28-0.88, P = 0.016). In rural areas, stroke patients with a high school or above education level had lower rates of depression than those with a primary school education or below (OR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.21-0.91, P = 0.027). This difference was not significant in urban areas. CONCLUSIONS SES significantly influences the occurrence of PSD, which is reflected by education attainment and annual household expenditures. Education attainment was an independent influence on PSD, with a more pronounced effect in rural versus urban areas. We hope to reduce the prevalence of PSD and enhance the comprehensive management of this disease by modifying the influencing factors. Sex, self-reported health status, activities of daily living, night-time sleep duration, and life satisfaction also influenced the occurrence of PSD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianru Cai
- The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Mengyi Qian
- The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Meiling Chen
- School of Humanities and Management, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
- Institute of Zhejiang Chinese Medical Culture, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
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12
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Torgerson C, Ahmadi H, Choupan J, Fan CC, Blosnich JR, Herting MM. Sex, gender diversity, and brain structure in early adolescence. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26671. [PMID: 38590252 PMCID: PMC11002534 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26671] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 02/27/2024] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 04/10/2024] Open
Abstract
There remains little consensus about the relationship between sex and brain structure, particularly in early adolescence. Moreover, few pediatric neuroimaging studies have analyzed both sex and gender as variables of interest-many of which included small sample sizes and relied on binary definitions of gender. The current study examined gender diversity with a continuous felt-gender score and categorized sex based on X and Y allele frequency in a large sample of children ages 9-11 years old (N = 7195). Then, a statistical model-building approach was employed to determine whether gender diversity and sex independently or jointly relate to brain morphology, including subcortical volume, cortical thickness, gyrification, and white matter microstructure. Additional sensitivity analyses found that male versus female differences in gyrification and white matter were largely accounted for by total brain volume, rather than sex per se. The model with sex, but not gender diversity, was the best-fitting model in 60.1% of gray matter regions and 61.9% of white matter regions after adjusting for brain volume. The proportion of variance accounted for by sex was negligible to small in all cases. While models including felt-gender explained a greater amount of variance in a few regions, the felt-gender score alone was not a significant predictor on its own for any white or gray matter regions examined. Overall, these findings demonstrate that at ages 9-11 years old, sex accounts for a small proportion of variance in brain structure, while gender diversity is not directly associated with neurostructural diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carinna Torgerson
- Department of Population and Public Health SciencesUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
- Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics InstituteUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Hedyeh Ahmadi
- Department of Population and Public Health SciencesUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Jeiran Choupan
- Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics InstituteUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Chun Chieh Fan
- Center for Population Neuroscience and GeneticsLaureate Institute for Brain ResearchTulsaOklahomaUSA
- Department of Radiology, School of MedicineUniversity of CaliforniaSan DiegoCaliforniaUSA
| | - John R. Blosnich
- Suzanne Dworak‐Peck School of Social WorkUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Megan M. Herting
- Department of Population and Public Health SciencesUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
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13
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Buthmann JL, Uy JP, Miller JG, Yuan JP, Coury SM, Ho TC, Gotlib IH. Neighborhood disadvantage and parenting predict longitudinal clustering of uncinate fasciculus microstructural integrity and clinical symptomatology in adolescents. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 66:101368. [PMID: 38547783 PMCID: PMC11056613 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Revised: 02/12/2024] [Accepted: 03/17/2024] [Indexed: 04/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Parenting behaviors and neighborhood environment influence the development of adolescents' brains and behaviors. Simultaneous trajectories of brain and behavior, however, are understudied, especially in these environmental contexts. In this four-wave study spanning 9-18 years of age (N=224 at baseline, N=138 at final assessment) we used longitudinal k-means clustering to identify clusters of participants with distinct trajectories of uncinate fasciculus (UF) fractional anisotropy (FA) and anxiety symptoms; we examined behavioral outcomes and identified environmental factors that predicted cluster membership. We identified three clusters of participants: 1) high UF FA and low symptoms ("low-risk"); 2) low UF FA and high symptoms ("high-risk"); and 3) low UF FA and low symptoms ("resilient"). Adolescents in disadvantaged neighborhoods were more likely to be in the resilient than high-risk cluster if they also experienced maternal warmth. Thus, neighborhood disadvantage may confer neural risk for psychopathology that can be buffered by maternal warmth, highlighting the importance of considering multiple environmental influences in understanding emotional and neural development in youth.
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Affiliation(s)
- J L Buthmann
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | - J P Uy
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - J G Miller
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Rd, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - J P Yuan
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - S M Coury
- Department of Psychology, University of California, 405 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - T C Ho
- Department of Psychology, University of California, 405 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - I H Gotlib
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, USA
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14
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Gotlib IH, Buthmann JL, Uy JP. The growing interdisciplinarity of developmental psychopathology: Implications for science and training. Dev Psychopathol 2024:1-11. [PMID: 38516854 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579424000580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/23/2024]
Abstract
The field of developmental psychopathology has grown exponentially over the past decades, and has become increasingly multifaceted. The initial focus on understanding abnormal child psychology has broadened to the study of the origins of psychopathology, with the goals of preventing and alleviating disorder and promoting healthy development. In this paper, we discuss how technological advances and global events have expanded the questions that researchers in developmental psychopathology can address. We do so by describing a longitudinal study that we have been conducting for the past dozen years. We originally planned to examine the effects of early adversity on trajectories of brain development, endocrine function, and depressive symptoms across puberty; it has since become an interdisciplinary study encompassing diverse domains like inflammation, sleep, biological aging, the environment, and child functioning post-pandemic, that we believe will advance our understanding of neurobehavioral development. This increase in the breadth in our study emerged from an expansion of the field; we encourage researchers to embrace these dynamic changes. In this context, we discuss challenges, opportunities, and institutional changes related to the growing interdisciplinarity of the field with respect to training the next generation of investigators to mitigate the burden of mental illness in youth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian H Gotlib
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Jessica P Uy
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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15
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Carozza S, Holmes J, Akarca D, Astle DE. Global topology of human connectome is insensitive to early life environments - A prospective longitudinal study of the general population. Dev Sci 2024:e13490. [PMID: 38494672 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2023] [Revised: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 01/28/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
The widely acknowledged detrimental impact of early adversity on child development has driven efforts to understand the underlying mechanisms that may mediate these effects within the developing brain. Recent efforts have begun to move beyond associating adversity with the morphology of individual brain regions towards determining if and how adversity might shape their interconnectivity. However, whether adversity effects a global shift in the organisation of whole-brain networks remains unclear. In this study, we assessed this possibility using parental questionnaire and diffusion imaging data from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, N = 913), a prospective longitudinal study spanning more than 20 years. We tested whether a wide range of adversities-including experiences of abuse, domestic violence, physical and emotional cruelty, poverty, neglect, and parental separation-measured by questionnaire within the first seven years of life were significantly associated with the tractography-derived connectome in young adulthood. We tested this across multiple measures of organisation and using a computational model that simulated the wiring economy of the brain. We found no significant relationships between early exposure to any form of adversity and the global organisation of the structural connectome in young adulthood. We did detect local differences in the medial prefrontal cortex, as well as an association between weaker brain wiring constraints and greater externalising behaviour in adolescence. Our results indicate that further efforts are necessary to delimit the magnitude and functional implications of adversity-related differences in connectomic organization. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Diverse prospective measures of the early-life environment do not predict the organisation of the DTI tractography-derived connectome in young adulthood Wiring economy of the connectome is weakly associated with externalising in adolescence, but not internalising or cognitive ability Further work is needed to establish the scope and significance of global adversity-related differences in the structural connectome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Carozza
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Joni Holmes
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Danyal Akarca
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Duncan E Astle
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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16
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Langensee L, Rumetshofer T, Mårtensson J. Interplay of socioeconomic status, cognition, and school performance in the ABCD sample. NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING 2024; 9:17. [PMID: 38467686 PMCID: PMC10928106 DOI: 10.1038/s41539-024-00233-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024]
Abstract
Coming from a disadvantaged background can have negative impact on an individual's educational trajectory. Some people however seem unaffected and cope well with the demands and challenges posed by school education, despite growing up in adverse conditions, a phenomenon termed academic resilience. While it is uncertain which underlying factors make some people more likely to circumvent unfavorable odds than others, both socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability have robustly been linked to school performance. The objective of the present work is to investigate if individual cognitive abilities and SES interact in their effect on grades. For this purpose, we analyzed SES, cognitive, and school performance data from 5001 participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Ordinal logistic regression models suggest similar patterns of associations between three SES measures (parental education, income-to-needs ratio, and neighborhood deprivation) and grades at two timepoints, with no evidence for interaction effects between SES and time. Parental education and income-to-needs ratio were associated with grades at both timepoints, irrespective of whether cognitive abilities were modeled or not. Neighborhood deprivation, in contrast, was only a statistically significant predictor of reported grades when cognitive abilities were not factored in. Cognitive abilities interacted with parental education level, meaning that they could be a safeguard against effects of SES on school performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lara Langensee
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Division of Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology, Lund University, Scania, Sweden.
| | - Theodor Rumetshofer
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Division of Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology, Lund University, Scania, Sweden
| | - Johan Mårtensson
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Division of Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology, Lund University, Scania, Sweden
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17
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Li M, Zhao R, Dang X, Xu X, Chen R, Chen Y, Zhang Y, Zhao Z, Wu D. Causal Relationships Between Screen Use, Reading, and Brain Development in Early Adolescents. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2024; 11:e2307540. [PMID: 38165022 PMCID: PMC10953555 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202307540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
The rise of new media has greatly changed the lifestyles, leading to increased time on these platforms and less time spent reading. This shift has particularly profound impacts on early adolescents, who are in a critical stage of brain development. Previous studies have found associations between screen use and mental health, but it remains unclear whether screen use is the direct cause of the outcomes. Here, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) dataset is utlized to examine the causal relationships between screen use and brain development. The results revealed adverse causal effects of screen use on language ability and specific behaviors in early adolescents, while reading has positive causal effects on their language ability and brain volume in the frontal and temporal regions. Interestingly, increased screen use is identified as a result, rather than a cause, of certain behaviors such as rule-breaking and aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, the analysis uncovered an indirect influence of screen use, mediated by changes in reading habits, on brain development. These findings provide new evidence for the causal influences of screen use on brain development and highlight the importance of monitoring media use and related habit change in children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingyang Li
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of EducationDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringCollege of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument ScienceZhejiang UniversityYuquan CampusHangzhou310027China
| | - Ruoke Zhao
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of EducationDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringCollege of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument ScienceZhejiang UniversityYuquan CampusHangzhou310027China
| | - Xixi Dang
- Department of PsychologyHangzhou Normal UniversityHangzhouChina
| | - Xinyi Xu
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of EducationDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringCollege of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument ScienceZhejiang UniversityYuquan CampusHangzhou310027China
| | - Ruike Chen
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of EducationDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringCollege of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument ScienceZhejiang UniversityYuquan CampusHangzhou310027China
| | - Yiwei Chen
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of EducationDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringCollege of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument ScienceZhejiang UniversityYuquan CampusHangzhou310027China
| | - Yuqi Zhang
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of EducationDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringCollege of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument ScienceZhejiang UniversityYuquan CampusHangzhou310027China
| | - Zhiyong Zhao
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of EducationDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringCollege of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument ScienceZhejiang UniversityYuquan CampusHangzhou310027China
| | - Dan Wu
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of EducationDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringCollege of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument ScienceZhejiang UniversityYuquan CampusHangzhou310027China
- Children's HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineNational Clinical Research Center for Child HealthHangzhouChina
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18
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Norbom LB, Rokicki J, Eilertsen EM, Wiker T, Hanson J, Dahl A, Alnæs D, Fernández‐Cabello S, Beck D, Agartz I, Andreassen OA, Westlye LT, Tamnes CK. Parental education and income are linked to offspring cortical brain structure and psychopathology at 9-11 years. JCPP ADVANCES 2024; 4:e12220. [PMID: 38486948 PMCID: PMC10933599 DOI: 10.1002/jcv2.12220] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Background A child's socioeconomic environment can shape central aspects of their life, including vulnerability to mental disorders. Negative environmental influences in youth may interfere with the extensive and dynamic brain development occurring at this time. Indeed, there are numerous yet diverging reports of associations between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and child cortical brain morphometry. Most of these studies have used single metric- or unimodal analyses of standard cortical morphometry that downplay the probable scenario where numerous biological pathways in sum account for SES-related cortical differences in youth. Methods To comprehensively capture such variability, using data from 9758 children aged 8.9-11.1 years from the ABCD Study®, we employed linked independent component analysis (LICA) and fused vertex-wise cortical thickness, surface area, curvature and grey-/white-matter contrast (GWC). LICA revealed 70 uni- and multimodal components. We then assessed the linear relationships between parental education, parental income and each of the cortical components, controlling for age, sex, genetic ancestry, and family relatedness. We also assessed whether cortical structure moderated the negative relationships between parental SES and child general psychopathology. Results Parental education and income were both associated with larger surface area and higher GWC globally, in addition to local increases in surface area and to a lesser extent bidirectional GWC and cortical thickness patterns. The negative relation between parental income and child psychopathology were attenuated in children with a multimodal pattern of larger frontal- and smaller occipital surface area, and lower medial occipital thickness and GWC. Conclusion Structural brain MRI is sensitive to SES diversity in childhood, with GWC emerging as a particularly relevant marker together with surface area. In low-income families, having a more developed cortex across MRI metrics, appears beneficial for mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linn B. Norbom
- PROMENTA Research CenterDepartment of PsychologyUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- NORMENTInstitute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
| | - Jaroslav Rokicki
- NORMENTInstitute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- Centre of Research and Education in Forensic PsychiatryOslo University HospitalOsloNorway
| | - Espen M. Eilertsen
- PROMENTA Research CenterDepartment of PsychologyUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
| | - Thea Wiker
- PROMENTA Research CenterDepartment of PsychologyUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- NORMENTInstitute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- Department of Psychiatric ResearchDiakonhjemmet HospitalOsloNorway
| | - Jamie Hanson
- Learning Research and Development Center University of PittsburghPennsylvaniaPittsburghUSA
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of PittsburghPennsylvaniaPittsburghUSA
| | - Andreas Dahl
- NORMENTInstitute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
| | - Dag Alnæs
- NORMENTInstitute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- Department of PsychologyPedagogy and LawKristiania University CollegeOsloNorway
| | | | - Dani Beck
- PROMENTA Research CenterDepartment of PsychologyUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- NORMENTInstitute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- Department of Psychiatric ResearchDiakonhjemmet HospitalOsloNorway
| | - Ingrid Agartz
- NORMENTInstitute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- Department of Psychiatric ResearchDiakonhjemmet HospitalOsloNorway
- K.G Jebsen Center for Neurodevelopmental DisordersUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- Centre for Psychiatry ResearchDepartment of Clinical NeuroscienceKarolinska Institutet & Stockholm Health Care ServicesStockholmSweden
| | - Ole A. Andreassen
- K.G Jebsen Center for Neurodevelopmental DisordersUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- NORMENTDivision of Mental Health and AddictionOslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
| | - Lars T. Westlye
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- K.G Jebsen Center for Neurodevelopmental DisordersUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- NORMENTDivision of Mental Health and AddictionOslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
| | - Christian K. Tamnes
- PROMENTA Research CenterDepartment of PsychologyUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- NORMENTInstitute of Clinical MedicineUniversity of OsloOsloNorway
- Department of Psychiatric ResearchDiakonhjemmet HospitalOsloNorway
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19
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Cohen JW, Ramphal B, DeSerisy M, Zhao Y, Pagliaccio D, Colcombe S, Milham MP, Margolis AE. Relative brain age is associated with socioeconomic status and anxiety/depression problems in youth. Dev Psychol 2024; 60:199-209. [PMID: 37747510 PMCID: PMC10993304 DOI: 10.1037/dev0001593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
Brain age, a measure of biological aging in the brain, has been linked to psychiatric illness, principally in adult populations. Components of socioeconomic status (SES) associate with differences in brain structure and psychiatric risk across the lifespan. This study aimed to investigate the influence of SES on brain aging in childhood and adolescence, a period of rapid neurodevelopment and peak onset for many psychiatric disorders. We reanalyzed data from the Healthy Brain Network to examine the influence of SES components (occupational prestige, public assistance enrollment, parent education, and household income-to-needs ratio [INR]) on relative brain age (RBA). Analyses included 470 youth (5-17 years; 61.3% men), self-identifying as White (55%), African American (15%), Hispanic (9%), or multiracial (17.2%). Household income was 3.95 ± 2.33 (mean ± SD) times the federal poverty threshold. RBA quantified differences between chronological age and brain age using covariation patterns of morphological features and total volumes. We also examined associations between RBA and psychiatric symptoms (Child Behavior Checklist [CBCL]). Models covaried for sex, scan location, and parent psychiatric diagnoses. In a linear regression, lower RBA is associated with lower parent occupational prestige (p = .01), lower public assistance enrollment (p = .03), and more parent psychiatric diagnoses (p = .01), but not parent education or INR. Lower parent occupational prestige (p = .02) and lower RBA (p = .04) are associated with higher CBCL anxious/depressed scores. Our findings underscore the importance of including SES components in developmental brain research. Delayed brain aging may represent a potential biological pathway from SES to psychiatric risk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob W. Cohen
- New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
| | - Bruce Ramphal
- New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
- T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School
| | - Mariah DeSerisy
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
| | - Yihong Zhao
- Columbia University School of Nursing
- Center for Biological Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan S. Kline Institute, Orangeburg, New York, United States
| | - David Pagliaccio
- New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
| | - Stan Colcombe
- Center for Biological Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan S. Kline Institute, Orangeburg, New York, United States
| | - Michael P. Milham
- Child Mind Institute, New York, New York, United States
- Nathan S. Kline Institute, Orangeburg, New York, United States
| | - Amy E. Margolis
- New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
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20
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Michael C, Tillem S, Sripada CS, Burt SA, Klump KL, Hyde LW. Neighborhood poverty during childhood prospectively predicts adolescent functional brain network architecture. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 64:101316. [PMID: 37857040 PMCID: PMC10587714 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Family poverty has been associated with altered brain structure, function, and connectivity in youth. However, few studies have examined how disadvantage within the broader neighborhood may influence functional brain network organization. The present study leveraged a longitudinal community sample of 538 twins living in low-income neighborhoods to evaluate the prospective association between exposure to neighborhood poverty during childhood (6-10 y) with functional network architecture during adolescence (8-19 y). Using resting-state and task-based fMRI, we generated two latent measures that captured intrinsic brain organization across the whole-brain and network levels - network segregation and network segregation-integration balance. While age was positively associated with network segregation and network balance overall across the sample, these associations were moderated by exposure to neighborhood poverty. Specifically, these positive associations were observed only in youth from more, but not less, disadvantaged neighborhoods. Moreover, greater exposure to neighborhood poverty predicted reduced network segregation and network balance in early, but not middle or late, adolescence. These effects were detected both across the whole-brain system as well as specific functional networks, including fronto-parietal, default mode, salience, and subcortical systems. These findings indicate that where children live may exert long-reaching effects on the organization and development of the adolescent brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cleanthis Michael
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Scott Tillem
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Chandra S Sripada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - S Alexandra Burt
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Kelly L Klump
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Luke W Hyde
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
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21
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Xiao Y, Mann JJ, Chow JCC, Brown TT, Snowden LR, Yip PSF, Tsai AC, Hou Y, Pathak J, Wang F, Su C. Patterns of Social Determinants of Health and Child Mental Health, Cognition, and Physical Health. JAMA Pediatr 2023; 177:1294-1305. [PMID: 37843837 PMCID: PMC10580157 DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.4218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/20/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
Importance Social determinants of health (SDOH) influence child health. However, most previous studies have used individual, small-set, or cherry-picked SDOH variables without examining unbiased computed SDOH patterns from high-dimensional SDOH factors to investigate associations with child mental health, cognition, and physical health. Objective To identify SDOH patterns and estimate their associations with children's mental, cognitive, and physical developmental outcomes. Design, Setting, and Participants This population-based cohort study included children aged 9 to 10 years at baseline and their caregivers enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study between 2016 and 2021. The ABCD Study includes 21 sites across 17 states. Exposures Eighty-four neighborhood-level, geocoded variables spanning 7 domains of SDOH, including bias, education, physical and health infrastructure, natural environment, socioeconomic status, social context, and crime and drugs, were studied. Hierarchical agglomerative clustering was used to identify SDOH patterns. Main Outcomes and Measures Associations of SDOH and child mental health (internalizing and externalizing behaviors) and suicidal behaviors, cognitive function (performance, reading skills), and physical health (body mass index, exercise, sleep disorder) were estimated using mixed-effects linear and logistic regression models. Results Among 10 504 children (baseline median [SD] age, 9.9 [0.6] years; 5510 boys [52.5%] and 4994 girls [47.5%]; 229 Asian [2.2%], 1468 Black [14.0%], 2128 Hispanic [20.3%], 5565 White [53.0%], and 1108 multiracial [10.5%]), 4 SDOH patterns were identified: pattern 1, affluence (4078 children [38.8%]); pattern 2, high-stigma environment (2661 children [25.3%]); pattern 3, high socioeconomic deprivation (2653 children [25.3%]); and pattern 4, high crime and drug sales, low education, and high population density (1112 children [10.6%]). The SDOH patterns were distinctly associated with child health outcomes. Children exposed to socioeconomic deprivation (SDOH pattern 3) showed the worst health profiles, manifesting more internalizing (β = 0.75; 95% CI, 0.14-1.37) and externalizing (β = 1.43; 95% CI, 0.83-2.02) mental health problems, lower cognitive performance, and adverse physical health. Conclusions This study shows that an unbiased quantitative analysis of multidimensional SDOH can permit the determination of how SDOH patterns are associated with child developmental outcomes. Children exposed to socioeconomic deprivation showed the worst outcomes relative to other SDOH categories. These findings suggest the need to determine whether improvement in socioeconomic conditions can enhance child developmental outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunyu Xiao
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
| | - J. John Mann
- Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Columbia University, New York, New York
- Division of Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York
| | | | | | | | - Paul Siu-Fai Yip
- Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
- Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, Hong Kong, China
| | - Alexander C. Tsai
- Center for Global Health and Mongan Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Yu Hou
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
| | - Jyotishman Pathak
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
| | - Fei Wang
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
| | - Chang Su
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
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22
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Thomas M, Rakesh D, Whittle S, Sheridan M, Upthegrove R, Cropley V. The neural, stress hormone and inflammatory correlates of childhood deprivation and threat in psychosis: A systematic review. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2023; 157:106371. [PMID: 37651860 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106371] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Revised: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/18/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Abstract
Childhood adversity increases the risk of developing psychosis, but the biological mechanisms involved are unknown. Disaggregating early adverse experiences into core dimensions of deprivation and threat may help to elucidate these mechanisms. We therefore systematically searched the literature investigating associations between deprivation and threat, and neural, immune and stress hormone systems in individuals on the psychosis spectrum. Our search yielded 74 articles, from which we extracted and synthesized relevant findings. While study designs were heterogeneous and findings inconsistent, some trends emerged. In psychosis, deprivation tended to correlate with lower global cortical volume, and some evidence supported threat-related variation in prefrontal cortex morphology. Greater threat exposure was also associated with higher C-reactive protein, and higher and lower cortisol measures. When examined, associations in controls were less evident. Overall, findings indicate that deprivation and threat may associate with partially distinct biological mechanisms in the psychosis spectrum, and that associations may be stronger than in controls. Dimensional approaches may help disentangle the biological correlates of childhood adversity in psychosis, but more studies are needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan Thomas
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Australia.
| | - Divyangana Rakesh
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Australia; Neuroimaging Department, Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Sarah Whittle
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Australia
| | - Margaret Sheridan
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, United States
| | - Rachel Upthegrove
- Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; Early Intervention Service, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom
| | - Vanessa Cropley
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne & Melbourne Health, Australia
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23
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Polemiti E, Hese S, Schepanski K, Yuan J, Schumann G. How does the macroenvironment influence brain and behaviour - a review of current status and future perspectives. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.10.09.23296785. [PMID: 37873310 PMCID: PMC10593044 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.09.23296785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2023]
Abstract
The environment influences mental health, both detrimentally and beneficially. Current research has emphasized the individual psychosocial 'microenvironment'. Less attention has been paid to 'macro-environmental' challenges including climate change, pollution, urbanicity and socioeconomic disparity. With the advent of large-scale big-data cohorts and an increasingly dense mapping of macroenvironmental parameters, we are now in a position to characterise the relation between macroenvironment, brain, and behaviour across different geographic and cultural locations globally. This review synthesises findings from recent epidemiological and neuroimaging studies, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing evidence between the macroenvironment and the structure and functions of the brain, with a particular emphasis on its implications for mental illness. We discuss putative underlying mechanisms and address the most common exposures of the macroenvironment. Finally, we identify critical areas for future research to enhance our understanding of the aetiology of mental illness and to inform effective interventions for healthier environments and mental health promotion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elli Polemiti
- Centre of Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
| | - Soeren Hese
- Institute of Geography, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
| | | | - Jiacan Yuan
- Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences & Institute of Atmospheric Sciences & CMA-FDU Joint Laboratory of Marine Meteorology & IRDR-ICOE on Risk Interconnectivity and Governance on Weather/Climate Extremes Impact and Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Gunter Schumann
- Centre of Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
- Centre for Population Neuroscience and Precision Medicine (PONS), Institute for Science and Technology of Brain-inspired Intelligence (ISTBI), Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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24
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Tuominen M, Tikkanen J. Adolescent social capital: An intergenerational resource? J Adolesc 2023; 95:1420-1434. [PMID: 37430438 DOI: 10.1002/jad.12215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Revised: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION There is abundant literature about the benefits of social capital in youth, but less is known of the origins of social capital. This study explores whether adolescents' social capital is shaped by their parents' social capital, their family's socioeconomic status (SES), and the socioeconomic profile of their neighborhood. METHODS The study uses cross-sectional survey data gathered from 12 to 13-year-old adolescents and their parents (n = 163) in Southwest Finland. For the analysis, adolescents' social capital was disaggregated into four dimensions: social networks, social trust, tendency to receive help, and tendency to provide help. Parents' social capital was measured both directly (parents' self-reports) and indirectly (adolescents' perceptions of their parents' sociability). The associations with the hypothesized predictors were analyzed using structural equation modeling. RESULTS The results suggest that social capital is not directly intergenerationally transmissible the way some biologically heritable traits are. Yet, parents' social capital shapes youngsters' perception of their sociability, and that, in turn, predicts each dimension of adolescents' social capital. Family SES is positively related to young people's reciprocal tendency, but the pathway flows indirectly through parents' social capital and adolescents' perception of parents' sociability. Conversely, a disadvantaged socioeconomic neighborhood is directly negatively associated with adolescents' social trust and tendency to receive help. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that, in the studied Finnish, relatively egalitarian context, social capital is (at least partly) transmissible from parents to children, not directly, but indirectly through the mechanism of social learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minna Tuominen
- Department of Social Research, INVEST Research Flagship Center/NetResilience, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Jenni Tikkanen
- Department of Education, Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
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25
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Rakesh D, Whittle S, Sheridan MA, McLaughlin KA. Childhood socioeconomic status and the pace of structural neurodevelopment: accelerated, delayed, or simply different? Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:833-851. [PMID: 37179140 PMCID: PMC10524122 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2023] [Revised: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with children's brain and behavioral development. Several theories propose that early experiences of adversity or low SES can alter the pace of neurodevelopment during childhood and adolescence. These theories make contrasting predictions about whether adverse experiences and low SES are associated with accelerated or delayed neurodevelopment. We contextualize these predictions within the context of normative development of cortical and subcortical structure and review existing evidence on SES and structural brain development to adjudicate between competing hypotheses. Although none of these theories are fully consistent with observed SES-related differences in brain development, existing evidence suggests that low SES is associated with brain structure trajectories more consistent with a delayed or simply different developmental pattern than an acceleration in neurodevelopment.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah Whittle
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, Australia
| | - Margaret A Sheridan
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
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26
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Dintica CS, Bahorik A, Xia F, Kind A, Yaffe K. Dementia Risk and Disadvantaged Neighborhoods. JAMA Neurol 2023; 80:903-909. [PMID: 37464954 PMCID: PMC10357362 DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.2120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Accepted: 05/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023]
Abstract
Importance Residence in a disadvantaged neighborhood may be associated with an increased risk for cognitive impairment and dementia but is understudied in nationally representative populations. Objective To investigate the association between the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) and dementia. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective cohort study within the US Veterans Health Administration from October 1, 1999, to September 30, 2021, with a national cohort of older veterans receiving care in the largest integrated health care system in the United States. For each fiscal year, a 5% random sample was selected from all patients (n = 2 398 659). Patients with missing ADI information (n = 492 721) or missing sex information (n = 6) and prevalent dementia cases (n = 25 379) were excluded. Participants had to have at least 1 follow-up visit (n = 1 662 863). The final analytic sample was 1 637 484. Exposure Neighborhoods were characterized with the ADI, which combines several sociodemographic indicators (eg, income, education, employment, and housing) into a census block group-level index of disadvantage. Participants were categorized into ADI rank quintiles by their census block group of residence (higher ADI rank quintile corresponds with more deprivation). Main Outcome and Measures Time to dementia diagnosis (using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision and International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision codes) was estimated with Cox proportional hazards models with age as the time scale, and the sensitivity of the findings was evaluated with Fine-Gray proportional hazards models, accounting for competing risk of death. Results Among the 1 637 484 Veterans Health Administration patients, the mean (SD) age was 68.6 (7.7) years, and 1 604 677 (98.0%) were men. A total of 7318 patients were Asian (0.4%), 151 818 (9.3%) were Black, 10 591 were Hispanic (0.6%), 1 422 713 (86.9%) were White, and 45 044 (2.8%) were of other or unknown race and ethnicity. During a mean (SD) follow-up of 11.0 (4.8) years, 12.8% of veterans developed dementia. Compared with veterans in the least disadvantaged neighborhood quintile, those in greater disadvantage groups had an increased risk of dementia in models adjusted for sex, race and ethnicity, and psychiatric and medical comorbid conditions (first quintile = reference; second quintile adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.09 [95% CI, 1.07-1.10]; third quintile adjusted HR, 1.14 [95% CI, 1.12-1.15]; fourth quintile adjusted HR, 1.16 [95% CI, 1.14-1.18]; and fifth quintile adjusted HR, 1.22 [95% CI, 1.21-1.24]). Repeating the main analysis using competing risk for mortality led to similar results. Conclusions and Relevance Results of this study suggest that residence within more disadvantaged neighborhoods was associated with higher risk of dementia among older veterans integrated in a national health care system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina S. Dintica
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco
| | - Amber Bahorik
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco
| | - Feng Xia
- Northern California Institute for Research and Education, San Francisco
| | - Amy Kind
- University of Wisconsin Center for Health Disparities Research, Madison
- Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison
| | - Kristine Yaffe
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco
- San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System, San Francisco, California
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27
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Harris JC, Liuzzi MT, Cardenas-Iniguez C, Larson CL, Lisdahl KM. Gray space and default mode network-amygdala connectivity. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1167786. [PMID: 37711221 PMCID: PMC10498535 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1167786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2023] [Accepted: 08/09/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Aspects of the built environment relate to health factors and equity in living conditions, and may contribute to racial, ethnic, or economic health disparities. For example, urbanicity is linked with negative factors including exposure to gray space (e.g., impervious surfaces such as concrete, streets, or rooftops). While there is existing research on access to green space and urbanicity on some mental health and cognitive outcomes, there is limited research on the presence of gray space linked with cognitive functioning in youth. The goal of this study was to investigate the link between gray space and amygdala-default mode network (DMN) connectivity. Methods This study used data from the ABCD Study. Participants (n = 10,144; age M = 119.11 months, female = 47.62%) underwent resting-state fMRI acquisition at baseline. Impervious surfaces (gray space) were measured via the Child Opportunity Index (COI). To examine the relationship between presence of gray space and -amygdala-DMN (left/right) connectivity, we employed linear mixed effects models. Correlations were run between amygdala-DMN connectivity and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Finally, post hoc sensitivity analyses were run to assess the impact of race. Results More gray space, adjusting for age, sex, and neighborhood-level variables, was significantly associated with increased left amygdala-DMN connectivity (p = 0.0001). This association remained significant after sensitivity analyses for race were completed (p = 0.01). No significant correlations were observed between amygdala-DMN and internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Discussion Findings suggest gray space was linked with increased left amygdala-DMN connectivity, circuits that have been implicated in affective processing, emotion regulation, and psychopathology. Thus gray space may be related to alterations in connectivity that may enhance risk for emotion dysregulation. Future investigation of these relationships is needed, as neuroimaging findings may represent early dysregulation not yet observed in the behavioral analyses at this age (i.e., the present study did not find significant relationships with parent-reported behavioral outcomes). These findings can help to inform future public policy on improving lived and built environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia C. Harris
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
| | - Michael T. Liuzzi
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
| | - Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez
- Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Christine L. Larson
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
| | - Krista M. Lisdahl
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
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28
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Li ZA, Cai Y, Taylor RL, Eisenstein SA, Barch DM, Marek S, Hershey T. Associations Between Socioeconomic Status, Obesity, Cognition, and White Matter Microstructure in Children. JAMA Netw Open 2023; 6:e2320276. [PMID: 37368403 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.20276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Importance Lower neighborhood and household socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with negative health outcomes and altered brain structure in children. It is unclear whether such findings extend to white matter and via what mechanisms. Objective To assess whether and how neighborhood and household SES are independently associated with children's white matter microstructure and examine whether obesity and cognitive performance (reflecting environmental cognitive and sensory stimulation) are plausible mediators. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study used baseline data from participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Data were collected at 21 US sites, and school-based recruitment was used to represent the US population. Children aged 9 to 11 years and their parents or caregivers completed assessments between October 1, 2016, and October 31, 2018. After exclusions, 8842 of 11 875 children in the ABCD study were included in the analyses. Data analysis was conducted from July 11 to December 19, 2022. Exposures Neighborhood disadvantage was derived from area deprivation indices at participants' primary residence. Household SES factors were total income and highest parental educational attainment. Main Outcomes and Measures A restriction spectrum imaging (RSI) model was used to quantify restricted normalized directional (RND; reflecting oriented myelin organization) and restricted normalized isotropic (RNI; reflecting glial and neuronal cell bodies) diffusion in 31 major white matter tracts. The RSI measurements were scanner harmonized. Obesity was assessed through body mass index (BMI; calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), age- and sex-adjusted BMI z scores, and waist circumference, and cognition was assessed through the National Institutes of Health Toolbox Cognition Battery. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, pubertal development stage, intracranial volume, mean head motion, and twin or siblingship. Results Among 8842 children, 4543 (51.4%) were boys, and the mean (SD) age was 9.9 (0.7) years. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that greater neighborhood disadvantage was associated with lower RSI-RND in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (β = -0.055; 95% CI, -0.081 to -0.028) and forceps major (β = -0.040; 95% CI, -0.067 to -0.013). Lower parental educational attainment was associated with lower RSI-RND in the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus (eg, right hemisphere: β = 0.053; 95% CI, 0.025-0.080) and bilateral corticospinal or pyramidal tract (eg, right hemisphere: β = 0.042; 95% CI, 0.015-0.069). Structural equation models revealed that lower cognitive performance (eg, lower total cognition score and higher neighborhood disadvantage: β = -0.012; 95% CI, -0.016 to -0.009) and greater obesity (eg, higher BMI and higher neighborhood disadvantage: β = -0.004; 95% CI, -0.006 to -0.001) partially accounted for the associations between SES and RSI-RND. Lower household income was associated with higher RSI-RNI in most tracts (eg, right inferior longitudinal fasciculus: β = -0.042 [95% CI, -0.073 to -0.012]; right anterior thalamic radiations: β = -0.045 [95% CI, -0.075 to -0.014]), and greater neighborhood disadvantage had similar associations in primarily frontolimbic tracts (eg, right fornix: β = 0.046 [95% CI, 0.019-0.074]; right anterior thalamic radiations: β = 0.045 [95% CI, 0.018-0.072]). Lower parental educational attainment was associated with higher RSI-RNI in the forceps major (β = -0.048; 95% CI, -0.077 to -0.020). Greater obesity partially accounted for these SES associations with RSI-RNI (eg, higher BMI and higher neighborhood disadvantage: β = 0.015; 95% CI, 0.011-0.020). Findings were robust in sensitivity analyses and were corroborated using diffusion tensor imaging. Conclusions and Relevance In this cross-sectional study, both neighborhood and household contexts were associated with white matter development in children, and findings suggested that obesity and cognitive performance were possible mediators in these associations. Future research on children's brain health may benefit from considering these factors from multiple socioeconomic perspectives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhaolong Adrian Li
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri
| | - Yuqi Cai
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri
- Now with Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Rita L Taylor
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri
| | - Sarah A Eisenstein
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
| | - Deanna M Barch
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
| | - Scott Marek
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
| | - Tamara Hershey
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
- Department of Neurology, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri
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Hannan EL, Wu Y, Cozzens K, Anderson B. The Neighborhood Atlas Area Deprivation Index For Measuring Socioeconomic Status: An Overemphasis On Home Value. Health Aff (Millwood) 2023; 42:702-709. [PMID: 37126749 DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
The Area Deprivation Index (ADI), popularized by the Neighborhood Atlas, is a multifaceted proxy measure for assessing socioeconomic disadvantage that captures social risk factors that are not available in typical clinical registries and that are related to adverse health outcomes. In applying the ADI to New York State, we found that the downstate regions (New York City and its suburbs) were as deprived as or more deprived than the other regions for thirteen of the seventeen ADI variables (all but the ones measured in dollars), but the Neighborhood Atlas-computed overall ADI deprivation was much less in the downstate areas. Numerous census block groups with high home values (indicating low deprivation) accompanied by high deprivation in the other ADI variables had overall ADI scores as computed by the Neighborhood Atlas in the same or contiguous deciles as the home values. We concluded that Neighborhood Atlas-computed ADI scores for New York block groups are mainly representative of median home value. This can be especially problematic when considering quality assessment, funding, and resource allocation in regions with large variations in cost of living, and it may result in underresourcing for disadvantaged communities with high housing prices. We conclude that the Neighborhood Atlas ADI would be more accurate for comparing block groups if variables were standardized before computing the overall index.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward L Hannan
- Edward L. Hannan , State University of New York at Albany, Rensselaer, New York
| | - Yifeng Wu
- Yifeng Wu, State University of New York at Albany
| | | | - Brett Anderson
- Brett Anderson, NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia-Irving Medical Center, New York, New York
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30
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Baranyi G, Buchanan CR, Conole EL, Backhouse EV, Maniega SM, Hernandez MV, Bastin ME, Wardlaw J, Deary IJ, Cox SR, Pearce J. Life-course neighbourhood deprivation and brain structure in older adults: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.04.13.23288523. [PMID: 37131666 PMCID: PMC10153312 DOI: 10.1101/2023.04.13.23288523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Neighbourhood disadvantage may be associated with brain health but the importance at different stages of the life course is poorly understood. Utilizing the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, we explored the relationship between residential neighbourhood deprivation from birth to late adulthood, and global and regional neuroimaging measures at age 73. We found that residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in mid- to late adulthood was associated with smaller total brain (β=-0.06; SE=0.02; n=390) and grey matter volume (β=-0.11; SE=0.03; n=390), thinner cortex (β=-0.15; SE=0.06; n=379), and lower general white matter fractional anisotropy (β=-0.19; SE=0.06; n=388). Regional analysis identified affected focal cortical areas and specific white matter tracts. Among individuals belonging to lower occupational social classes, the brain-neighbourhood associations were stronger, with the impact of neighbourhood deprivation accumulating across the life course. Our findings suggest that living in deprived neighbourhoods is associated with adverse brain morphologies, with occupational social class adding to the vulnerability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gergő Baranyi
- Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health, School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Colin R. Buchanan
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Eleanor L.S. Conole
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Ellen V. Backhouse
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh UK
| | - Susana Muñoz Maniega
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Edinburgh Imaging, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh UK
| | - Maria Valdes Hernandez
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Edinburgh Imaging, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh UK
| | - Mark E. Bastin
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Edinburgh Imaging, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Joanna Wardlaw
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Edinburgh Imaging, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh UK
| | - Ian J. Deary
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Simon R. Cox
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Jamie Pearce
- Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health, School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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Fendinger NJ, Dietze P, Knowles ED. Beyond cognitive deficits: how social class shapes social cognition. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:528-538. [PMID: 37031013 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Revised: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/10/2023]
Abstract
Lower social class is thought to contribute to poorer executive functioning and working memory. Nevertheless, lower social class individuals consistently outperform their higher-class counterparts on social cognitive tasks that rely on similar underlying cognitive processes (e.g., working memory and executive functioning). Why would lower social class inhibit such processes in one domain, but promote them in another? We argue that features of lower-class communities (e.g., resource scarcity) promote social cognition via cultural processes. We then argue that social cognition involves partially unique task and neural demands that are separate from nonsocial cognition. We conclude that unique task and neural demands, together with the distinctive cognitive proclivities of lower- and higher-class cultures, can explain variable associations between social class and cognitive functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Pia Dietze
- University of California Irvine, Department of Psychological Science, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Eric D Knowles
- New York University, Department of Psychology, New York, NY 10003, USA
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Li ZA, Cai Y, Taylor RL, Eisenstein SA, Barch DM, Marek S, Hershey T. Associations between socioeconomic status and white matter microstructure in children: indirect effects via obesity and cognition. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.02.09.23285150. [PMID: 36798149 PMCID: PMC9934783 DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.09.23285150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
Importance Both neighborhood and household socioeconomic disadvantage relate to negative health outcomes and altered brain structure in children. It is unclear whether such findings extend to white matter development, and via what mechanisms socioeconomic status (SES) influences the brain. Objective To test independent associations between neighborhood and household SES indicators and white matter microstructure in children, and examine whether body mass index and cognitive function (a proxy of environmental cognitive/sensory stimulation) may plausibly mediate these associations. Design This cross-sectional study used baseline data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, an ongoing 10-year cohort study tracking child health. Setting School-based recruitment at 21 U.S. sites. Participants Children aged 9 to 11 years and their parents/caregivers completed baseline assessments between October 1 st , 2016 and October 31 st , 2018. Data analysis was conducted from July to December 2022. Exposures Neighborhood disadvantage was derived from area deprivation indices at primary residence. Household SES indicators were total income and the highest parental education attainment. Main Outcomes and Measures Thirty-one major white matter tracts were segmented from diffusion-weighted images. The Restriction Spectrum Imaging (RSI) model was implemented to measure restricted normalized directional (RND; reflecting oriented myelin organization) and isotropic (RNI; reflecting glial/neuronal cell bodies) diffusion in each tract. Obesity-related measures were body mass index (BMI), BMI z -scores, and waist circumference, and cognitive performance was assessed using the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. Linear mixed-effects models tested the associations between SES indicators and scanner-harmonized RSI metrics. Structural equation models examined indirect effects of obesity and cognitive performance in the significant associations between SES and white mater microstructure summary principal components. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, pubertal development stage, intracranial volume, and head motion. Results The analytical sample included 8842 children (4299 [48.6%] girls; mean age [SD], 9.9 [0.7] years). Greater neighborhood disadvantage and lower parental education were independently associated with lower RSI-RND in forceps major and corticospinal/pyramidal tracts, and had overlapping associations in the superior longitudinal fasciculus. Lower cognition scores and greater obesity-related measures partially accounted for these SES associations with RSI-RND. Lower household income was related to higher RSI-RNI in almost every tract, and greater neighborhood disadvantage had similar effects in primarily frontolimbic tracts. Lower parental education was uniquely linked to higher RSI-RNI in forceps major. Greater obesity-related measures partially accounted for these SES associations with RSI-RNI. Findings were robust in sensitivity analyses and mostly corroborated using traditional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Conclusions and Relevance These cross-sectional results demonstrate that both neighborhood and household contexts are relevant to white matter development in children, and suggest cognitive performance and obesity as possible pathways of influence. Interventions targeting obesity reduction and improving cognition from multiple socioeconomic angles may ameliorate brain health in low-SES children. Key Points Question: Are neighborhood and household socioeconomic levels associated with children’s brain white matter microstructure, and if so, do obesity and cognitive performance (reflecting environmental stimulation) mediate the associations?Findings: In a cohort of 8842 children, higher neighborhood disadvantage, lower household income, and lower parental education had independent and overlapping associations with lower restricted directional diffusion and greater restricted isotropic diffusion in white matter. Greater body mass index and poorer cognitive performance partially mediated these associations.Meaning: Both neighborhood and household poverty may contribute to altered white matter development in children. These effects may be partially explained by obesity incidence and poorer cognitive performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhaolong Adrian Li
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Yuqi Cai
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Rita L. Taylor
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Sarah A. Eisenstein
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
| | - Deanna M. Barch
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
| | - Scott Marek
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
| | - Tamara Hershey
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
- Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
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