Poster #18 - The Impact of Parent Stress on Adolescent Brain Function

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Integrative Statement

Adolescence is a time characterized by heightened stress reactivity thought to contribute to the spikes in risk taking behavior and psychopathology seen at that time. One factor that could contribute to adolescent stress reactivity is parent stress reactivity that may be passed on to their youth either through modeling or genetics. In prior research, parent hormonal stress responses have been shown to be correlated with infant and child hormonal stress responses. However, the impact of parent perceived stress on youth neural stress systems during adolescence have not been explored.

In the brain, when the body is exposed to a perceived threat, heightened amygdala and hypothalamic activation sets off the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis response. Further, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activate in response to the stressor (Lupien, McEwen, Gunnar, & Heim 2009). Once the stressor subsides, the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and the PFC (especially medial PFC) seek to reduce the stress response and return the body to homeostasis (Lupien et al., 2009; McEwen & Gianaros, 2010). Although stress responses are adaptive in the short term, repeated exposure of the brain to stress results in decreased ability of the brain to resist insult and reduced plasticity of limbic and cortical regions.

The present study seeks to examine the impact of parent perceived stress on youth neural stress systems in response to stressful negative emotional stimuli. We hypothesized that heightened parent perceived stress would be associated with heightened adolescent amygdala activation to negative stimuli. We also hypothesized that heightened parent perceived stress would be associated with adolescent hippocampus and mPFC activation to negative stimuli, but we did not hypothesize a direction for this relationship.

Our participants include 66 adolescents aged 12-14 years and their mothers. Families attended a behavioral session in which mothers self-reported their perceived stress levels using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1994). Then, adolescents participated in an fMRI scanning session in which they viewed negative and neutral emotional stimuli in a rapid, event-related design. fMRI data were preprocessed and participants with motion greater than 3 mm in any direction for one TR (or 1.5 mm for 80% of TRs) were excluded. Next, whole-brain analyses were conducted using FSL’s FLAME mixed effects model and were corrected for multiple comparisons using a voxel-based threshold of z > 2.8 and cluster-based correction of p < 0.05.

Whole brain analyses revealed that higher parent perceived stress was related to heightened BOLD response in adolescent’s bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in response to negative>neutral condition (z=3.37, p <.05, cluster corrected; MNI coordinates: x:2, y:52, z:12). However, there were no significant associations between parent perceived stress and activation in the hippocampus or amygdala.
Results suggest that high exposure to parent life stress, modeling of stress reactivity, or genetics susceptibility to stress may increase sensitivity of regions involved in the stress regulation, such as the mPFC. This finding highlights the effect that parent perceived stress may have on adolescent neural functioning, possibly having implications for the development of adolescent psychopathology.

Authors

• Claire Niehaus, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Tara Chaplin, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author