Poster #17 - Stressor Controllability as a Mechanism of Biobehavioral Resilience to Stress: Preliminary Developmental Findings

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Integrative Statement

Decades of research inform our understanding of the pernicious effects of exposure to environmental adversity for individuals across the lifespan, underscoring a clear pathway from stress to increased risk for developing cognitive, social, emotional, and physical health problems (Boyce, 2007; Luthar, 1999; Shonkoff et al., 2012; Shonkoff, Boyce, & McEwen, 2009). However, exposure to stress does not have a universal effect on all individuals across development (Gabbay, Oatis, Silva, & Hirsch, 2004; National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, 2012). Recent forays into understanding the psychobiological effects of exposure to stress have employed a dimensional approach focused on highlighting experiential, environmental, and timing-related factors that may substantially affect the association between exposure to stress and subsequent vulnerability (McLaughlin, Sheridan, & Lambert, 2014; Miller at el., 2018). In both humans and animals, queries into the dimensional aspects of trauma exposure have highlighted the role of individual differences in coping and the subjective experience of stress as a key factor that may buffer or exacerbate the effects of exposure to stress (Ellis, Jackson, & Boyce, 2006). Specifically, animal research on stressor controllability (SC) has indicated that exposure to controllable stress may sensitize frontostriatal-amygdala circuitry to promote more adaptive biobehavioral reactivity to subsequent stressors (Amat et al., 2006), suggesting that SC may represent a potential mechanism of resilience following early-life trauma. Dynamic changes in frontostriatal-amygdala circuitry across human development (e.g., Casey et al., 2017) suggest the importance of a neurodevelopmental approach to examining SC. As part of an ongoing study of SC following trauma across human development, the present study examined neural correlates of SC in young adults. Participants (n = 20; mean age = 21.75, range = 18-27 years) were randomized to controllable or uncontrollable stress conditions, and completed two novel SC tasks, optimized for use in developmental samples in a neuroimaging context, during fMRI acquisition. Relative to previous controllable stress exposure, previous uncontrollable stress exposure was associated with higher STG activation during subsequent uncontrollable stress, as well as higher mPFC and dACC activation during anticipation of the subsequent uncontrollable stress (all p < .05). Moreover, a whole brain searchlight classification analysis revealed that patterns of activity in the amygdala, dACC, striatum, anterior insula, and STG during subsequent uncontrollable stress exposure can be used to classify participants' previous exposure to either controllable or uncontrollable stress with 85-96% accuracy. Findings suggest potential mechanisms by which exposure to uncontrollable stress affects neurobiological and perceptual responses to subsequent environmental stressors and highlight SC as a potential mechanism for novel treatments to outcomes for trauma-exposed youth. Neuroimaging data from a broader developmental sample of 8-30-year-olds, as well as associations between past trauma exposure and individuals' biobehavioral response to uncontrollable stress exposure, will be presented at the meeting, with implications for neurodevelopmental changes associated with SC following early-life trauma.

Authors

• Emily Cohodes, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paola Odriozola, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jeffrey Daniel Mandell, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mackenzye Smith, University of Pennyslvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Camila Caballero, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hannah Spencer, University of Amsterdam
  Presenting Author

• Catherine Hartley, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dylan Gee, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author