Effects of Racism and Poverty on Infant Emotional Health and Functional Brain Networks

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Abstract

Racism is an insidious problem, with far-reaching effects on the livelihoods and survival of black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Furthermore, racism interacts with poverty to mutually reinforce and compound negative outcomes. Yet, we are only beginning to understand the impact of racism on mental health, and less is known about the potential downstream impacts on infants, their brain and behavioral development. The current study will examine the effect of maternal racism-related stress and experiences, and their interaction with poverty, on infants’ functional brain networks and behavior.
Perceived racism has been associated with poorer health among adults, which is mediated by depression and anxiety (Brondolo et al, 2011). A separate body of research indicates that maternal depression contributes to higher fearfulness in young infants (Garstein et al., 2010). Fear and anxiety are positively associated with functional and structural connectivity of the amygdala and salience network, and inversely associated with connectivity of amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) (Kim et al, 2011; Thomas et al, 2018).
We will examine amygdala and salience network connectivity, as well as infant temperament and emotion regulation, in an ongoing, longitudinal study of N=76 infants, (or more, depending when MRI scanning resumes). Preliminary analyses indicate that at least 60 participants have 5 minutes or more of usable fMRI data with frame-to-frame motion less than 0.2 mm. Questionnaire measures of maternal racism-related stress and experiences, and poverty were collected prenatally. Infants had resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scans at 2 weeks of age. The rs-fMRI data processing is underway using AFNI, and will be completed in October 2020. Statistical analysis using seed-based and network-based approaches will be completed by February 2021. The amygdala seed will be anatomically defined based on the University of North Carolina neonatal template (Shi et al, 2011), and functional networks and nodes will be defined from an infant functional parcellation (Eggebrecht et al, 2017). Infant temperament and behavior were assessed at 6 months of age with the Infant Behavior Record and the Still Face Paradigm, respectively, and the data have been processed and coded.
We hypothesize that maternal racism-related stress and experiences will lead to greater negative affect in infants, and poorer emotion regulation. We hypothesize that negative temperament and maternal racism-related stress will be associated with stronger within-network connectivity of the salience network, lower connectivity between salience network and frontal control networks, and reduced connectivity between amygdala and VMPFC. Finally, we hypothesize that maternal poverty will interact with racism-related stress and experiences to amplify these effects. Statistical analysis will include whole-brain regression with behavioral measures included as voxel-wise covariates, as well as linear regression models, to examine relationships between functional brain connectivity, maternal factors, and infant outcomes. This research has implications for understanding how maternal racism-related stress and experiences get under the skin to alter functional brain networks and temperament in infants, and the potential exacerbating effects of poverty.

Authors

• Tammi R.A. Kral, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Cathi Propper, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Camille Y Williams, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kirsten McLaughlin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lindsay Ann Gomes, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rasmus M Birn, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah J Short, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author