Neural impact of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage in traumatically injured adults.

Nearly 14 percent of Americans live in a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood. Lower individual socioeconomic position (iSEP) has been linked to increased exposure to trauma and stress, as well as to alterations in brain structure and function; however, the neural effects of neighborhood SEP (nSEP) factors, such as neighborhood disadvantage, are unclear. Using a multi-modal approach with participants who recently experienced a traumatic injury ( = 185), we investigated the impact of neighborhood disadvantage, acute post-traumatic stress symptoms, and iSEP on brain structure and functional connectivity at rest.

A 7-Tesla MRI study of the periaqueductal gray: resting state and task activation under threat.

The periaqueductal gray (PAG) is a region of the midbrain implicated in a variety of behaviors including defensive responses to threat. Despite the wealth of knowledge pertaining to the differential functional roles of the PAG columns in nonhuman and human research, the basic functional connectivity of the PAG at rest has not been well characterized. Therefore, the current study utilized 7-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to characterize PAG functional connectivity at rest and task activation under uncertain threat.

Neural substrates of human fear generalization: A 7T-fMRI investigation.

Fear generalization - the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening due to perceptual similarity to a learned threat - is an adaptive process. Overgeneralization, however, is maladaptive and has been implicated in a number of anxiety disorders. Neuroimaging research has indicated several regions sensitive to effects of generalization, including regions involved in fear excitation (e.

Reading behaviors and text-to-speech technology perceptions of people with aphasia.

People with aphasia often have reading impairments that affect participation in daily activities. Text-to-speech (TTS) devices are technology-based supports that can facilitate processing of written materials. The purpose of this study was to gather information about the reading behaviors and TTS technology perceptions of people with aphasia who had first learned about system features and options.

Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with stable deficits in neurocognitive functioning in traumatically-injured adults.

Background: In trauma-exposed adults, the relationship between an individual's socioeconomic position (SEP) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been well demonstrated. One potential mechanism by which the stress associated with lower SEPs may impact trauma outcomes is through changes in neurocognition. In both healthy and clinical samples, area-level factors also appear to be independently related to neurocognition.

High-Resolution Resting-State Functional Connectivity of the Extended Amygdala.

The extended amygdala has been implicated as a critical region in the neurocircuitry underlying anxiety. The circuitry of the extended amygdala, including the central (CeA) and basolateral (BLA) nuclei of the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), has been well defined in nonhuman animals; however, much less is known about the roles and interactions of these structures in humans given their small size. Therefore, this study used high-resolution 7-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging to define, compare, and contrast functional connectivity (FC) of these structures in 57 neurologically healthy young adults.

Effects of anticipated emotional category and temporal predictability on the startle reflex.

Anticipated emotional category and temporal predictability are key characteristics that have both been shown to impact psychophysiological indices of defensive motivation (e.g., the startle reflex).