Publications by authors named "Grace Rowland"
Article Synopsis
- Sexual trauma (ST) is a prevalent issue in the U.S., manifesting as childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adult sexual assault (ASA), both of which can lead to severe mental health disorders.
- The psychological and neural effects of CSA and ASA may differ, but current research has largely overlooked these distinctions, as well as the compounding effects of experiencing both types of trauma.
- This review summarizes findings from psychology and neuroscience, points out gaps in existing research, and suggests future studies to better understand the complex impact of ST throughout a person's life.
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Prior sexual trauma (ST) is associated with greater risk for posttraumatic stress disorder after a subsequent traumatic event; however, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain opaque. We investigated longitudinal posttraumatic dysfunction and amygdala functional dynamics following admission to an emergency department for new primarily nonsexual trauma in participants with and without previous ST.
Methods: Participants ( = 2178) were recruited following acute trauma exposure (primarily motor vehicle collision).
Importance: Differences in neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics are important considerations in understanding differences in risk vs resilience in mental health. Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with alterations in the function and structure of threat neurocircuitry.
Objective: To investigate associations of neighborhood disadvantage with white and gray matter and neural reactivity to positive and negative stimuli in the context of trauma exposure.
Article Synopsis
- There are differences in how different racial and ethnic groups experience stress and resources that can affect their brains, especially the amygdala, which helps process fear and trauma.
- A study with 283 participants looked at how their brains reacted to scary and neutral faces after trauma, finding that Black and Hispanic people had different brain connections compared to White people.
- The results suggest that these differences in brain activity and responses to stress may influence how likely someone is to develop PTSD after experiencing traumatic events.
Article Synopsis
- - This study explores how survivors of sexual trauma (ST) may experience different PTSD symptoms compared to those with non-sexual trauma (NST), particularly focusing on Black women with a history of trauma from childhood and adulthood.
- - Findings indicate that ST is linked to more severe PTSD symptoms across all categories, especially in those with repeated experiences of ST, while showing heightened fear responses through increased startle reactions.
- - Despite the severity of PTSD symptoms in ST survivors, the study concludes that their symptom profiles do not differ significantly from those of NST survivors, suggesting that ST is a particularly impactful but not uniquely symptomatic stressor.