summary: A large-scale study using pre-pandemic brain scans of adolescents found that pre-COVID-19 brain wiring predicted mental health outcomes during the pandemic.
Young people with stronger connections within the brain’s “saliency network,” which is responsible for processing emotions and rewards, showed greater resilience to stress and negative emotions. Conversely, weaker connectivity in the prefrontal cortex and other areas associated with emotional processing was associated with higher levels of stress and sadness.
These findings highlight the importance of understanding individual brain differences in predicting and addressing mental health vulnerability during difficult times.
Important facts:
- Pre-pandemic brain wiring predicted adolescent mental health during COVID-19.
- Stronger “saliency network” connections were associated with better mental health.
- Weak connections in the prefrontal cortex and other areas were associated with increased stress and sadness.
sauce: Boston Children’s Hospital
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for many youth, disrupting schooling and social-emotional development.
A large study based on national data finds that how adolescents’ brains were wired before the pandemic predicted stress, negative emotions, and overall mental health during the height of the pandemic, making them more vulnerable. It has been found that the recovery power becomes stronger.
Findings reported in the journal cerebral cortexa research leader in the Computational Neuroscience Laboratory in the Department of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, said it could help target behavioral treatments to the most affected brain circuits and functions. said Director Dr. Katerina Stamolys.
With support from the National Science Foundation, Stamolys and research assistant Linfeng Fu conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) from 2,600 adolescents, on average 12 years old, collected an average of seven months before the pandemic. The data were analyzed.
Data were obtained from the ongoing Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which excluded adolescents with known neuropsychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders.
The ABCD study surveyed adolescents about their overall mental health every two to three months between May 2020 and May 2021, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak. Stamoulis and Hu compared their responses to fMRI data.
“We found that there are specific brain circuits that can predict how adolescents will respond to surveys,” Stamoulis says.
Increased robustness of the brain’s “saliency network,” which plays a central role in the processing and regulation of emotion, reward, and pain, appears to provide emotional resilience during the pandemic.
Researchers found that stronger and better-organized connections between brain regions predicted better self-reported mental health.
Conversely, weaker and less robust connections in certain parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, were associated with increased stress and sadness during the pandemic.
“The prefrontal cortex is underdeveloped and actively changing during early adolescence, making it particularly vulnerable to external stressors,” Stamolys said.
Lower connectivity and strength of circuits involving the amygdala and thalamus, which are associated with emotional processing and regulation, also predicted increased stress and sadness.
The results were similar for circuits involved in the basal ganglia and striatum, which are also involved in emotional processing. These structures and networks also develop rapidly during adolescence.
“By identifying the prefrontal cortex as a vulnerable region and the saliency network as a vulnerable region, we established specific circuits that can be tracked over time,” Stamolys says.
“We know that these circuits support reward processing, emotional processing, pain, and motivational signals. Their functions may be targets in the design of behavioral therapies.”
In this mental health, neuroscience, and COVID-19 research news
author: Katerina Stamolys
sauce: Boston Children’s Hospital
contact: Katerina Stamolys – Boston Children’s Hospital
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Strength and resilience of developing brain circuits predict emotional and stress responses in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Caterina Stamoulis et al. cerebral cortex
abstract
Strength and resilience of developing brain circuits predict emotional and stress responses in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is having a profound but not fully understood negative impact on adolescents.
Examining pre-pandemic organization as a predictor of mental/emotional health during the first ~15 months of the pandemic to elucidate the role of brain circuits in how young people respond to pandemic stressors Did.
We analyzed the resting state network. n= 2,641 youth [median age (interquartile range) = 144.0 (13.0) months, 47.7% females] A study of cognitive development in the adolescent brain and longitudinal assessments of mental health, stress, sadness, and positive emotions collected every 2-3 months from May 2020 to May 2021.
Topological resilience or network strength predicted overall mental health, stress, and sadness (but not positive affect) at multiple points in time, primarily in December 2020 and May 2021 Did.
High salience network resilience predicted better mental health in December 2020 (β = 0.19, 95% CI =[0.06, 0.31], P= 0.01). Lower left salience, reward, limbic, and prefrontal connectivity and its thalamic, striatal, and amygdala connectivity predicted higher stress (β = −0.46 to −0.20, CI =[−0.72, −0.07], P< 0.03).
Lower two-way robustness (higher vulnerability) and/or connectivity of these networks predicted increased sadness in December 2020 and May 2021 (β = −0.514 to −0.19 , CI =[−0.81, −0.05], P< 0.04).
These findings suggest that the organization of brain circuits may have played an important role in adolescent stress and mental/emotional health during the pandemic.
