The complex neurobiology of resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment

Abstract: Background: Childhood maltreatment has been associated with significant impairment in social, emotional and behavioural functioning later in life. Nevertheless, some individuals who have experienced childhood maltreatment function better than expected given their circumstances. Main body: Here, we provide an integrated understanding of the complex, interrelated mechanisms that facilitate such individual resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment. We aim to show that resilient functioning is not facilitated by any single ‘resilience biomarker’. Rather, resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment is a product of complex processes and influences across multiple levels, ranging from ‘bottom-up’ polygenetic influences, to ‘top-down’ supportive social influences. We highlight the complex nature of resilient functioning and suggest how future studies could embrace a complexity theory approach and investigate multiple levels of biological organisation and their temporal dynamics in a longitudinal or prospective manner. This would involve using methods and tools that allow the characterisation of resilient functioning trajectories, attractor states and multidimensional/multilevel assessments of functioning. Such an approach necessitates large, longitudinal studies on the neurobiological mechanisms of resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment that cut across and integrate multiple levels of explanation (i.e. genetics, endocrine and immune systems, brain structure and function, cognition and environmental factors) and their temporal interconnections. Conclusion: We conclude that a turn towards complexity is likely to foster collaboration and integration across fields. It is a promising avenue which may guide future studies aimed to promote resilience in those who have experienced childhood maltreatment

The complex neurobiology of resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment

Abstract: Background: Childhood maltreatment has been associated with significant impairment in social, emotional and behavioural functioning later in life. Nevertheless, some individuals who have experienced childhood maltreatment function better than expected given their circumstances. Main body: Here, we provide an integrated understanding of the complex, interrelated mechanisms that facilitate such individual resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment. We aim to show that resilient functioning is not facilitated by any single ‘resilience biomarker’. Rather, resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment is a product of complex processes and influences across multiple levels, ranging from ‘bottom-up’ polygenetic influences, to ‘top-down’ supportive social influences. We highlight the complex nature of resilient functioning and suggest how future studies could embrace a complexity theory approach and investigate multiple levels of biological organisation and their temporal dynamics in a longitudinal or prospective manner. This would involve using methods and tools that allow the characterisation of resilient functioning trajectories, attractor states and multidimensional/multilevel assessments of functioning. Such an approach necessitates large, longitudinal studies on the neurobiological mechanisms of resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment that cut across and integrate multiple levels of explanation (i.e. genetics, endocrine and immune systems, brain structure and function, cognition and environmental factors) and their temporal interconnections. Conclusion: We conclude that a turn towards complexity is likely to foster collaboration and integration across fields. It is a promising avenue which may guide future studies aimed to promote resilience in those who have experienced childhood maltreatment

No Differential Effects of Neural and Psychological Explanations of Psychopathy on Moral Behavior

Research in neurocriminology has explored the link between neural functions and structures and the psychopathic disposition. This online experiment aimed to assess the effect of communicating the neuroscience of psychopathy on the degree to which lay people exhibited attitudes characteristic of psychopathy in particular in terms of moral behavior. If psychopathy is blamed on the brain, people may feel less morally responsible for their own psychopathic tendencies. In the study, participants read false feedback about their own psychopathic traits supposedly inferred from their Facebook likes, described either in neurobiological or cognitive terms. Participants were randomly allocated to read that they either had above-average or below-average psychopathic traits. We found no support for the hypothesis that the neuroscientific explanation of psychopathy influences moral behavior. This casts doubt on the fear that communicating the neuroscience of psychopathy will promote psychopathic attitudes

RAISE study protocol: a cross-sectional, multilevel, neurobiological study of resilience after individual stress exposure.

INTRODUCTION: This paper describes the protocol for an ongoing project funded by the Royal Society, the Resilience After Individual Stress Exposure (RAISE) study; which aims to examine the factors and mechanisms that facilitate resilient functioning after childhood adversity (CA). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We aim to recruit up to 200 participants. We will use dimension reduction techniques (principal component analysis) on standard-normally transformed individual parameters of mental health, social functioning and CA to calculate a composite measure of adaptive (ie, 'resilient') psychosocial functioning. To examine the neuroimmune responses to stress and their relationship with the brain and social environment, we will use a well validated functional MRI task; the Montreal imaging stress task and venepuncture. We will run group or dimensional comparisons in multiple levels of biological and psychological outcomes, as well as mediation and moderation analyses to study how key biological systems (ie, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the immune system) interrelate and interact with brain function and social influences in order to facilitate resilient functioning after CA. We hypothesise that resilient functioning will be facilitated by reduced morning cortisol and cytokine levels before and after the stressor and improved neural responses to such stress, as well as increased gray matter volume in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, enhanced inhibitory control and emotion regulation, and more friendship and family support. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has been reviewed and given favourable opinion by the National Research Ethics Service, NRES Committee East of England-Cambridge Central and external reviewers from the Royal Society (RGF\R1\180064 and RGF\EA\180029). The results of the RAISE study will be disseminated through (1) publications in scientific peer reviewed journals, (2) presentations on relevant scientific conferences and meetings, (3) publications and presentations for the general public and (4) through social media

Mood and neural responses to social rejection do not seem to be altered in resilient adolescents with a history of adversity.

Childhood adversity (CA) increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems. Adolescent social support (from family and/or friends) reduces the risk of mental health problems after CA. However, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear, and we speculate that they are manifested on neurodevelopmental levels. Therefore, we investigated whether family and/or friendship support at ages 14 and 17 function as intermediate variables for the relationship between CA before age 11 and affective or neural responses to social rejection feedback at age 18. We studied 55 adolescents with normative mental health at age 18 (26 with CA and therefore considered "resilient"), from a longitudinal cohort. Participants underwent a Social Feedback Task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Social rejection feedback activated the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the left anterior insula. CA did not predict affective or neural responses to social rejection at age 18. Yet, CA predicted better friendships at age 14 and age 18, when adolescents with and without CA had comparable mood levels. Thus, adolescents with CA and normative mood levels have more adolescent friendship support and seem to have normal mood and neural responses to social rejection.This work was supported by grants from Friends of Peterhouse Medical Fund Cambridge (RG 51114), the Wellcome Trust (RG 074296), and the UK Medical Research Council (MC US A060 0019). JF is supported by the Medical Research Council Doctoral Training/Sackler Fund and the Pinsent Darwin Fund. JS is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MC US A060 0019). ADA is supported by the Aker Scholarship. SS is supported by the Wellcome Trust (209127/Z/17/Z). IMG is funded by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award and declares consulting to Lundbeck. ALvH is supported by the Royal Society (DH15017 & RGF\EA\180029 & RGF\RI\180064), and MQ (MQBFC/2). Funders of the authors played no role in the study conduction, analysis performance, or the reporting of the study

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges

The globalizability of temporal discounting

Economic inequality is associated with preferences for smaller, immediate gains over larger, delayed ones. Such temporal discounting may feed into rising global inequality, yet it is unclear whether it is a function of choice preferences or norms, or rather the absence of sufficient resources for immediate needs. It is also not clear whether these reflect true differences in choice patterns between income groups. We tested temporal discounting and five intertemporal choice anomalies using local currencies and value standards in 61 countries (N = 13,629). Across a diverse sample, we found consistent, robust rates of choice anomalies. Lower-income groups were not significantly different, but economic inequality and broader financial circumstances were clearly correlated with population choice patterns

RAISE study protocol: a cross-sectional, multilevel, neurobiological study of resilience after individual stress exposure

Introduction: This paper describes the protocol for an ongoing project funded by the Royal Society, the Resilience After Individual Stress Exposure (RAISE) study; which aims to examine the factors and mechanisms that facilitate resilient functioning after childhood adversity (CA). Methods and analysis: We aim to recruit up to 200 participants. We will use dimension reduction techniques (principal component analysis) on standard-normally transformed individual parameters of mental health, social functioning and CA to calculate a composite measure of adaptive (ie, ‘resilient’) psychosocial functioning. To examine the neuroimmune responses to stress and their relationship with the brain and social environment, we will use a well validated functional MRI task; the Montreal imaging stress task and venepuncture. We will run group or dimensional comparisons in multiple levels of biological and psychological outcomes, as well as mediation and moderation analyses to study how key biological systems (ie, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and the immune system) interrelate and interact with brain function and social influences in order to facilitate resilient functioning after CA. We hypothesise that resilient functioning will be facilitated by reduced morning cortisol and cytokine levels before and after the stressor and improved neural responses to such stress, as well as increased gray matter volume in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, enhanced inhibitory control and emotion regulation, and more friendship and family support. Ethics and dissemination: This study has been reviewed and given favourable opinion by the National Research Ethics Service, NRES Committee East of England-Cambridge Central and external reviewers from the Royal Society (RGF\R1\180064 and RGF\EA\180029). The results of the RAISE study will be disseminated through (1) publications in scientific peer reviewed journals, (2) presentations on relevant scientific conferences and meetings, (3) publications and presentations for the general public and (4) through social media

Psycho-social factors associated with mental resilience in the Corona lockdown.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not only a threat to physical health but is also having severe impacts on mental health. Although increases in stress-related symptomatology and other adverse psycho-social outcomes, as well as their most important risk factors have been described, hardly anything is known about potential protective factors. Resilience refers to the maintenance of mental health despite adversity. To gain mechanistic insights about the relationship between described psycho-social resilience factors and resilience specifically in the current crisis, we assessed resilience factors, exposure to Corona crisis-specific and general stressors, as well as internalizing symptoms in a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 24 languages during the most intense phase of the lockdown in Europe (22 March to 19 April) in a convenience sample of N = 15,970 adults. Resilience, as an outcome, was conceptualized as good mental health despite stressor exposure and measured as the inverse residual between actual and predicted symptom total score. Preregistered hypotheses (osf.io/r6btn) were tested with multiple regression models and mediation analyses. Results confirmed our primary hypothesis that positive appraisal style (PAS) is positively associated with resilience (p < 0.0001). The resilience factor PAS also partly mediated the positive association between perceived social support and resilience, and its association with resilience was in turn partly mediated by the ability to easily recover from stress (both p < 0.0001). In comparison with other resilience factors, good stress response recovery and positive appraisal specifically of the consequences of the Corona crisis were the strongest factors. Preregistered exploratory subgroup analyses (osf.io/thka9) showed that all tested resilience factors generalize across major socio-demographic categories. This research identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted by public mental health efforts in this and in future pandemics

The psychological science accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data