Abstract
A growing literature links socioeconomic disadvantage and adversity to brain function, including disruptions in reward processing. Less research has examined exposure to community violence (ECV) as a specific adversity related to differences in reward-related brain activation, despite the prevalence of community violence exposure for those living in disadvantaged contexts. The current study tested whether ECV was associated with reward-related ventral striatum (VS) activation after accounting for familial factors associated with differences in reward-related activation (e.g. parenting and family income). Moreover, we tested whether ECV is a mechanism linking socioeconomic disadvantage to reward-related activation in the VS. We utilized data from 444 adolescent twins sampled from birth records and residing in neighborhoods with above-average levels of poverty. ECV was associated with greater reward-related VS activation, and the association remained after accounting for family-level markers of disadvantage. We identified an indirect pathway in which socioeconomic disadvantage predicted greater reward-related activation via greater ECV, over and above family-level adversity. These findings highlight the unique impact of community violence exposure on reward processing and provide a mechanism through which socioeconomic disadvantage may shape brain function.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | nsae029 |
| Journal | Social cognitive and affective neuroscience |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2024 |
Funding
Research reported in this publication related to MTwiNS was supported by the NIMH of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Office of the Director National Institute of Health, under Award Number UH3MH114249 and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the NIH under Award Number R01HD093334 to S.A.B. and L.W.H. Addi-tionally, support was provided by the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award under Award Number F31 MH131373 to H.B.W. and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Developmental Psychol-ogy Training Grant under Award Number T32 HD007109-42 which supported H.B.W. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. Additional MTwiNS funding was provided by the Avielle Foundation via The Conway Family Award for Excellence in Neu-roscience (to L.W.H. and S.A.B.) and a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain and Behavior Foundation (to L.W.H.), and institutional funding was provided by the University of Michigan (to L.W.H.). Neuroimaging took place at the Functional MRI Lab-oratory of the University of Michigan which is supported by NIH Grant 1S10OD012240-01A1 (PI Noll). Research reported in this publication related to MTwiNS was supported by the NIMH of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Office of the Director National Institute of Health, under Award Number UH3MH114249 and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the NIH under Award Number R01HD093334 to S.A.B. and L.W.H. Additionally, support was provided by the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award under Award Number F31 MH131373 to H.B.W. and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Developmental Psychology Training Grant under Award Number T32 HD007109-42 which supported H.B.W. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. Additional MTwiNS funding was provided by the Avielle Foundation via The Conway Family Award for Excellence in Neuroscience (to L.W.H. and S.A.B.) and a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain and Behavior Foundation (to L.W.H.), and institutional funding was provided by the University of Michigan (to L.W.H.). Neuroimaging took place at the Functional MRI Laboratory of the University of Michigan which is supported by NIH Grant 1S10OD012240-01A1 (PI Noll).
Keywords
- brain
- community violence
- developmental neuroscience
- neuroimaging
- poverty
- reward
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
