Sex differences in influences of stressful life events on gray matter volume in early adolescence
Poster No:
967
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Lisa Wiersch1, Elvisha Dhamala2
Institutions:
1Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, New York, NY, 2Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Glen Oaks, NY
First Author:
Co-Author:
Introduction:
Stressful life events are a risk factor for psychiatric illnesses and can influence neurodevelopment. Importantly, these events are subjective and may be perceived either positively or negatively at the individual level. While it has been established that stress impacts brain morphology (Tyborowska et al. 2018; Romeo, 2016), it is unclear whether positive perceived stress, negative perceived stress, or the combination of both (i.e., total stress) distinctly maps onto the brain. Here, we examined the relationships between perceived stressful life events and gray matter volume (GMV) using data in a large sample of youth from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Through this work, we aimed to assess the potential biological mechanisms through which stressful life events influence neurodevelopment and vulnerability to psychiatric illnesses.
Methods:
We included 6,399 participants (2,948 females) from the ABCD Study with complete cortical and subcortical GMV and stressful life events data at the 2-year follow-up time point. We ran descriptive statistical analyses to assess whether the number of perceived positive and negative life events differed significantly from each other and across the sexes. We then trained individual sex-independent and sex-specific brain-based predictive models using linear ridge regression algorithms and k-fold cross validation to quantify relationships between GMV and stressful life events. Finally, we evaluated the brain regions that stressful life events mapped onto.
Results:
Youth reported a significantly higher number negative perceived life events (M = 2.44, SD = 2.4.48) than positive perceived life events (M = 1.57, SD = 1.33; t = 28.4, p < 0.0001) with up to 23 total number of events (M = 5.36, SD = 3.27). While girls reported more positive events (t = 3.26, p = 0.001), there were no sex differences in the reported negative or total events. Our sex-independent brain-based predictive modeling analyses identified significant associations were observed between cortical GMV and total events (p = 0.0497), but not subcortical GMV and total events. The total number of stressful life events negatively mapped onto pre- and postcentral gyrus, temporal, occipital, supramarginal, and frontal gyrus (Figure 1A). Our sex-specific analyses revealed significant associations between cortical GMV and negative events in boys (p = 0.042), and subcortical GMV and negative events in girls (p = 0.026). In boys, negative events mapped predominantly positively onto the frontal gyrus and intraparietal and transverse sulcus, frontal and temporal sulci and the parietal lobe (Figure 1B). In girls, negative events mapped negatively onto the hippocampus, caudate and thalamus (Figure 1C).
·Distribution of feature weights in cortical and subcortical grey matter volumes for significant brain-based predictive modeling models
Conclusions:
Our analyses demonstrate that stressful life events during childhood significantly alter structural neurodevelopment. Moreover, it is not only the number of stressful life events one experience, but also the negative perception of these stressors that uniquely influence cortical and subcortical neurodevelopment across the sexes. Notably, the brain regions that stressful life events map onto have been implicated in a wide range of psychiatric illnesses. Taken together, this suggests that stressful life events on may impart psychiatric risk by altering neurodevelopment of critical brain regions, and these influences may be sex-specific.
Lifespan Development:
Early life, Adolescence, Aging 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Classification and Predictive Modeling 2
Keywords:
Machine Learning
Other - Sex Differences; Brain Structure; Adolescence; Gray Matter Volumes; Stress
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Romeo, R. D. (2017). The impact of stress on the structure of the adolescent brain: Implications for adolescent mental health. Brain research, 1654, 185-191.