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Principal Investigator: Yoko Nomura
Organization: QUEENS COLLEGE
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $727,378
Funding agency: National Institute of Mental Health
Summary/Abstract: Accumulating evidence, including our own, indicates that in utero exposure to psychosocial
stress is associated with risks for elevated anxiety (ANX) and disruptive behavior (DB) symptomatology. In this
application, we will build on our existing birth cohort of children exposed and unexposed to Superstorm Sandy (SS)
in utero. SS randomly “assigned” stressful conditions to pregnant women and their offspring in our cohort, giving
us a unique opportunity to conduct a quasi-experiment of in utero stress. Using our deeply phenotyped cohort, we
propose to investigate whether in utero SS exposure modulates the impact of the postnatal stressful environment,
either amplifying (double-hit acceleration model) or shielding (stress inoculation model) the effects of postnatal
stress on ANX and DB symptomatology. We will continue to measure different types of postnatal stress (normative,
poor parenting, and COVID-related) to examine if magnitude, nature, timing and duration of the postnatal stressors
influences the direction and impact on such symptomatology. As well as the DSM-based diagnostic outcomes, we
will utilize the NIMH RDoC and focus on Negative Valence and Cognitive Control Systems (NVS/CCS), which will
enable a transdiagnostic perspective of pre- and postnatal stress-related changes in behavior and the brain.
Following our prior work, we will also examine sex-specific manifestations of the behavioral phenotypes (more
internalizing problems in girls and more externalizing in boys) and explore the moderating role of SES when
intersecting with individual differences in behaviors. As the brain is the central modulatory organ of
stress/adaptation and regulation, we will use neuroimaging to assess changes in brain structure, function, and
connectivity in limbic-frontal circuitry during early pre- and post-puberty, using a subsample of our cohort. Our
cohort was followed from in utero, with completed follow-up assessments (neurobehavioral, clinical, and biological
specimens), which will continue as they enter pre/puberty (ages 9-13), a time of peak risks for such problems and
sex-dimorphism. Specifically, we will: 1) examine the effects of SS-related stress and the postnatal psychosocial
environment on trajectories of clinical and adaptive neurobehaviors; 2) study the impact of prenatal SS stress and
postnatal stress on NVS/CCS brain outcomes (structure and function) and evaluate the extent to which NVS/CCS
structural changes mediate between prenatal SS-exposure and child anxiety and DB symptoms; and 3) develop
predictive models for NVS/CCS outcomes in early adolescence based on biological and behavioral measures
obtained in utero and/or the first decade of the child’s life. As pre/puberty is an important period of developmental
transition and heightened risk for ANX and DB, we will build on our unique repository of both clinical and stored
hair samples and continue to chart children’s neurobehavioral development and risk for psychopathology through
ages 9-13. Together with the inclusion of neuroimaging to investigate neural mechanisms centered on the
NVS/CCS and using tasks from the ABCD study, our study is uniquely positioned to elucidate the mechanisms of
fetal programing and threat sensitivity in the NVS/SSV that modulate the risks for anxiety and reactive aggression.
Terms: <0-11 years old><12-20 years old><Acceleration><Adolescence><Adolescent><Adolescent Youth><Age><Aggression><Aggressive behavior><Ammon Horn><Amygdala><Amygdaloid Body><Amygdaloid Nucleus><Amygdaloid structure><Anxiety><Area><Back><Behavior><Behavioral><Behavioral Symptoms><Biological><Birth><Brain><Brain Nervous System><Buffers><COVID crisis><COVID epidemic><COVID pandemic><COVID-19><COVID-19 crisis><COVID-19 epidemic><COVID-19 era><COVID-19 global health crisis><COVID-19 global pandemic><COVID-19 health crisis><COVID-19 pandemic><COVID-19 period><COVID-19 public health crisis><COVID-19 years><CV-19><Causality><Cell Communication and Signaling><Cell Signaling><Child><Child Rearing><Child Youth><Childhood><Children (0-21)><Clinical><Cluster Analyses><Cluster Analysis><Complement><Complement Proteins><Cornu Ammonis><Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019><Data Collection><Data Set><Development><Developmental Course><Diagnostic><Differences between sexes><Differs between sexes><Diffusion><Disease><Disorder><Disruptive Behavior Disorder><Dorsum><Emotional><Encephalon><Environment><Etiology><Exposure to><Face><Family><Fear><Fright><Generalized Growth><Gestation><Goals><Growth><Hair><Hippocampus><Individual><Individual Differences><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Interview><Intracellular Communication and Signaling><Life><Link><Measurable><Measures><Mediating><Mental Depression><Mental Health><Mental Hygiene><Minority><Modeling><Mothers><Multimodal Imaging><NIH><NIMH><National Institute of Mental Health><National Institutes of Health><Natural Disasters><Natural experiment><Nature><Negative Valence><New York><Organ><Outcome><Parenting><Parenting behavior><Participant><Parturition><Phenotype><Population><Position><Positioning Attribute><Pregnancy><Pregnant Women><Preparation><Protocol><Protocols documentation><Psychological Health><Psychopathology><Psychosocial Stress><Puberty><Quasi-experiment><Quasi-experimental analysis><Quasi-experimental approach><Quasi-experimental design><Quasi-experimental methods><Quasi-experimental research><Quasi-experimental study><Quasi-experimental technique><RDoC><Race><Races><Random Allocation><Random Selection><Randomized><Regulation><Research Domain Criteria><Research Specimen><Rest><Risk><Role><SARS-CoV-2 epidemic><SARS-CoV-2 global health crisis><SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic><SARS-CoV-2 pandemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 epidemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 pandemic><Sampling><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 epidemic><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 pandemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 epidemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic><Sex Differences><Sexual differences><Signal Transduction><Signal Transduction Systems><Signaling><Source><Specimen><Stress><Structure><Surface><Symptoms><System><Testing><Thick><Thickness><Time><Tissue Growth><United States National Institutes of Health><Work><abnormal psychology><adolescence (12-20)><ages><amygdaloid nuclear complex><analyzing longitudinal><behavior measurement><behavior outcome><behavior phenotype><behavioral measure><behavioral measurement><behavioral outcome><behavioral phenotyping><biologic><biological signal transduction><boys><causation><childhood adversity><childrearing><co-morbid><co-morbidity><cognitive control><cohort><comorbidity><compare to control><comparison control><complementation><computer based prediction><coronavirus disease 2019><coronavirus disease 2019 crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic><coronavirus disease 2019 global health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 global pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 public health crisis><coronavirus disease crisis><coronavirus disease epidemic><coronavirus disease pandemic><coronavirus disease-19><coronavirus disease-19 global pandemic><coronavirus disease-19 pandemic><coronavirus infectious disease-19><depository><depression><developmental><diffused><diffuses><diffusing><diffusions><disease causation><disruptive behavioral disorder><early adolescence><early onset><expectant mother><expecting mother><exposed in utero><faces><facial><fetal><fetal exposure><fetal programming><fetal stress><follow up assessment><followup assessment><girls><gray matter><hazard><high risk><hippocampal><in utero><in utero exposure><indexing><interventional strategy><intra-uterine environmental exposure><intrauterine environmental exposure><juvenile><juvenile human><kids><longitudinal analysis><low SES><low socio-economic position><low socio-economic status><low socioeconomic position><low socioeconomic status><multi-modal imaging><multi-modality imaging><multimodality imaging><neural><neural adaptation><neural imaging><neural mechanism><neuro-imaging><neuroadaptation><neurobehavior><neurobehavioral><neuroimaging><neurological imaging><neuromechanism><offspring><ontogeny><pandemic><pandemic associated stress><pandemic disease><pandemic effect><pandemic impact><pandemic induced stress><pandemic outcome><pandemic related stress><pandemic repercussions><pandemic stress><pediatric><pediatric adversity><postnatal><predictive modeling><preempt><pregnant mothers><prenatal><prenatal exposure><prenatal influence><prenatal stress><prenatally exposed><preparations><prospective><psychosocial><public health relevance><racial><racial background><racial origin><random forest><randomisation><randomization><randomly assigned><rate of change><recruit><repository><response><severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global health crisis><severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global pandemic><sex><sex based differences><sex dimorphism><sex-dependent differences><sex-related differences><sex-specific differences><sexual dimorphism><sexually dimorphic><social role><socio-economic><socio-economically><socioeconomically><socioeconomics><stress due to pandemic><stress during the pandemic><stressor><substance use><substance using><substantia alba><substantia grisea><symptomatology><unborn><white matter><youngster>