The influence of stressful life events on trajectories of brain development and psychopathological symptoms in adolescence

青春期，从青春期到成年早期，标志着一个非常容易受到生活压力事件影响的阶段。如今的青少年面临着更高的压力水平，这是由于教育环境中工作量的增加，以及与更多样化和不确定的生活道路相关的青春期延长。有压力的生活事件可能导致身体变化，以及社会和学术发展任务。青春期是大脑发育的关键阶段：当自下而上的皮层下情绪区域相对成熟时，自上而下的控制区域仍在继续发展。正如之前的研究所显示的那样，这些区域最容易受到成年人的压力。因此，他们在青春期的敏感发育可能会受到压力的干扰。我们对青少年时期压力生活事件对大脑发育的影响知之甚少。调查这种影响很重要，因为压力的潜在后果是焦虑症和抑郁症，在青春期达到顶峰。该项目的第一个目标是阐明压力生活事件对青春期大脑发育的影响，并确定与精神病理风险相关的发展轨迹。第二个目的是探索特定的大脑发育轨迹是否与表现出抑郁和焦虑症状的可能性更大有关。计划中的纵向项目的一个主要优势是磁共振成像数据已经在3个时间点（14、16、18年）进行了评估，压力生活事件在5个时间点（14、15、16、17和18年）进行了评估。初步结果显示，从14岁到16岁，前额叶皮层的激活程度有所增加。我们的相关出版物表明，14岁具有抑郁症阳性家族史的青少年的脆弱性反映在较高的杏仁核激活上。对大样本（n=250）的纵向评估将在方法学上具有创新性，即在19.5岁和21岁时用磁共振成像（MRI）重复测量参与者的大脑活动、结构和连通性。丰富的数据集将首次分析与压力生活事件相关的大脑功能、结构和连接的发展轨迹。为此，将采用复杂的结构方程模型。该项目的结果将有助于了解压力生活事件对青少年大脑发育和精神病理症状的影响。该项目将为提高青少年脆弱阶段风险因素的认识和早期诊断奠定基础，以支持预防和干预。

Adolescence, reaching from puberty until young adulthood, marks a phase of substantial vulnerability to stressful life events. Nowadays adolescents face higher stress levels due to higher workload in educational environments, and a prolonged phase of adolescence related with more diverse and uncertain life paths. Stressful life events can entail physical changes, as well as social and academic developmental tasks. Adolescence is a critical phase of brain development: while bottom-up subcortical emotion regions are relatively mature, top-down control regions continue to develop. As has been shown in previous studies these regions are most vulnerable to stress in adults. Therefore, their sensitive development in adolescence can be disturbed by stress. Little is known about the impact of stressful life events on brain development during adolescence yet. Investigating this impact is important since potential consequences of stress are anxiety disorders and depression which peak in adolescence. The first aim of the project is to elucidate effects of stressful life events on brain development across adolescence and identify developmental trajectories associated with the risk of psychopathology. The second aim is to explore whether specific developmental brain trajectories might be associated with greater likelihood of exhibiting symptoms of depression and anxiety. A major advantage for the planned longitudinal project is that magnetic resonance imaging data was already assessed at 3 time points (14, 16, 18 years), and stressful life events were assessed at 5 time points (14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 years). Preliminary results show an increase in activation of the prefrontal cortex from age 14 to 16. Our related publication indicates vulnerability for 14-year-old adolescents with a positive family history of depression reflected in higher amygdala activation.The longitudinal assessment of a large sample (n=250) will be methodologically innovative, i.e. repeated measurements of participants' brain activity, structure and connectivity with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at ages 19.5, and 21. The rich data set will enable for the first time analysis of developmental trajectories of brain function, structure, and connectivity in relation to stressful life events. For this purpose complex structural equation models will be employed. The results of this project will contribute to the knowledge about the impact of stressful life events on brain development and psychopathological symptoms in adolescence. The project will lay the groundwork for awareness and early diagnosis of risk-factors in the vulnerable phase of adolescence to support prevention and intervention.