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What is the difference between 'good' and 'bad' stress? Understanding possible effects of socio-economic status on learning.

“好”压力和“坏”压力有什么区别？

基本信息

批准号：
ES/N017560/1
负责人：
Samuel Wass
金额：
$ 18.95万
依托单位：
University of East London
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2016 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FN017560%2F1
关键词：
What difference between good bad

项目摘要

Stress energizes learning. The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which is the pattern of nerves running through the body that enacts the body's stress response, acts to maintain a state of anticipatory readiness - one in which we are alert and ready to receive new information. Information presented during this alert state is subsequently better retained. For my recent research, hosted at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, I have been leading a small research unit to study stress and learning in typical, middle-class young children. Our research has focused on exploring these 'good' aspects of stress. We have shown, for the first time, that children who show a larger spontaneous response to an experimentally presented stressor are also better at learning pictures of other children's faces. Using new, advanced analytical techniques based on time-series analyses, we have also shown that children who show more spontaneous, sudden fluctuations in stress levels show better learning. However, there is also a down-side to stress. This is shown most markedly in individuals from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. A number of recent studies have concluded that the associations widely observed between low SES and poor academic performance may be entirely attributable to the fact that individuals from low SES backgrounds tend to experience more frequent, and intense, stressful early life events. Although the exact mechanisms are unknown, it is thought that increased stress during early life associates with a poorer ability to concentrate, and therefore to learn. So how to reconcile these 'good' and 'bad' aspects of stress during early development? Understanding this question is vital - both for understanding the mechanisms that disrupt early learning in high-risk individuals, and for developing new techniques to improve learning across all children. Yet remarkably little previous research has recorded whether different individuals are exposed to different levels of external, environmental noise during early development - nor investigated how these associate with differences in their internal stress reactivity. Under this Fellowship, I would use recently developed technologies to do this for the first time. To address these questions, I shall take a cohort of infants from mixed socio-economic status backgrounds, recruited at birth in East London, and quantitatively track how attention, learning, ANS activity and external environmental stressors vary during early life. Using cutting-edge new technologies I shall examine whether children differ in the total amount of environmental noise to which they are exposed - and whether relationships can be found between how much noise and individual is exposed to, and how well they perform on attention and learning. To mentor me on this project I have been fortunate to secure the support of three leading international scientists. Professor Cynthia Fu, based at the University of East London, will assist me in setting up the recruitment of children from mixed SES backgrounds. Professor John Duncan, in Cambridge, is an internationally renowned expert on attention, and will advise me on the cognitive and analytical aspects of the project. Professor Mark Johnson, at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, is an expert on understanding early typical and atypical development, including the early development of Autism and Attention Deficit Disorder, and will advise me on potential links to clinical populations. The proposal also includes a visit to the lab of Dr Ronny Geva, in Israel, to learn new techniques for measuring early stress from experts in her lab.

压力激励学习。自主神经系统（ANS）是一种贯穿全身的神经系统，负责对身体的压力做出反应，它的作用是维持一种预期准备状态——在这种状态下，我们保持警惕，随时准备接收新信息。在此警报状态期间呈现的信息随后被更好地保留。我最近的研究是在剑桥医学研究委员会认知和脑科学小组主持的，我一直在领导一个小型研究小组，研究典型的中产阶级幼儿的压力和学习能力。我们的研究集中在探索压力的这些“好”方面。我们第一次证明，对实验呈现的压力源表现出更大的自发反应的孩子也更善于学习其他孩子的面部图片。利用基于时间序列分析的先进分析技术，我们还发现，在压力水平上表现出更多自发、突然波动的孩子，学习效果更好。然而，压力也有不好的一面。这在低社会经济地位（SES）背景的个体中表现得最为明显。最近的一些研究得出结论，社会经济地位低和学习成绩差之间广泛观察到的联系可能完全归因于社会经济地位低的人倾向于经历更频繁、更激烈、更有压力的早期生活事件。虽然确切的机制尚不清楚，但人们认为，早期生活中压力的增加与注意力较差有关，因此学习能力较差。那么，在发育早期，如何协调压力的“好”和“坏”方面呢？理解这个问题是至关重要的——无论是对于理解破坏高危个体早期学习的机制，还是对于开发新技术来提高所有儿童的学习能力。然而，令人惊讶的是，之前的研究很少记录不同的个体在早期发育过程中是否暴露于不同水平的外部环境噪音，也没有调查这些噪音与他们内部压力反应的差异之间的关系。根据这项奖学金，我将首次使用最新开发的技术来实现这一目标。为了解决这些问题，我将采用一组来自混合社会经济地位背景的婴儿，在东伦敦出生时招募，并定量跟踪注意力，学习，ANS活动和外部环境压力因素在早期生活中的变化。使用尖端的新技术，我将研究孩子们所接触到的环境噪音的总量是否不同，以及是否可以找到噪音和个人接触的多少以及他们在注意力和学习方面的表现之间的关系。为了在这个项目上指导我，我很幸运地获得了三位国际顶尖科学家的支持。来自东伦敦大学的辛西娅·傅教授将协助我招募来自不同社会经济地位背景的儿童。剑桥大学的John Duncan教授是国际知名的注意力方面的专家，他会在项目的认知和分析方面给我建议。大脑和认知发展中心的马克·约翰逊教授是了解早期典型和非典型发展的专家，包括自闭症和注意力缺陷障碍的早期发展，他会就与临床人群的潜在联系向我提供建议。该提议还包括访问以色列罗尼·格瓦博士的实验室，向她实验室的专家学习测量早期压力的新技术。