Understanding the biological mechanisms and cognitive consequences of adverse childhood experiences

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The working and social climate for the majority of people in UK has changed dramatically in recent months. Adapting to online working and socializing has added to the sources of potential stress in our lives. An inability to handle stress - which is often exacerbated by adverse childhood experiences - is a key predictor of problems with cognition, such as memory, decision-making and mood. A minority of those who experience adversity during early life however display resilience to stress during adulthood. The reasons behind this are as yet unclear but may include genetically-determined alterations in biological responses. In this project the student will examine how different participants (those with previous experience of stressful life events) respond to an online psychosocial stressor (the digital Trier test), establish how this stressor impacts on memory and decision making, and gain insight into the neural mechanisms associated with resilience to these stressors. The project will examine the effects of early life stress using a number of complementary approaches. First, the student will carry out a computational analysis of a large database to determine the factors that successfully mitigate against later cognitive problems in those with early life stress. They will then carry out behavioural studies in people with a history of early life stress to examine how they respond to social rejection and 'digital stress' (via the digital Trier test). Last, they will carry out a functional and diffusion MRI study to test whether those who show resilience during a digital stress task, which we have established in UoM, down-regulate activity in a particular neural circuit underpinning stress-reactivity, that is also implicated in social reward [1,2 - see above].Throughout the project the student will have the opportunity to work in a thriving academic environment with opportunities to expand their PhD studies throughout. .