Neural Correlates of Childhood Sexuall Abuse & HIV-Related Sexual Behav in Women

非洲裔美国妇女是感染人类免疫缺陷病毒人数增长最快的群体 （艾滋病毒）。感染通常发生在异性性交和不安全的性行为的情况下， 独立于精神病诊断或物质依赖合并症。童年性史 滥用（CSA）与增加的风险有关。艾滋病毒感染的强度和慢性化程度不断增加， 滥用与风险增加有关。影像学检查应力的影响已经确定了中间 前皮质、海马和杏仁核（内侧颞叶）作为大脑区域， 脆弱重要的是，这些区域与情绪、记忆或决策处理有关。目标 这项研究的目的是检验儿童期性虐待，特别是非洲裔美国人的性虐待， 女性，导致神经回路的持续变化，即使是成年人，这些变化也会使 性虐待妇女在做出不安全的性行为选择时， 行为。这一假设将通过以下方式进行检验：1）对成年非裔美国人进行严格的临床描述， 白人女性自我报告经历过CSA; 2）执行的心理评估 Stroop测验、情绪Stroop测验和爱荷华州赌博任务的决策能力; 3）功能性 磁共振成像（fMRI）的决策和行为抑制神经回路激活 刺激与Stroop测试，情绪Stroop，爱荷华州赌博任务;和4）相关性的 目的：将CSA数据与神经心理学和功能影像学数据相结合。如果像我们假设的那样， CSA患者的思维过程发生了重大变化，增加了危险性行为的风险 那么确定大脑回路的改变可能会为未来的治疗策略提供建议。比较两条 CSA+年龄、教育和社会经济相匹配的非裔美国人和高加索妇女 没有CSA病史的对照受试者也将揭示CSA引起的变化中可能的种族差异。

African-American women are the fastest growing population contracting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Infection is commonly in the context of heterosexual intercourse with unsafe sexual practices and is independent of psychiatric diagnosis or substance dependence co-morbidity. A history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has been linked to increased risk of. HIV infection, with increasing intensity and chronicity of abuse associated with increasing risk. Imaging studies examining effects of stress have identified the medial prefrental cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala (medial temporal lobe) as brain regions that are particularly' vulnerable. Importantly, these are areas associated with emotion, memory or decision processing. The goal of the proposed studies is to test the hypothesis that childhood sexual abuse, especially in African-American women, leads to sustained changes in neural circuits even as adults and that these changes predispose sexually abused women to impaired decision making when making choices regarding unsafe sexual behaviors. This hypothesis will be tested by: 1) rigorous clinical description of adult African American and Caucasian women self reported to have experienced CSA; 2) psychological assessment of executive decision making with the Stroop Test, the Emotional Stroop Test, and the Iowa Gambling Task; 3) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the decision-making and behavioral inhibition neural circuits activated by provocation with the Stroop Test, Emotional Stroop, Iowa Gambling Task; and 4) correlation of the objective CSA data with the neuropsychological and functional imaging data. If, as we postulate, women with CSA have significant alterations in thought processes that increase risk of dangerous sexual behavior then defining the brain circuits altered may suggest therapeutic strategies in the future. Comparison of both CSA+ African American and Caucasian women with age-, education, and socio-economically matched control subjects without CSA histories will also reveal possible racial differences in CSA-provoked changes.