Effects of Early Adversity on Autonomic and Neural Mechanisms Underlying Self-Regulation

早期发展暴露于与贫困相关的慢性压力因素，导致多种社会和健康结果的巨大差异，并持续到成年。大脑功能的一个特定方面对学校的成功和成年的成功很重要，这是自我调节，传统上从严格的认知角度进行研究。然而，为了满足不同压力或非压力情况的需求，在健康的系统中，大脑和心脏必须相互作用，以适当地准备身体和大脑做出反应。关于心脏和大脑之间的这种动态相互作用如何与儿童和成人的自我调节有关，或者与早期逆境有关的慢性压力如何影响这种相互作用，人们知之甚少。该项目将大大提高我们对这些关系的理解，这有可能有助于实现广泛的社会相关成果，促进国家健康和繁荣。该项目的结果将提供发展认知神经科学领域与儿科学、行为医学、健康心理学和干预科学之间的关键联系。这项研究还可以确定慢性应激对认知的不利影响的潜在保护因素，这将为干预措施的发展和完善提供神经生物学靶点。循证干预措施有可能改善健康结果，并带来大量的经济效益，包括但不限于降低医疗保健成本，扩大劳动力供应和提高生产力。经济学家的工作表明，有效的早期干预措施对经济产生了重大的积极影响，保守的分析估计投资回报率约为7比1。以自我调节为目标的干预措施也有望改善来自逆境背景的儿童的个人学业成绩和生活质量。为代表性不足的人口提供更多的学术机会也可以增加国内劳动力的多样性和竞争力，这两者对于在21世纪发展更具全球竞争力的劳动力至关重要。并确定这种相互作用的哪些方面最容易受到早期逆境和压力的影响。这些脆弱的系统很可能对幼儿干预措施作出积极反应。核心假设是自主神经系统的两个分支，副交感神经系统（PNS）和交感神经系统（SNS），与幼儿和成人的注意力和自我调节相关的行为和大脑系统相互作用，这些功能将影响早期逆境与注意力/自我调节之间的关系。我们将用三个具体目标来检验这个假设：目标1。确定PNS和SNS机制对幼儿和成人注意力和自我调节的行为和脑功能的相对贡献;目的2。以试验为基础，确定自主神经系统功能与大脑对反馈和自我调节错误的反应相互作用的程度;以及目标3。开发和完善PNS和SNS功能在早期逆境与行为和认知脑功能之间关系中的作用模型。我们将测量PNS和SNS功能，同时使用电生理学对来自各种社会经济地位背景的儿童和成人进行注意力和自我调节的大脑测量。这将有助于理解早期逆境如何影响控制注意力和行为的大脑系统。

Early developmental exposure to chronic stressors associated with poverty leads to profound disparities in multiple social and health outcomes that persist into adulthood. One specific aspect of brain function that is important for success in school and success in adulthood is self-regulation, which is traditionally studied from a strictly cognitive perspective. However, to meet the demands of different stressful or non-stressful situations, in a healthy system the brain and heart must interact to appropriately prepare the body and brain to respond. Very little is known about how this dynamic interaction between the heart and brain is associated with self-regulation in children and adults or how chronic stress associated with early adversity affects this interaction. This project will significantly improve our understanding of these relationships, which has the potential to contribute to the achievement of a broad range of societally-relevant outcomes for national health and prosperity. Results from this project will provide a critical link between the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience and pediatrics, behavioral medicine, health psychology, and intervention science. This research may also identify potential protective factors to the adverse effects of chronic stress on cognition, which would provide neurobiological targets to inform the development and refinement of interventions. Evidence-based interventions have the potential to improve health outcomes, with numerous and substantial economic benefits, including but not limited to reductions in health care costs, expansions in labor supply, and greater productivity. Work by economists has shown that effective early interventions have substantial positive economic impact, with conservative analyses estimating a return on investment of approximately 7 to 1. Interventions targeting self-regulation also promise to improve individual academic outcomes and quality of life for children from backgrounds of adversity. Greater academic opportunity for underrepresented populations can also increase the diversity and the competitiveness of the domestic workforce, both of which are crucial to the development of a more globally competitive workforce in the 21st century.The objective of this project is to determine how the dynamic interaction between the heart and brain is associated with attention and self-regulation in childhood and in adulthood, and to identify which aspects of this interaction are the most vulnerable to early adversity and stress. These vulnerable systems are likely to respond positively to early-childhood interventions. The central hypothesis is that two branches of the autonomic nervous systems, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS), interact with behavior and brain systems involved in attention and self-regulation in young children and adults, and that these functions will influence the relationship between early adversity and attention/self-regulation. We will test this hypothesis with three specific aims: Aim 1. To determine the relative contributions of PNS and SNS mechanisms to behavior and brain function for attention and self-regulation in young children and adults; Aim 2. To determine the extent to which autonomic nervous system functions interact with the brain response to feedback and errors in self-regulation on a trial-by-trial basis; and Aim 3. To develop and refine models of the role of PNS and SNS functions in the relationship between early adversity and behavior and brain function for cognition. We will measure PNS and SNS function at the same time as brain measures of attention and self-regulation using electrophysiology in children and adults from a wide range of socioeconomic status backgrounds. This will contribute to understanding how early adversity impacts brain systems underlying the control of attention and behavior.