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

压力激励学习。自主神经系统（ANS）是贯穿身体的神经模式，它制定了身体的压力反应，用于保持预期的准备状态-在这种状态下，我们保持警觉并准备好接收新信息。在该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的医学研究理事会认知和脑科学单位主持的，我领导了一个小型研究小组，研究典型的中产阶级幼儿的压力和学习。我们的研究集中在探索压力的这些“好”方面。我们第一次发现，对实验呈现的压力源表现出更大自发反应的儿童也更善于学习其他儿童的面部图片。使用基于时间序列分析的新的先进分析技术，我们还表明，在压力水平上表现出更多自发性、突然波动的儿童表现出更好的学习能力。然而，压力也有不利的一面。这在社会经济地位（SES）低的人中表现得最为明显。最近的一些研究得出结论，低社会经济地位和学习成绩差之间广泛观察到的关联可能完全归因于这样一个事实，即来自低社会经济地位背景的个体往往经历更频繁，更强烈，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，早期生活中的压力增加与注意力集中能力较差有关，因此学习能力较差。那么，如何在早期发展过程中协调压力的“好”和“坏”方面呢？了解这个问题至关重要-无论是为了了解破坏高危人群早期学习的机制，还是为了开发新技术来改善所有儿童的学习。然而，以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，也没有研究这些噪音如何与他们内部应激反应的差异相关联。在这个奖学金下，我将首次使用最近开发的技术来做这件事。为了解决这些问题，我将采取一个队列的婴儿从混合的社会经济地位的背景下，招募出生在东伦敦，并定量跟踪注意力，学习，ANS活动和外部环境的压力在生命早期的变化。使用尖端的新技术，我将研究儿童是否在他们所暴露的环境噪音总量上有所不同，以及是否可以在个人暴露的噪音量与他们在注意力和学习方面的表现之间找到关系。在这个项目上，我有幸得到了三位国际领先科学家的支持。东伦敦大学的Cynthia Fu教授将协助我建立从混合社会经济背景中招募儿童的工作。剑桥的约翰邓肯教授是一位国际知名的注意力专家，他将在这个项目的认知和分析方面为我提供建议。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，并将就与临床人群的潜在联系向我提供建议。该计划还包括参观以色列Ronny Geva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。

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.