Understanding the biological mechanisms and cognitive consequences of adverse childhood experiences

近几个月来，大多数英国人的工作和社会环境发生了巨大变化。适应在线工作和社交增加了我们生活中潜在的压力来源。无法应对压力--这通常会因童年的不利经历而加剧--是记忆、决策和情绪等认知问题的关键预测因素。然而，在那些早年经历过逆境的人中，有一小部分人在成年后表现出了对压力的韧性。这背后的原因尚不清楚，但可能包括生物反应中由基因决定的变化。在这个项目中，学生将研究不同的参与者(那些有压力生活事件的人)对在线心理社会压力源(数字Trier测试)的反应，建立这种压力源如何影响记忆和决策，并深入了解与应对这些压力源相关的神经机制。该项目将使用一些互补的方法来研究早期生活压力的影响。首先，学生将对一个大型数据库进行计算分析，以确定那些在早期生活压力下成功缓解后来认知问题的因素。然后，他们将对有早期生活压力史的人进行行为研究，以检验他们对社交拒绝和“数字压力”的反应(通过数字特里尔测试)。最后，他们将进行一项功能和扩散核磁共振研究，以测试那些在数字压力任务中表现出韧性的人是否下调了支撑压力反应的特定神经回路中的活动，这也与社会回报有关[1，2-见上文]。通过该项目，学生将有机会在蓬勃发展的学术环境中工作，并有机会在整个过程中扩展他们的博士学位。。

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. .