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

非洲裔美国女性是感染人类免疫缺陷病毒人数增长最快的人群 (艾滋病毒)。感染通常是在异性性交和不安全的性行为的背景下发生的， 不受精神诊断或物质依赖共病的影响。儿童期性爱史 滥用(CSA)与增加患病风险有关。艾滋病毒感染，其强度和慢性化程度不断增加 滥用与增加的风险相关。检查压力影响的成像研究已经确定了内侧 前皮质、海马体和杏仁核(内侧颞叶)作为大脑区域，特别是 很脆弱。重要的是，这些区域与情绪、记忆或决策过程有关。目标是 建议的研究之一是检验儿童期性虐待的假设，特别是在非裔美国人中 女性，会导致神经回路的持续变化，即使在成年后，这些变化容易 在做出关于不安全性行为的选择时，性虐待女性的决策受到损害 行为。这一假设将通过以下几个方面得到验证：1)对成年非裔美国人和 高加索女性自我报告经历过CSA；2)对高管的心理评估 使用Stroop测试、情绪Stroop测试和爱荷华州赌博任务进行决策；3)功能 核磁共振成像(FMRI)检测被激活的决策和行为抑制神经回路 通过挑衅与Stroop测试、情绪Stroop、爱荷华州赌博任务；以及4)与 目的将CSA资料与神经心理学和功能影像资料相结合。如果，正如我们假设的那样，女性 患有CSA的患者在思维过程中有显著变化，从而增加了危险性行为的风险 然后，定义改变的大脑回路可能会为未来的治疗策略提供建议。两者的比较 CSA+年龄、教育程度和社会经济相匹配的非裔美国人和高加索女性 没有CSA病史的对照受试者也会在CSA引起的变化中揭示可能的种族差异。

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.