White Matter Microstructure in the Young Adult Brain Varies with Neighborhood Disadvantage in Adolescence

The impact of neighborhood disadvantage on amygdala reactivity: Pathways through neighborhood social processes

“…Our unregistered analysis at a different voxelwise threshold revealed that greater neighborhood disadvantage was related to greater right amygdala reactivity to threat. This finding is consistent with a growing literature, which finds that neighborhood disadvantage is linked to structural and functional changes within the amygdala and the broader corticolimbic circuit ( Bell et al, 2021 , Gard et al, 2020 , Ramphal et al, 2020 , Whittle et al, 2017 ). Neighborhood disadvantage has been longitudinally linked to larger left and right amygdala volumes in adolescence ( Whittle et al, 2017 ) and increased amygdala reactivity to emotional faces in adolescence and adulthood ( Gard et al, 2017 , Gard et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Moreover, recent studies have found that neighborhood disadvantage is associated with differences in structural and functional connectivity between the amygdala and regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). For example, a recent cross-sectional study of participants aged 5–25 years, found weaker amygdala-ventromedial PFC functional connectivity in younger participants from more disadvantaged neighborhoods, and a recent longitudinal investigation found that greater neighborhood disadvantage in adolescence was associated with less white matter connectivity between brain regions supporting emotional processing in adulthood, including the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus ( Bell et al, 2021 , Ramphal et al, 2020 ). Thus, our unregistered findings align with the existing evidence that the broader neighborhood context is critical to amygdala function and functional connectivity within the broader corticolimbic circuit.…”

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and the Neurobiology of Uncertainty in Traumatically Injured Adults

“…The majority of findings show a detrimental effect of greater neighborhood disadvantage on brain health. For example, previous work has shown that neighborhood disadvantage is related to decreased hippocampal volume in healthy ( 61 ) and trauma-exposed adults ( 27 ), as well as decreased white matter integrity of cingulum, uncinate, and stria terminalis/fornix pathways ( 40 ). Here, we present a more nuanced picture of the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on neural circuitry.…”

“…The first supplemental analysis demonstrates the effects of ADI without considering acute posttraumatic stress symptoms (i.e., PCL-5 was not included as a covariate). The second is a sensitivity analysis to determine whether the results were driven by individuals living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods ( 8 , 40 ). We excluded participants with ADI rankings greater than 90 ( n = 17) and reran the 3dLME analyses ( n = 73).…”

Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study Linked External Data (LED): Protocol and practices for geocoding and assignment of environmental data

“…As for the natural environment, emerging literature has also implicated greenspace as a potential protective factor, with links to better childhood neurodevelopmental outcomes and lower risk of psychiatric disorders in adolescents and adulthood ( Engemann et al, 2019 , Liao et al, 2019 , Younan et al, 2016 ). In terms of exposure to harmful substances, air pollution and lead exposure have been widely linked to cognitive functioning during childhood and adolescents ( Cecil, 2011 , Clifford et al, 2016 , Lanphear et al, 2005 , Volk et al, 2021 ) as well as increased the risk of mental health problems ( Antonsen et al, 2020 , Daneshparvar et al, 2016 , Khan et al, 2019 , Pedersen and Mortensen, 2006 , Thurston et al, 2017 ) More recently, studies have begun to show these built and natural environmental factors during childhood and adolescence influencing brain structure and function ( Bell et al, 2021 , Herting et al, 2019 , Rakesh et al, 2021a , Rakesh et al, 2021b ). Indeed, these strong links between various physical environmental factors and health outcomes has led to the strong impetus for elucidating how an individual’s exposome, or the totality of exposure experienced by an individual over their lives, may affect one’s health ( Wild, 2012 ).…”