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Author Spotlight: Understanding Adolescent Social Adversity Effects on Neurodevelopment in Mice
Published on: March 15, 2024
Racial/ethnic discrimination shapes adolescent brain connectivity: Social buffers and implications for executive
Natasha Duell1, Gabriella M Alvarez2, Eva H Telzer3
1Department of Psychology and Child Development, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, United States.
None:
Racial and ethnic discrimination has lasting consequences for adolescent functioning, yet its impact on adolescent brain development is relatively understudied. Identifying the neural circuits affected by discrimination can reveal key insights into brain plasticity and resilience. This pre-registered, multi-method study examined the longitudinal effect of racial/ethnic discrimination on one indicator of executive function via resting state functional connectivity among 4669 adolescents of color (e.g., 44 % Latinx, 43 % Black, 13 % Asian, 8 % Native American) from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study. Further, we explored familism and school support as social-environmental buffers. Greater discrimination impeded adolescents' performance on the Flanker test of selective attention and inhibitory control via longitudinal effects on connectivity between the attention networks, specifically among youth evincing low familism. Among adolescents reporting low school support, greater discrimination was associated with heightened dorsal attention-salience network connectivity. Findings offer initial evidence for the neurobiological processes impacted by discrimination and social-environmental strengths that may "break the link" between discrimination and brain function.
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