Tuesday, May 13, 2025
5/13/2025
Childhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Antisocial Behavior: Investigating the Role of Reward Processing - PROJECT SUMMARY The goal of this fellowship is to prepare applicant, Heidi Westerman, for an independent research career focused on the biopsychosocial determinants of antisocial behavior (AB). The proposed fellowship consists of: 1) a research project that will further our understanding of the impact of socioeconomic disadvantage on brain structure and function and AB, and 2) a training plan comprised of formal training, mentorship, manuscript publications, and professional development activities. The applicant will be supported by a strong mentorship team with primary sponsors at the University of Michigan and consultants at Harvard, Northwestern, and University of Pittsburgh. Together, the mentorship team will provide expertise in socioeconomic adversity, neuroimaging, stress, reward processing, longitudinal data analysis, and the development of AB. The training plan will help the applicant: a) develop expertise in associations between socioeconomic disadvantage, neural reward-processing, and AB, b) develop strong, advanced quantitative methodological skills, and c) disseminate research findings and network with the developmental, clinical, and neuroscientific research communities. AB, including the psychiatric diagnosis of Conduct Disorder, leads to severe consequences for perpetrators, victims, and society. Socioeconomic disadvantage has been identified as a risk factor for engagement in AB. Though neural research related to poverty has mostly focused on affective and cognitive control, recent studies suggest that socioeconomic disadvantage may be associated with alterations in the reward-related corticostriatal circuit. Moreover, recent neuroimaging research has uncovered reward-related neural correlates of AB, offering a potential mechanism through which socioeconomic disadvantage may shape reward processing and increase risk for AB-related disorders. The proposed project will examine: 1) whether AB is associated with altered reactivity to reward anticipation and receipt in the corticostriatal system, as well as decreased grey matter volume in the ventral striatum and the orbitofrontal cortex; 2) whether socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with altered reward-related activity in the ventral striatum and decreased grey matter volume in the ventral striatum and the orbitofrontal cortex; 3) whether reactivity to reward or differences in grey matter volume provide a mechanism through which socioeconomic disadvantage increases risk for AB. All aims will be investigated in the Study of Adolescent to Adult Neural Development (a sub-sample of the larger Fragile Families and Child-Wellbeing Study), a large longitudinal neuroimaging study of mostly low- income individuals who are currently entering young adulthood (R01-MH121079; R01 MH103761). The proposed research addresses long-standing questions of the neural mechanisms linking adversity with AB. Our findings will shed light on reward-related neural contributions to the development of AB and lay the groundwork for investigating prevention and intervention for those at risk for detrimental outcomes.
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