The neurophysiological consequences of racism-related stressors in Black Americans.

Racism-related stressors, from experiences of both implicit and explicit racial discrimination to systemic socioeconomic disadvantage, have a cumulative impact on Black Americans' health. The present narrative review synthesizes peripheral (neuroendocrine and inflammation markers), psychophysiological (heart-rate variability, skin conductance), and neuroimaging (structural and functional) findings that demonstrate unique associations with racism-related stress. Emerging evidence reveals how racism-related stressors contribute to differential physiological and neural responses and may have distinct impacts on regions involved with threat and social processing. Ultimately, the neurophysiological effects of racism-related stress may confer biological susceptibility to stress and trauma-related disorders. We note critical gaps in the literature on the neurophysiological impact of racism-related stress and outline additional research that is needed on the multifactorial interactions between racism and mental health. A clearer understanding of the interactions between racism-related stress, neurophysiology, and stress- and trauma-related disorders is critical for preventative efforts, biomarker discovery, and selection of effective clinical treatments for Black Americans.

The Dichotomy of Threat and Deprivation as Subtypes of Childhood Maltreatment: Differential Functional Connectivity Patterns of Threat and Reward Circuits in an Adult Trauma Sample.

BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced activation of the nucleus accumbens, a central region in the reward network, and overactivity in the amygdala, a key region in threat processing. However, the long-lasting impact of these associations in the context of later-life stress is not well understood. The current study explored the association between childhood threat and deprivation and functional connectivity of threat and reward regions in an adult trauma sample. METHODS: Trauma survivors (N = 169; mean age [SD] = 32.2 [10.3] years; female = 55.6%) were recruited from a level I trauma center. Two weeks after injury, participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (measuring experiences of threat and deprivation) and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Seed-to-voxel analyses evaluated the effect of childhood threat and deprivation on amygdala and nucleus accumbens resting-state connectivity. RESULTS: Higher levels of threat were associated with increased connectivity between the right nucleus accumbens with temporal fusiform gyrus/parahippocampal gyrus and the left amygdala and the precuneus (false discovery rate-corrected p < .05). After controlling for posttraumatic symptoms 2 weeks posttrauma and lifetime trauma exposure, only the nucleus accumbens findings survived. There were no significant relationships between experiences of childhood deprivation and amygdala or nucleus accumbens connectivity. CONCLUSIONS: Experiences of threat are associated with increased nucleus accumbens and amygdala connectivity, which may reflect a preparedness to detect salient and visual stimuli. This may also reflect a propensity toward dysregulated reward processing. Overall, these results suggest that childhood threat may be contributing to aberrant neural baseline reward and threat sensitivity later in life in an adult trauma sample.

Training for Lasting Change: Trauma-Informed Training Results in Improved and Sustained Individual and Organizational Knowledge, Attitudes, and Policies.

Objective: Trauma-informed care (TIC) trainings seek to improve individual and organizational recognition and care to individuals who have experienced trauma. However, whether TIC trainings result in long-term changes to an organization's policies and practices remains unclear. This article describes the effectiveness of a workshop designed to train professionals across disciplines in understanding and implementing TIC in their work and workplace.Methods: Between July 2021 and May 2022, participants completed a 2-day (approximately 12 hours) training in TIC that included didactics on cultural responsivity, the biological effects of trauma, the components of TIC, and how to deploy TIC within their organization. Prior to the training, participants completed a previously validated survey, the Survey for Trauma-Informed Systems Change, which evaluated their pre-training (T0) competency in TIC and the level of TIC within their organization. Within 48 hours following the training, participants completed a post-survey (T1). To evaluate the longer-term impact of the training, participants repeated the post-survey at 6 months post-training (T2).Results: Over a 1-year period, 598 individuals (78% women, 20% men; mean age = 45.5 years) received training in TIC. There was a significant increase between the T0 survey and the T1 post-survey in self-assessed knowledge and attitudes; systemwide knowledge and attitudes; training, support, interaction, and environment; and awareness of cultural background at work (P values < .001), but not safety and acceptance at work (P = .06). Open-ended qualitative responses on the T2 survey, which probed what specific policies and/or practices had been modified within the participant's organization, revealed improvement in several key themes (training, policy, and communication).Conclusions: This unique trauma-informed didactic training resulted isn persistent quantitative and qualitative change within individuals and organizations. Most notably, the training yielded greater confidence in utilizing TIC practices and systemic change at the organizational level. The results suggest that a 2-day training in TIC can transform organizational training, policy, and communications.

Neural processes of emotional conflict detection and prediction of posttraumatic stress disorder symptom clusters in traumatic injury survivors.

OBJECTIVE: Given the prevalence and significant burden of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), identifying early predictors of symptom development following trauma is critical. PTSD is a heterogeneous disorder comprised of distinct symptom clusters-reexperiencing, avoidance, negative mood, and hyperarousal-that contribute to the broad range of possible symptom profiles. Affective and attentional regulation processes, such as emotional conflict detection, are impaired in individuals with PTSD; however, the neural mechanisms underlying these alterations and their predictive utility for the development of PTSD symptoms remain unclear. METHOD: Traumatic injury survivors (N = 49) without traumatic brain injury were recruited from the emergency department of an urban, Level-1 trauma center. Within 1 month of trauma exposure, participants completed a well-characterized emotional conflict task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Participants returned 6-month later for a clinical assessment of PTSD symptoms. Using a region-of-interest mask derived from whole-brain voxelwise analyses during emotional conflict detection (vs. no emotional conflict detection) we examined whether differential neural activity predicted 6-month PTSD symptom cluster severity. RESULTS: Greater activation of the right middle frontal gyrus during emotional conflict detection prospectively predicted lower PTSD avoidance symptom severity 6 months later (above and beyond the effects of self-reported baseline PTSD and depressive symptoms, previous traumatic life events, racial discrimination, age, sex, and injury severity). CONCLUSIONS: Neural processes of emotion conflict detection measured in the early aftermath of a potentially traumatic event are useful as predictors for the development of PTSD symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Neural Correlates of Threat and Reward Processing in Survivors of Recent Trauma.

Importance: Differences in neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics are important considerations in understanding differences in risk vs resilience in mental health. Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with alterations in the function and structure of threat neurocircuitry. Objective: To investigate associations of neighborhood disadvantage with white and gray matter and neural reactivity to positive and negative stimuli in the context of trauma exposure. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this cross-sectional study, survivors of trauma who completed sociodemographic and posttraumatic symptom assessments and neuroimaging were recruited as part of the Advancing Understanding of Recovery After Trauma (AURORA) study between September 2017 and June 2021. Data analysis was performed from October 25, 2022, to February 15, 2023. Exposure: Neighborhood disadvantage was measured with the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) for each participant home address. Main Outcomes and Measures: Participants completed separate threat and reward tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Diffusion-weighted and high-resolution structural images were also collected. Linear models assessed the association of ADI with reactivity, microstructure, and macrostructure of a priori regions of interest after adjusting for income, lifetime trauma, sex at birth, and age. A moderated-mediation model tested whether ADI was associated with neural activity via microstructural changes and if this was modulated by PTSD symptoms. Results: A total of 280 participants (183 females [65.4%]; mean [SD] age, 35.39 [13.29] years) completed the threat task and 244 participants (156 females [63.9%]; mean [SD] age, 35.10 [13.26] years) completed the reward task. Higher ADI (per 1-unit increase) was associated with greater insula (t274 = 3.20; ß = 0.20; corrected P = .008) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; t274 = 2.56; ß = 0.16; corrected P = .04) threat-related activity after considering covariates, but ADI was not associated with reward reactivity. Greater disadvantage was also associated with altered microstructure of the cingulum bundle (t274 = 3.48; ß = 0.21; corrected P = .001) and gray matter morphology of the ACC (cortical thickness: t273 = -2.29; ß = -0.13; corrected P = .02; surface area: t273 = 2.53; ß = 0.13; corrected P = .02). The moderated-mediation model revealed that ADI was associated with ACC threat reactivity via cingulum microstructural changes (index of moderated mediation = -0.02). However, this mediation was only present in individuals with greater PTSD symptom severity (at the mean: ß = -0.17; standard error = 0.06, t= -2.28; P = .007; at 1 SD above the mean: ß = -0.28; standard error = 0.08; t = -3.35; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance: In this study, neighborhood disadvantage was associated with neurobiology that supports threat processing, revealing associations of neighborhood disadvantage with neural susceptibility for PTSD and suggesting how altered structure-function associations may complicate symptoms. Future work should investigate specific components of neighborhood disadvantage that may be associated with these outcomes.

Attributional negativity bias and acute stress disorder symptoms mediate the association between trauma history and future posttraumatic stress disorder.

Individuals who have experienced more trauma throughout their life have a heightened risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following injury. Although trauma history cannot be retroactively modified, identifying the mechanism(s) by which preinjury life events influence future PTSD symptoms may help clinicians mitigate the detrimental effects of past adversity. The current study proposed attributional negativity bias, the tendency to perceive stimuli/events as negative, as a potential intermediary in PTSD development. We hypothesized an association between trauma history and PTSD symptom severity following a new index trauma via heightened negativity bias and acute stress disorder (ASD) symptoms. Recent trauma survivors (N =189, 55.5% women, 58.7% African American/Black) completed assessments of ASD, negativity bias, and lifetime trauma 2-weeks postinjury; PTSD symptoms were assessed 6 months later. A parallel mediation model was tested with bootstrapping (10,000 resamples). Both negativity bias, Path b1 : ß = -.24, t(187) = -2.88, p = .004, and ASD symptoms, Path b2 : ß = .30, t(187) = 3.71, p < .001, fully mediated the association between trauma history and 6-month PTSD symptoms, full model: F(6, 182) = 10.95, p < .001, R 2 = .27; Path c': ß = .04, t(187) = 0.54, p = .587. These results suggest that negativity bias may reflect an individual cognitive difference that can be further activated by acute trauma. Moreover, negativity bias may be an important, modifiable treatment target, and interventions addressing both acute symptoms and negativity bias in the early posttrauma period may weaken the link between trauma history and new-onset PTSD.

Psychological and physiological correlates of stimulus discrimination in adults.

The discrimination of cues in the environment that signal danger ("fear cue") is important for survival but depends critically on the discernment of such cues from ones that pose no threat ("safety cues"). In rodents, we previously demonstrated the underlying neurobiological mechanisms that support fear versus safety discrimination and documented that these mechanisms extend to the discrimination of reward as well. While learning about reward is equally important for survival, it remains an under-studied area of research, particularly in human studies of conditional discrimination. In the present study, we translated our rodent task of fear reward and neutral discrimination (fear, reward, and neutral discrimination [FRND]) for use in humans. Undergraduate students (N = 53) completed the FRND while electrodermal activity was recorded. Skin conductance response (SCR) amplitude, a marker of arousal response, was derived for fear, reward, and neutral cues that signaled no outcome; critical trials assessed conditional discrimination using combined fear + neutral and reward + neutral cues. Participants provided likeability ratings for each cue type. Results demonstrated that participants rated reward cues the best, fear cues the worst, and neutral cues in between, while SCR amplitude was largest for fear and reward cues and lowest for neutral cues. SCR amplitudes were reduced for fear + neutral (compared to fear) and reward + neutral cues (compared to reward). Results demonstrate that the FRND is a useful paradigm for the assessment of psychological and physiological discrimination of fear and reward. Implications and directions for future work are discussed.

Experiencing racial discrimination increases vulnerability to PTSD after trauma via peritraumatic dissociation.

Background: Racial discrimination is a traumatic stressor that increases the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but mechanisms to explain this relationship remain unclear. Peritraumatic dissociation, the complex process of disorientation, depersonalization, and derealization during a trauma, has been a consistent predictor of PTSD. Experiences of frequent racial discrimination may increase the propensity for peritraumatic dissociation in the context of new traumatic experiences and contribute to PTSD symptoms. However, the role of peritraumatic dissociation in the relationship between experiences of discrimination and PTSD has not been specifically explored.Objective: The current study investigated the role of peritraumatic dissociation in the impact of racial discrimination on PTSD symptoms after a traumatic injury, and the moderating role of gender.Method: One hundred and thirteen Black/African American individuals were recruited from the Emergency Department at a Level I Trauma Center. Two weeks after the trauma, participants self-reported their experiences with racial discrimination and peritraumatic dissociation. At the six-month follow-up appointment, individuals underwent a clinical assessment of their PTSD symptoms.Results: Results of longitudinal mediation analyses showed that peritraumatic dissociation significantly mediated the effect of racial discrimination on PTSD symptoms, after controlling for age and lifetime trauma exposure. A secondary analysis was conducted to examine the moderating role of gender. Gender was not a significant moderator in the model.Conclusions: Findings show that racial discrimination functions as a stressor that impacts how individuals respond to other traumatic events. The novel results suggest a mechanism that explains the relationship between racial discrimination and PTSD symptoms. These findings highlight the need for community spaces where Black Americans can process racial trauma and reduce the propensity to detach from daily, painful realities. Results also show that clinical intervention post-trauma must consider Black Americans' experiences with racial discrimination.

Peritraumatic dissociation operates as a mechanism through which racial discrimination predicts posttraumatic symptoms in an adult trauma sample.Racial discrimination functions as a stressor that increases the risk for trauma-related symptoms.The lived experiences of Black Americans elicit the use of emotional detachment strategies that may mitigate effects of racial discrimination but increase the risk for peritraumatic dissociation.

Radically reframing studies on neurobiology and socioeconomic circumstances: A call for social justice-oriented neuroscience.

Socioeconomic circumstances are associated with symptoms and diagnostic status of nearly all mental health conditions. Given these robust relationships, neuroscientists have attempted to elucidate how socioeconomic-based adversity "gets under the skin." Historically, this work emphasized individual proxies of socioeconomic position (e.g., income, education), ignoring the effects of broader socioeconomic contexts (e.g., neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage) which may uniquely contribute to chronic stress. This omission represented a disconnect between neuroscience and other allied fields that have recognized health is undeniably linked to interactions between systems of power and individual characteristics. More recently, neuroscience work has considered how sociopolitical context affects brain structure and function; however, the products of this exciting line of research have lacked critical sociological and historical perspectives. While empirical evidence on this topic is burgeoning, the cultural, ethical, societal, and legal implications of this work have been elusive. Although the mechanisms by which socioeconomic circumstances impact brain structure and function may be similar across people, not everyone is exposed to these factors at similar rates. Individuals from ethnoracially minoritized groups are disproportionally exposed to neighborhood disadvantage. Thus, socioeconomic inequities examined in neuroscience research are undergirding with other forms of oppression, namely structural racism. We utilize a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to interpret findings from neuroscience research and interweave relevant theories from the fields of public health, social sciences, and Black feminist thought. In this perspective piece, we discuss the complex relationship that continues to exist between academic institutions and underserved surrounding communities, acknowledging the areas in which neuroscience research has historically harmed and/or excluded structurally disadvantaged communities. We conclude by envisioning how this work can be used; not just to inform policymakers, but also to engage and partner with communities and shape the future direction of human neuroscience research.

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

BACKGROUND: Individuals residing in more socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods experience greater uncertainty through insecurity of basic needs such as food, employment, and housing, compared with more advantaged neighborhoods. Although the neurobiology of uncertainty has been less frequently examined in relation to neighborhood disadvantage, there is evidence that neighborhood disadvantage is associated with widespread neural alterations. METHODS: Recently traumatically injured participants (n = 90) completed a picture anticipation task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner, in which they viewed images presented in a temporally predictable or unpredictable manner. We investigated how neighborhood disadvantage (via area deprivation index [ADI]) was related to neural activation during anticipation and presentation of negative and neutral images after accounting for individual factors (i.e., age, gender, income, acute posttraumatic stress symptoms). RESULTS: There was a significant interaction during the anticipation period such that higher ADI rankings were related to greater activation of the right anterior cingulate cortex to predictable versus unpredictable neutral stimuli. Although no other robust interactions emerged related to ADI, we note several novel simple effects of ADI during anticipation and presentation periods in the hippocampus and prefrontal, cingulate, and occipital cortices. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these results may represent an adaptive response to predictable and/or negative stimuli, stemming from chronic exposure to socioeconomic-based uncertainties. Although effects were modest, future work should continue to examine pretrauma context on posttrauma outcomes. To better understand trauma outcomes, it is imperative that researchers consider the broader context in which trauma survivors reside.

Addressing racial and phenotypic bias in human neuroscience methods.

Despite their premise of objectivity, neuroscience tools for physiological data collection, such as electroencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy, introduce racial bias into studies by excluding individuals on the basis of phenotypic differences in hair type and skin pigmentation. Furthermore, at least one methodology-electrodermal activity recording (skin conductance responses)-may be influenced not only by potential phenotypic differences but also by negative psychological effects stemming from the lived experience of racism. Here we situate these issues within structural injustice, urge researchers to challenge racism in their scientific work and propose procedures and changes that may lead to more equitable science.

The role of pain and socioenvironmental factors on posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in traumatically injured adults: A 1-year prospective study.

Approximately 20% of individuals who experience a traumatic injury will subsequently develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Physical pain following traumatic injury has received increasing attention as both a distinct, functionally debilitating disorder and a comorbid symptom related to PTSD. Studies have demonstrated that both clinician-assessed injury severity and patient pain ratings can be important predictors of nonremitting PTSD; however, few have examined pain and PTSD alongside socioenvironmental factors. We postulated that both area- and individual-level socioeconomic circumstances and lifetime trauma history would be uniquely associated with PTSD symptoms and interact with the pain-PTSD association. To test these effects, pain and PTSD symptoms were assessed at four visits across a 1-year period in a sample of 219 traumatically injured participants recruited from a Level 1 trauma center. We used a hierarchal linear modeling approach to evaluate whether (a) patient-reported pain ratings were a better predictor of PTSD than clinician-assessed injury severity scores and (b) socioenvironmental factors, specifically neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, individual income, and lifetime trauma history, influenced the pain-PTSD association. Results demonstrated associations between patient-reported pain ratings, but not clinician-assessed injury severity scores, and PTSD symptoms, R2( fvm ) = .65. There was a significant interaction between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and pain such that higher disadvantage decreased the strength of the pain-PTSD association but only among White participants, R2( fvm ) = .69. Future directions include testing this question in a larger, more diverse sample of trauma survivors (e.g., geographically diverse) and examining factors that may alleviate both pain and PTSD symptoms.

Racial Discrimination and Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Salience Network Nodes in Trauma-Exposed Black Adults in the United States.

Importance: For Black US residents, experiences of racial discrimination are still pervasive and frequent. Recent empirical work has amplified the lived experiences and narratives of Black people and further documented the detrimental effects of racial discrimination on both mental and physical health; however, there is still a need for further research to uncover the mechanisms connecting experiences of racial discrimination with adverse health outcomes. Objective: To examine neurobiological mechanisms that may offer novel insight into the association of racial discrimination with adverse health outcomes. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study included 102 Black adults who had recently experienced a traumatic injury. In the acute aftermath of the trauma, participants underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Individuals were recruited from the emergency department at a Midwestern level 1 trauma center in the United States between March 2016 and July 2020. Data were analyzed from February to May 2021. Exposures: Self-reported lifetime exposure to racial discrimination, lifetime trauma exposure, annual household income, and current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were evaluated. Main Outcomes and Measures: Seed-to-voxel analyses were conducted to examine the association of racial discrimination with connectivity of salience network nodes (ie, amygdala and anterior insula). Results: A total of 102 individuals were included, with a mean (SD) age of 33 (10) years and 58 (57%) women. After adjusting for acute PTSD symptoms, annual household income, and lifetime trauma exposure, greater connectivity between the amygdala and thalamus was associated with greater exposure to discrimination (t(97) = 6.05; false discovery rate (FDR)-corrected P = .03). Similarly, racial discrimination was associated with greater connectivity between the insula and precuneus (t(97) = 4.32; FDR-corrected P = .02). Conclusions and Relevance: These results add to the mounting literature that racial discrimination is associated with neural correlates of vigilance and hyperarousal. The study findings extend this theory by showing that this association is apparent even when accounting for socioeconomic position, lifetime trauma, and symptoms of psychological distress related to an acute trauma.

Emotion Dysregulation Following Trauma: Shared Neurocircuitry of Traumatic Brain Injury and Trauma-Related Psychiatric Disorders.

The psychological trauma associated with events resulting in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an important and frequently overlooked factor that may impede brain recovery and worsen mental health following TBI. Indeed, individuals with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and TBI have significantly poorer clinical outcomes than individuals with a sole diagnosis. Emotion dysregulation is a common factor leading to poor cognitive and affective outcomes following TBI. Here, we synthesize how acute postinjury molecular processes stemming from either physical or emotional trauma may adversely impact circuitry subserving emotion regulation and ultimately yield long-term system-level functional and structural changes that are common to TBI and PTSD. In the immediate aftermath of traumatic injury, glucocorticoids stimulate excess glutamatergic activity, particularly in prefrontal cortex-subcortical circuitry implicated in emotion regulation. In human neuroimaging work, assessing this same circuitry well after the acute injury, TBI and PTSD show similar impacts on prefrontal and subcortical connectivity and activation. These neural profiles indicate that emotion regulation may be a useful target for treatment and early intervention to prevent the adverse sequelae of TBI. Ultimately, the success of future TBI and PTSD early interventions depends on the fields' ability to address both the physical and emotional impact of physical injury.

Scoring the Life Events Checklist: Comparison of three scoring methods.

OBJECTIVE: Prior trauma history is a reliable and robust risk predictor for PTSD development. Obtaining an accurate measurement of prior trauma history is critical in research of trauma-related outcomes. The Life Events Checklist (LEC) is a widely used self-report measure of trauma history that categorizes events by the proximity to trauma exposure; however, the field has published multiple scoring methods when assessing the LEC. Herein, we propose a novel scoring procedure in which total scores from the LEC are weighted according to the proximity of trauma exposure with "experienced" events weighted most and "learned about" events weighted least. METHOD: The utility of this weighted score was assessed in two traumatically-injured civilian samples and compared against previously published scoring methods, including a nonweighted score including all events experienced, witnessed, and learned about, as well as a score consisting of only experienced events. RESULTS: Results indicated the standard total score was most reliable, followed by the weighted score. The experienced events score was least reliable, but the best predictor of future PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: One method to balance the predictive strength of experienced events and the excellent reliability of a total LEC score, is to adopt the newly proposed weighted score. Future use of this weighted scoring method can provide a comprehensive estimate of lifetime trauma exposure while still emphasizing the direct proximity of experienced events compared with other degrees of exposure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Acute White Matter Integrity Post-trauma and Prospective Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.

Background: Little is known about what distinguishes those who are resilient after trauma from those at risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous work indicates white matter integrity may be a useful biomarker in predicting PTSD. Research has shown changes in the integrity of three white matter tracts-the cingulum bundle, corpus callosum (CC), and uncinate fasciculus (UNC)-in the aftermath of trauma relate to PTSD symptoms. However, few have examined the predictive utility of white matter integrity in the acute aftermath of trauma to predict prospective PTSD symptom severity in a mixed traumatic injury sample. Method: Thus, the current study investigated acute brain structural integrity in 148 individuals being treated for traumatic injuries in the Emergency Department of a Level 1 trauma center. Participants underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging 2 weeks post-trauma and completed several self-report measures at 2-weeks (T1) and 6 months (T2), including the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-V (CAPS-5), post-injury. Results: Consistent with previous work, T1 lesser anterior cingulum fractional anisotropy (FA) was marginally related to greater T2 total PTSD symptoms. No other white matter tracts were related to PTSD symptoms. Conclusions: Results demonstrate that in a traumatically injured sample with predominantly subclinical PTSD symptoms at T2, acute white matter integrity after trauma is not robustly related to the development of chronic PTSD symptoms. These findings suggest the timing of evaluating white matter integrity and PTSD is important as white matter differences may not be apparent in the acute period after injury.

Neural impact of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage in traumatically injured adults.

Nearly 14 percent of Americans live in a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood. Lower individual socioeconomic position (iSEP) has been linked to increased exposure to trauma and stress, as well as to alterations in brain structure and function; however, the neural effects of neighborhood SEP (nSEP) factors, such as neighborhood disadvantage, are unclear. Using a multi-modal approach with participants who recently experienced a traumatic injury (N = 185), we investigated the impact of neighborhood disadvantage, acute post-traumatic stress symptoms, and iSEP on brain structure and functional connectivity at rest. After controlling for iSEP, demographic variables, and acute PTSD symptoms, nSEP was associated with decreased volume and alterations of resting-state functional connectivity in structures implicated in affective processing, including the insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. Even in individuals who have recently experienced a traumatic injury, and after accounting for iSEP, the impact of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is apparent, particularly in brain regions critical for experiencing and regulating emotion. These results should inform future research investigating how various levels of socioeconomic circumstances may impact recovery after a traumatic injury as well as policies and community-developed interventions aimed at reducing the impact of socioeconomic stressors.

Racial Discrimination is Associated with Acute Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Predicts Future Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity in Trauma-Exposed Black Adults in the United States.

In the United States, Black residents exposed to a traumatic event are at an increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and experiencing more severe symptoms compared to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Although previous work has suggested a link between racial discrimination and PTSD symptoms, no studies have assessed this association in a sample of traumatic injury survivors. The current study investigated whether (a) past racial discrimination was associated with acute posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and (b) discrimination prospectively contributed to the prediction of future PTSD symptoms. African American and/or Black patients (N = 113) were recruited from an emergency department in southeastern Wisconsin. Patients in the acute postinjury phase (i.e., 2 weeks posttrauma) completed self-report measures, with PTSD symptoms assessed using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale at 6-month follow-up. Bivariate associations indicated past racial discrimination was significantly related to acute PTSS. A multiple regression analysis revealed that pretrauma exposure to racial discrimination significantly predicted PTSD symptoms at follow-up, even after controlling for age, gender, previous psychiatric diagnosis, social support, and lifetime trauma history. Our results suggest that experiences of racial discrimination add significant additional risk for PTSD symptom development following traumatic injury, R2 = .16, F(6, 106) = 3.25, p = .006. Broadly, these findings add to the body of empirical evidence and personal testimonies of Black individuals in White-centric societies asserting that racial discrimination affects mental health and overall well-being and further highlight the recent call for racism to be classified as a public health crisis.