Biology subjects

Baskin-Sommers, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Baskin-Sommers, A..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Integrating multi-system environmental factors to predict brain and behavior in adolescents

ObjectiveEnvironmental factors have long been shown to influence brain structure and adolescent psychopathology. However, almost no research has included environmental factors spanning micro-to-macro-systems, brain structure, and psychopathology in an integrated framework. Here, we assessed the ways and degree to which multi-system environmental factors during late childhood predict subcortical volume and psychopathology during early adolescence. MethodWe used the baseline and 2-year follow-up data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM Study (N = 2,766). A Bayesian latent profile analysis was applied to obtain distinct multi-system environmental profiles during late childhood. The profiles were used in a path analysis to predict their direct and indirect effects on subcortical volume and psychopathology during early adolescence. ResultsBayesian latent profile analysis revealed nine environmental profiles. Two distinct profiles predicted greater externalizing problems in adolescents: (i) adversity across, family, school, and neighborhood systems and (ii) family conflict and low school involvement. In contrast, a profile of family and neighborhood affluence predicted fewer externalizing difficulties. Further, family and neighborhood affluence predicted higher subcortical volume, which in turn, predicted fewer externalizing problems; whereas, family economic and neighborhood adversity predicted lower subcortical volume, which in turn, predicted greater externalizing difficulties. ConclusionWe captured direct and indirect influences of environmental factors across multiple systems on externalizing psychopathology. Specifying the equifinal pathways to externalizing psychopathology serves to provide an evidence base for establishing different types of interventions based on the needs and risk profiles of youth. Diversity and Inclusion StatementThe current study is part of the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM Study (ABCD Study(R)) for which youth are recruited from elementary schools in the United States that are informed by gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity. The ABCD Study(R) aims to recruit youth longitudinally by sampling the sociodemographic makeup of the US population. Two of the authors self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. One of the authors identifies as a part of an underrepresented gender group in science. The authors also are representative of the communities for which data was collected and contributed to design, analysis, and/or interpretation of the work. Finally, every effort was made to cite the work of authors from underrepresented and minoritized groups in academic research.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Variation in moment-to-moment brain state engagement changes across development and contributes to individual differences in executive function

Neural variability, or variation in brain signals, facilitates dynamic brain responses to ongoing demands. This flexibility is important during development from childhood to young adulthood, a period characterized by rapid changes in experience. However, little is known about how variability in the engagement of recurring brain states changes during development. Such investigations would require the continuous assessment of multiple brain states concurrently. Here, we leverage a new computational framework to study state engagement variability (SEV) during development. A consistent pattern of SEV changing with age was identified across cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets (N>3000). SEV developmental trajectories stabilize around mid-adolescence, with timing varying by sex and brain state. SEV successfully predicts executive function (EF) in youths from an independent dataset. Worse EF is further linked to alterations in SEV development. These converging findings suggest SEV changes over development, allowing individuals to flexibly recruit various brain states to meet evolving needs.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Increasing the representation of minoritized youth for inclusive and reproducible brain-behavior associations

Population neuroscience datasets allow researchers to estimate reliable effect sizes for brain-behavior associations because of their large sample sizes. However, these datasets undergo strict quality control to mitigate sources of noise, such as head motion. This practice often excludes a disproportionate number of minoritized individuals. We employ motion-ordering and motion-ordering+resampling (bagging) to test if these methods preserve functional MRI (fMRI) data in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N=5,733). Black and Hispanic youth exhibited excess head motion relative to data collected from White youth, and were discarded disproportionately when using conventional approaches. Both methods retained more than 99% of Black and Hispanic youth. They produced reproducible brain-behavior associations across low-/high-motion racial/ethnic groups based on motion-limited fMRI data. The motion-ordering and bagging methods are two feasible approaches that can enhance sample representation for testing brain-behavior associations and fulfill the promise of consortia datasets to produce generalizable effect sizes across diverse populations.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Manifold Learning Uncovers Nonlinear Interactions between the Adolescent Brain and the Social Environment in Predicting Mental Health Problems

BackgroundTo progress adolescent mental health research beyond our present achievements - a complex account of brain and environmental risk factors without understanding neurobiological embedding in the environment - we need methods to unveil relationships between the developing brain and real-world environmental experiences. MethodsWe investigated associations among brain function, environments, and emotional and behavioral problems using participants from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (N=2,401 female). We applied manifold learning, a promising technique for uncovering latent structure from high-dimensional biomedical data like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Specifically, we developed exogenous PHATE (E-PHATE) to model brain-environment interactions. We used E-PHATE embeddings of participants brain activation during emotional and cognitive processing to predict individual differences in cognition and emotional and behavioral problems, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. ResultsE-PHATE embeddings of participants brain activation and environments at baseline show moderate-to-large associations with total, externalizing, and internalizing problems at baseline, across several subcortical regions and large-scale cortical networks, relative to the zero-to-small effects achieved by voxel or PHATE methods. E-PHATE embeddings of the brain and environment at baseline also relate to emotional and behavioral problems two years later. These longitudinal predictions show a consistent, moderate effect in the frontoparietal and attention networks. ConclusionsAdolescent brains embedding in the environment yields enriched insight into emotional and behavioral problems. Using E-PHATE, we demonstrate how the harmonization of cutting-edge computational methods with longstanding developmental theories advances detection and prediction of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems.

neuroscience↗