Biology subjects

Barry, K. R.

Publications and source records attributed to Barry, K. R..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Amygdala and Hippocampus Subdivisions in Children and Adolescents

Socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood can impact behavioral and brain development. Past work has consistently focused on the amygdala and hippocampus, two brain areas critical for emotion, memory, and learning. While there are SES differences in total amygdala and hippocampal volumes, there are many unanswered questions in this domain connected to neurobiological specificity and whether these effects vary by participant age or sex. To address these gaps, we combined multiple large neuroimaging datasets of children and adolescents with information about neurobiology and SES (N=2,765). We examined subdivisions of the amygdala and hippocampus, derived from Freesurfer, using linear mixed effects models. Higher SES was associated with larger volumes across all three amygdala subdivisions examined, the superficial cortical division, basolateral complex, and centromedial region. Within the hippocampus, SES was specifically related to volumes in the head, with no significant associations for the body or tail. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found no significant interactions between SES and participant age or sex after correcting for multiple comparisons, suggesting these associations were relatively consistent across the developmental period examined (ages 5-18) and similar for males and females. These results fill in important gaps regarding the neurobiological specificity of SES effects, demonstrating associations across functionally distinct subdivisions of these critical brain structures.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Lower neural value signaling in the prefrontal cortex is related to childhood family income and depressive symptomatology during adolescence

Lower family income during childhood is related to increased rates of adolescent depression, though the specific mechanisms are poorly understood. Evidence suggests that individuals with depression demonstrate hypoactivation in brain regions involved in reward learning and decision-making processes (e.g., portions of the prefrontal cortex). Separately, lower family income has been associated with neural alterations in similar regions. We examined associations between family income, depression, and brain activity during a reward learning and decision-making fMRI task in a sample of adolescents (full n=94; usable n=78; mean age=15.4 years). We identified neural regions representing 1) expected value (EV), the learned subjective value of an object, and 2) prediction error, the difference between EV and the actual outcome received. Regions of interest related to reward learning were examined in connection to childhood family income and parent-reported adolescent depressive symptoms. As hypothesized, lower activity in the subgenual anterior cingulate (sACC) for EV in response to approach stimuli was associated with lower childhood family income, as well as greater symptoms of depression measured one-year after the neuroimaging session. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that lower early family income leads to disruptions in reward and decision-making brain circuitry, which leads to adolescent depression.

neuroscience↗