Nan Jason, Jaiswal Satish, Ramanathan Dhakshin, Withers Mathew C, Mishra Jyoti
Neural Engineering and Translation Labs (NEATLabs), University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, Mail Code 0737, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA.
Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 16;15(1):11992. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-94672-0.
Climate trauma refers to the chronic mental health sequalae of climate disaster events. We have previously shown evidence for such trauma with accompanying anxiety and depression symptoms after California's 2018 Camp Fire wildfire. Here, we investigate whether this climate trauma also impacts cognitive decision-making and its neural correlates. One year after the wildfire, we recruited three groups - those directly exposed (n = 27), indirectly exposed (community members who witnessed the wildfire but not directly exposed, n = 21), versus non-exposed controls (n = 27). Participants performed a decision-making task that led to immediate and cumulative point rewards on each trial with simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. We evaluated Win-Stay behavior in choosing to stay with the greater expected value (cumulative reward) option. Directly-exposed individuals showed significantly reduced Win-Stay behavior relative to the other groups. EEG analyses showed significantly greater parietal alpha activity for the selected choice and ensuing rewards in directly fire-exposed individuals, with an underlying cortical source of this activity in posterior cingulate cortex. Overall, these findings suggest that climate trauma may significantly impact neuro-cognitive processing in the context of value-based decision-making, which may serve as a useful biomarker target for future mental health interventions in climate change impacted communities.
气候创伤是指气候灾害事件导致的慢性心理健康后遗症。我们之前已经证明，在2018年加利福尼亚州坎普大火野火之后，存在这种伴有焦虑和抑郁症状的创伤。在此，我们调查这种气候创伤是否也会影响认知决策及其神经关联。野火发生一年后，我们招募了三组人员——直接暴露组（n = 27）、间接暴露组（目睹野火但未直接暴露的社区成员，n = 21）以及未暴露对照组（n = 27）。参与者执行一项决策任务，每次试验都会根据即时和累积的点数奖励进行选择，同时进行脑电图（EEG）记录。我们评估了在选择保留更大预期价值（累积奖励）选项时的赢则继续行为。与其他组相比，直接暴露个体的赢则继续行为显著减少。EEG分析显示，在直接遭受火灾的个体中，所选选择及随后奖励的顶叶α活动显著增强，该活动的潜在皮质源位于后扣带回皮质。总体而言，这些发现表明，在基于价值的决策背景下，气候创伤可能会显著影响神经认知加工，这可能成为未来气候变化影响社区心理健康干预的有用生物标志物靶点。
