Adogli Zoe V, Chat Iris Ka-Yi, Gepty Andrew A, Carroll Ann L, Damme Katherine S F, Flaig Carly, Nusslock Robin, Alloy Lauren B
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University (Adogli, Chat, Gepty, Flaig, Alloy), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Seattle Children's Research Institute, Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Hospital (Gepty), Seattle, Washington; Department of Psychology, Northwestern University (Carroll, Damme, Nusslock), Evanston, Illinois.
Biopsychosoc Sci Med. 2025 Jun 1;87(5):305-315. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001389. Epub 2025 Apr 11.
A growing body of research suggests that exposure to adversities shapes neural development and function that guide approach motivation and decision-making. Residing in communities with high violent crime is considered a form of adversity. However, its link to brain function is not adequately understood. Furthermore, most of the adversity literature examines individual-level exposure (eg, crime victimization), whereas efforts to consider neighborhood-level factors (eg, neighborhood safety) are sparse. This study examined the hypothesis that late adolescents and emerging adults who lived in a community with higher violent crime rates would exhibit altered reward-related neural activation.
Adolescents ( N = 101; 55% females) participated in the fMRI monetary incentive delay task. Participants' hometown violent crime statistics were extracted from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports. Multiple regressions examined the association of crime rates with nucleus accumbens (NAc) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) activation to reward anticipation or outcome.
Living in high-crime communities was associated with lower NAc activation during reward anticipation ( B = -0.041, SE = 0.015, t = -2.695, P = 0.008, adjusted P = 0.032; ΔR2 = 0.061), and not with OFC activation during anticipation, or NAc and OFC activation during outcome.
Residence in neighborhoods with high levels of environmental threat, characteristic of high-crime communities, may be linked with blunted NAc reward anticipation. Although living in a high-crime community is a passive form of exposure to adversity, these findings indicate that it may be sufficient to observe distinct individual differences in reward-related brain function.
越来越多的研究表明，接触逆境会塑造影响趋近动机和决策的神经发育与功能。生活在暴力犯罪率高的社区被视为一种逆境形式。然而，其与脑功能的联系尚未得到充分理解。此外，大多数关于逆境的文献研究的是个体层面的接触（如犯罪受害情况），而考虑邻里层面因素（如邻里安全）的研究较少。本研究检验了这样一个假设：生活在暴力犯罪率较高社区的青少年晚期和成年早期个体，其与奖励相关的神经激活会发生改变。
青少年（N = 101；55%为女性）参与了功能磁共振成像货币激励延迟任务。参与者家乡的暴力犯罪统计数据从联邦调查局的统一犯罪报告中提取。多元回归分析了犯罪率与伏隔核（NAc）和眶额皮质（OFC）在奖励预期或结果时的激活之间的关联。
生活在高犯罪率社区与奖励预期期间较低的NAc激活相关（B = -0.041，标准误 = 0.015，t = -2.695，P = 0.008，校正P = 0.032；ΔR2 = 0.061），与预期期间的OFC激活或结果期间的NAc和OFC激活无关。
居住在高犯罪率社区这种具有高环境威胁特征的社区，可能与NAc奖励预期减弱有关。尽管生活在高犯罪率社区是一种被动接触逆境的形式，但这些发现表明，观察奖励相关脑功能的明显个体差异可能就足够了。
