Stohr Grace M, Harrewijn Anita, Morales Santiago, Zeytinoglu Selin, Laky Zoë E, Khosravi Parmis, Cardinale Elise M, Lorenzo Nicole, Stoddard Joel, Pine Daniel S, Fox Nathan A, Brotman Melissa A, Haller Simone P
Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Department of Psychology, Education & Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2025 May 19. doi: 10.3758/s13415-025-01293-1.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with widespread increases in levels of stress and anxiety among young adults. Given that responses to stressful life events vary, it is important to understand how pre-pandemic neurocognitive factors shape reactivity to stress and susceptibility to anxiety. The present study examines associations between pre-pandemic brain activation patterns during cognitive control processing and anxiety trajectories during the pandemic. Participants were recruited as part of an ongoing longitudinal study of temperament and socioemotional development (N = 291). Forty-seven participants completed a cognitive control fMRI task and anxiety measures in late adolescence before the pandemic. In young adulthood, anxiety was assessed three times during the COVID-19 pandemic. Multivariate whole-brain models tested whether activation patterns during the conflict and error processing associated with latent anxiety indices derived from a latent growth curve model. Neural response during conflict and error processing related to anxiety in distinct cortical and subcortical regions. Level of anterior cingulate cortex engagement during cognitive control related to anxiety. However, during error processing, level of engagement in the dorsolateral prefrontal, rather than anterior cingulate cortex, related to anxiety. This work provides preliminary evidence for the predictive utility of prestress neurocognitive factors for young adults' anxiety response during a uniquely stressful event. Adolescence is a critical time for early identification of youth at risk to create targeted interventions to enhance stress resilience.
新冠疫情与年轻人压力和焦虑水平的普遍上升有关。鉴于对压力性生活事件的反应因人而异，了解疫情前的神经认知因素如何塑造对压力的反应性和焦虑易感性很重要。本研究考察了疫情前认知控制过程中的大脑激活模式与疫情期间焦虑轨迹之间的关联。参与者是作为一项正在进行的气质与社会情感发展纵向研究的一部分招募的（N = 291）。47名参与者在疫情前的青春期后期完成了一项认知控制功能磁共振成像任务和焦虑测量。在青年期，在新冠疫情期间对焦虑进行了三次评估。多变量全脑模型测试了与从潜在增长曲线模型得出的潜在焦虑指数相关的冲突和错误处理过程中的激活模式。冲突和错误处理过程中的神经反应在不同的皮质和皮质下区域与焦虑有关。认知控制过程中前扣带回皮质的参与程度与焦虑有关。然而，在错误处理过程中，与焦虑有关的是背外侧前额叶而非前扣带回皮质的参与程度。这项工作为压力前神经认知因素对年轻人在独特压力事件中的焦虑反应的预测效用提供了初步证据。青春期是早期识别有风险的年轻人以制定有针对性的干预措施来增强压力恢复力的关键时期。
