Adolescents who are victims of interpersonal violence are at markedly elevated risk of perpetrating violence not only in childhood and adolescence, but also in adulthood. This is concerning, given that the majority of American youth have been exposed to at least one form of violence by the time they reach adolescence. Research examining how interpersonal violence exposure disrupts social cognitive processes beyond those involved in social information processing models remains in its infancy. Although deficits in empathic ability have long been proposed as a determinant of aggressive behavior, scant research has examined the social cognitive processes underlying empathy (e.g. moral reasoning) as potential mechanisms in the cycle of violence. To that end the proposed project aims to examine the impact of physical abuse, a severe form of interpersonal violence exposure, on the development of social cognitive processes involved in empathy, and their neural bases. We predict that exposure to physical abuse disrupts the development of specific processes that underlie empathy including emotion recognition, cognitive and affective theory of mind, and moral reasoning. We propose, a) that physical abuse disrupts behavioral performance on social cognition tasks as well as neural functions supporting these processes, and b) these deficits in social cognition are correlated with aggressive behavior. The proposed research addresses Objective 1 of the NIMH Strategic Plan by examining how altered neural function in regions supporting social cognition and the Social Processes Domain of the RDoC, may be a biological marker for aggressive behavior. The conceptual model will be tested by acquiring self-report, behavioral, structural and functional MRI data in a sample of 13-17 year olds, half with exposure to physical abuse and half without violence exposure. The sample will be recruited to ensure variation in physical abuse severity, chronicity and developmental timing as well as variation in the presence of psychopathology, allowing me to examine associations of physical abuse exposure with social cognition and neural function in adolescents with and without aggressive behavior problems. The proposed study builds on existing research on the cycle of violence by examining how childhood experiences of physical abuse influence multiple social cognitive processes and neural function in the networks that support these processes in adolescents. Identifying these mechanisms will not only enhance knowledge of how adverse environments alter neural function in ways that might increase risk for aggression, but will also indicate possible targets for preventive interventions aimed at reducing aggressive behavior in adolescents who are victims of violence. This fellowship will provide the opportunity to obtain intensive training in cognitive neuroscience methods-not a standard part of training in clinical psychology. Training in these methods will be critical to the evaluation of this conceptual model and proposed hypotheses.
The goal of the proposed study is to examine disruptions in social cognition processes underlying empathy, and neural function in brain regions that support these processes, as a potential pathway linking childhood interpersonal violence exposure to aggression in adolescents. To that end we will examine the relation of physical abuse, a particularly severe and chronic form of interpersonal violence exposure, with performance on social cognitive tasks of emotion recognition, cognitive and affective theory of mind, and moral reasoning and neural activation in multiple nodes of the social brain network during completion of these tasks in a sample of adolescents aged 13-17 years. Identifying mechanisms in the RDoC domain of Social Processes will not only build knowledge of how violence exposure alters neural development in ways that might increase risk for aggression, but will also suggest potential targets for prevention efforts aimed at reducing risk of aggressive behavior in victimized adolescents.
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