This talk is part of the CCBBI seminar series and will start at 1pm in this zoom room: 

Abstract: Exposure to childhood adversity is common and associated with a host of negative developmental outcomes as well as differences in neural structure and function. It is commonly posited that these social experiences “get under the skin” in early childhood, increasing long-term risk through disruptions to biology. In this talk I propose a novel approach to studying the link between adversity, brain development, and risk for psychopathology, the dimensional model of adversity and psychopathology (DMAP). In this model we propose that adversity exposure can be defined according to  different dimensions which we expect to impact health and well-being through different neural substrates. Whereas we expect deprivation to primarily disrupt function and structure of lateral association cortex (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and superior parietal cortex) and thus complex cognitive processing such as executive functioning. In contrast, we expect threat to alter structure and function of subcortical structures such as the hippocampus and amygdala and midline regions associated with emotion regulation such as the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and thus, associated emotion reactivity and automatic regulation processes. In a series of studies I test the basic tenants of the DMAP concluding that initial evidence, using both a priori hypothesis testing and data-driven approaches is consistent with the proposed model. I conclude by describing future work addressing multiple dimensions of adversity and potential adjustments to the model. 

 https://osu.zoom.us/j/91663959745?pwd=VVZKaE81Ty8zZjBUSlZnNjRoOWNVQT09

Dr. Sheridan is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and serves as the director of the CIRCLE Lab (http://circlelab.unc.edu/). 

Contact Dr. Sheridan via email:  sheridan.margaret@unc.edu