Structural Brain Correlates of Multidomain Resilience Among Youth Exposed to Neighborhood Disadvantage

Abstract

Background

Many youth exposed to adversity exhibit resilience, yet the neurobiological factors that support resilience are poorly understood. Few studies have examined how brain structure is related to resilience across multiple domains of functioning.

Methods

We evaluated associations between brain structure (volume, thickness, surface area) and psychological, social, and academic resilience in a sample of 708 twins (7–19 years) exposed to neighborhood disadvantage from the Michigan Twin Neurogenetics Study, recruited from the Michigan State University Twin Registry.

Results

For youth exposed to neighborhood disadvantage, greater total gray matter volume predicted positive psychological adaptation, while smaller right caudal middle frontal gyrus surface area predicted positive social adaptation. We examined whether cumulative adverse experiences moderated the relationship between brain structure and positive outcomes. Several interactions between brain structure and cumulative risk were found to predict positive outcomes, yielding multidomain resilience. Generally, larger brain structure correlated with increased positive functioning in specific domains for individuals with high cumulative risk but not for those with low cumulative risk.

Conclusions

The study supports the use of multidomain resilience models and identifies neural mechanisms that may promote adaptive responses to adversity. Most identified structural correlates of positive adaptation were indicators of resilience in that they predicted positive function at moderate to high levels of exposure to cumulative risk.