Schedule of Events | Symposia

Similar Early Life Stress Exposure is Associated with Similar Cortical Neural Representations during the Emotional Go/No-Go in Early Adulthood

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Miro Ilomäki¹ (miro.ilomaki@helsinki.fi), Jallu Lindblom², Marjo Flykt^1,2, Mervi Vänskä², Raija-Leena Punamäki², Patrik Wikman^1,3; ¹University of Helsinki, ²Tampere University, ³Aalto University

Early life stress (ELS) and its neurodevelopmental outcomes remain elusive despite extensive research efforts. A key limitation has been the predominant focus on univariate activation analyses, which often fall short in untangling the complex outcomes associated with neurodevelopment. Addressing these limitations, we employed sophisticated computational approaches to explore the nuanced impact of ELS on brain function, emphasizing interindividual differences in neural representational spaces. We analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 87 young adults during an emotional go/no-go task using intersubject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA). In the analysis, correlations between interindividual dissimilarities in ELS exposure and interindividual dissimilarities in neural representational similarities across 360 cortical regions were inspected. We observed significant positive correlations for 40 cortical regions, such as the anterior insula and frontal operculum, regions known to be crucial for emotional processing and cognitive control. Furthermore, we utilized multidimensional scaling and Procrustes alignment to examine interindividual differences in neural representational spaces, demonstrating the utility of these computational approaches. The results highlight the effectiveness of IS-RSA, along with spatial and shape analytical techniques, in revealing subtle between-subject differences in neural representational similarities. Our study not only advances our understanding of how ELS influences neurodevelopment but also underscores the importance of innovative computational methods in neurodevelopmental research. By extending techniques traditionally used in the analysis of low-level phenomena, such as in vision studies, we demonstrate the broader applicability and potential of these methods for neuroscientific research.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging