Childhood Unpredictability and Reward Processing

[LillianXu2019]

Research question(s)

Extract the construct of unpredictability from multiple measures of childhood adversity, including parenting, residential change, and life events;
Examine whether individual differences in reward processing in the Monetary Incentive Delay task, both neurological and behavioral, associated with childhood unpredictability.

Description

Altered brain activation during reward processing following early adversity was shown to underly maladaptive decision making, and thus prove a candidate mediator between early adversity and later behavioral problems. But less is known about what characteristics in early adversity shape reward processing. Increasing evidence has suggested that experiencing reward inconsistencies in the early environment changes children’s reward expectations and subsequent decision-making. However, few existing scales provide a satisfactory measure of this novel construct of childhood unpredictability.

Tools and algorithms to be used

Predictive modeling (regression) of the relationship between childhood unpredictability and behavioral and neuroimaging results of the MID task.

Skills we could use help with (optional)

Use of Python for predictive modeling
Use of Python for neuroimaging data processing

Suggested keywords/tags

Early life adversity, unpredictability, reward processing

[mchoi3210]

Hi Lillian! I think this is a really interesting and wonderful idea, and I would love to contribute during the project week if you are looking for collaborators :) I haven't worked with imaging data a lot, specifically with huge datasets, but I am relatively familiar with the emotion regulation processes that can be measured by e.g., the emotional N-back task. I'd love to talk more about analysis plans.

[cassandrajustinelowe]

Hi Lillian, I am interested in participating in this during project week!

[LillianXu2019]

Hi Mingyeong (if that’s the correct name), thanks for your interest, and welcome to the team! It doesn’t matter if you haven’t worked too much with neuroimaging data. The most important is that you’re interested in this topic of unpredictability and reward processing. Once we’ve got some other teammates, we can schedule a talk to get us started. What would be the best email address to reach you? I’ll email you next week, so please stay tuned!

[LillianXu2019]

Hi Cassandra, thanks for your interest, and welcome to the team! I’m glad that you’re also interested in this topic of unpredictability and reward processing. Once we’ve got some other teammates, we can schedule a talk to get us started. What would be the best email address to reach you? I’ll email you next week, so please stay tuned!

[mchoi3210]

Hi Lillian, Yes, that's my name, and I am excited to work on the unpredictability and reward processing project together! My email is [email protected] and I am looking forward to meeting with you and other teammates as well! Hope you continue to stay safe and well, Mingyeong

…

On Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 2:57 PM LillianXu2019 ***@***.***> wrote: Hi Mingyeong (if that’s the correct name), thanks for your interest, and welcome to the team! It doesn’t matter if you haven’t worked too much with neuroimaging data. The most important is that you’re interested in this topic of unpredictability and reward processing. Once we’ve got some other teammates, we can schedule a talk to get us started. What would be the best email address to reach you? I’ll email you next week, so please stay tuned! Best, Lillian From: mchoi ***@***.***> Date: Friday, February 26, 2021 at 10:33 AM To: ABCD-ReproNim/projects ***@***.***> Cc: Lillian XU ***@***.***>, Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [ABCD-ReproNim/projects] Childhood Unpredictability and Reward Processing (#16) Hi Lillian! I think this is a really interesting and wonderful idea, and I would love to contribute during the project week if you are looking for collaborators :) I haven't worked with imaging data a lot, specifically with huge datasets, but I am relatively familiar with the emotion regulation processes that can be measured by e.g., the emotional N-back task. I'd love to talk more about analysis plans. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub< #16 (comment)>, or unsubscribe< https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMLNVIN5I245G376EZONG2TTA7SPZANCNFSM4XVNR6MA >. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#16 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ALEH5SX6U7VKRR4VONIX53TTA74KFANCNFSM4XVNR6MA> .

[cassandrajustinelowe]

Hi Cassandra, thanks for your interest, and welcome to the team! I’m glad that you’re also interested in this topic of unpredictability and reward processing. Once we’ve got some other teammates, we can schedule a talk to get us started. What would be the best email address to reach you? I’ll email you next week, so please stay tuned! Best, Lillian From: cassandrajustinelowe [email protected] Date: Friday, February 26, 2021 at 10:38 AM To: ABCD-ReproNim/projects [email protected] Cc: Lillian XU [email protected], Mention [email protected] Subject: Re: [ABCD-ReproNim/projects] Childhood Unpredictability and Reward Processing (#16) Hi Lillian, I am interested in participating in this during project week! — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#16 (comment)>, or unsubscribehttps://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMLNVIJL72PFTXGNZEOHYJLTA7TAVANCNFSM4XVNR6MA.

Hi!

[email protected] is the best email.

Thanks!
Cassandra

[crfreeman]

Hello, I would be interested in participating in this project! My availability is somewhat limited though as I am a clinical psychology student and do part time clinical work. My email is [email protected].

[LillianXu2019]

Great! Will send you an email later this week. Looking forward to working with you! @crfreeman

[richford]

Hi @LillianXu2019, great project proposal! I wanted to point out that there might be some overlap between this project and #7, where they will be doing some factor analysis or CCA of early life adversity measures.

If you want to, you could reach out to @avannucci to discuss different approaches to extract/transform your adversity measures.

[avannucci]

Hi @LillianXu2019 I wanted to check in with you about how you are planning to extract information about childhood unpredictability for your project. We have compiled a large number of variables from the baseline spanning many adversity types (e.g. trauma, poverty, emotional maltreatment, unpredictability, etc.), and plan to do a bagging-enhanced factor analysis to extract adversity dimensions from the data. I wonder if it makes sense to try to harmonize our approaches to facilitate interpretation across studies? Feel free to slack me in the abcd-repronim slack (Anna Vannucci).

[LillianXu2019]

Thanks for the suggestions @richford and @avannucci! I've PMed Anna in Slack and I think harmonizing our approaches would be very beneficial :)

[Ananthrks]

I would like to participate in the project. Current our lab / I am working on a computational model based approach for understanding the reward processing.

[LillianXu2019]

Thanks @Ananthrks for your interest! We're done with the project week but will for sure continue this work. Would you mind sharing a little more of your background? E.g., could you email me who you are, which school/degree you are in, who are you working with, and your research interests (papers if any)? My email address is [email protected]. Thanks!