Psychosocial Consequences

ACE were found to be related to deficits in emotion processing and interpersonal problems in later life. However, the connection between aversive emotional states, biased emotion recognition and interpersonal problems remains unexplored in the daily lives

ACE have enduring effects on human stress regulatory circuits and promotes alterations in stress sensitivity and emotion regulation in later life. The likelihood of the sensitized neural system to (de)compensate is thereby shaped by adverse and protective social influences in everyday life, but the examination is methodologically challenging. The planned doctoral projects will tackle this problem and interrogate data on prior ACE, alterations in stress sensitivity and emotion regulation and real-life social environmental exposures to identify the intermediate neural mechanisms.

Chronic and pervasive loneliness, i.e., a lack in the sense of social belonging and social affiliation, has been identified as an important factor in the relation between ACE and mental disorders. ACE have also been linked to somatic disorders, however, the mediating role of loneliness to the development of somatic disorders has not been investigated. The planned doctoral projects will aim at investigating a) the link between ACE, loneliness, and mental and somatic diseases, b) the mechanisms underlying the detrimental effects of loneliness after ACE and they will c) develop and evaluate psychosocial interventions that aim to improve the experiential and behavioural aspects of loneliness and social isolation.

There is initial behavioural evidence that violent video gaming leads to reduced pain perception and reduced empathy for pain as well as enhanced aggression towards self and others. ACE appear to be a central moderator in these effects. The planned doctoral projects will examine how violent video gaming is associated with childhood adversity and stress and will analyse the not yet well understood underlying psychobiological mechanisms.

ACE are related to the development of SUD and behavioural addictions. Further knowledge on the interaction of behavioural, neural and physiological risk factors would be helpful for treatment and prevention of addictive disorders. The suggested doctoral projects will examine stress sensitivity, emotion processing and cue-reactivity using fMRI in alcohol use disorder (AUD) with and without ACE.

In this new project within the RTG 2350, we aim at testing if persons with ACE show maladaptive social decision-making. Are they less cooperative in interactive scenarios because they misestimate potential threats and rewards? Do the respective neural circuits reflect altered threat and reward processing? Crucially, we will test if persons with ACE show more cooperation after novel interventions that reduce uncertainties about possible benefits of cooperation and about potential interaction partners. These interventions take the form of controlled interactive games with avatars.