PMID- 29431648
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20190705
LR  - 20200225
IS  - 1529-2401 (Electronic)
IS  - 0270-6474 (Print)
IS  - 0270-6474 (Linking)
VI  - 38
IP  - 11
DP  - 2018 Mar 14
TI  - The Role of Mesolimbic Circuitry in Buffering Election-Related Distress.
PG  - 2887-2898
LID - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2470-17.2018 [doi]
AB  - The 2016 U.S. presidential election yielded distress among many individuals who 
      identify with historically marginalized groups. We used functional magnetic 
      resonance imaging and psychological measures to test the hypotheses that neural 
      response to reward, probing the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and medial prefrontal 
      cortex (mPFC), and social support would ameliorate the effects of election 
      distress among those who felt negatively affected by the result. Within 4 months 
      of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, we tested human participants who felt 
      affected by the election result (n = 40, M(age) = 21.9 years, 28 female) and 
      control participants (n = 20, M(age) = 20.25 years, 12 female) who did not feel 
      affected by the election result. Election-related distress significantly differed 
      between the groups, and distress accounted for over half of the relationship 
      between discrimination experiences and depression symptoms among affected 
      individuals. NAcc activation, connectivity between the NAcc and mPFC, and family 
      support moderated the associations between election distress and depression 
      symptoms. Prior work has primarily investigated mesolimbic circuitry in reward 
      and motivation contexts, but our findings extend the relevance of functioning in 
      this circuitry to ameliorating psychological manifestations of acute distress 
      after shifts in political climate. These findings highlight the psychological 
      effects of this important historic event and identify neurobiological and social 
      mechanisms associated with individual differences in response to election 
      distress.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The 2016 U.S. presidential election was 
      psychologically distressing for many individuals. In this study, election-related 
      distress was linked to depression symptomology for affected individuals but not 
      control individuals. However, among individuals distressed by the election, those 
      with greater neural response to reward and higher family support were protected 
      against these depressive symptoms. Previous research has examined how neural 
      response to reward after a discrete event ameliorates clinical symptoms. The 
      current study extends this knowledge by demonstrating that both the brain and 
      social support may play influential roles in dampening affective responses to 
      ongoing and anticipated distress related to political climate. Leveraging this 
      finding to enact interventions that dampen continuous distress, political or 
      otherwise, is a promising endeavor for future research.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2018 the authors 0270-6474/18/382887-12$15.00/0.
FAU - Tashjian, Sarah M
AU  - Tashjian SM
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-0946-6662
AD  - Department of Psychology and smtashjian@ucla.edu agalvan@ucla.edu.
FAU - Galvan, Adriana
AU  - Galvan A
AD  - Department of Psychology and smtashjian@ucla.edu agalvan@ucla.edu.
AD  - Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 
      California 90095.
LA  - eng
GR  - U54 HD087101/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20180205
PL  - United States
TA  - J Neurosci
JT  - The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for 
      Neuroscience
JID - 8102140
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Depression/psychology
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Individuality
MH  - Limbic System/diagnostic imaging/*physiopathology
MH  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MH  - Male
MH  - Nerve Net/diagnostic imaging/*physiopathology
MH  - Neural Pathways/diagnostic imaging/physiopathology
MH  - Nucleus Accumbens/diagnostic imaging/physiopathology
MH  - Politics
MH  - Prefrontal Cortex/diagnostic imaging/physiopathology
MH  - Social Support
MH  - Stress, Psychological/diagnostic imaging/*physiopathology
MH  - Young Adult
PMC - PMC6595992
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - depression
OT  - discrimination
OT  - distress
OT  - election
OT  - fMRI
OT  - nucleus accumbens
EDAT- 2018/02/13 06:00
MHDA- 2019/07/06 06:00
PMCR- 2018/09/14
CRDT- 2018/02/13 06:00
PHST- 2017/08/29 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2018/01/02 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2018/01/16 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2018/02/13 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2019/07/06 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2018/02/13 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2018/09/14 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - JNEUROSCI.2470-17.2018 [pii]
AID - 2470-17 [pii]
AID - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2470-17.2018 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Neurosci. 2018 Mar 14;38(11):2887-2898. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2470-17.2018. 
      Epub 2018 Feb 5.