- Email: [email protected]
Preferring habitual behavior following Stress: Is the proof of the pudding in the eating?
Abstracts / Psychoneuroendocrinology 71S (2016) 1–77
research tried to fill this gap in two samples of low-SES children affected by Type 1 diabetes (Study 1) and asthma (Study 2). Methods: In Study 1 (N = 54), participants (age range 17–20 years old) provided saliva samples for diurnal cortisol assessment on four days, four times a day. Further, the same individuals provided a measure of glycemic control (i.e., hemoglobin A1c). In Study 2 (N = 102), participants (age range 10–17 years old) provided blood samples from which we assessed individual differences in glucocorticoid receptor (GR) messenger RNA (mRNA). Results: In Study 1, we found that low SES was associated with a flatter diurnal cortisol rhythm via diabetes-related perceived stress. Flattened cortisol rhythm was, in turn, associated with poorer glycemic control. In Study 2, although SES was not associated directly with gene expression, a significant indirect pathway through which low SES (i.e. income) was linked to lower GR gene expression via negative affect was found. Thus, in both studies, we found evidence for pathways linking low SES to poor biological health via the proposed psychological mechanisms (i.e., increased diabetes-related perceived stress and increased negative affect). Discussion: These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, they provide a detailed and empirically-grounded elaboration of the main psychological pathways by which social status inequalities influence diabetes and asthma health outcomes in youth. Practically, they highlight the need to develop interventions that specifically target stress management in high-risk populations with Type 1 diabetes and affective regulation among children with chronic asthma. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.07.123 Preferring habitual behavior following Stress: Is the proof of the pudding in the eating? Tom Smeets 1,∗ , Conny W.E.M. Quaedflieg 1,2 1
Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Smeets). 2
Background: Our psychophysiological stress responses generally serve adaptive purposes such as promoting the use of simple habits over complex goal-directed behavior. Nevertheless, such a preference for habits under stress may, in vulnerable individuals, constitute a risk factor for psychopathology. For example, stress often precedes emotional eating and binge eating episodes, and is reported by people with a substance addiction as a primary reason for relapsing. Methods: Here we report on the development of a new paradigm that aims to distinguish goal-directed from habitual behavior utilizing actual eating during reward learning and as outcome devaluation procedure. Study 1 experimentally tests three versions of the paradigm (n = 20 per task version); Study 2 examines whether exposure to an acute stressor results in a preference for habitual behavior relative to a non-stress control group (n = 20 per group), and whether this is linked to glucocorticoid and adrenergic stress responses. Results and conclusions: Results from both studies and their implications for an empirically supported method of measuring goal-directed versus habitual behavior in future stress studies will be discussed. Funding: This research is supported by VIDI grant 452-14-003 from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to Dr. Tom Smeets. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.07.124
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Pregnancy anxiety is associated with GABBR1 cord blood DNA methylation, but only in male neonates Elise Beau Vangeel 1,2,∗ , Benedetta Izzi 2 , Ehsan Pishva 3 , Titia Hompes 1,4 , Kathleen Freson 2 , Stephan Claes 1,4 1 Genetic Research About Stress and Psychiatry (GRASP), KU Leuven, Belgium 2 Center for Molecular and Vascular Biology (CMVB), KU Leuven, Belgium 3 School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Centre, The Netherlands 4 University Psychiatric Center, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium E-mail address: [email protected] (E.B. Vangeel).
Background: The maternal environment during pregnancy can have a major impact on fetal and child development and can affect the individual’s health and disease susceptibility. Epigenetics has been proposed as a potential mechanism and studies have indeed suggested early life stress as an important factor in shaping the DNA methylome. The aim of our current study was to encompass fetal DNA methylation changes associated with maternal prenatal anxiety in a general population. Methods: From our Prenatal Early Life Stress cohort, 45 babies exposed to the highest (n = 23) and lowest (n = 22) maternal pregnancy-related anxiety during pregnancy were selected. Cord blood DNA was subjected to a genome-scale methylation analysis in order to detect methylation differences between babies exposed to high versus low anxiety. Correcting for confounders, we investigated differentially methylated regions (DMR’s) using two methods: comb-p and DMRcate. Results: One of the top DMR’s was in the GABBR1 gene, encoding the GABA-B receptor subunit. The GABA-B receptor is present in the central and autonomic nervous system and modulates synaptic excitability by pre- and postsynaptic inhibition. Further analysis revealed that the differential methylation at this DMR is genderspecific and mainly driven by the male neonates in our study population. Conclusions: We found that pregnancy anxiety is associated with fetal GABBR1 methylation in boys. The gender-specificity of our findings is interesting since gender is related to different stress coping strategies and also the susceptibility, diagnosis and course of certain mental disorders. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.07.125
research tried to fill this gap in two samples of low-SES children affected by Type 1 diabetes (Study 1) and asthma (Study 2). Methods: In Study 1 (N = 54), participants (age range 17–20 years old) provided saliva samples for diurnal cortisol assessment on four days, four times a day. Further, the same individuals provided a measure of glycemic control (i.e., hemoglobin A1c). In Study 2 (N = 102), participants (age range 10–17 years old) provided blood samples from which we assessed individual differences in glucocorticoid receptor (GR) messenger RNA (mRNA). Results: In Study 1, we found that low SES was associated with a flatter diurnal cortisol rhythm via diabetes-related perceived stress. Flattened cortisol rhythm was, in turn, associated with poorer glycemic control. In Study 2, although SES was not associated directly with gene expression, a significant indirect pathway through which low SES (i.e. income) was linked to lower GR gene expression via negative affect was found. Thus, in both studies, we found evidence for pathways linking low SES to poor biological health via the proposed psychological mechanisms (i.e., increased diabetes-related perceived stress and increased negative affect). Discussion: These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, they provide a detailed and empirically-grounded elaboration of the main psychological pathways by which social status inequalities influence diabetes and asthma health outcomes in youth. Practically, they highlight the need to develop interventions that specifically target stress management in high-risk populations with Type 1 diabetes and affective regulation among children with chronic asthma. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.07.123 Preferring habitual behavior following Stress: Is the proof of the pudding in the eating? Tom Smeets 1,∗ , Conny W.E.M. Quaedflieg 1,2 1
Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Smeets). 2
Background: Our psychophysiological stress responses generally serve adaptive purposes such as promoting the use of simple habits over complex goal-directed behavior. Nevertheless, such a preference for habits under stress may, in vulnerable individuals, constitute a risk factor for psychopathology. For example, stress often precedes emotional eating and binge eating episodes, and is reported by people with a substance addiction as a primary reason for relapsing. Methods: Here we report on the development of a new paradigm that aims to distinguish goal-directed from habitual behavior utilizing actual eating during reward learning and as outcome devaluation procedure. Study 1 experimentally tests three versions of the paradigm (n = 20 per task version); Study 2 examines whether exposure to an acute stressor results in a preference for habitual behavior relative to a non-stress control group (n = 20 per group), and whether this is linked to glucocorticoid and adrenergic stress responses. Results and conclusions: Results from both studies and their implications for an empirically supported method of measuring goal-directed versus habitual behavior in future stress studies will be discussed. Funding: This research is supported by VIDI grant 452-14-003 from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to Dr. Tom Smeets. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.07.124
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Pregnancy anxiety is associated with GABBR1 cord blood DNA methylation, but only in male neonates Elise Beau Vangeel 1,2,∗ , Benedetta Izzi 2 , Ehsan Pishva 3 , Titia Hompes 1,4 , Kathleen Freson 2 , Stephan Claes 1,4 1 Genetic Research About Stress and Psychiatry (GRASP), KU Leuven, Belgium 2 Center for Molecular and Vascular Biology (CMVB), KU Leuven, Belgium 3 School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Centre, The Netherlands 4 University Psychiatric Center, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium E-mail address: [email protected] (E.B. Vangeel).
Background: The maternal environment during pregnancy can have a major impact on fetal and child development and can affect the individual’s health and disease susceptibility. Epigenetics has been proposed as a potential mechanism and studies have indeed suggested early life stress as an important factor in shaping the DNA methylome. The aim of our current study was to encompass fetal DNA methylation changes associated with maternal prenatal anxiety in a general population. Methods: From our Prenatal Early Life Stress cohort, 45 babies exposed to the highest (n = 23) and lowest (n = 22) maternal pregnancy-related anxiety during pregnancy were selected. Cord blood DNA was subjected to a genome-scale methylation analysis in order to detect methylation differences between babies exposed to high versus low anxiety. Correcting for confounders, we investigated differentially methylated regions (DMR’s) using two methods: comb-p and DMRcate. Results: One of the top DMR’s was in the GABBR1 gene, encoding the GABA-B receptor subunit. The GABA-B receptor is present in the central and autonomic nervous system and modulates synaptic excitability by pre- and postsynaptic inhibition. Further analysis revealed that the differential methylation at this DMR is genderspecific and mainly driven by the male neonates in our study population. Conclusions: We found that pregnancy anxiety is associated with fetal GABBR1 methylation in boys. The gender-specificity of our findings is interesting since gender is related to different stress coping strategies and also the susceptibility, diagnosis and course of certain mental disorders. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.07.125