Browsing by Author "Fagundes, Christopher P"

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    A Lifespan Approach to Psychological and Physical Health: Attachment and Health in Older Adulthood
    (2022-04-19) Brown, Ryan L; Fagundes, Christopher P
    Early-life experiences profoundly impact people's physical and mental health across the lifespan. According to various theoretical models, this impact is most salient when confronted with stressful life experiences. Attachment theory provides a theoretical framework to understand individual differences in adult health related to how early-life experiences shape individuals’ perceptions of the self and others. Based on the need for further empirical investigation into early-life experiences and health in bereavement and related calls for a lifespan approach in psychology, this study examined the influence of early-life experiences with one's primary caregivers as a vulnerability (or diathesis) for poorer health in older adulthood generally, and in the context of spousal bereavement. A sample of 103 participants were interviewed about their childhood experiences with primary caregivers (using Adult Attachment Interviews, a well-established semi-structured interview technique) and were assessed based on depressive symptoms, grief symptoms (for bereaved participants only), self-rated health, and inflammation. There was no evidence in this sample that having a secure state of mind regarding attachment promoted better physical or psychological health; instead, there was preliminary evidence that an insecure attachment state of mind, specifically a dismissing attachment state of mind, was associated with better self-rated physical and emotional health and lower levels of IL-6sR. These findings provide novel insights into attachment system functioning and psychological and physical health in adulthood.
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    From stress to dementia risk: An examination of psychological, immunological, and neurobiological mechanisms underlying increased risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias in widow(er)s
    (2024-07-29) Chung, E-Lim Lydia Wu; Fagundes, Christopher P
    Being widowed is associated with poorer cognitive function and higher incidence rates of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The mechanisms underlying the link between spousal bereavement and ADRD risk remain relatively unexplored. Individual differences in health may be examined within a biopsychosocial framework, which posits that biological, psychological, and interpersonal factors independently and interactively affect health. For example, within the context of stress and ADRD, experiencing a significant psychological stressor, such as spousal bereavement, may be particularly detrimental for individuals who also display additional psychosocial and biological risk factors of ADRD. To understand how bereavement may enhance ADRD risk and which widow(er)s may be at heightened risk, I used psychological, immunological, and neuroimaging approaches to examine individual differences in neurocognitive health 1) between bereaved spouses and nonbereaved controls and 2) among bereaved spouses. Across 3 datasets, recently bereaved spouses and nonbereaved adults completed neuropsychological assessments, self-report questionnaires on psychosocial well-being, and provided venous blood samples for inflammatory assays. A subset of bereaved and nonbereaved adults also completed a structural magnetic resonance imaging scan for quantification of cortical thickness and provided blood samples for plasma amyloid beta assays. Widow(er)s and nonbereaved adults showed significant differences in working memory performance and brain morphology. Among widow(er)s, depressive symptoms and cortical thickness in ADRD-related brain regions were associated with several cognitive domains. The relationship between psychosocial well-being (e.g., depressive symptoms, loneliness) and cognitive inhibition depended on widow(er)s’ levels of systemic inflammation and cortical thinning in ADRD-related brain regions. Tentative relationships between inflammation, plasma amyloid, and cortical thickness were also observed. Findings suggest that differences in cognitive function and brain morphology among widow(er)s and between widow(er)s and nonbereaved adults are evident as early as the first few months of bereavement. Notably, the present study replicated patterns previously observed in the cognitive neuroscience and depression literature and identified novel, psychobiological mechanisms of neurocognitive aging. Beyond its contribution to the bereavement literature, this research broadens our understanding of the mechanisms linking stressful life events to increased disease risk.
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    Neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in daily psychological experiences and cortisol activity
    (2022-08-08) Chung, E-Lim Lydia Wu; Fagundes, Christopher P
    Cortisol, a stress hormone released from the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis during stress, supports many vital bodily functions. Individual differences in cortisol patterns exist, and neural patterns underlying appraisal processes may contribute to these differences. In this project, I examined whether neural activation patterns to affective stimuli can explain interindividual differences in daily negative experiences and daily cortisol patterns. The analytic sample included participants from the MIDUS-2 dataset who completed an fMRI session, daily interviews, and cortisol assessments. Neural activation patterns to negative stimuli were generally unrelated to daily cortisol levels. Amygdala and dorsal PFC activity toward negative stimuli were positively related to negative psychological experiences and negatively related to positive psychological experiences. The relationship between daily psychological experiences and daily cortisol output depended on prefrontal, limbic, and paralimbic activity to negative stimuli. This study enhances our understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie interindividual differences in daily psychobiological experiences.
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    The Role of Childhood Maltreatment and Self-Regulatory Processes on Inflammation, Depressive Symptoms, and Grief Symptoms During Spousal Bereavement
    (2020-08-13) Chen, Michelle Ai-Lien; Fagundes, Christopher P
    Early life adversity, such as childhood maltreatment, promotes physiological and physical dysregulation throughout the lifespan, increasing vulnerability to negative health outcomes. The stress associated with childhood maltreatment, which includes physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse inflicted by an older person or an adult towards a child, promotes an exaggerated physiological and psychological response to threats. Specifically, early life stress causes increases in chronic inflammation, which is associated with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. In addition to increased physiological dysregulation (i.e., elevated inflammation), childhood maltreatment is associated with psychological dysregulation (i.e., depression), which may further contribute to disease later in life. Given the impact that early life adversity has on adverse health outcomes, it is important to identify how childhood maltreatment affects physiological and psychological dysregulation, especially for populations facing stress. Spousal bereavement ranks as the most stressful life event and is associated with elevated inflammation, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms. Understanding how childhood maltreatment interacts with psychological and physiological mechanisms to predict inflammation, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms will provide a useful direction in forecasting physical and mental health outcomes among a highly stressed, bereaved population. Individual differences in vagally-mediated heart rate variability, an index of an individual’s self-regulatory ability, may partially explain the relationship between childhood maltreatment and poor physiological (i.e., elevated inflammation) and psychological dysregulation (i.e., depression and grief) among a highly stressed population. Examining changes in inflammation, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms throughout the bereavement experience may be prognostic of individuals who are more vulnerable to adverse health outcomes following the death of a spouse. Given the role that self-regulation may have in moderating the relationships between childhood maltreatment and inflammation, depressive symptoms, and grief severity, different emotion regulation strategies could also moderate these relationships. Thus, identifying the risk and resilience factors that underlie how childhood maltreatment impacts physiological and psychological dysregulation can be an influential factor in forecasting physical and mental outcomes among a highly stressed, bereaved population.