Cameryn Eickstead, a doctoral candidate in the UAB Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D. program, is studying the role of violence exposure in adolescents in brain function and mental health supported by a T32 Fellowship Program in Multifaceted Translational Approaches in Mental Illness grant. Adrienne C. Lahti, M.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, and Yogesh Dwivedi, Ph.D., Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs/Faculty Development in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, are principal investigators for the grant.
Eickstead graduated in May 2023 from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with a Bachelor of Arts in neuroscience and psychology. While there, she worked in four laboratories studying factors that alter the relationship between behavioral inhibition and emotion in humans and rats.
“I gained a well-rounded understanding of emotion through my research,” Eickstead said.
She then enrolled in UAB’s Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D. program, joining the neuroimaging lab of David Knight, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Psychology. On Jan. 1, Eickstead will enter the second year of her grant award period, receiving $27,144 annually to support her research.
“This T32 program also supports enrollment in translational neuroscience and psychiatry courses at UAB and opportunities to shadow practicing clinicians,” Eickstead said. “Additionally, the grant supports participation in the Works in Progress (WIP) meetings, hosted by the UAB Department of Neurobiology.”
Eickstead expands on her research and future goals.
Give us a brief overview of your research, specifically as it pertains to the T32 grant.
Eickstead: I am currently studying the role of adolescent violence exposure on brain function and mental health. Adolescence is an important period of neural and emotional development, so community violence exposure that occurs during adolescence may alter brain development and, thus, emotion expression and regulation processes. We collected witnessing of and victimization by community violence across adolescence and measured emerging adult mental health (i.e., depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress). Additionally, we collected functional MRI signal during the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST), a psychosocial stress task consisting of math problems and feedback following their answers. Along with the MIST, we collected psychophysiological data (i.e., skin conductance response, heart rate, and cortisol levels) and stress ratings. We have been examining the interrelationships between adolescent violence exposure, brain stress reactivity to the MIST, and emotion (i.e., mental health, psychophysiology, and stress ratings). Further, we’ve been examining how the relationship between brain stress reactivity and emotion changes based on the frequency of adolescent violence.
What initially attracted you to this research?
Eickstead: I served as a Mental Health Specialist at Allendale Association from May 2022 to May 2023. Allendale Association is a residential treatment facility for adolescents who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect. These adolescents have poor mental and behavioral health due to their trauma, and some have bounced from foster home to foster home because of their emotional dysfunction. As a Mental Health Specialist, I led counseling groups on healthy relationships (e.g., assertive communication, stating boundaries, identifying predatory behaviors) and self-improvement (e.g., positive affirmations, creating goals, connecting past trauma to current behaviors). I also counseled clients individually each week to discuss more personal topics. As a scientist, I began forming research questions about the neurobiological substrates of unhealthy behaviors, leading me to my current research at UAB.
How will this grant propel your research goals forward?
Eickstead: This T32 program introduces me to courses specifically focused on the development of psychiatric disorders and the neural substrates underlying mental illness. Specifically, courses focus on electrical and chemical properties that underlie anxiety and mood disorders. Additionally, this program supports my attendance at the WIP meetings, where UAB researchers present their current, cutting-edge research in the neuroscience field. The knowledge of these topics will enhance future research questions and introduce new neuroimaging and analysis techniques that will be valuable for the completion of my Ph.D. Further, the program supports Responsible Conduct of Research trainings to update my knowledge of neuroscience ethics, which will be invaluable in my career as a neuroscientist.