Determined, page 45
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D. Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013). Also, for insights into Kahneman’s reasoning: H. Nohlen, F. van Harreveld, and W. Cunningham, “Social Evaluations under Conflict: Negative Judgments of Conflicting Information Are Easier Than Positive Judgments,” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 14 (2019): 709.
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Footnote: T. Baer and S. Schnall, “Quantifying the Cost of Decision Fatigue: Suboptimal Risk Decisions in Finance,” Royal Society Open Science 5 (2021): 201059.
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I. Beaulieu-Boire and A. Lang, “Behavioral Effects of Levodopa,” Movement Disorders 30 (2015): 90.
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L. R. Mujica-Parodi et al., “Chemosensory Cues to Conspecific Emotional Stress Activate Amygdala in Humans,” Public Library of Science One 4, no. 7 (2009): e6415. Jaywalking: B. Pawlowski, R. Atwal, and R. Dunbar, “Sex Differences in Everyday Risk-Taking Behavior in Humans,” Evolutionary Psychology 6 (2008): 29.
Footnote: L. Chang et al., “The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships: The Mating-Warring Association in Men,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37 (2011): 976; S. Ainsworth and J. Maner, “Sex Begets Violence: Mating Motives, Social Dominance, and Physical Aggression in Men,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103 (2012): 819; W. Iredale, M. van Vugt, and R. Dunbar, “Showing Off in Humans: Male Generosity as a Mating Signal,” Evolutionary Psychology 6 (2008): 386; M. Van Vugt and W. Iredale, “Men Behaving Nicely: Public Goods as Peacock Tails,” British Journal of Psychology 104 (2013): 3. Oh, those skateboarders: R. Ronay and W. von Hippel, “The Presence of an Attractive Woman Elevates Testosterone and Physical Risk Taking in Young Men,” Social Psychological and Personality Science 1 (2010): 1.
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J. Ferguson et al., “Oxytocin in the Medial Amygdala Is Essential for Social Recognition in the Mouse,” Journal of Neuroscience 21 (2001): 8278; R. Griksiene and O. Ruksenas, “Effects of Hormonal Contraceptives on Mental Rotation and Verbal Fluency,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 36 (2011): 1239–1248; R. Norbury et al., “Estrogen Therapy and Brain Muscarinic Receptor Density in Healthy Females: A SPET Study,” Hormones and Behavior 5 (2007): 249.
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Stress effects on the efficacy of frontal function: S. Qin et al., “Acute Psychological Stress Reduces Working Memory–Related Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex,” Biological Psychiatry 66 (2009): 25; L. Schwabe et al., “Simultaneous Glucocorticoid and Noradrenergic Activity Disrupts the Neural Basis of Goal-Directed Action in the Human Brain,” Journal of Neuroscience 32 (2012): 10146; A. Arnsten, M. Wang, and C. Paspalas, “Neuromodulation of Thought: Flexibilities and Vulnerabilities in Prefrontal Cortical Network Synapses,” Neuron 76 (2012): 223; A. Arnsten, “Stress Weakens Prefrontal Networks: Molecular Insults to Higher Cognition,” Nature Neuroscience 18 (2015): 1376; E. Woo et al., “Chronic Stress Weakens Connectivity in the Prefrontal Cortex: Architectural and Molecular Changes,” Chronic Stress 5 (2021), doi:24705470211029254.
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Testosterone effects on the frontal cortex: P. Mehta and J. Beer, “Neural Mechanisms of the Testosterone-Aggression Relation: The Role of Orbitofrontal Cortex,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 22 (2010): 2357; E. Hermans et al., “Exogenous Testosterone Enhances Responsiveness to Social Threat in the Neural Circuitry of Social Aggression in Humans,” Biological Psychiatry 63 (2008): 263; G. van Wingen et al., “Testosterone Reduces Amygdala-Orbitofrontal Cortex Coupling,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 35 (2010): 105; I. Volman et al., “Endogenous Testosterone Modulates Prefrontal-Amygdala Connectivity during Social Emotional Behavior,” Cerebral Cortex 21 (2011): 2282; P. Bos et al., “The Neural Mechanisms by Which Testosterone Acts on Interpersonal Trust,” Neuroimage 61 (2012): 730; P. Bos et al., “Testosterone Reduces Functional Connectivity during the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Test,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 68 (2016): 194; R. Handa, G. Hejnaa, and G. Murphy, “Androgen Inhibits Neurotransmitter Turnover in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex of the Rat Following Exposure to a Novel Environment,” Brain Research 751 (1997): 131; T. Hajszan et al., “Effects of Androgens and Estradiol on Spine Synapse Formation in the Prefrontal Cortex of Normal and Testicular Feminization Mutant Male Rats,” Endocrinology 148 (2007): 1963.
Oxytocin effects on frontal cortex: N. Ebner et al., “Oxytocin’s Effect on Resting-State Functional Connectivity Varies by Age and Sex,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 69 (2016): 50; S. Dodhia et al., “Modulation of Resting-State Amygdala-Frontal Functional Connectivity by Oxytocin in Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder,” Neuropsychopharmacology 39 (2014): 2061.
Estrogen effects on the frontal cortex: R. Hill et al., “Estrogen Deficiency Results in Apoptosis in the Frontal Cortex of Adult Female Aromatase Knockout Mice,” Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience 41 (2009): 1; R. Brinton et al., “Equilin, a Principal Component of the Estrogen Replacement Therapy Premarin, Increases the Growth of Cortical Neurons via an NMDA Receptor–Dependent Mechanism,” Experimental Neurology 147 (1997): 211.
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Effects of a variety of adverse experiences on the frontal cortex. Depression: E. Belleau, M. Treadway, and D. Pizzagalli, “The Impact of Stress and Major Depressive Disorder on Hippocampal and Medial Prefrontal Cortex Morphology,” Biological Psychiatry 85 (2019): 443; F. Calabrese et al., “Neuronal Plasticity: A Link between Stress and Mood Disorders,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 34, supp. 1 (2009): S208; S. Chiba et al., “Chronic Restraint Stress Causes Anxiety- and Depression-Like Behaviors, Downregulates Glucocorticoid Receptor Expression, and Attenuates Glutamate Release Induced by Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in the Prefrontal Cortex,” Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 39 (2012): 112; J. Radley et al., “Chronic Stress-Induced Alterations of Dendritic Spine Subtypes Predict Functional Decrements in an Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenal-Inhibitory Prefrontal Circuit,” Journal of Neuroscience 33 (2013): 14379.
Anxiety and PTSD: L. Mah, C. Szabuniewicz, and A. Fletcco, “Can Anxiety Damage the Brain?,” Current Opinions in Psychiatry 29 (2016): 56; K. Moench and C. Wellman, “Stress-Induced Alterations in Prefrontal Dendritic Spines: Implications for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder,” Neuroscience Letters 5 (2015): 601.
Social instability: M. Breach, K. Moench, and C. Wellman, “Social Instability in Adolescence Differentially Alters Dendritic Morphology in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Its Response to Stress in Adult Male and Female Rats,” Developmental Neurobiology 79 (2019): 839.
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Effects of alcohol and weed on the frontal cortex: C. Shields and C. Gremel, “Review of Orbitofrontal Cortex in Alcohol Dependence: A Disrupted Cognitive Map?,” Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research 44 (2020): 1952; D. Eldreth, J. Matochik, and L. Cadet, “Abnormal Brain Activity in Prefrontal Brain Regions in Abstinent Marijuana Users,” Neuroimage 23 (2004): 914; J. Quickfall and D. Crockford, “Brain Neuroimaging in Cannabis Use: A Review,” Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 18 (2006): 318; V. Lorenzetti et al., “Does Regular Cannabis Use Affect Neuroanatomy? An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Structural Neuroimaging Studies,” European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 269 (2019): 59. Studies like these are nice validation of my decision as a fifteen-year-old to never drink or do drugs (and to stick with that resolution).
Exercise and the frontal cortex: D. Moore et al., “Interrelationships between Exercise, Functional Connectivity, and Cognition among Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review,” Psychophysiology (2022): e14014; J. Graban, N. Hlavacova, and D. Jezova, “Increased Gene Expression of Selected Vesicular and Glial Glutamate Transporters in the Frontal Cortex in Rats Exposed to Voluntary Wheel Running,” Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 68 (2017): 709; M. Ceftis et al., “The Effect of Exercise on Memory and BDNF Signaling Is Dependent on Intensity,” Brain Structure and Function 224 (2019): 1975.
Eating disorders and frontal cortex: B. Donnelly et al., “Neuroimaging in Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder: A Systematic Review,” Journal of Eating Disorders 6 (2018): 3; V. Alfano et al., “Multimodal Neuroimaging in Anorexia Nervosa,” Journal of Neuroscience Research 98 (2020): 2178.
And for a really interesting study, see: F. Lederbogen et al., “City Living and Urban Upbringing Affect Neural Social Stress Processing in Humans,” Nature 474 (2011): 498.
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E. Durand et al., “History of Traumatic Brain Injury in Prison Populations: A Systematic Review,” Annals of Physical Rehabilitation Medicine 60 (2017): 95; E. Shiroma, P. Ferguson, and E. Pickelsimer, “Prevalence of Traumatic Brain Injury in an Offender Population: A Meta-analysis,” Journal of Corrective Health Care 16 (2010): 147; M. Linden, M. Lohan, and J. Bates-Gaston, “Traumatic Brain Injury and Co-occurring Problems in Prison Populations: A Systematic Review,” Brain Injury 30 (2016): 839; E. De Geus et al., “Acquired Brain Injury and Interventions in the Offender Population: A Systematic Review,” Frontiers of Psychiatry 12 (2021): 658328.
Footnote: J. Pemment, “Psychopathy versus Sociopathy: Why the Distinction Has Become Crucial,” Aggression and Violent Behavior 18 (2013): 458.
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E. Pascoe and L. Smart Richman, “Perceived Discrimination and Health: A Meta-analytic Review,” Psychological Bulletin 135 (2009): 531; U. Clark, E. Miller, and R. R. Hegde, “Experiences of Discrimination Are Associated with Greater Resting Amygdala Activity and Functional Connectivity,” Biological Psychiatry and Cognitive Neuroscience Neuroimaging 3 (2018): 367; C. Masten, E. Telzer, and N. Eisenberger, “An FMRI Investigation of Attributing Negative Social Treatment to Racial Discrimination,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23 (2011): 1042; N. Fani et al., “Association of Racial Discrimination with Neural Response to Threat in Black Women in the US Exposed to Trauma,” JAMA Psychiatry 78 (2021): 1005.
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Adolescent adversity: K. Yamamuro et al., “A Prefrontal-Paraventricular Thalamus Circuit Requires Juvenile Social Experience to Regulate Adult Sociability in Mice,” Nature Neuroscience 23 (2020): 10; C. Drzewiecki et al., “Adolescent Stress during, but Not after, Pubertal Onset Impairs Indices of Prepulse Inhibition in Adult Rats,” Developmental Psychobiology 63 (2021): 837; M. Breach, K. Moench, and C. Wellman, “Social Instability in Adolescence Differentially Alters Dendritic Morphology in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Its Response to Stress in Adult Male and Female Rats,” Developmental Neurobiology 79 (2019): 839; M. Leussis et al., “The Enduring Effects of an Adolescent Social Stressor on Synaptic Density, Part II: Poststress Reversal of Synaptic Loss in the Cortex by Adinazolam and MK-801,” Synapse 62 (2008): 185; K. Zimmermann, R. Richardson, and K. Baker, “Maturational Changes in Prefrontal and Amygdala Circuits in Adolescence: Implications for Understanding Fear Inhibition during a Vulnerable Period of Development,” Brain Science 9 (2019): 65; L. Wise et al., “Long-Term Effects of Adolescent Exposure to Bisphenol A on Neuron and Glia Number in the Rat Prefrontal Cortex: Differences between the Sexes and Cell Type,” Neurotoxicology 53 (2016): 186.
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T. Koseki et al., “Exposure to Enriched Environments during Adolescence Prevents Abnormal Behaviours Associated with Histone Deacetylation in Phencyclidine-Treated Mice,” International Journal of Psychoneuropharmacology 15 (2012): 1489; F. Sadegzadeh et al., “Effects of Exposure to Enriched Environment during Adolescence on Passive Avoidance Memory, Nociception, and Prefrontal BDNF Level in Adult Male and Female Rats,” Neuroscience Letters 732 (2020): 135133; J. McCreary, Z. Erikson, and Y. Hao, “Environmental Intervention as a Therapy for Adverse Programming by Ancestral Stress,” Science Reports 6 (2016): 37814.
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Effects of childhood stress and trauma on the frontal cortex: C. Weems et al., “Post-traumatic Stress and Age Variation in Amygdala Volumes among Youth Exposed to Trauma,” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 10 (2015): 1661; A. Garrett et al., “Longitudinal Changes in Brain Function Associated with Symptom Improvement in Youth with PTSD,” Journal of Psychiatric Research 114 (2019): 161; V. Carrion et al., “Reduced Hippocampal Activity in Youth with Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: An fMRI Study,” Journal of Pediatric Psychology 35 (2010): 559; V. Carrion et al., “Converging Evidence for Abnormalities of the Prefrontal Cortex and Evaluation of Midsagittal Structures in Pediatric Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An MRI Study,” Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 172 (2009): 226; K. Richert et al., “Regional Differences of the Prefrontal Cortex in Pediatric PTSD: An MRI Study,” Depression and Anxiety 23 (2006): 17; A. Tomoda et al., “Reduced Prefrontal Cortical Gray Matter Volume in Young Adults Exposed to Harsh Corporal Punishment,” Neuroimage 47 (2009): T66; A. Chocyk et al., “Impact of Early-Life Stress on the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Functions—a Search for the Pathomechanisms of Anxiety and Mood Disorders,” Pharmacology Reports 65 (2013): 1462; A. Chocyk et al., “Early-Life Stress Affects the Structural and Functional Plasticity of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Adolescent Rats,” European Journal of Neuroscience 38 (2013): 2089; A. Chocyk et al., “Early Life Stress Affects the Structural and Functional Plasticity in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Adolescent Rats,” European Journal of Neuroscience 38 (2013): 2089 (note—this was the film in which the young Tom Hanks made his debut as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex); M. Lopez et al., “The Social Ecology of Childhood and Early Life Adversity,” Pediatric Research 89 (2021): 353; V. Carrion and S. Wong, “Can Traumatic Stress Alter the Brain? Understanding the Implications of Early Trauma on Brain Development and Learning,” Journal of Adolescent Health 51 (2013): S23.
Effects of the neighborhood in which a child is developing: X. Zhang et al., “Childhood Urbanicity Interacts with Polygenic Risk for Depression to Affect Stress-Related Medial Prefrontal Function,” Translation Psychiatry 11 (2021): 522; B. Ramphal et al., “Associations between Amygdala-Prefrontal Functional Connectivity and Age Depend on Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status,” Cerebral Cortex Communications 1 (2020): tgaa033.
Mothering effects on frontocortical maturation: D. Liu et al., “Maternal Care, Hippocampal Glucocorticoid Receptors, and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Responses to Stress,” Science 277 (1997); S. Uchida et al., “Maternal and Genetic Factors in Stress-Resilient and -Vulnerable Rats: A Cross-Fostering Study,” Brain Research 1316 (2010): 43.
Amid this large, grim literature, there is an issue of whether this is a realm of pathology or adaptation. Major early-life adversity produces a brain that, in adulthood, is hyperreactive to threat and stress, has trouble turning off vigilance, is poor at long-term planning and gratification postponement, and so on. Does this constitute a case of a pathologically dysfunctional brain in adulthood? Or is it precisely the sort of brain you want (if this is what your childhood was like, better have this sort of brain in preparation for more of the same in adulthood)? This issue is considered in M. Teicher, J. Samson, and K. Ohashi, “The Effects of Childhood Maltreatment on Brain Structure, Function and Connectivity,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 17 (2016): 652.
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D. Kirsch et al., “Childhood Maltreatment, Prefrontal-Paralimbic Gray Matter Volume, and Substance Use in Young Adults and Interactions with Risk for Bipolar Disorder,” Science Reports 11 (2021): 123; M. Monninger et al., “The Long-Term Impact of Early Life Stress on Orbitofrontal Cortical Thickness,” Cerebral Cortex 30 (2020): 1307; A. Van Harmelen et al., “Hypoactive Medial Prefrontal Cortex Functioning in Adults Reporting Childhood Emotional Maltreatment,” Scan 9 (2014): 2026; A. Van Harmelen et al., “Childhood Emotional Maltreatment Severity Is Associated with Dorsal Medial Prefrontal Cortex Responsivity to Social Exclusion in Young Adults,” PLoS One 9 (2014): E85107; M. Underwood, M. Bakalian, and V. Johnson, “Less NMDA Receptor Binding in Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Anterior Cingulate Cortex Associated with Reported Early-Life Adversity but Not Suicide,” International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 23 (2020): 311; R. Salokangas et al., “Effect of Childhood Physical Abuse on Social Anxiety Is Mediated via Reduced Frontal Lobe and Amygdala-Hippocampus Complex Volume in Adult Clinical High-Risk Subjects,” Schizophrenia Research 22 (2021): 101; M. Kim et al., “A Link between Childhood Adversity and Trait Anger Reflects Relative Activity of the Amygdala and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex,” Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 3 (2018): 644; T. Kraynak et al., “Retrospectively Reported Childhood Physical Abuse, Systemic Inflammation, and Resting Corticolimbic Connectivity in Midlife Adults,” Brain, Behavior and Immunity 82 (2019): 203.
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C. Hendrix, D. Dilks, and B. McKenna, “Maternal Childhood Adversity Associates with Frontoamygdala Connectivity in Neonates,” Biological Psychiatry, Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 6 (2021): 470.
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M. Monninger, E. Kraaijenvanger, and T. Pollok, “The Long-Term Impact of Early Life Stress on Orbitofrontal Cortical Thickness,” Cerebral Cortex 30 (2020): 1307; N. Bush et al., “Kindergarten Stressors and Cumulative Adrenocortical Activation: The ‘First Straws’ of Allostatic Load?,” Developmental Psychopathology 23 (2011): 1089; A. Conejero et al., “Frontal Theta Activation Associated with Error Detection in Toddlers: Influence of Familial Socioeconomic Status,” Developmental Science 21 (2018), doi:10.1111/desc.12494; S. Lu, R. Xu, and J. Cao, “The Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Volume Is Reduced in Adults Reporting Childhood Trauma Independent of Depression Diagnosis,” Journal of Psychiatric Research 12 (2019): 12; L. Betancourt, N. Brodsky, and H. Hurt, “Socioeconomic (SES) Differences in Language Are Evident in Female Infants at 7 Months of Age,” Early Human Development 91 (2015): 719.
