We can’t wait for #Flux2023! To help us prepare for the conference, we are fortunate that many of our amazing speakers provided us with some details about upcoming presentations. One symposium, led by Shulamite Green, is below. We have many other posts on the way, so please keep an eye out on our blog for more symposia previews! Share your excitement for these symposia using #Flux2023 on social media!
Friday, September 8th, 2:45pm – 4:00pm
Organizer
Shulamite Green, University of California, Los Angeles
Discussant:
Jennifer Silvers, University of California, Los Angeles
Speakers:
Shulamite Green, University of California, Los Angeles
Neural mechanisms underlying sensory over-responsitivity in youth adopted from foster care
Bridget Callaghan, University of California, Los Angeles
Alteration of maternal perinatal interoception after early childhood trauma exposure is linked to perinatal depression
Nadege Roche-Labarbe, University of Caen Normandie
Top-down regulation of somatosensory processing in the premature neonate brain as an early marker of neurodevelopmental susceptibility
Rebecca Schwarzlose, Washington University in St. Louis
Neonatal sensory responses and early-life sensory sensitivity in relation to prenatal maternal stress
Written by Shulamite Green
Imagine a world where the sights, sounds, and sensations we encounter each day are overwhelming or hard to disentangle. Interpreting incoming sensory stimuli, and regulating of our behavioral and emotional responses, is fundamental to successfully interacting with our environment. But, because these basic sensory processes develop so early in life, individuals with Early Life Adversity (ELA) are particularly vulnerable to problems in these areas, which are often linked to mental health issues, deficits in social skills, and difficulty with adaptive functioning. Despite the significance of sensory processing challenges in ELA populations, these issues often go unnoticed, misdiagnosed, or untreated. This symposium takes the innovative approach of examining lower-level sensory processing as a potential intermediary mechanism that could influence higher-level developmental outcomes. Our speakers will tackle basic sensory processing from a wide range of perspectives including clinical and developmental psychology, animal models, brain-gut research, and multimodal imaging, as well as across developmental periods from infancy all the way through pregnancy, where we see effects of the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Though our speakers come from as far as France and as close as Southern California, we are all equally excited to visit California wine country (many of us for the first time!) and share our insights on what the brain can tell us about the fundamental importance of basic sensory processing in early life adversity.