# Racial Microaggressions, Neural Vigilance Circuitry and PTSD Outcomes in Youth Victims of Violence

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE · 2024 · $44,828

## Abstract

Project Summary
An estimated 70% of youth experience a violent assault before the age of 18, which significantly increases the
risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), compared to experiencing other traumatic events. Black youth are
vulnerable in that they additionally experience racial discrimination, which research has shown increases the
risk of PTSD symptoms post-trauma in adult samples, yet this remains understudied in youth.
Microaggressions, a covert, subtle, and sometimes unintentional form of racial discrimination, have especially
been related to adverse mental health outcomes in adults. Additionally, because of their brief and subtle
nature, microaggressions are particularly related to increased vigilance, which is associated with heightened
activity of the amygdala (a key region in the neurobiological threat circuitry) and connectivity with other regions,
such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and thalamus. Increased vigilance also increases the risk
of PTSD symptoms. Thus, while individual links between racial discrimination, vigilance circuitry, and PTSD
symptoms have been studied, there has not been a comprehensive model to integrate these constructs, nor
have they been studied in adolescence, a time of increased vulnerability for psychopathology. Moreover,
microaggressions as a specific type of racial discrimination have been understudied, and distinguishing
between their acute and long-term effect remains unclear. This study will address such gaps through the
following two aims: 1) Defining the mediating role of neural vigilance circuitry in the impact of previous
microaggressions on PTSD symptom severity one year after the assault and 2) Examining the effect of
experiencing concurrent and ongoing microaggressions on long-term mental and brain health
outcomes during recovery from trauma. 100 Black youth will be recruited from the Children’s Wisconsin
Emergency Department, a Level One Trauma Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, soon after experiencing a
violent assault. Two weeks after the assault, participants will undergo a fMRI scan and self-report experiences
of microaggressions and symptoms of PTSD; the same data will be collected 3 months and 12 months later.
Neuroimaging data will be pre-processed, and the functional connectivity of the amygdala and dACC and the
amygdala and thalamus will be separately analyzed. Mediation analyses will be conducted to examine the
mechanistic role of the neurobiological vigilance circuitry in mediating the relationship between previous
microaggressions and non-remitting PTSD symptoms (Aim 1). Regression analyses will investigate the impact
of cumulative experiences of microaggressions (during the first year of recovery) on the brain’s vigilance
circuitry and PTSD symptoms one year after the assault (Aim 2). Findings will allow for the investigation of a
possible mechanism that links experiences of microaggressions to PTSD symptoms. This will not only increase
the basic science un...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11065810
- **Project number:** 1F31MH136703-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE
- **Principal Investigator:** Farah Harb
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $44,828
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2025-01-03 → 2028-01-02

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11065810

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11065810, Racial Microaggressions, Neural Vigilance Circuitry and PTSD Outcomes in Youth Victims of Violence (1F31MH136703-01A1). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/11065810. Licensed CC0.

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