Federal Grant Supports GSU Research on the Effects of Social Stress
Georgia State University
A Georgia State University researcher has been awarded more than $1.8 million dollars. It’s to study what exposure to social stress does to the brain that can leave people more susceptible to mental illnesses, such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Researchers say most humans experience social stress as a result of exposure to bullying, abuse or conflict in school home and the workplace.
Georgia State University Professor Kim Huhman says previous studies she’s conducted have identified areas of the brain that control changes in behavior that occur as a result of stress. Huhman says her new research will build on that knowledge.
“The ultimate purpose of doing that is to try to develop better ways of intervening in social stress to reverse changes that occur or even what we’d really love to do is to be able prevent changes from occurring.”
Huhman says one of things the research will examine is a neurochemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF. She says BDNF is more complex than researchers previously thought.
“It some brain areas it has stress promoting effects and in other brain areas it stress reducing effects, so it’s really important for us to understand what BDNF is actually doing.”
And Huhman plans to use hamsters to conduct the research. She says it’s because the areas of the brain and the chemicals she plans to examine are the same in rodents as in humans.
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