# Investigating the Associations Between Safety Cue Learning and Trauma Exposure in Development

> **NIH NIH F30** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $52,694

## Abstract

Exposure to trauma throughout the lifespan, and in particular during childhood and adolescence, is prevalent,
with more than two-thirds of all children in the United States having experienced at least one traumatic event
by age 16. It is well-established that exposure to trauma can lead to psychopathology (e.g., anxiety disorders,
posttraumatic stress disorder) in many individuals. Thus, it is imperative to not only optimize and devise novel
interventions for individuals suffering from the effects of trauma, but also to identify the mechanisms by which
trauma exposures confer risk for psychopathology to aid efforts in risk identification and early intervention. The
primary treatment approach for both adults and youth with anxiety and other trauma-related disorders is
exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Exposure-based CBT draws on principles of extinction
learning in which individuals repeatedly encounter cues relating to the traumatic event in the absence of the
threat or aversive outcome, thereby extinguishing their fear response over time. The behavior of extinction
learning and its supporting neural circuitry have been delineated in the last several decades in adult rodent
models and human samples. Critically, growing cross-species evidence from developmental studies suggests
that extinction learning undergoes key changes across development, and in particular during the adolescent
period during which extinction learning is diminished. Notably, these behavioral changes coincide with
nonlinear changes in frontolimbic circuitry that supports fear learning and extinction. Delineating mechanisms
of fear reduction that leverage these non-linear changes is therefore of critical importance. We propose to
investigate safety cue learning (SCL) as a potential novel and developmentally-sensitive approach to optimize
fear reduction in youth with trauma exposure, anxiety disorders, or both. Furthermore, given that one of the
mechanisms thought to link trauma exposure and psychopathology involves threat and safety learning, SCL
may serve an important mechanistic role. In Aim 1, I will use skin conductance response as an index of
physiological reactivity while participants complete a SCL task to examine the association between trauma
exposure and SCL among children, adolescents, and young adults (8-30 years of age) with and without
anxiety. In Aim 2, I will examine the associations between trauma exposure and the neural mechanisms of
SCL, namely hippocampal-frontoamygdala circuitry, in the same sample using functional magnetic resonance
imaging. For Aims 1 and 2, I will also compare SCL to extinction learning and examine whether there are any
age-related changes in SCL and related frontolimbic circuitry that are associated with trauma exposure. Finally,
in Aim 3, I will test whether SCL and related frontolimbic circuitry mediate the association between trauma
exposure and anxiety in children, adolescents, and young adults. In summary, the aims ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10550140
- **Project number:** 5F30MH124271-03
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sahana Kribakaran
- **Activity code:** F30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $52,694
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-01-01 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10550140

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10550140, Investigating the Associations Between Safety Cue Learning and Trauma Exposure in Development (5F30MH124271-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10550140. Licensed CC0.

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