Association of Psychological Resilience With Decelerated Brain Aging in Cognitively Healthy World Trade Center Responders.

Journal: Biological psychiatry global open science
Published Date: Mar 20, 2025

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite their exposure to potentially traumatic stressors, the majority of World Trade Center (WTC) responders-those who worked on rescue, recovery, and cleanup efforts on or following September 11, 2001-have shown psychological resilience, never developing long-term psychopathology. Psychological resilience may be protective against the earlier age-related cognitive changes associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in this cohort. In the current study, we calculated the difference between estimated brain age from structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and chronological age in WTC responders who participated in a parent functional MRI study of resilience ( = 97). We hypothesized that highly resilient responders would show the least brain aging and explored associations between brain aging and psychological and cognitive measures.

Authors

  • Saren H Seeley
    Depression and Anxiety Center for Discovery and Treatment, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
  • Rachel Fremont
    Depression and Anxiety Center for Discovery and Treatment, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
  • Zoe Schreiber
    Depression and Anxiety Center for Discovery and Treatment, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
  • Laurel S Morris
    Depression and Anxiety Center for Discovery and Treatment, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai. Electronic address: laurel.morris@mssm.edu.
  • Leah Cahn
    Depression and Anxiety Center for Discovery and Treatment, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
  • James W Murrough
    Depression and Anxiety Center for Discovery and Treatment, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai. Electronic address: james.murrough@mssm.edu.
  • Daniela Schiller
    Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
  • Dennis S Charney
    Office of the Dean, Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai.
  • Robert H Pietrzak
    Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Veterans Affairs Connecticut Health Care System, West Haven, Connecticut.
  • M Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez
    Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States.
  • Adriana Feder
    Depression and Anxiety Center for Discovery and Treatment, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.

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