Racism is a thief that steals time from people’s lives, perhaps by taking up space in their minds. A recent study published in the journal JAMA Network Open reveals that the toll of racism on the brain is linked to advanced aging at a cellular level. The study showed that Black women who experienced more racism had stronger connections in brain networks associated with rumination and vigilance, leading to accelerated biological aging.
Why Racism Matters:
Aging is a natural process, but stress can speed up the biological clock, making individuals more susceptible to aging-related diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dementia. Black individuals often experience these health issues at an earlier age than white individuals, indicating disparities in brain aging. Racial discrimination and other stressors can impact the rate of biological aging, activating the stress response system and affecting brain regions that process threats.
Rumination and vigilance are coping responses to racial stressors, but they take a toll on the body. Our study of Black women revealed increased connectivity between the locus coeruleus, a brain region that triggers the stress response, and the precuneus, a region linked to internalizing emotions. These changes were associated with accelerated cellular aging, as measured by an epigenetic clock.
What We Still Don’t Know:
While we observed links between racism, brain changes, and accelerated aging, we did not measure coping responses in real-time. Additionally, the intersection of factors like neighborhood disadvantage, gender, and sexuality in influencing health disparities related to accelerated aging remains unclear.
What’s Next:
Our future research will focus on real-time measurement of everyday racism, physiological measurements, and neuroimaging to gain deeper insights. Understanding how different types of racial discrimination and coping styles impact brain and body responses can lead to preventive measures and interventions such as programs targeting implicit bias and neuromodulation for stress reduction.
Negar Fani, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Emory University and Nathaniel Harnett, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University
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