Neuroscientist Nicole Ferrara, PhD, Awarded $2.3 Million NIH Grant to Study COVID-19’s Impact on Adolescent Brains

Nicole Ferrara, PhD, an assistant professor and neuroscientist at Rosalind Franklin University (RFU) has secured a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how adolescent brains are affected by social disruptions such as COVID-19.

Dr. Ferrara, an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics, will use the funding to advance her research project, “Social Experience Guides BMA Mediated Social Development.” The project explores how significant social disruptions shape the neural processes that govern social behaviors and is being conducted through RFU’s Brain Science Institute as part of the Center for Neurobiology of Stress Resilience and Psychiatric Disorders.

“It’s rare that people are in total isolation,” Dr. Ferrara said. “More often, it’s restricted or inconsistent contact, and we want to see how that affects the brain. What we’re learning from the research during the COVID19 lockdown is that those breaks are connected to the rising rates of anxiety, depression, and social dysregulation.”

Dr. Ferrara and her team are focusing on the amygdala, a region of the brian involved in processing social and emotional information. Their research will examine how social deprivation during adolescence and adulthood shapes amygdala function and how those changes may influence mental health and social behavior.

Preliminary data from Dr. Ferrara’s research indicates the basomedial amygdala (BMA) develops and functions differently during adolescence and early adulthood, than other parts of the brain. Those differences may make it especially susceptible to disruptions in social experience during the critical period of development.

Janice Urban, PhD, interim executive vice president of research and director of the Center for Neurobiology of Stress Resilience and Psychiatric Disorders, said the research could contribute to a better understanding of mental health disorders that emerge during adolescence and early adulthood.

“Since many mental health disorders manifest during adolescence and early adulthood, the results of these funded studies will provide important information that can be utilized to develop therapeutic interventions that could lessen these maladaptive changes and ultimately mental health disorders,” Dr. Urban said.

Behaviors associated with social disruption include withdrawal from friends and family, aggression or hostility, delayed social maturation, poor school performance and substance abuse. By identifying how changes in social experiences affect the developing brain, the research could help scientists better understand the biological processes associated with these behaviors and inform future approaches to addressing their effects on mental health.

Dr. Ferrara joined RFU in 2018 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and became an assistant professor in 2022.