Title

The AURORA Study: a longitudinal, multimodal library of brain biology and function after traumatic stress exposure

UMMS Affiliation

Department of Emergency Medicine

Publication Date

2019-11-19

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Emergency Medicine | Medical Neurobiology | Neuroscience and Neurobiology | Psychiatry | Psychiatry and Psychology

Abstract

Adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (APNS) are common among civilian trauma survivors and military veterans. These APNS, as traditionally classified, include posttraumatic stress, postconcussion syndrome, depression, and regional or widespread pain. Traditional classifications have come to hamper scientific progress because they artificially fragment APNS into siloed, syndromic diagnoses unmoored to discrete components of brain functioning and studied in isolation. These limitations in classification and ontology slow the discovery of pathophysiologic mechanisms, biobehavioral markers, risk prediction tools, and preventive/treatment interventions. Progress in overcoming these limitations has been challenging because such progress would require studies that both evaluate a broad spectrum of posttraumatic sequelae (to overcome fragmentation) and also perform in-depth biobehavioral evaluation (to index sequelae to domains of brain function). This article summarizes the methods of the Advancing Understanding of RecOvery afteR traumA (AURORA) Study. AURORA conducts a large-scale (n = 5000 target sample) in-depth assessment of APNS development using a state-of-the-art battery of self-report, neurocognitive, physiologic, digital phenotyping, psychophysical, neuroimaging, and genomic assessments, beginning in the early aftermath of trauma and continuing for 1 year. The goals of AURORA are to achieve improved phenotypes, prediction tools, and understanding of molecular mechanisms to inform the future development and testing of preventive and treatment interventions.

Keywords

Diagnostic markers, Molecular biology, Neuroscience, Predictive markers, Prognostic markers

DOI of Published Version

10.1038/s41380-019-0581-3

Source

Mol Psychiatry. 2019 Nov 19. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0581-3. Link to article on publisher's site

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Molecular psychiatry

Comments

Full list of authors omitted for brevity. For full list see article.

Related Resources

Link to Article in PubMed

PubMed ID

31745239

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