How stress alters cell energy and brain circuits that support self-control
Official title: Stress-Induced Aberrations in the Mitochondrial Redox Environment Impact Developing Neural Circuits Supporting Cognitive Control
Funded at Father Flanagan's Boys' Home · NIH-11522008 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project is seeing if stress-related changes in mitochondria and antioxidants affect brain circuits for self-control in people aged 15 to 25.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Father Flanagan's Boys' Home NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boys Town, United States) |
| Project start | February 23, 2026 |
| Project end | January 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $391,933 |
| NIH project number | 5P20GM144641-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11522008 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are adolescents and young adults roughly 15–25 years old, including those with higher or varying levels of chronic life stress.
✕Less likely to help
People outside the 15–25 age range or those with severe neurological disorders unrelated to stress are unlikely to receive direct benefit from this project.
What this research studies
You would be asked about your life stress and health, give small blood samples for measures of allostatic load and mitochondrial redox (like reactive oxygen and antioxidant activity), and complete questionnaires. The study will include non-invasive brain imaging and computerized tasks that measure conflict monitoring, decision making, and emotional regulation to observe how brain circuits are functioning. Researchers will compare these biological and brain measures across young people with different stress histories to identify patterns linking stress, cellular redox balance, and cognitive control. Visits will likely include questionnaires, blood draws, and imaging sessions at the study site.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help identify early biological signs of stress-related brain changes so interventions or supports can be tailored to protect self-control and decision-making in young people.
How similar studies have gone: Related work has linked mitochondrial redox markers to brain function in middle-aged and older adults, but applying this approach to adolescents and young adults is novel.
Where this research is happening
-
Father Flanagan's Boys' Home
Boys Town, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Spooner, Rachel K. — Father Flanagan's Boys' Home
- Study coordinator: Spooner, Rachel K.
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
Sex differences in language impairment and services for children and adults
A study examines why girls with language impairment may receive fewer speech services than boys and what that means for treatment.
-
Helping at-risk infants learn words by encouraging them to look at a speaker's mouth
This project will teach infants who have an older autistic sibling to look at a speaker's mouth during play to help them pick up new words more easily.
-
Audiological rehabilitation for children with unilateral hearing loss
A research project aims to help children who hear with one ear by testing ways to improve their hearing and communication through targeted audiology interventions.
-
Functional spatial hearing in pediatric cochlear implant users
A study to understand how real-world reverberation affects the ability of kids and young adults with cochlear implants to hear where sounds are coming from.
-
Understanding reading in deaf and hard-of-hearing kids using listening devices
This grant studies how early language and reading skills relate to literacy in deaf and hard-of-hearing children who use cochlear implants or hearing aids.
-
Open-language tools to measure adult language skills and detect DLD
Researchers are creating a remote, automated tool to measure language abilities in adults and help identify developmental language disorder (DLD).
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.