Scholars@Duke
Aaron Reuben

Aaron Reuben

Postdoctoral Scholar
Psychology & Neuroscience
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Selected Publications

Children's exposure to chemical contaminants: Demographic disparities and associations with the developing basal ganglia.

Journal Article Environmental research · September 2024 Children are regularly exposed to chemical contaminants that may influence brain development. However, relatively little is known about how these contaminants impact the developing human brain. Here, we combined silicone wristband exposure assessments with ... Full text Cite

Childhood blood-lead level predicts lower general, non-selective hippocampal subfield volumes in midlife.

Journal Article Ecotoxicology and environmental safety · August 2024 Millions of adults and children are exposed to high levels of lead, a neurotoxicant, each year. Recent evidence suggests that lead exposure may precipitate neurodegeneration, particularly if the exposure occurs early or late in life, with unique alteration ... Full text Cite

The paradox of high greenness and poor health in rural Central Appalachia.

Journal Article Environmental research · May 2024 While many studies have found positive correlations between greenness and human health, rural Central Appalachia is an exception. The region has high greenness levels but poor health. The purpose of this commentary is to provide a possible explanation for ... Full text Cite

Dementia, dementia's risk factors and premorbid brain structure are concentrated in disadvantaged areas: National register and birth-cohort geographic analyses.

Journal Article Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · May 2024 IntroductionDementia risk may be elevated in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Reasons for this remain unclear, and this elevation has yet to be shown at a national population level.MethodsWe tested whether dementia was more ... Full text Cite

Short-changing the future: The systemic gap between psychology internship stipends and living wages.

Journal Article Training and education in professional psychology · February 2024 IntroductionProviding doctoral internship stipends below living wages may harm interns, the clinical services they provide, and the field of health service psychology as a whole. This study evaluated the extent to which doctoral psychology interns ... Full text Cite

Who tests for lead and why? A 10-year analysis of blood lead screening, follow-up and CNS outcomes in a statewide US healthcare system.

Journal Article Occupational and environmental medicine · February 2024 ObjectivesThis study aims to determine (1) which providers in US healthcare systems order lead tests, why and at what frequency and (2) whether current patient population lead levels are predictive of clinical outcomes.MethodsRetrospectiv ... Full text Cite

Measuring the 3-30-300 rule to help cities meet nature access thresholds.

Journal Article The Science of the total environment · January 2024 The 3-30-300 rule offers benchmarks for cities to promote equitable nature access. It dictates that individuals should see three trees from their dwelling, have 30 % tree canopy in their neighborhood, and live within 300 m of a high-quality green space. Im ... Full text Cite

Quantifying Nature: Introducing NatureScoreTM and NatureDoseTM as Health Analysis and Promotion Tools.

Journal Article American journal of health promotion : AJHP · January 2024 Full text Cite

Leveraging and exercising caution with ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools in environmental psychology research.

Journal Article Frontiers in psychology · January 2024 Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is an emerging and disruptive technology that has attracted considerable interest from researchers and educators across various disciplines. We discuss the relevance and concerns of ChatGPT and other GAI tools in en ... Full text Cite

Association of Public Works Disasters with Substance Use Difficulties: Evidence from Flint, Michigan, Five Years after the Water Crisis Onset.

Journal Article International journal of environmental research and public health · November 2023 Public works environmental disasters such as the Flint water crisis typically occur in disenfranchised communities with municipal disinvestment and co-occurring risks for poor mental health (poverty, social disconnection). We evaluated the long-term interp ... Full text Cite

Time in nature is associated with higher levels of positive mood: Evidence from the 2023 NatureDose™ student survey

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Psychology · September 1, 2023 Growing evidence shows that exposure to nature can improve mood. However, this evidence is mostly based on short-term or subjectively reported exposures. Machine learning and GPS mobile device tracking offer fine-grained assessments of minute-by-minute nat ... Full text Cite

Socioenvironmental Adversity and Adolescent Psychotic Experiences: Exploring Potential Mechanisms in a UK Longitudinal Cohort.

Journal Article Schizophrenia bulletin · July 2023 Background and hypothesisChildren exposed to socioenvironmental adversities (eg, urbanicity, pollution, neighborhood deprivation, crime, and family disadvantage) are more likely to subsequently develop subclinical psychotic experiences during adol ... Full text Cite

Elementary Classroom Views of Nature Are Associated with Lower Child Externalizing Behavior Problems.

Journal Article International journal of environmental research and public health · April 2023 Exposure to nature views has been associated with diverse mental health and cognitive capacity benefits. Yet, much of this evidence was derived in adult samples and typically only involves residential views of nature. Findings from studies with children su ... Full text Cite

Toxicant exposure and the developing brain: A systematic review of the structural and functional MRI literature.

Journal Article Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · January 2023 Youth worldwide are regularly exposed to pollutants and chemicals (i.e., toxicants) that may interfere with healthy brain development, and a surge in MRI research has begun to characterize the neurobiological consequences of these exposures. Here, a system ... Full text Cite

Environmental exposures and mental health

Chapter · January 1, 2023 Consideration of psychological health and mental disorders is necessary for understanding the breadth of effects that environmental exposures can have on human health. Some common toxicants disrupt biological processes in ways that can contribute to psycho ... Full text Cite

Prevalence of Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Flint, Michigan, 5 Years After the Onset of the Water Crisis.

Journal Article JAMA network open · September 2022 ImportanceEnvironmental disasters, such as the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, are potentially traumatic events (PTEs) that may precipitate long-term psychiatric disorders. The water crisis was associated with acute elevations in mental health prob ... Full text Cite

Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · March 2022 SignificanceConsiderable effort is expended to protect today's children from lead exposure, but there is little evidence on the harms past lead exposures continue to hold for yesterday's children, who are victims of what we term legacy lead exposures. We e ... Full text Cite

The Interplay of Environmental Exposures and Mental Health: Setting an Agenda.

Journal Article Environmental health perspectives · February 2022 BackgroundTo date, health-effects research on environmental stressors has rarely focused on behavioral and mental health outcomes. That lack of research is beginning to change. Science and policy experts in the environmental and behavioral health ... Full text Cite

Improving risk indexes for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias for use in midlife.

Journal Article Brain communications · January 2022 Knowledge of a person's risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRDs) is required to triage candidates for preventive interventions, surveillance, and treatment trials. ADRD risk indexes exist for this purpose, but each includes only a subset ... Full text Cite

Children's exposure to chemical contaminants: Demographic disparities and associations with the developing basal ganglia.

Journal Article Environmental research · September 2024 Children are regularly exposed to chemical contaminants that may influence brain development. However, relatively little is known about how these contaminants impact the developing human brain. Here, we combined silicone wristband exposure assessments with ... Full text Cite

Childhood blood-lead level predicts lower general, non-selective hippocampal subfield volumes in midlife.

Journal Article Ecotoxicology and environmental safety · August 2024 Millions of adults and children are exposed to high levels of lead, a neurotoxicant, each year. Recent evidence suggests that lead exposure may precipitate neurodegeneration, particularly if the exposure occurs early or late in life, with unique alteration ... Full text Cite

The paradox of high greenness and poor health in rural Central Appalachia.

Journal Article Environmental research · May 2024 While many studies have found positive correlations between greenness and human health, rural Central Appalachia is an exception. The region has high greenness levels but poor health. The purpose of this commentary is to provide a possible explanation for ... Full text Cite

Dementia, dementia's risk factors and premorbid brain structure are concentrated in disadvantaged areas: National register and birth-cohort geographic analyses.

Journal Article Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · May 2024 IntroductionDementia risk may be elevated in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Reasons for this remain unclear, and this elevation has yet to be shown at a national population level.MethodsWe tested whether dementia was more ... Full text Cite

Short-changing the future: The systemic gap between psychology internship stipends and living wages.

Journal Article Training and education in professional psychology · February 2024 IntroductionProviding doctoral internship stipends below living wages may harm interns, the clinical services they provide, and the field of health service psychology as a whole. This study evaluated the extent to which doctoral psychology interns ... Full text Cite

Who tests for lead and why? A 10-year analysis of blood lead screening, follow-up and CNS outcomes in a statewide US healthcare system.

Journal Article Occupational and environmental medicine · February 2024 ObjectivesThis study aims to determine (1) which providers in US healthcare systems order lead tests, why and at what frequency and (2) whether current patient population lead levels are predictive of clinical outcomes.MethodsRetrospectiv ... Full text Cite

Measuring the 3-30-300 rule to help cities meet nature access thresholds.

Journal Article The Science of the total environment · January 2024 The 3-30-300 rule offers benchmarks for cities to promote equitable nature access. It dictates that individuals should see three trees from their dwelling, have 30 % tree canopy in their neighborhood, and live within 300 m of a high-quality green space. Im ... Full text Cite

Quantifying Nature: Introducing NatureScoreTM and NatureDoseTM as Health Analysis and Promotion Tools.

Journal Article American journal of health promotion : AJHP · January 2024 Full text Cite

Leveraging and exercising caution with ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools in environmental psychology research.

Journal Article Frontiers in psychology · January 2024 Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is an emerging and disruptive technology that has attracted considerable interest from researchers and educators across various disciplines. We discuss the relevance and concerns of ChatGPT and other GAI tools in en ... Full text Cite

Association of Public Works Disasters with Substance Use Difficulties: Evidence from Flint, Michigan, Five Years after the Water Crisis Onset.

Journal Article International journal of environmental research and public health · November 2023 Public works environmental disasters such as the Flint water crisis typically occur in disenfranchised communities with municipal disinvestment and co-occurring risks for poor mental health (poverty, social disconnection). We evaluated the long-term interp ... Full text Cite

Time in nature is associated with higher levels of positive mood: Evidence from the 2023 NatureDose™ student survey

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Psychology · September 1, 2023 Growing evidence shows that exposure to nature can improve mood. However, this evidence is mostly based on short-term or subjectively reported exposures. Machine learning and GPS mobile device tracking offer fine-grained assessments of minute-by-minute nat ... Full text Cite

Socioenvironmental Adversity and Adolescent Psychotic Experiences: Exploring Potential Mechanisms in a UK Longitudinal Cohort.

Journal Article Schizophrenia bulletin · July 2023 Background and hypothesisChildren exposed to socioenvironmental adversities (eg, urbanicity, pollution, neighborhood deprivation, crime, and family disadvantage) are more likely to subsequently develop subclinical psychotic experiences during adol ... Full text Cite

Elementary Classroom Views of Nature Are Associated with Lower Child Externalizing Behavior Problems.

Journal Article International journal of environmental research and public health · April 2023 Exposure to nature views has been associated with diverse mental health and cognitive capacity benefits. Yet, much of this evidence was derived in adult samples and typically only involves residential views of nature. Findings from studies with children su ... Full text Cite

Toxicant exposure and the developing brain: A systematic review of the structural and functional MRI literature.

Journal Article Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · January 2023 Youth worldwide are regularly exposed to pollutants and chemicals (i.e., toxicants) that may interfere with healthy brain development, and a surge in MRI research has begun to characterize the neurobiological consequences of these exposures. Here, a system ... Full text Cite

Environmental exposures and mental health

Chapter · January 1, 2023 Consideration of psychological health and mental disorders is necessary for understanding the breadth of effects that environmental exposures can have on human health. Some common toxicants disrupt biological processes in ways that can contribute to psycho ... Full text Cite

Prevalence of Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Flint, Michigan, 5 Years After the Onset of the Water Crisis.

Journal Article JAMA network open · September 2022 ImportanceEnvironmental disasters, such as the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, are potentially traumatic events (PTEs) that may precipitate long-term psychiatric disorders. The water crisis was associated with acute elevations in mental health prob ... Full text Cite

Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · March 2022 SignificanceConsiderable effort is expended to protect today's children from lead exposure, but there is little evidence on the harms past lead exposures continue to hold for yesterday's children, who are victims of what we term legacy lead exposures. We e ... Full text Cite

The Interplay of Environmental Exposures and Mental Health: Setting an Agenda.

Journal Article Environmental health perspectives · February 2022 BackgroundTo date, health-effects research on environmental stressors has rarely focused on behavioral and mental health outcomes. That lack of research is beginning to change. Science and policy experts in the environmental and behavioral health ... Full text Cite

Improving risk indexes for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias for use in midlife.

Journal Article Brain communications · January 2022 Knowledge of a person's risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRDs) is required to triage candidates for preventive interventions, surveillance, and treatment trials. ADRD risk indexes exist for this purpose, but each includes only a subset ... Full text Cite

Long-term Neural Embedding of Childhood Adversity in a Population-Representative Birth Cohort Followed for 5 Decades.

Journal Article Biological psychiatry · August 2021 BackgroundChildhood adversity has been previously associated with alterations in brain structure, but heterogeneous designs, methods, and measures have contributed to mixed results and have impeded progress in mapping the biological embedding of c ... Full text Cite

Increased Use of Porch or Backyard Nature during COVID-19 Associated with Lower Stress and Better Symptom Experience among Breast Cancer Patients.

Journal Article International journal of environmental research and public health · August 2021 Contact with nature has been used to promote both physical and mental health, and is increasingly used among cancer patients. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges in both access to nature in public spaces and in cancer care. The purpose of ... Full text Cite

Childhood exposure to ambient air pollution and predicting individual risk of depression onset in UK adolescents.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · June 2021 Knowledge about early risk factors for major depressive disorder (MDD) is critical to identify those who are at high risk. A multivariable model to predict adolescents' individual risk of future MDD has recently been developed however its performance in a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association of Air Pollution Exposure in Childhood and Adolescence With Psychopathology at the Transition to Adulthood.

Journal Article JAMA network open · April 2021 ImportanceAir pollution exposure damages the brain, but its associations with the development of psychopathology are not fully characterized.ObjectiveTo assess whether air pollution exposure in childhood and adolescence is associated with ... Full text Cite

Association of neighborhood parks with child health in the United States.

Journal Article Preventive medicine · December 2020 While there is evidence that parks support pediatric health, there have been no national studies looking at both physical and mental health. We assessed whether the presence of a neighborhood park is associated with pediatric physical or mental health acro ... Full text Cite

Association of Childhood Lead Exposure With MRI Measurements of Structural Brain Integrity in Midlife.

Journal Article JAMA · November 2020 ImportanceChildhood lead exposure has been linked to disrupted brain development, but long-term consequences for structural brain integrity are unknown.ObjectiveTo test the hypothesis that childhood lead exposure is associated with magnet ... Full text Cite

Association of Neighborhood Disadvantage in Childhood With DNA Methylation in Young Adulthood.

Journal Article JAMA network open · June 2020 ImportanceDNA methylation has been proposed as an epigenetic mechanism by which the childhood neighborhood environment may have implications for the genome that compromise adult health.ObjectiveTo ascertain whether childhood neighborhood ... Full text Cite

Elevated Hair Mercury Levels Are Associated With Neurodevelopmental Deficits in Children Living Near Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Peru.

Journal Article GeoHealth · May 2020 Children living near artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) are at risk of exposure to mercury, a neurotoxicant. It is not certain whether such exposures are harming development, as they occur in underresourced contexts entwined with other stressors, ... Full text Cite

Longitudinal Assessment of Mental Health Disorders and Comorbidities Across 4 Decades Among Participants in the Dunedin Birth Cohort Study.

Journal Article JAMA network open · April 2020 ImportanceMental health professionals typically encounter patients at 1 point in patients' lives. This cross-sectional window understandably fosters focus on the current presenting diagnosis. Research programs, treatment protocols, specialist clin ... Full text Cite

Implications of legacy lead for children's brain development.

Journal Article Nature medicine · January 2020 Full text Cite

Agreement Between Prospective and Retrospective Measures of Childhood Maltreatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Journal Article JAMA psychiatry · June 2019 ImportanceChildhood maltreatment is associated with mental illness. Researchers, clinicians, and public health professionals use prospective or retrospective measures interchangeably to assess childhood maltreatment, assuming that the 2 measures i ... Full text Cite

Residential neighborhood greenery and children's cognitive development.

Journal Article Social science & medicine (1982) · June 2019 Children who grow up in neighborhoods with more green vegetation show enhanced cognitive development in specific domains over short timespans. However, it is unknown if neighborhood greenery per se is uniquely predictive of children's overall cognitive dev ... Full text Cite

Association of Childhood Lead Exposure With Adult Personality Traits and Lifelong Mental Health.

Journal Article JAMA psychiatry · April 2019 ImportanceMillions of adults now entering middle age were exposed to high levels of lead, a developmental neurotoxin, as children. Although childhood lead exposure has been linked to disrupted behavioral development, the long-term consequences for ... Full text Cite

Exploration of NO2 and PM2.5 air pollution and mental health problems using high-resolution data in London-based children from a UK longitudinal cohort study.

Journal Article Psychiatry research · February 2019 Air pollution is a worldwide environmental health issue. Increasingly, reports suggest that poor air quality may be associated with mental health problems, but these studies often use global measures and rarely focus on early development when psychopatholo ... Full text Cite

Association of Childhood Blood Lead Levels With Criminal Offending.

Journal Article JAMA pediatrics · February 2018 ImportanceLead is a neurotoxin with well-documented effects on health. Research suggests that lead may be associated with criminal behavior. This association is difficult to disentangle from low socioeconomic status, a factor in both lead exposure ... Full text Cite

Childhood Lead Exposure and Adult Neurodegenerative Disease.

Journal Article Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · January 2018 Millions of Americans now entering midlife and old age were exposed to high levels of lead, a neurotoxin, as children. Evidence from animal-model and human observational studies suggest that childhood lead exposure may raise the risk of adult neurodegenera ... Full text Cite

Association of Childhood Blood Lead Levels With Cognitive Function and Socioeconomic Status at Age 38 Years and With IQ Change and Socioeconomic Mobility Between Childhood and Adulthood.

Journal Article JAMA · March 2017 ImportanceMany children in the United States and around the world are exposed to lead, a developmental neurotoxin. The long-term cognitive and socioeconomic consequences of lead exposure are uncertain.ObjectiveTo test the hypothesis that ... Full text Cite

Lest we forget: comparing retrospective and prospective assessments of adverse childhood experiences in the prediction of adult health.

Journal Article Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · October 2016 BackgroundAdverse childhood experiences (ACEs; e.g. abuse, neglect, and parental loss) have been associated with increased risk for later-life disease and dysfunction using adults' retrospective self-reports of ACEs. Research should test whether a ... Full text Cite

Toward the next generation of air quality monitoring indicators

Journal Article Atmospheric Environment · December 1, 2013 This paper introduces an initiative to bridge the state of scientific knowledge on air pollution with the needs of policymakers and stakeholders to design the "next generation" of air quality indicators. As a first step this initiative assesses current mon ... Full text Cite

Task difficulty modulates young-old differences in network expression.

Journal Article Brain research · January 2012 The extent of task-related fMRI activation can vary as a function of task difficulty. Also the efficiency or capacity of the brain networks underlying task performance can change with aging. We asked whether the expression of a network underlying task perf ... Full text Cite

Supporting performance in the face of age-related neural changes: testing mechanistic roles of cognitive reserve.

Journal Article Brain imaging and behavior · September 2011 Age impacts multiple neural measures and these changes do not always directly translate into alterations in clinical and cognitive measures. This partial protection from the deleterious effects of age in some individuals is referred to as cognitive reserve ... Full text Cite

Hippocampal atrophy relates to fluid intelligence decline in the elderly.

Journal Article Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · January 2011 Measures of brain and hippocampal volume in 40 healthy young (aged 18-30 years) and 36 healthy elderly (aged 60-83 years) subjects were compared with composite cognitive function scores in three conceptual domains: memory ability, processing speed, and gen ... Full text Cite

Investigating hemodynamic response variability at the group level using basis functions.

Journal Article NeuroImage · February 2010 Introduced is a general framework for performing group-level analyses of fMRI data using any basis set of two functions (i.e., the canonical hemodynamic response function and its first derivative) to model the hemodynamic response to neural activity. The a ... Full text Cite

Construct validity of cognitive reserve in a multiethnic cohort: The Northern Manhattan Study.

Journal Article Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · July 2009 Cognitive reserve is a hypothetical construct that has been used to inform models of cognitive aging and is presumed to be indicative of life experiences that may mitigate the effects of brain pathology. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the constr ... Full text Cite