Scholars@Duke
Kate Webb

Kate Webb

Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Behavioral Medicine & Neurosciences
2400 Pratt St., Room 6009, DUMC 102505, Durham, NC 27705
Duke University Medical Center, DUMC 102505, Durham, NC 27710

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Neighborhood disadvantage and accelerated epigenetic aging in the early aftermath of trauma: The moderating role of individual psychological resources.

Journal article J Psychiatr Res · August 2026 Socioenvironmental factors may be associated with patterns of biological age and modify individual vulnerability to trauma- and stress-related psychiatric conditions. We examined whether neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with accelerate ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial discrimination, sleep disturbances, and posttraumatic stress symptoms in an acute trauma sample of Black adults

Journal article Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · June 2026 Introduction: Black Americans experience racial discrimination, which has been related to increased mental health problems and sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances are also a symptom, and a predictor, of posttraumatic stress ... Full text Cite

Post-traumatic stress disorder moderates the association between BrainAge acceleration and GrimAge acceleration.

Journal article Neurobiol Aging · May 29, 2026 Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at higher risk for age-related physical comorbidities, such as cardiovascular disorders, and exhibit accelerated epigenetic and brain aging. The present study examined PTSD as a moderator of the as ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Associations between residential segregation, ambient air pollution, and hippocampal features in recent trauma survivors.

Journal article Transl Psychiatry · May 18, 2026 Residential segregation is associated with differential exposure to air pollution. Hippocampus structure and function are highly susceptible to pollutants and associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) development. Therefore, we investigated asso ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Recent Trauma Exposure Is Associated With Greater Thickness of the Primary Visual Cortex: A Discovery and Replication Analysis.

Journal article Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging · May 12, 2026 BACKGROUND: Visual cortex morphology is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, limited research has investigated whether trauma exposure itself relates to visual cortex structure. Distinguishing trauma-related variability f ... Full text Link to item Cite

The moderating role of psychological resilience on brain aging and PTSD in a community sample of South African women.

Journal article Neuroscience · April 6, 2026 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with accelerated biological aging. In general, psychological resilience is related to more normative aging patterns; however, among individuals with PTSD, resilience may be associated with older biological ... Full text Link to item Cite

Examining the between- and within-person associations among perceived sleep quality and mental health symptoms in emergency medical service clinicians.

Journal article J Trauma Stress · October 2025 Disturbed sleep is a known risk factor for heightened mental health symptoms, and this association may be particularly problematic among emergency medical service (EMS) clinicians. Yet, associations between daily sleep quality and daily mental health sympt ... Full text Link to item Cite

Childhood Adversity Is Associated With Longitudinal White Matter Changes After Adulthood Trauma.

Journal article Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging · September 17, 2025 BACKGROUND: Childhood adversity is associated with susceptibility to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adulthood. PTSD and childhood adversity are linked to white matter microstructure, yet the role of white matter as a potential neural mechanism con ... Full text Link to item Cite

PTSD symptoms moderate predictors of psychophysiological arousal during fear inhibition: Evidence from a fear, reward, and neutral discrimination task.

Journal article J Affect Disord · September 15, 2025 The ability to distinguish between threatening, rewarding, and neutral cues is adaptative and crucial for survival. However, individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often show poor knowledge of cue contingencies and heightened fear responses ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neural processes of emotional conflict detection and prediction of posttraumatic stress disorder symptom clusters in traumatic injury survivors.

Journal article Psychol Trauma · February 2025 OBJECTIVE: Given the prevalence and significant burden of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), identifying early predictors of symptom development following trauma is critical. PTSD is a heterogeneous disorder comprised of distinct symptom clusters-reexpe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trauma-informed systems change training has transcultural, transcontinental transformative healing power: An analysis of leaders in the United States and Angola, Africa.

Journal article J Trauma Stress · December 2024 The Institute for Trauma-Informed Systems Change (ITISC) facilitated a 2-day, 12-hr trauma-informed workshop, delivered virtually, using the Training for Change curriculum. The workshop took place in Portuguese in September 2021 with a group of Angolan lea ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neighborhood Resources Associated With Psychological Trajectories and Neural Reactivity to Reward After Trauma.

Journal article JAMA Psychiatry · November 1, 2024 IMPORTANCE: Research on resilience after trauma has often focused on individual-level factors (eg, ability to cope with adversity) and overlooked influential neighborhood-level factors that may help mitigate the development of posttraumatic stress disorder ... Full text Link to item Cite

Investigating the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis as a predictor of posttraumatic stress disorder in Black Americans and the moderating effects of racial discrimination.

Journal article Transl Psychiatry · August 21, 2024 Altered functioning of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) may play a critical role in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Chronic stressors such as racial discrimination and lifetime trauma are associated with an increased ris ... Full text Link to item Cite

Childhood Maltreatment and Amygdala-Mediated Anxiety and Posttraumatic Stress Following Adult Trauma.

Journal article Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci · July 2024 BACKGROUND: Childhood abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) is associated with aberrant connectivity of the amygdala, a key threat-processing region. Heightened amygdala activity also predicts adult anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) sympto ... Full text Link to item Cite

The neurophysiological consequences of racism-related stressors in Black Americans.

Journal article Neurosci Biobehav Rev · June 2024 Racism-related stressors, from experiences of both implicit and explicit racial discrimination to systemic socioeconomic disadvantage, have a cumulative impact on Black Americans' health. The present narrative review synthesizes peripheral (neuroendocrine ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Dichotomy of Threat and Deprivation as Subtypes of Childhood Maltreatment: Differential Functional Connectivity Patterns of Threat and Reward Circuits in an Adult Trauma Sample.

Journal article Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging · February 2024 BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced activation of the nucleus accumbens, a central region in the reward network, and overactivity in the amygdala, a key region in threat processing. However, the long-lasting impact of these associ ... Full text Link to item Cite

Experiences of racial discrimination and adverse gene expression among black individuals in a level 1 trauma center sample.

Journal article Brain Behav Immun · February 2024 Up to 40 % of individuals who sustain traumatic injuries are at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the conditional risk for developing PTSD is even higher for Black individuals. Exposure to racial discrimination, including at both interperso ... Full text Link to item Cite

Ratting on wildlife crime: training African giant pouched rats to detect illegally trafficked wildlife

Journal article Frontiers in Conservation Science · January 1, 2024 The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is one of the largest global crime economies, directly threatening species and their habitats, and biodiversity, and indirectly the global climate, and countries’ economies. Syndicates operating within the IWT are often inv ... Full text Cite

Training for Lasting Change: Trauma-Informed Training Results in Improved and Sustained Individual and Organizational Knowledge, Attitudes, and Policies.

Journal article J Clin Psychiatry · October 30, 2023 Objective: Trauma-informed care (TIC) trainings seek to improve individual and organizational recognition and care to individuals who have experienced trauma. However, whether TIC trainings result in long-term changes to an organization's policies and prac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Psychological and physiological correlates of stimulus discrimination in adults.

Journal article Psychophysiology · October 2023 The discrimination of cues in the environment that signal danger ("fear cue") is important for survival but depends critically on the discernment of such cues from ones that pose no threat ("safety cues"). In rodents, we previously demonstrated the underly ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Neural Correlates of Threat and Reward Processing in Survivors of Recent Trauma.

Journal article JAMA Netw Open · September 5, 2023 IMPORTANCE: Differences in neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics are important considerations in understanding differences in risk vs resilience in mental health. Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with alterations in the function and structure o ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neighborhood-Level Factors in the Development and Treatment of Trauma and Stress-Related Disorders

Journal article Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry · September 1, 2023 Purpose of Review: Community- and neighborhood-level factors are important, but understudied, influences on trauma-related disorders and their treatment. In this review, we describe how neighborhood factors are evaluated including through aggregate measure ... Full text Cite

Attributional negativity bias and acute stress disorder symptoms mediate the association between trauma history and future posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal article J Trauma Stress · August 2023 Individuals who have experienced more trauma throughout their life have a heightened risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following injury. Although trauma history cannot be retroactively modified, identifying the mechanism(s) by which p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Can animal personalities save human lives? Evidence for repeatable differences in activity and anxiety in African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei)

Journal article Applied Animal Behaviour Science · February 1, 2023 Scent-detection animals require an exceptional sense of smell as well as a unique set of behavioural traits. Regardless of species, there are specific characteristics that influence the animal's success in a detection career. However, few studies have test ... Full text Cite

Experiencing racial discrimination increases vulnerability to PTSD after trauma via peritraumatic dissociation.

Journal article Eur J Psychotraumatol · 2023 Background: Racial discrimination is a traumatic stressor that increases the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but mechanisms to explain this relationship remain unclear. Peritraumatic dissociation, the complex process of disorientation, deper ... Full text Link to item Cite

The role of pain and socioenvironmental factors on posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in traumatically injured adults: A 1-year prospective study.

Journal article J Trauma Stress · August 2022 Approximately 20% of individuals who experience a traumatic injury will subsequently develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Physical pain following traumatic injury has received increasing attention as both a distinct, functionally debilitating diso ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and the Neurobiology of Uncertainty in Traumatically Injured Adults.

Journal article Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci · July 2022 BACKGROUND: Individuals residing in more socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods experience greater uncertainty through insecurity of basic needs such as food, employment, and housing, compared with more advantaged neighborhoods. Although the neurobi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Scoring the Life Events Checklist: Comparison of three scoring methods.

Journal article Psychol Trauma · May 2022 OBJECTIVE: Prior trauma history is a reliable and robust risk predictor for PTSD development. Obtaining an accurate measurement of prior trauma history is critical in research of trauma-related outcomes. The Life Events Checklist (LEC) is a widely used sel ... Full text Link to item Cite

Addressing racial and phenotypic bias in human neuroscience methods.

Journal article Nat Neurosci · April 2022 Despite their premise of objectivity, neuroscience tools for physiological data collection, such as electroencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy, introduce racial bias into studies by excluding individuals on the basis of phenotypic dif ... Full text Link to item Cite

Emotion Dysregulation Following Trauma: Shared Neurocircuitry of Traumatic Brain Injury and Trauma-Related Psychiatric Disorders.

Journal article Biol Psychiatry · March 1, 2022 The psychological trauma associated with events resulting in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an important and frequently overlooked factor that may impede brain recovery and worsen mental health following TBI. Indeed, individuals with comorbid posttraumati ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hippocampal Resting-State Functional Connectivity Forecasts Individual Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: A Data-Driven Approach.

Journal article Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging · February 2022 BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder, and there is no current accurate prediction of who develops it after trauma. Neurobiologically, individuals with chronic PTSD exhibit aberrant resting-state functional connectivit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial Discrimination and Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Salience Network Nodes in Trauma-Exposed Black Adults in the United States.

Journal article JAMA Netw Open · January 4, 2022 IMPORTANCE: For Black US residents, experiences of racial discrimination are still pervasive and frequent. Recent empirical work has amplified the lived experiences and narratives of Black people and further documented the detrimental effects of racial dis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Radically reframing studies on neurobiology and socioeconomic circumstances: A call for social justice-oriented neuroscience.

Journal article Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · January 2022 Socioeconomic circumstances are associated with symptoms and diagnostic status of nearly all mental health conditions. Given these robust relationships, neuroscientists have attempted to elucidate how socioeconomic-based adversity "gets under the skin." Hi ... Full text Cite

Neural impact of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage in traumatically injured adults.

Journal article Neurobiol Stress · November 2021 Nearly 14 percent of Americans live in a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood. Lower individual socioeconomic position (iSEP) has been linked to increased exposure to trauma and stress, as well as to alterations in brain structure and function; how ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial Discrimination is Associated with Acute Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Predicts Future Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity in Trauma-Exposed Black Adults in the United States.

Journal article J Trauma Stress · October 2021 In the United States, Black residents exposed to a traumatic event are at an increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and experiencing more severe symptoms compared to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Although previous work h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Stability of hippocampal subfield volumes after trauma and relationship to development of PTSD symptoms.

Journal article Neuroimage · August 1, 2021 BACKGROUND: The hippocampus plays a central role in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) pathogenesis, and the majority of neuroimaging research on PTSD has studied the hippocampus in its entirety. Although extensive literature demonstrates changes in hip ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acute White Matter Integrity Post-trauma and Prospective Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.

Journal article Front Hum Neurosci · 2021 Background: Little is known about what distinguishes those who are resilient after trauma from those at risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous work indicates white matter integrity may be a useful biomarker in predicting PTSD. R ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with stable deficits in neurocognitive functioning in traumatically-injured adults.

Journal article Health Place · January 2021 BACKGROUND: In trauma-exposed adults, the relationship between an individual's socioeconomic position (SEP) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been well demonstrated. One potential mechanism by which the stress associated with lower SEPs may imp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acute Posttrauma Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Periaqueductal Gray Prospectively Predicts Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.

Journal article Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging · September 2020 BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by hyperarousal, avoidance, and intrusive/re-experiencing symptoms. The periaqueductal gray (PAG), which generates behavioral responses to physical and psychological stressors, is also impli ... Full text Link to item Cite

Rapidly training African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) with multiple targets for scent detection.

Journal article Behav Processes · May 2020 Since 1997, APOPO, a non-profit organization based in Tanzania, has deployed African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) to detect landmines in post-conflict areas. More recent research suggests the pouched rats can also be trained to detect tuberculo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Emerging issues in the responsible conduct of psychological science.

Journal article Translational Issues in Psychological Science · January 1, 2020 The responsible conduct of psychological research is critical to improving our understanding of developmental processes, creating effective treatments and informing public policy. At its most basic level, the study and practice of research ethics entails t ... Full text Cite

Behavioral skills training in scent detection research: Interactions between trainer and animal behavior.

Journal article J Appl Behav Anal · July 2019 Animal trainers working in scent detection programs are responsible for arranging training contingencies as well as for observing and recording animal behavior. We provided behavioral skills training (BST) to animal trainers working with scent detection ra ... Full text Link to item Cite