Anterior cingulate hyperactivations during negative emotion processing among men with schizophrenia and a history of violent behavior

AbstractBackgroundChildren with a history of maltreatment suffer from altered emotion processing but the neural basis of this phenomenon is unknown. This pioneering functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the effects of severe childhood maltreatment on emotion processing while controlling for psychiatric conditions, medication and substance abuse.MethodTwenty medication-naive, substance abuse-free adolescents with a history of childhood abuse, 20 psychiatric control adolescents matched on psychiatric diagnoses but with no maltreatment and 27 healthy controls underwent a fMRI emotion discrimination task comprising fearful, angry, sad happy and neutral dynamic facial expressions.ResultsMaltreated participants responded faster to fearful expressions and demonstrated hyper-activation compared to healthy controls of classical fear-processing regions of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex, which survived at a more lenient threshold relative to psychiatric controls. Functional connectivity analysis, furthermore, demonstrated reduced connectivity between left vmPFC and insula for fear in maltreated participants compared to both healthy and psychiatric controls.ConclusionsThe findings show that people who have experienced childhood maltreatment have enhanced fear perception, both at the behavioural and neurofunctional levels, associated with enhanced fear-related ventromedial fronto-cingulate activation and altered functional connectivity with associated limbic regions. Furthermore, the connectivity adaptations were specific to the maltreatment rather than to the developing psychiatric conditions, whilst the functional changes were only evident at trend level when compared to psychiatric controls, suggesting a continuum. The neurofunctional hypersensitivity of fear-processing networks may be due to childhood over-exposure to fear in people who have been abused.

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Differential patterns of activity and functional connectivity in emotion processing neural circuitry to angry and happy faces in adolescents with and without suicide attempt

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291712002966 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 43 (10) ◽

pp. 2129-2142 ◽

Cited By ~ 78

Author(s):

L. A. Pan ◽

S. Hassel ◽

A. M. Segreti ◽

S. A. Nau ◽

D. A. Brent ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Suicide Attempt ◽

Attentional Control ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Neural Circuitry ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Sensory Cortex ◽

Lower Activity ◽

Primary Sensory Cortex ◽

History Of

BackgroundNeural substrates of emotion dysregulation in adolescent suicide attempters remain unexamined.MethodWe used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural activity to neutral, mild or intense (i.e. 0%, 50% or 100% intensity) emotion face morphs in two separate emotion-processing runs (angry and happy) in three adolescent groups: (1) history of suicide attempt and depression (ATT, n = 14); (2) history of depression alone (NAT, n = 15); and (3) healthy controls (HC, n = 15). Post-hoc analyses were conducted on interactions from 3 group × 3 condition (intensities) whole-brain analyses (p < 0.05, corrected) for each emotion run.ResultsTo 50% intensity angry faces, ATT showed significantly greater activity than NAT in anterior cingulate gyral–dorsolateral prefrontal cortical attentional control circuitry, primary sensory and temporal cortices; and significantly greater activity than HC in the primary sensory cortex, while NAT had significantly lower activity than HC in the anterior cingulate gyrus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. To neutral faces during the angry emotion-processing run, ATT had significantly lower activity than NAT in the fusiform gyrus. ATT also showed significantly lower activity than HC to 100% intensity happy faces in the primary sensory cortex, and to neutral faces in the happy run in the anterior cingulate and left medial frontal gyri (all p < 0.006,corrected). Psychophysiological interaction analyses revealed significantly reduced anterior cingulate gyral–insula functional connectivity to 50% intensity angry faces in ATT v. NAT or HC.ConclusionsElevated activity in attention control circuitry, and reduced anterior cingulate gyral–insula functional connectivity, to 50% intensity angry faces in ATT than other groups suggest that ATT may show inefficient recruitment of attentional control neural circuitry when regulating attention to mild intensity angry faces, which may represent a potential biological marker for suicide risk.

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Ketogenic diet reduces alcohol withdrawal symptoms in humans and alcohol intake in rodents

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.abf6780 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (15) ◽

pp. eabf6780

Author(s):

Corinde E. Wiers ◽

Leandro F. Vendruscolo ◽

Jan-Willem van der Veen ◽

Peter Manza ◽

Ehsan Shokri-Kojori ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ketogenic Diet ◽

Alcohol Withdrawal ◽

Alcohol Use Disorder ◽

Alcohol Intake ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Beneficial Effects ◽

Alcohol Cues ◽

History Of ◽

To Receive

Individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) show elevated brain metabolism of acetate at the expense of glucose. We hypothesized that a shift in energy substrates during withdrawal may contribute to withdrawal severity and neurotoxicity in AUD and that a ketogenic diet (KD) may mitigate these effects. We found that inpatients with AUD randomized to receive KD (n = 19) required fewer benzodiazepines during the first week of detoxification, in comparison to those receiving a standard American (SA) diet (n = 14). Over a 3-week treatment, KD compared to SA showed lower “wanting” and increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) reactivity to alcohol cues and altered dACC bioenergetics (i.e., elevated ketones and glutamate and lower neuroinflammatory markers). In a rat model of alcohol dependence, a history of KD reduced alcohol consumption. We provide clinical and preclinical evidence for beneficial effects of KD on managing alcohol withdrawal and on reducing alcohol drinking.

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Maternal Depression, Child Temperament, and Early-Life Stress Predict Never-Depressed Preadolescents’ Functional Connectivity During a Negative-Mood Induction

Clinical Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/21677026211016419 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 216770262110164

Author(s):

Pan Liu ◽

Matthew R. J. Vandermeer ◽

Ola Mohamed Ali ◽

Andrew R. Daoust ◽

Marc F. Joanisse ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Maternal Depression ◽

Life Stress ◽

Early Life ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Early Life Stress ◽

Cingulate Cortex

Understanding the development of depression can inform etiology and prevention/intervention. Maternal depression and maladaptive patterns of temperament (e.g., low positive emotionality [PE] or high negative emotionality, especially sadness) are known to predict depression. Although it is unclear how these risks cause depression, altered functional connectivity (FC) during negative-emotion processing may play an important role. We investigated whether maternal depression and age-3 emotionality predicted FC during negative mood reactivity in never-depressed preadolescents and whether these relationships were augmented by early-life stress. Maternal depression predicted decreased medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)–amygdala and mPFC–insula FC but increased mPFC–posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) FC. PE predicted increased dorsolateral prefrontal cortex–amygdala FC, whereas sadness predicted increased PCC-based FC in insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Sadness was more strongly associated with PCC–insula and PCC–ACC FC as early stress increased. Findings indicate that early depression risks may be mediated by FC underlying negative-emotion processing.

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Parents still matter! Parental warmth predicts adolescent brain function and anxiety and depressive symptoms 2 years later

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579419001718 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Rosalind D. Butterfield ◽

Jennifer S. Silk ◽

Kyung Hwa Lee ◽

Greg S. Siegle ◽

Ronald E. Dahl ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Brain Function ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Psychological Disorder ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Parental Warmth ◽

Maternal Warmth ◽

Affective Stimuli ◽

The Brain

Abstract Anxiety is the most prevalent psychological disorder among youth, and even following treatment, it confers risk for anxiety relapse and the development of depression. Anxiety disorders are associated with heightened response to negative affective stimuli in the brain networks that underlie emotion processing. One factor that can attenuate the symptoms of anxiety and depression in high-risk youth is parental warmth. The current study investigates whether parental warmth helps to protect against future anxiety and depressive symptoms in adolescents with histories of anxiety and whether neural functioning in the brain regions that are implicated in emotion processing and regulation can account for this link. Following treatment for anxiety disorder (Time 1), 30 adolescents (M age = 11.58, SD = 1.26) reported on maternal warmth, and 2 years later (Time 2) they participated in a functional neuroimaging task where they listened to prerecorded criticism and neutral statements from a parent. Higher maternal warmth predicted lower neural activation during criticism, compared with the response during neutral statements, in the left amygdala, bilateral insula, subgenual anterior cingulate (sgACC), right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. Maternal warmth was associated with adolescents’ anxiety and depressive symptoms due to the indirect effects of sgACC activation, suggesting that parenting may attenuate risk for internalizing through its effects on brain function.

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Increased myoinositol in the anterior cingulate cortex of veterans with a history of traumatic brain injury: a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00765.2019 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 123 (5) ◽

pp. 1619-1629

Author(s):

Chandni Sheth ◽

Andrew P. Prescot ◽

Margaret Legarreta ◽

Perry F. Renshaw ◽

Erin McGlade ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Resonance Spectroscopy ◽

Spectroscopy Study ◽

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study ◽

History Of

In this study of veterans, we used a state-of-the-art neuroimaging tool to probe the neurometabolic profile of the anterior cingulate cortex in veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI). We report significantly elevated myoinositol levels in veterans with TBI compared with those without TBI.

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Characteristics and Context of Women Probationers and Parolees Who Engage in Violence

Criminal Justice and Behavior ◽

10.1177/0093854817719103 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 381-401 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Merry Morash ◽

Deborah A. Kashy ◽

Jennifer E. Cobbina ◽

Sandi W. Smith

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Substance Abuse ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Violent Behavior ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Full Sample ◽

Probation And Parole ◽

History Of ◽

Quantitative Analyses ◽

Violent Acts

For a sample of 396 women on probation and parole, this article presents the results of qualitative analysis that shows the nature of violence for a subgroup of 75 women who were convicted of a violent act. For the full sample of 396, the article also presents results of quantitative analyses that identify correlates of violent behavior. Women’s violent acts were most often assaults on people who were not intimate partners. Second and third most common violent acts were for assaults of an intimate partner and robbery, respectively. Quantitative analysis revealed that history of adult abuse and anger predicted violence. The effect of abuse on violent behavior was partially mediated by anger. Intercorrelations between anger, mental health problems, histories of being abused, and current substance abuse suggest the efficacy of assessing these attributes so that programming can provide individualized interventions that address co-occurring problems.

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Differences in neural response to extinction recall in young adults with or without history of behavioral inhibition

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579417000554 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 179-189 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Tomer Shechner ◽

Nathan A. Fox ◽

Jamie A. Mash ◽

Johanna M. Jarcho ◽

Gang Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Behavioral Inhibition ◽

Brain Function ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Self Report ◽

Subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

History Of ◽

And Behavior ◽

Manifest Anxiety

AbstractBehavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament identified in early childhood that is associated with risk for anxiety disorders, yet only about half of behaviorally inhibited children manifest anxiety later in life. We compared brain function and behavior during extinction recall in a sample of nonanxious young adults characterized in childhood with BI (n = 22) or with no BI (n = 28). Three weeks after undergoing fear conditioning and extinction, participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging extinction recall task assessing memory and threat differentiation for conditioned stimuli. While self-report and psychophysiological measures of differential conditioning and extinction were similar across groups, BI-related differences in brain function emerged during extinction recall. Childhood BI was associated with greater activation in subgenual anterior cingulate cortex in response to cues signaling safety. This pattern of results may reflect neural correlates that promote resilience against anxiety in a temperamentally at-risk population.

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Increased anticipatory but decreased consummatory brain responses to food in sisters of anorexia nervosa patients

BJPsych Open ◽

10.1192/bjpo.bp.115.002550 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (4) ◽

pp. 255-261 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Stefanie Horndasch ◽

Sophie O'Keefe ◽

Anneka Lamond ◽

Katie Brown ◽

Ciara McCabe

Keyword(s):

Anorexia Nervosa ◽

Family History ◽

Neural Response ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Food Cues ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Brain Responses ◽

History Of ◽

Increased Activity

BackgroundWe have previously shown increased anticipatory and consummatory neural responses to rewarding and aversive food stimuli in women recovered from anorexia nervosa (AN).AimsTo determine whether these differences are trait markers for AN, we examined the neural response in those with a familial history but no personal history of AN.MethodThirty-six volunteers were recruited: 15 who had a sister with anorexia nervosa (family history) and 21 control participants. Using fMRI we examined the neural response during an anticipatory phase (food cues, rewarding and aversive), an effort phase and a consummatory phase (rewarding and aversive tastes).ResultsFamily history (FH) volunteers showed increased activity in the caudate during the anticipation of both reward and aversive food and in the thalamus and amygdala during anticipation of aversive only. FH had decreased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the pallidum and the superior frontal gyrus during taste consumption.ConclusionsIncreased neural anticipatory but decreased consummatory responses to food might be a biomarker for AN. Interventions that could normalise these differences may help to prevent disorder onset.

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Interactions between decision-making and emotion in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsaa085 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (6) ◽

pp. 681-694

Author(s):

Aurélie L Manuel ◽

Daniel Roquet ◽

Ramon Landin-Romero ◽

Fiona Kumfor ◽

Rebekah M Ahmed ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Decision Making ◽

Frontotemporal Dementia ◽

Delay Discounting ◽

Animal Studies ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia

Abstract Negative and positive emotions are known to shape decision-making toward more or less impulsive responses, respectively. Decision-making and emotion processing are underpinned by shared brain regions including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala. How these processes interact at the behavioral and brain levels is still unclear. We used a lesion model to address this question. Study participants included individuals diagnosed with behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD, n = 18), who typically present deficits in decision-making/emotion processing and atrophy of the vmPFC, individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD, n = 12) who present with atrophy in limbic structures and age-matched healthy controls (CTRL, n = 15). Prior to each choice on the delay discounting task participants were cued with a positive, negative or neutral picture and asked to vividly imagine witnessing the event. As hypothesized, our findings showed that bvFTD patients were more impulsive than AD patients and CTRL and did not show any emotion-related modulation of delay discounting rate. In contrast, AD patients showed increased impulsivity when primed by negative emotion. This increased impulsivity was associated with reduced integrity of bilateral amygdala in AD but not in bvFTD. Altogether, our results indicate that decision-making and emotion interact at the level of the amygdala supporting findings from animal studies.

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