Needing to shout to be heard? Affective dysregulation, caregiver under-responsivity, and disconnection between vocal signalling and autonomic arousal in infants from chaotic households

Higher levels of household chaos have been related to increased child affect dysregulation during later development. To understand why this relationship emerges, we used miniature wearable microphones and autonomic monitors to obtain day-long recordings in home settings from a cohort of N=74 12-month-old infants and their caregivers from the South-East of the UK. Our findings suggest a disconnect between what infants communicate and their physiological arousal levels, that are likely to reflect what they experience. Specifically, in households which families self-reported as being more chaotic, infants were more likely to produce negative affect vocalisations such as cries at lower levels of arousal. This disconnection between signalling and autonomic arousal was also present in a lab still face procedure, where infants from more chaotic households showed reduced change in facial affect and slower physiological recovery despite equivalent change in arousal during the still face episode. Finally, we found that this disconnect between what infants communicate and their physiological arousal levels may influence the likelihood of a caregiver responding. Implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying the relationship between household chaos, emotion dysregulation and caregiver under-responsivity are discussed.

The Road from Pathological Narcissism to Suicidality in Adolescence: An Empirical Study

Background: Clinical and empirical research evidenced a complex link between pathological narcissism and the suicidal process in adulthood. Given the relevance of suicidality and the peculiar narcissistic vicissitudes of adolescence, the proposed research investigated the relationship between pathological narcissism analyzed from the multi-dimensional perspective of the Diagnostic Interview for Narcissism (DIN) and suicidal ideation conducted in a sample of Italian Adolescents. Methods: One hundred and three Italian male and female adolescents between 12 and 18 were administered the DIN, SCIDII, CSSRS, and Kiddie-SADS with six months follow-up. Results: The correlation, t-test, multiple regression analyses evidenced the association of narcissistic affective states and mood with both suicidal ideation and lethality of conduct. The increase in the dimension of grandiosity is associated with the passage to potentially highly lethal suicidal gestures. Conclusions: Suicidal ideation and conduct seem to serve the function of restoring a sense of control and self-esteem in narcissistic individuals experiencing a state of affective dysregulation. Narcissistic pathological functioning seems to play an important role in the adolescent suicidal process, quite like adulthood. Assessing an adolescent’s narcissistic functioning may provide useful clinical information in understanding and managing the suicidal risk in this phase of life.

Neural Correlates of Mild Behavioral Impairment: A Functional Brain Connectivity Study Using Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background: Mild behavioral impairment (MBI) is associated with accelerated cognitive decline and greater risk of dementia. However, the neural correlates of MBI have not been completely elucidated. Objective: The study aimed to investigate the correlation between cognitively normal participants and participants with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Methods: The study included 30 cognitively normal participants and 13 participants with aMCI (20 men and 23 women; mean age, 76.9 years). The MBI was assessed using the MBI checklist (MBI-C). Region of interest (ROI)-to-ROI analysis was performed to examine the correlation between MBI-C scores and functional connectivity (FC) of the default mode network, salience network, and frontoparietal control network (FPCN). Age, Mini-Mental State Examination score, sex, and education were used as covariates. A p-value of 0.05, with false discovery rate correction, was considered significant. Results: A negative correlation was observed between the MBI-C total score and FC of the left posterior parietal cortex with the right middle frontal gyrus. A similar result was obtained for the MBI-C affective dysregulation domain score. Conclusion: FPCN dysfunction was detected as a neural correlate of MBI, especially in the affective dysregulation domain. This dysfunction may be associated with cognitive impairment in MBI and conversion of MBI to dementia; however, further longitudinal data are needed to examine this relationship.

Plasma β-Amyloid in Mild Behavioural Impairment – Neuropsychiatric Symptoms on the Alzheimer’s Continuum

Introduction: Simple markers are required to recognize older adults at higher risk for neurodegenerative disease. Mild behavioural impairment (MBI) and plasma β-amyloid (Aβ) have been independently implicated in the development of incident cognitive decline and dementia. Here we studied the associations between MBI and plasma Aβ42/Aβ40. Methods: Participants with normal cognition (n = 86) or mild cognitive impairment (n = 53) were selected from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. MBI scores were derived from Neuropsychiatric Inventory items. Plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 ratios were assayed using mass spectrometry. Linear regressions were fitted to assess the association between MBI total score as well as MBI domain scores with plasma Aβ42/Aβ40. Results: Lower plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 was associated with higher MBI total score ( p = 0.04) and greater affective dysregulation ( p = 0.04), but not with impaired drive/motivation ( p = 0.095) or impulse dyscontrol ( p = 0.29) MBI domains. Conclusion: In persons with normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment, MBI was associated with low plasma Aβ42/Aβ40. Incorporating MBI into case detection may help capture preclinical and prodromal Alzheimer’s disease.

Gender Moderates the Association Between Exposure to Interpersonal Violence and Intermittent Explosive Disorder Diagnosis

Exposure to interpersonal violence (EIV) is a prevalent risk-factor for aggressive behavior; however, it is unclear whether the effect of EIV on clinically significant aggressive behavior is similar across gender. We examined whether gender moderates the association between experiencing and witnessing interpersonal violence and the diagnosis of intermittent explosive disorder (IED). We also examined potential pathways that might differentially account for the association between EIV and IED in men and women, including emotion regulation and social information processing (SIP). Adult men and women ( N = 582), who completed a semistructured clinical interview for syndromal and personality disorders, were classified as healthy controls (HC; n = 118), psychiatric controls (PC; n = 146) or participants with an IED diagnosis ( n = 318). Participants also completed the life history of experienced aggression (LHEA) and life history of witnessed aggression (Lhwa) structured interview and self-report measures of emotion regulation and SIP. Men reported more EIV over the lifetime. In multiple logistic regression analysis, experiencing and witnessing aggression within the family and experiencing aggression outside the family were associated with lifetime IED diagnosis. We found that the relationship between EIV and IED was stronger in women than in men. Affective dysregulation mediated certain forms of EIV, and this relation was observed in both men and women. SIP biases did not mediate the relation between EIV and IED. EIV across the lifespan is a robust risk factor for recurrent, clinically significant aggressive behavior (i.e., IED). However, the relationship between EIV and IED appears to be stronger in women. Further, this relation appears partially mediated by affective dysregulation.

Perampanel-Induced Cataplexy in a Young Male with Generalized Epilepsy

Perampanel is an anti-epileptic drug reported to exert its effects in the central never system (CNS) by inhibiting post-synaptic glutamate receptors. The most commonly reported neuropsychiatric side effects are affective dysregulation with some reports of psychosis. However, the precise therapeutic mechanism is unknown. We report on a 32-year-old African American male with recurring generalized tonic-clonic (GTC) seizures, who presented to our hospital with onset of mood lability for several months, subsequent to adding perampanel to his antiepileptic medications. On presentation, perampanel administration was temporarily withheld, and subsequently, noted to be coincident with neuropsychiatric symptomatology, including motor weakness in emotional contexts. The mechanisms underlying cataplexy are complex and, in our patient, most likely induced by an interaction between perampanel and the wakeful inhibition of the sublaterodorsal nucleus projections.

Emotional awareness, affective dysregulation, and bipolar spectrum psychopathology: A multilevel path analysis

Affective dysregulation is present in those with subsyndromal symptoms of hypomania and mania and prospectively predicts the development of bipolar spectrum disorders. A crucial, understudied area related to the experience and regulation of emotion in this population is emotional awareness – emotional clarity (Clarity) and attention to emotion (Attention). We examined whether scores on the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) were associated with deficits in emotional awareness and b) whether these deficits were associated with heightened intensity and instability of negative (NA) and positive affect (PA). Young adults (n=233), oversampled for HPS scores completed self-reports and 14 days of experience sampling assessing high and low arousal NA and PA. HPS scores were associated with low Clarity and unassociated with Attention. High HPS scores were associated with greater high and low arousal NA intensity and instability only for those at low and mean levels of Attention. In contrast, there was a significant indirect association between HPS scores and intensity of high and low arousal NA and PA, as well as instability of high arousal NA, through low clarity. Results highlighted that individual differences exist in the extent to which facets of emotional awareness differentially link scores on the HPS to emotional outcomes.