Default mode network resting-state functional connectivity and attention-deficit/disorder symptoms: perspectives from three different populations

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a psychiatric disorder characterised by persistent and age-inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. The condition is debilitating, disrupting academic and social development. In Chapters 1-4 we discuss a paradigm shift in psychopathology that has driven interest in the role of the default mode network (DMN) in ADHD and conduct disorder (CD) – a condition characterised by aggressive and rule-breaking behaviour which frequently co-occurs with ADHD. We conclude that relatively little empirical research has investigated how alterations to the functional integrity of the DMN affect cognition. In Chapter 5, we provide novel evidence that CD may affect the functional architecture of the DMN. Relative to age- and sex-matched healthy controls (n=29),we find adolescents with CD (n=29) show DMN core subsystem hypo-connectivity, although only after adjusting for co-occurring ADHD symptoms. In contrast, ADHD symptoms were independently associated with DMN hyper-connectivity. In Chapter 6, we explore for the first time how DMN resting-state functional connectivity may be affected by a rare deprivation-related variant of ADHD. We studied adoptees who experienced extended, but time-limited, exposure to institutional deprivation in early childhood (n=46) compared with adoptees with <6months exposure (n=21) and non-deprived UK adoptees (n=21) as a control group.Prolonged deprivation was associated with DMN core subsystem hyper-connectivity.There was also a deprivation-by-ADHD interaction, suggesting that deprivation moderates whether ADHD is associated with DMN hyper- or hypo-connectivity. In Chapter 7, we explore how resting-state DMN functional connectivity may contribute to the neuropsychological profile associated with ADHD. In a clinical sample of children with ADHD (n=20) and age- and sex-matched controls (n=22) we find DMN hypo-connectivity was correlated with suboptimal inter-temporal decision making and exaggerated delay aversion, with the latter domain partially mediating the relationship between ADHD and the connectivity patterns observed. This thesis provides robust evidence for effects of ADHD on the functional integrity of the DMN across three different samples, with the direction of connectivity changes (whether ADHD is associated with hypo- or hyper-connectivity) related to the putative causes of ADHD. DMN hypo-connectivity may contribute to suboptimal decision-making in non-deprivation related ADHD

Towards smart glasses for facial expression recognition using OMG and machine learning

Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the use of novel optomyography (OMG) based smart glasses, OCOsense, for the monitoring and recognition of facial expressions. Experiments were conducted on data gathered from 27 young adult participants, who performed facial expressions varying in intensity, duration, and head movement. The facial expressions included smiling, frowning, raising the eyebrows, and squeezing the eyes. The statistical analysis demonstrated that: (i) OCO sensors based on the principles of OMG can capture distinct variations in cheek and brow movements with a high degree of accuracy and specificity; (ii) Head movement does not have a significant impact on how well these facial expressions are detected. The collected data were also used to train a machine learning model to recognise the four facial expressions and when the face enters a neutral state. We evaluated this model in conditions intended to simulate real-world use, including variations in expression intensity, head movement and glasses position relative to the face. The model demonstrated an overall accuracy of 93% (0.90 f1-score)—evaluated using a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation technique

Optomyography-based sensing of facial expression derived arousal and valence in adults with depression

Background: Continuous assessment of affective behaviors could improve the diagnosis, assessment and monitoring of chronic mental health and neurological conditions such as depression. However, there are no technologies well suited to this, limiting potential clinical applications. Aim: To test if we could replicate previous evidence of hypo reactivity to emotional salient material using an entirely new sensing technique called optomyography which is well suited to remote monitoring. Methods: Thirty-eight depressed and 37 controls (≥18, ≤40 years) who met a research diagnosis of depression and an age-matched non-depressed control group. Changes in facial muscle activity over the brow (corrugator supercilli) and cheek (zygomaticus major) were measured whilst volunteers watched videos varying in emotional salience. Results: Across all participants, videos rated as subjectively positive were associated with activation of muscles in the cheek relative to videos rated as neutral or negative. Videos rated as subjectively negative were associated with brow activation relative to videos judged as neutral or positive. Self-reported arousal was associated with a step increase in facial muscle activation across the brow and cheek. Group differences were significantly reduced activation in facial muscles during videos considered subjectively negative or rated as high arousal in depressed volunteers compared with controls. Conclusion:We demonstrate for the first time that it is possible to detect facial expression hypo-reactivity in adults with depression in response to emotional content using glasses-based optomyography sensing. It is hoped these results may encourage the use of optomyography-based sensing to track facial expressions in the real-world, outside of a specialized testing environment.</p

Differing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth mental health:combined population and clinical study

International audienceBackground Identifying youths most at risk to COVID-19-related mental illness is essential for the development of effective targeted interventions. Aims To compare trajectories of mental health throughout the pandemic in youth with and without prior mental illness and identify those most at risk of COVID-19-related mental illness. Method Data were collected from individuals aged 18–26 years ( N = 669) from two existing cohorts: IMAGEN, a population-based cohort; and ESTRA/STRATIFY, clinical cohorts of individuals with pre-existing diagnoses of mental disorders. Repeated COVID-19 surveys and standardised mental health assessments were used to compare trajectories of mental health symptoms from before the pandemic through to the second lockdown. Results Mental health trajectories differed significantly between cohorts. In the population cohort, depression and eating disorder symptoms increased by 33.9% (95% CI 31.78–36.57) and 15.6% (95% CI 15.39–15.68) during the pandemic, respectively. By contrast, these remained high over time in the clinical cohort. Conversely, trajectories of alcohol misuse were similar in both cohorts, decreasing continuously (a 15.2% decrease) during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic symptom severity predicted the observed mental health trajectories in the population cohort. Surprisingly, being relatively healthy predicted increases in depression and eating disorder symptoms and in body mass index. By contrast, those initially at higher risk for depression or eating disorders reported a lasting decrease. Conclusions Healthier young people may be at greater risk of developing depressive or eating disorder symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted mental health interventions considering prior diagnostic risk may be warranted to help young people cope with the challenges of psychosocial stress and reduce the associated healthcare burden

A shared neural basis underlying psychiatric comorbidity

Funder: National Key R and D Program of China(2019YFA0709501,2018YFC1312900) The Shanghai Pujiang Project(18PJ1400900)Funder: Medical Research Foundation and Medical Research Council (grants MR/R00465X/1 and MR/S020306/1); NIH Consortium grant U54 EB020403; the cross-NIH alliance that funds Big Data to Knowledge Centres of Excellence (ENIGMA, Grant Nos. 5U54EB020403-05 and 1R56AG058854-01Funder: the Eranet Neuron (AF12-NEUR0008-01 – WM2NA; and ANR-18-NEUR00002-01 – ADORe);Paris Sud University IDEX 2012;Fédération pour la Recherche sur le Cerveau;Funder: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002738Funder: Fondation de l'Avenir pour la Recherche Médicale Appliquée (Fondation de l'Avenir); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100007380Funder: the ANR (ANR-12-SAMA-0004); INSERM (interface grant)Funder: DH | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000272Funder: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100009362Funder: the European Union-funded FP6 Integrated Project IMAGEN (Reinforcement-related behavior in normal brain function and psychopathology) (LSHM-CT- 2007-037286);the Horizon 2020-funded ERC Advanced Grant' STRATIFY' (Brain network based stratification of reinforcement-related disorders) (695313);ERANID (Understanding the Interplay between Cultural, Biological and Subjective Factors in Drug Use Pathways) (PR-ST-0416-10004);Human Brain Project (HBP SGA 2, 785907, and HBP SGA 3, 945539);the Medical Research Council Grant' c-VEDA' (Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalising Disorders and Addictions) (MR/N000390/1) ;Forschungsnetz AERIAL 01EE1406A, 01EE1406B)Funder: Guangdong Key Research and Development Project(No. 2018B030335001);the 111 Project (B18015);the key project of Shanghai Science and Technology (16JC1420402);Recent studies proposed a general psychopathology factor underlying common comorbidities among psychiatric disorders. However, its neurobiological mechanisms and generalizability remain elusive. In this study, we used a large longitudinal neuroimaging cohort from adolescence to young adulthood (IMAGEN) to define a neuropsychopathological (NP) factor across externalizing and internalizing symptoms using multitask connectomes. We demonstrate that this NP factor might represent a unified, genetically determined, delayed development of the prefrontal cortex that further leads to poor executive function. We also show this NP factor to be reproducible in multiple developmental periods, from preadolescence to early adulthood, and generalizable to the resting-state connectome and clinical samples (the ADHD-200 Sample and the STRATIFY & ESTRA Project). In conclusion, we identify a reproducible and general neural basis underlying symptoms of multiple mental health disorders, bridging multidimensional evidence from behavioral, neuroimaging and genetic substrates. These findings may help to develop new therapeutic interventions for psychiatric comorbidities

Author Correction: A shared neural basis underlying psychiatric comorbidity.

Funder: National Key R and D Program of China(2019YFA0709501,2018YFC1312900) The Shanghai Pujiang Project(18PJ1400900)Funder: Medical Research Foundation and Medical Research Council (grants MR/R00465X/1 and MR/S020306/1); NIH Consortium grant U54 EB020403; the cross-NIH alliance thatfunds Big Data to Knowledge Centres of Excellence (ENIGMA, GrantNos. 5U54EB020403-05 and 1R56AG058854-01Funder: the Eranet Neuron (AF12-NEUR0008-01 – WM2NA ; and ANR-18-NEUR00002-01 – ADORe);Paris Sud University IDEX 2012;Fédération pour la Recherche sur le Cerveau;Funder: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002738Funder: Fondation de l&apos;Avenir pour la Recherche Médicale Appliquée (Fondation de l&apos;Avenir); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100007380Funder: the ANR (ANR-12-SAMA-0004）；INSERM (interface grant)Funder: DH | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000272Funder: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100009362Funder: the European Union-funded FP6 Integrated Project IMAGEN (Reinforcement-related behavior in normal brain function and psychopathology) (LSHM-CT- 2007-037286);the Horizon 2020-funded ERC Advanced Grant&apos; STRATIFY&apos; (Brain network based stratification of reinforcement-related disorders) (695313);ERANID (Understanding the Interplay between Cultural, Biological and Subjective Factors in Drug Use Pathways) (PR-ST-0416-10004);Human Brain Project (HBP SGA 2, 785907, and HBP SGA 3, 945539);the Medical Research Council Grant&apos; c-VEDA&apos; (Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalising Disorders and Addictions) (MR/N000390/1) ;Forschungsnetz AERIAL 01EE1406A, 01EE1406B)Funder: Guangdong Key Research and Development Project(No. 2018B030335001);the 111 Project (B18015);the key project of Shanghai Science and Technology (16JC1420402)

Author Correction: A shared neural basis underlying psychiatric comorbidity

Correction to: Nature Medicine. Published online 24 April 2023. In the version of this article initially published, the STRATIFY data also included cohort data from the ESTRA consortium, though this was not acknowledged in the author list and the section in Methods on the Stratify dataset. The Methods are now updated, and the author list is amended to combine the STRATIFY and ESTRA consortium names and to include the following authors: Marina Bobou, M. John Broulidakis, Betteke Maria van Noort, Zuo Zhang, Lauren Robinson, Nilakshi Vaidya, Jeanne Winterer, Yuning Zhang, Sinead King, Hervé Lemaître, Ulrike Schmidt, Julia Sinclair, Argyris Stringaris and Sylvane Desrivières. The STRATIFY and ESTRA consortia are now combined to list Marina Bobou, M. John Broulidakis, Betteke Maria van Noort, Zuo Zhang, Lauren Robinson, Nilakshi Vaidya, Jeanne Winterer, Yuning Zhang, Sinead King, Gareth J. Barker, Arun L. W. Bokde, Hervé Lemaître, Frauke Nees, Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos, Ulrike Schmidt, Julia Sinclair, Argyris Stringaris, Henrik Walter, Robert Whelan, Sylvane Desrivières and Gunter Schumann as members, and the IMAGEN consortium is updated to also include Sylvane Desrivières. Affiliations, author contributions and acknowledgements have been updated to reflect the new authorship, and all changes have been made in the HTML and PDF versions of the article