Neural Network Development in Late Adolescents during Observation of Risk-Taking Action

Emotional maturity and social awareness are important for adolescents, particularly college students beginning to face the challenges and risks of the adult world. However, there has been relatively little research into personality maturation and psychological development during late adolescence and the neural changes underlying this development. We investigated the correlation between psychological properties (neuroticism, extraversion, anxiety, and depression) and age among late adolescents (n = 25, from 18 years and 1 month to 22 years and 8 months). The results revealed that late adolescents became less neurotic, less anxious, less depressive and more extraverted as they aged. Participants then observed video clips depicting hand movements with and without a risk of harm (risk-taking or safe actions) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results revealed that risk-taking actions elicited significantly stronger activation in the bilateral inferior parietal lobule, temporal visual regions (superior/middle temporal areas), and parieto-occipital visual areas (cuneus, middle occipital gyri, precuneus). We found positive correlations of age and extraversion with neural activation in the insula, middle temporal gyrus, lingual gyrus, and precuneus. We also found a negative correlation of age and anxiety with activation in the angular gyrus, precentral gyrus, and red nucleus/substantia nigra. Moreover, we found that insula activation mediated the relationship between age and extraversion. Overall, our results indicate that late adolescents become less anxious and more extraverted with age, a process involving functional neural changes in brain networks related to social cognition and emotional processing. The possible neural mechanisms of psychological and social maturation during late adolescence are discussed

Converging evidence for central 5-HT effects in acute tryptophan depletion

Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD), a dietary technique for manipulating brain serotonin (5-HT) function, has advanced our understanding of 5-HT mechanisms in the etiology and treatment of depression and other affective disorders.1 A recent review article in Molecular Psychiatry questioned the validity of ATD.2 Although we agree that ATD's effects on 5-HT activity at the molecular level need further clarification, van Donkelaar et al.2 goes too far in challenging whether ATD exerts its effects through serotonergic mechanisms. There is strong evidence that ATD reduces brain 5-HT and disrupts stimulated 5-HT release,3, 4 and converging translational findings support a central role for brain 5-HT in ATD's effects on cognition and behavior

Realizing the Clinical Potential of Computational Psychiatry: Report from the Banbury Center Meeting, February 2019

In February 2019 a workshop was convened at the Banbury Centre at Cold Spring Harbor, NY. The purpose of the meeting was to identify key developments required in the practice and infrastructure of computational psychiatry research to accelerate its ability to address real world clinical problems in the near future. This report provides a summary of the conclusions of the meeting. At its core are suggestions to improve the measurement properties of computational assays through a rapid, iterative process that leverages coordinated waves of online and clinical testing, followed by deployment of the assays in innovative study designs to address clinically relevant questions. We particularly focus on theory-driven tasks but, where possible, the potential of data-driven approaches is also highlighted. Finally, the report suggests that for the promise of computational psychiatry to be realized, the research environment must be developed to encourage large-scale, collaborative, interdisciplinary consortia.</p