Emotional Faces Capture Spatial Attention in 5-Year-Old Children

Emotional facial expressions are important social cues that convey salient affective information. Infants, younger children, and adults all appear to orient spatial attention to emotional faces with a particularly strong bias to fearful faces. Yet in young children it is unclear whether or not both happy and fearful faces extract attention. Given that the processing of emotional faces is believed by some to serve an evolutionarily adaptive purpose, attentional biases to both fearful and happy expressions would be expected in younger children. However, the extent to which this ability is present in young children and whether or not this ability is genetically mediated is untested. Therefore, the aims of the current study were to assess the spatial-attentional properties of emotional faces in young children, with a preliminary test of whether this effect was influenced by genetics. Five-year-old twin pairs performed a dot-probe task. The results suggest that children preferentially direct spatial attention to emotional faces, particularly right visual field faces. The results provide support for the notion that the direction of spatial attention to emotional faces serves an evolutionarily adaptive function and may be mediated by genetic mechanisms

Gene-by-Intervention Effects on Alcohol Dependence Symptoms in Emerging Adulthood

The Importance of Peer Influence for LGBTQ+ Youth in Rural Communities Aaron Kemmerer supported by findings from Safe as Yourself (SAY) Project Traci Wike (PI), Leah Bouchard, Maurico Yabar, and Aaron Kemmerer Objectives: To explore the experiences and narratives of LGBTQ+ youth in rural North Carolina. To elaborate on the influence of peer support and impact of peer victimization for LGBTQ+ youth in rural North Carolina. Methods: Data was collected from eleven young people who were interviewed from 2019-2020 at an LGBTQ+ youth center in rural North Carolina. The interviews were coded and analyzed using narrative analysis on a team of interraters; the team consisted of four members from VCU School of Social Work: the principle investigator, two doctoral research assistants, and an MSW research assistant. Results: Analysis of the interviews, though still in process, so far highlights the impact of the dual impact of participants’ peers --- simultaneously pointing to LGBTQ+ youth experiences with both peer victimization (as a risk factor) and peer support (as a resilience factor). Conclusions: Peer support is vital for LGBTQ+ youth in rural communities and may help offset the negative impact of peer victimization.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1059/thumbnail.jp

The depression impairment scale for parents (DISP): a new scale for the measurement of impairment in depressed parents

Children of depressed parents are at increased risk of developing mood disorders but mechanisms of intrafamilial transmission are currently unclear. One rarely investigated area is the impact of depression on a parent's everyday functioning. Currently there are no validated assessments of depression-specific parental impairment. The creation of such a measure would complement depression symptom counts, providing a more comprehensive account of the parent's depression. We therefore aimed to develop a valid and reliable measure of impairment specifically associated with parental depression. In a longitudinal study of parents with recurrent unipolar depression and their offspring, we collected data from 337 parents. These participants completed the Depression Impairment Scale for Parents (DISP), a questionnaire assessing depression-associated impairment in multiple domains of functioning. Factor analysis revealed that this measure consisted of two factors - impairment in routine tasks/activities and impairment in family functioning - that together accounted for 51.04% of variance. The scale evidenced good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.82). The DISP also displayed good construct and criterion validity as evidenced by significant associations with established measures of depression severity and global impairment. These results demonstrate that the DISP is a valid and reliable measure of depression-associated impairment in parents. © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd

MEMORY AND DEFAULT NETWORK ACTIVATION AS A FUNCTION OF APOE GENOTYPE

The main purpose of this dissertation project was to assess the behavioral and neural correlates of Episodic Memory as a function of the APOE genotype in a healthy young adult sample. To accomplish this, 98 subjects completed behavioral tasks assessing visual memory, working memory, episodic memory, and attention. Subjects also completed questionnaires evaluating IQ, years of education, drug use, personality, and emotional traits. These subjects were also genotyped for the APOE gene, resulting in 29 APOE-ε4 carriers (subjects who had at least one ε4 allele) and 69 Non APOE-ε4 carriers (having no ε4 alleles). No differences were found between genotypic groups on any demographic characteristics, behavioral measures, or personality traits. From this larger pool of 98 subjects, a subset of 22 subjects (10 APOE-ε4, 12 Non APOE-ε4) completed additional behavioral tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. While being scanned, subjects were asked to learn word pairs during an encoding phase, make metamemory evaluations on their ability to later remember each word pair during a judgment of learning (JOL) task, and try to discriminate between original and recombined word pairs during a final recognition phase. Interspersed between these tasks was a rest task meant to elicit activity within the Default Network. No differences in memory or metamemory performance were found on the behavioral tasks administered during imaging based on genotype. In contrast, marked differences in brain activation were found between APOE-ε4 carriers and Non APOE-ε4 carriers across the various imaging tasks. During encoding, APOE-ε4 carriers were found to have greater activation than Non APOE-ε4 carriers in the dorsal anterior portion of the left superior temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, and anterior middle frontal gyrus. This same pattern - greater APOE-ε4 carrier activation as compared to Non APOE-ε4 carriers - was present in the parahippocampal gyrus and posterior middle temporal gyrus during the judgment of learning metamemory task. During the recognition task, greater activation was found for Non APOE-ε4 carriers versus APOE-ε4 carriers in the left parahippocampal gyrus, SPL, and right anterior superior frontal gyrus. During the rest task, greater activation was seen in APOE-ε4 carriers versus Non APOE-ε4 carriers in the left inferior frontal gyrus, whereas the converse comparison resulted in medial anterior cingulate activation. The lack of behavioral differences suggests that in a healthy young adult sample, as was used in the present study, there are not yet detectable behavioral differences as a function of APOE genotype. The greater neural activity seen in APOE-ε4 carriers during the encoding and judgment of learning tasks is likely to reflect neural compensation: young adult APOE-ε4 carriers compensate for declines in cognitive efficiency with greater neural activity such that this greater neural activity improves behavioral performance, particularly in memory domains (Buckner, Andrews-Hanna, & Schacter, 2008; Han & Bondi, 2008; Levy et al., 2004; Trivedi et al., 2008). The relatively lower levels of activation in APOE-ε4 carriers during the recognition task may reflect stronger memory traces for studied items as a result of greater frontal and medial temporal lobe activity during the encoding and judgment of learning tasks in the APOE-ε4 carriers (Kirwan, Wixted, & Squire, 2008; Mondadoori et al., 2007; Squire, Wixted, & Clark, 2007). In the present sample, a lack of behavioral differences accompanied by neural disparity may signal the precursors of Alzheimer\u27s disease, highlighting the progressive deteriorating influence of the APOE-ε4 allele. The aberrant pattern of default network activity seen in APOE-ε4 carriers underlies this influence as this genotype is proposed to preferentially contribute to the causes of Alzheimer\u27s disease in areas common to the Default Network and Episodic Memory (Buckner et al., 2008). The present results strengthen previous findings illustrating a connection between the brain activity underlying memory processes, the default network, and the APOE genotype

Maternal influences on effortful control in adolescence: Developmental pathways to externalizing behaviors

Adolescents' effortful control is subject to numerous maternal influences. Specifically, a mother's own effortful control is associated with her child's effortful control. However, maternal substance use, psychopathology, and stress within the parenting role may also lead to poor effortful control for their child. Poor effortful control during adolescence can subsequently contribute to a variety of negative outcomes, including externalizing behaviors. A sample of 460 adolescents (47% female, 59.3% Non-Hispanic Caucasian) was selected from a longitudinal, multigenerational study. The goal was to examine maternal effortful control, substance use, psychopathology, and stress in their offspring's childhood (Mage = 6.27) and their influence on their children's effortful control in early adolescence (Mage = 12.21) and the subsequent effect of effortful control on adolescents' externalizing behavior (Mage = 13.53). Maternal effortful control (measured via conscientiousness) and psychopathology were associated with adolescent effortful control, which was associated with externalizing behavior a year later. Additionally, there was a significant indirect association between maternal effortful control and adolescent externalizing behaviors via adolescent effortful control. Thus, adolescent effortful control is associated with maternal effortful control but also subject to specific maternal risk factors in childhood. These results inform potential maternal strategies for promoting positive developmental outcomes in adolescents

Latent Profiles of Postdivorce Parenting Time, Conflict, and Quality: Children’s Adjustment Associations

Parenting time, interparental conflict, and the quality of parenting a child experiences in the postdivorce family environment have complex relations with child adjustment outcomes. Using person-centered latent profile analyses, the present study examined (a) separate profiles of mothers’ ($N$ = 472) and fathers’ ($N$ = 353) parenting time, interparental conflict, and quality of parenting following divorce; and (b) associations of mother and father profiles with concurrent child outcomes (48% female, 3- to 18-years-old) as well as child outcomes 3 and 10 months later. Mother and father profiles were primarily differentiated by levels of parenting time and quality of parenting, respectively. Mother and father profiles defined by greater parenting time and lower quality parenting were associated with the poorest child outcomes

Gene set enrichment analysis to create polygenic scores: a developmental examination of aggression

Previous approaches for creating polygenic risk scores (PRSs) do not explicitly consider the biological or developmental relevance of the genetic variants selected for inclusion. We applied gene set enrichment analysis to meta-GWAS data to create developmentally targeted, functionally informed PRSs. Using two developmentally matched meta-GWAS discovery samples, separate PRSs were formed, then examined in time-varying effect models of aggression in a second, longitudinal sample of children (n = 515, 49% female) in early childhood (2–5 years old), and middle childhood (7.5–10.5 years old). Functional PRSs were associated with aggression in both the early and middle childhood models

Within-person associations of escalated electronic nicotine delivery systems use with cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and drug use behaviors among U.S. young adults.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Most extant evidence has addressed between-person differences, short-term, or cross-sectional associations of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use with other substance use, the majority focusing on current use rather than escalated use. The present study aimed to examine within-person changes in escalated ENDS use and their associations with individual and combined substance use over a 6-year period. DESIGN: Longitudinal analysis. A generalized linear mixed model approach was employed to fit a series of weighted logistic regression models. In the United States, data were drawn from Wave 1-5 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. Of the 9,110 young adults at baseline, ages 18-24, a total of 5,042 individuals had matched data across all five waves of assessments. MEASUREMENTS: Escalated ENDS use was computed by subtracting the number of days of ENDS use within the past 30 days at wave w- 1 from that at wave w and coded as 1=escalated, if the value was greater than zero (otherwise, coded as 0=not escalated). FINDINGS: Escalated ENDS use gradually decreased over time, with the lowest prevalence at Wave 4 (4.0%) but sharply increasing at Wave 5 (8.4%). Escalated ENDS use was associated with increased odds of using each substance (binge drinking, marijuana use, marijuana vaping, prescription and illicit drugs) and different combinations of polysubstance use between cigarette smoking, binge drinking, and marijuana use (ps<0.05). In addition, sweet/fruit flavor use (vs. menthol/mint) was associated with increased likelihood of reporting co-use of cigarettes and marijuana. CONCLUSIONS: In the United States, the prevalence of young adults using electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) appears to have increased steadily between 2013-2019, although the rate of increase may have started to accelerate in recent years. Escalated ENDS use and time-lagged established ENDS use appear to be prospectively associated with individual and combined substance use, particularly between cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Among established ENDS users, sweet/fruit flavor appears to be associated with increased risk of co-using cigarettes and marijuana