Modification of threat-processing in non-anxious individuals: a preliminary, behavioral and ERP study

Background and objectives: Previous research suggests that attention bias toward threat contributes to the development and maintenance of anxiety. The current study extends this work by mapping the neural correlates of experimentally-induced changes in attention bias. The study examines both behavioral and psychophysiological changes associated with experimentally-induced changes in threat bias. Methods: Thirty-four non-anxious female adults were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: training attention toward threat or placebo control. Attention bias was assessed and trained via a modified dot-probe task. Participants completed pre- and post-training assessments of attention bias and stress reactivity. As well, EEG was collected during pre- and post-test assessment of attention bias using the dot-probe task. Results: Training induced significant changes in attention bias, though findings were complicated by group differences in baseline threat-bias scores. Compared to controls, those in the training group showed greater depression vulnerability to a post-training stressor and increased P2 amplitude, an ERP component associated with attention toward threat, during the dot-probe task. Limitations: Although participants were randomly assigned to groups, there were still group differences in pre-training bias scores. Also, while the use of a stress task before the initial assessment of attention bias was used to control for initial differences in stress vulnerability, this may have altered pre-bias scores since participants completed this task immediately after being stressed. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate training-induced changes in behavior and neural response patterns relevant to work on attention bias modification

A computational network perspective on pediatric anxiety symptoms

Stress and Psychopatholog

Mega‐analysis methods in ENIGMA: the experience of the generalized anxiety disorder working group

Pathways through Adolescenc

Psychosocial Treatment of Children in Foster Care: A Review

A substantial number of children in foster care exhibit psychiatric difficulties. Recent epidemiologi-cal and historical trends in foster care, clinical findings about the adjustment of children in foster care, and adult outcomes are reviewed, followed by a description of current approaches to treatment and extant empirical support. Available interventions for these children can be categorized as either symptom-focused or systemic, with empirical support for specific methods ranging from scant to substantial. Even with treatment, behavioral and emotional problems often persist into adulthood, resulting in poor functional outcomes. We suggest that self-regulation may be an important mediat-ing factor in the appearance of emotional and behavioral disturbance in these children

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

Brain-based classification of youth with anxiety disorders: transdiagnostic examinations within the ENIGMA-Anxiety database using machine learning

Neuroanatomical findings on youth anxiety disorders are notoriously difficult to replicate, small in effect size and have limited clinical relevance. These concerns have prompted a paradigm shift toward highly powered (that is, big data) individual-level inferences, which are data driven, transdiagnostic and neurobiologically informed. Here we built and validated supervised neuroanatomical machine learning models for individual-level inferences, using a case–control design and the largest known neuroimaging database on youth anxiety disorders: the ENIGMA-Anxiety Consortium (N = 3,343; age = 10–25 years; global sites = 32). Modest, yet robust, brain-based classifications were achieved for specific anxiety disorders (panic disorder), but also transdiagnostically for all anxiety disorders when patients were subgrouped according to their sex, medication status and symptom severity (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.59–0.63). Classifications were driven by neuroanatomical features (cortical thickness, cortical surface area and subcortical volumes) in fronto-striato-limbic and temporoparietal regions. This benchmark study within a large, heterogeneous and multisite sample of youth with anxiety disorders reveals that only modest classification performances can be realistically achieved with machine learning using neuroanatomical data.NWORubicon 019.201SG.022Advanced Behavioural Research MethodsHealth and Well-bein

Individual Differences in Children's Facial Expression Recognition Ability: The Role of Nature and Nurture

We examined genetic and environmental influences on recognition of facial expressions in 250 pairs of 10-year-old monozygotic (83 pairs) and dizygotic (167 pairs) twins. Angry, fearful, sad, disgusted, and happy faces varying in intensity (15%–100%), head orientation, and eye gaze were presented in random order across 160 trials. Total correct recognition responses to each facial expression comprised the dependent variables. Twin data examined genetic and environmental contributions to variables and their correlations. Results support a common psychometric factor influenced primarily by additive genetic influences across expressions with discrimination of specific expressions due largely to non-shared environmental influences

Social anxiety disorder: questions and answers for the DSM-V

Background: This review evaluates the DSM-IV criteria of social anxiety disorder (SAD), with a focus on the generalized specifier and alternative specifiers, the considerable overlap between the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for SAD and avoidant personality disorder, and developmental issues. Method: A literature review was conducted, using the validators provided by the DSM-V Spectrum Study Group. This review presents a number of options and preliminary recommendations to be considered for DSM-V. Results/Conclusions: Little supporting evidence was found for the current specifier, generalized SAD. Rather, the symptoms of individuals with SAD appear to fall along a continuum of severity based on the number of fears. Available evidence suggested the utility of a specifier indicating a "predominantly performance" variety of SAD. A specifier based on "fear of showing anxiety symptoms" (e.g., blushing) was considered. However, a tendency to show anxiety symptoms is a core fear in SAD, similar to acting or appearing in a certain way. More research is needed before considering subtyping SAD based on core fears. SAD was found to be a valid diagnosis in children and adolescents. Selective mutism could be considered in part as a young child's avoidance response to social fears. Pervasive test anxiety may belong not only to SAD, but also to generalized anxiety disorder. The data are equivocal regarding whether to consider avoidant personality disorder simply a severe form of SAD. Secondary data analyses, field trials, and validity tests are needed to investigate the recommendations and options