MEDIA USE BY CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH AND WITHOUT DEPRESSION: GOING IT ALONE?

Using experience sampling methodology this paper compares youth with and without Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in their social and asocial uses of electronic media (EM) and non-electronic media (NEM). In addition this study examines whether recovery from depression is accompanied by changes in media use. The media use and companionship of 108 participants, 47 MDD and 61 non-depressed Controls, were recorded through telephone report. Results show that youth with MDD used EM more in an asocial context than did the Control group both during the depressive episode and after recovery from depression. In addition, NEM use was significantly higher for the Control group than the MDD group after recovery. Time spent with asocial EM is considered as a consequence of the depressive episode and as an aid to recovery supporting the social risk hypothesis of depression. Asocial media use is also considered to be a possible hindrance to recovery. Implications for treatment are discussed

Stability of Satellite Planes in M31 II: Effects of the Dark Subhalo Population

The planar arrangement of nearly half the satellite galaxies of M31 has been a source of mystery and speculation since it was discovered. With a growing number of other host galaxies showing these satellite galaxy planes, their stability and longevity have become central to the debate on whether the presence of satellite planes are a natural consequence of prevailing cosmological models, or represent a challenge. Given the dependence of their stability on host halo shape, we look into how a galaxy plane's dark matter environment influences its longevity. An increased number of dark matter subhalos results in increased interactions that hasten the deterioration of an already-formed plane of satellite galaxies in spherical dark halos. The role of total dark matter mass fraction held in subhalos in dispersing a plane of galaxies present non trivial effects on plane longevity as well. But any misalignments of plane inclines to major axes of flattened dark matter halos lead to their lifetimes being reduced to < 3 Gyrs. Distributing > 40% of total dark mass in subhalos in the overall dark matter distribution results in a plane of satellite galaxies that is prone to change through the 5 Gyr integration time period.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted to MNRAS September 22 201

Reading related white matter structures in adolescents are influenced more by dysregulation of emotion than behavior

Mood disorders and behavioral are broad psychiatric diagnostic categories that have different symptoms and neurobiological mechanisms, but share some neurocognitive similarities, one of which is an elevated risk for reading deficit. Our aim was to determine the influence of mood versus behavioral dysregulation on reading ability and neural correlates supporting these skills in youth, using diffusion tensor imaging in 11- to 17-year-old children and youths with mood disorders or behavioral disorders and age-matched healthy controls. The three groups differed only in phonological processing and passage comprehension. Youth with mood disorders scored higher on the phonological test but had lower comprehension scores than children with behavioral disorders and controls; control participants scored the highest. Correlations between fractional anisotropy and phonological processing in the left Arcuate Fasciculus showed a significant difference between groups and were strongest in behavioral disorders, intermediate in mood disorders, and lowest in controls. Correlations between these measures in the left Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus were significantly greater than in controls for mood but not for behavioral disorders. Youth with mood disorders share a deficit in the executive-limbic pathway (Arcuate Fasciculus) with behavioral-disordered youth, suggesting reduced capacity for engaging frontal regions for phonological processing or passage comprehension tasks and increased reliance on the ventral tract (e.g., the Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus). The low passage comprehension scores in mood disorder may result from engaging the left hemisphere. Neural pathways for reading differ mainly in executive-limbic circuitry. This new insight may aid clinicians in providing appropriate intervention for each disorder

Next-generation sequencing approach to hyperCKemia: A 2-year cohort study

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was applied in molecularly undiagnosed asymptomatic or paucisymptomatic hyperCKemia to investigate whether this technique might allow detection of the genetic basis of the condition

Can Emotional and Behavioral Dysregulation in Youth Be Decoded from Functional Neuroimaging?

High comorbidity among pediatric disorders characterized by behavioral and emotional dysregulation poses problems for diagnosis and treatment, and suggests that these disorders may be better conceptualized as dimensions of abnormal behaviors. Furthermore, identifying neuroimaging biomarkers related to dimensional measures of behavior may provide targets to guide individualized treatment. We aimed to use functional neuroimaging and pattern regression techniques to determine whether patterns of brain activity could accurately decode individual-level severity on a dimensional scale measuring behavioural and emotional dysregulation at two different time points

Abnormal deactivation of the inferior frontal gyrus during implicit emotion processing in youth with bipolar disorder: Attenuated by medication

Previous neuroimaging studies of youth with bipolar disorder(BD) have identified abnormalities in emotion regulation circuitry. Using data from the Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms Cohort (a clinical sample recruited for behavioral and emotional dysregulation), we examined the impact of BD and medication on activation in these regions. Functional neuroimaging data were obtained from 15 youth with BD who currently were unmedicated with a mood stabilizer or antipsychotic (U-BD), 19 youth with medicated BD (M-BD), a non-bipolar clinical sample with high rates of disruptive behavioral disorders (non-BD, n=59), and 29 healthy controls (HC) while they were shown task-irrelevant morphing emotional faces and shapes. Whole brain analysis was used to identify clusters that showed differential activation to emotion vs. shapes across group. To assess pair-wise comparisons and potential confounders, mean activation data were extracted only from clusters within regions previously implicated in emotion regulation (including amygdala and ventral prefrontal regions). A cluster in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) showed group differences to emotion vs. shapes (159 voxels, corrected p<.05). Within this cluster, U-BD youth showed decreased activation relative to HC (p=.007) and non-BD (p=.004) youth. M-BD also showed decreased activation in this cluster relative to HC and non-BD youth, but these differences were attenuated. Results were specific to negative emotions, and not found with happy faces. IFG findings were not explained by other medications (e.g. stimulants) or diagnoses. Compared to both HC and a non-BD sample, U-BD is associated with abnormally decreased right IFG activation to negative emotions

Emotional Face Processing in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder: Evidence for Functional Impairments in the Fusiform Gyrus

Pediatric bipolar disorder involves poor social functioning, but the neural mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. Previous neuroimaging studies have found deficits in emotional face processing localized to emotional brain regions. However, few studies have examined dysfunction in other regions of the face processing circuit. This study assessed hypoactivation in key face processing regions of the brain in pediatric bipolar disorder

White Matter Structure in Youth With Behavioral and Emotional Dysregulation Disorders: A Probabilistic Tractographic Study

Psychiatric disorders in youth characterized by behavioral and emotional dysregulation are often comorbid and difficult to distinguish. An alternative approach to conceptualizing these disorders is to move toward a diagnostic system based on underlying pathophysiologic processes that may cut across conventionally defined diagnoses. Neuroimaging techniques have potentials for the identification of these processes

Parsing Dimensional vs Diagnostic Category–Related Patterns of Reward Circuitry Function in Behaviorally and Emotionally Dysregulated Youth in the Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms Study

Pediatric disorders characterized by behavioral and emotional dysregulation pose diagnostic and treatment challenges because of high comorbidity, suggesting that they may be better conceptualized dimensionally rather than categorically. Identifying neuroimaging measures associated with behavioral and emotional dysregulation in youth may inform understanding of underlying dimensional vs. disorder-specific pathophysiology

Objective Sleep in Pediatric Anxiety Disorders and Major Depressive Disorder

Objective: To examine objective and subjective sleep problems in early-onset anxiety and depression. Method: Children and adolescents (46% female, ages 7 to 17 years) with anxiety disorders (n = 24), major depressive disorder (MDD) without comorbid anxiety disorders (n = 128), or no history of psychiatric disorder (n = 101) spent two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory and completed self-reports of sleep quality. Results: On objective measures, the anxiety group exhibited more awakenings than the MDD group, less slow-wave sleep than the control or MDD group, and greater night 2 sleep latency than the MDD or control group. The anxiety group exhibited no decrease in rapid eye movement latency from the first night to the second. The MDD group exhibited less time awake than the control group and less stage 1 sleep than the anxiety or control group. On subjective measures, young people with anxiety reported greater sleep latency on the second night and no decrease in sleep latency. Age was covaried in analyses. Conclusions: Findings provide objective and subjective evidence of sleep disturbance in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and replicate findings of limited objective sleep disturbance in those with MDD. Sleep problems are an important consideration when treating young people with anxiety