Machine learning of neural representations of suicide and emotion concepts identifies suicidal youth

Psycholog

Can understanding reward help illuminate anhedonia?

Purpose of review: The goal of this paper is to examine how reward processing might help us understand the symptom of anhedonia. Recent findings: There are extensive reviews exploring the relationship between responses to rewarding stimuli and depression. These often include a discussion on anhedonia and how this might be underpinned in particular by dysfunctional reward processing. However, there is no specific consensus on whether studies to date have adequately examined the various sub-components of reward processing or how these might relate in turn to various aspects of anhedonia symptoms. Summary: The approach to understanding the symptom of anhedonia should be to examine all the sub-components of reward processing at the subjective and objective behavioural and neural level, with well validated tasks that can be replicated. Investigating real life experiences of anhedonia and how theses might be predicted by objective lab measures is also needed in future research

Targeted reactivation during sleep differentially affects negative memories in socially anxious and healthy children and adolescents

Cognitive models propose a negative memory bias as one key factor contributing to the emergence and maintenance of social anxiety disorder (SAD). The long-term consolidation of memories relies on memory reactivations during sleep. We investigated in SAD patients and healthy controls the role of memory reactivations during sleep in the long-term consolidation of positive and negative information. Socially anxious and healthy children and adolescents learnt associations between pictures showing ambiguous situations and positive or negative words defining the situations' outcome. Half of the words were re-presented during post-learning sleep (i.e. they were cued). Recall of picture-word associations and subjective ratings of pleasantness and arousal in response to the pictures was tested for cued and uncued stimuli. In the morning after cueing, cueing facilitated retention of positive and negative memories equally well in SAD patients and healthy controls. One week later, cueing led to reduced ratings of pleasantness of negative information in SAD but not in healthy controls. These findings were coincided by more pronounced EEG theta activity over frontal, temporal and parietal regions in response to negative stimuli in SAD patients. Our findings suggest that the preferential abstraction of negative emotional information during sleep might represent one factor underlying the negative memory bias in SAD. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We aim to uncover mechanisms underlying the characteristic negative memory bias in social anxiety disorder (SAD). The formation of long-lasting memories - a process referred to as memory consolidation - depend on the reactivation of newly acquired memories during sleep. We could demonstrate that experimentally induced memory reactivation during sleep renders long-term memories of negative experiences more negative in SAD patients but not in healthy controls. In parallel, reactivating negative experiences was coincided by more pronounced oscillatory theta activity in these patients. These results provide first evidence that memory reactivation during sleep might contribute to the negative memory bias in SAD

Maternal Depression, Parenting, and Youth Depressive Symptoms: Mediation and Moderation in a Short-Term Longitudinal Study.

Although multiple studies find that offspring of depressed mothers are at risk for depressive disorders, there is uncertainty about the specific mechanisms that are at work--particularly with respect to modifiable factors that might be targeted for early intervention. The present work examines that parenting behaviors may operate as mediators, moderators, or independent influences on the development of youth depressive symptoms. One hundred one mothers and their early adolescent children participated in positive and negative interaction tasks. Maternal and youth self-reports of youth depressive symptoms were collected at baseline, 9-month, and 18-month assessments. Maternal history of depression was significantly associated with maternal-reported, but not youth self-reported, depressive symptomatology. Maternal positive and negative interaction behaviors in positive contexts were associated with higher youth self-reported depressive symptoms. Maternal positive interaction behaviors in positive contexts and maternal negative interactive behaviors in conflict contexts were associated with higher youth self-reported depressive symptoms. We found no evidence for maternal interaction behaviors serving as a mediator and little evidence of maternal interaction behaviors serving as a moderator of the relationship between maternal and offspring depression. Low maternal positive engagement tended to be more consistently associated with maternal- and self-reported youth depressive symptoms. The present findings suggest that characteristics of mother-child interactions that are associated with youth depressive symptomatology are pertinent to youth with and without a mother with a history of depression

Maternal Depression, Parenting, and Youth Depressive Symptoms: Mediation and Moderation in a Short-Term Longitudinal Study.

Although multiple studies find that offspring of depressed mothers are at risk for depressive disorders, there is uncertainty about the specific mechanisms that are at work--particularly with respect to modifiable factors that might be targeted for early intervention. The present work examines that parenting behaviors may operate as mediators, moderators, or independent influences on the development of youth depressive symptoms. One hundred one mothers and their early adolescent children participated in positive and negative interaction tasks. Maternal and youth self-reports of youth depressive symptoms were collected at baseline, 9-month, and 18-month assessments. Maternal history of depression was significantly associated with maternal-reported, but not youth self-reported, depressive symptomatology. Maternal positive and negative interaction behaviors in positive contexts were associated with higher youth self-reported depressive symptoms. Maternal positive interaction behaviors in positive contexts and maternal negative interactive behaviors in conflict contexts were associated with higher youth self-reported depressive symptoms. We found no evidence for maternal interaction behaviors serving as a mediator and little evidence of maternal interaction behaviors serving as a moderator of the relationship between maternal and offspring depression. Low maternal positive engagement tended to be more consistently associated with maternal- and self-reported youth depressive symptoms. The present findings suggest that characteristics of mother-child interactions that are associated with youth depressive symptomatology are pertinent to youth with and without a mother with a history of depression

Maternal Depression, Parenting, and Youth Depressive Symptoms: Mediation and Moderation in a Short-Term Longitudinal Study.

Although multiple studies find that offspring of depressed mothers are at risk for depressive disorders, there is uncertainty about the specific mechanisms that are at work--particularly with respect to modifiable factors that might be targeted for early intervention. The present work examines that parenting behaviors may operate as mediators, moderators, or independent influences on the development of youth depressive symptoms. One hundred one mothers and their early adolescent children participated in positive and negative interaction tasks. Maternal and youth self-reports of youth depressive symptoms were collected at baseline, 9-month, and 18-month assessments. Maternal history of depression was significantly associated with maternal-reported, but not youth self-reported, depressive symptomatology. Maternal positive and negative interaction behaviors in positive contexts were associated with higher youth self-reported depressive symptoms. Maternal positive interaction behaviors in positive contexts and maternal negative interactive behaviors in conflict contexts were associated with higher youth self-reported depressive symptoms. We found no evidence for maternal interaction behaviors serving as a mediator and little evidence of maternal interaction behaviors serving as a moderator of the relationship between maternal and offspring depression. Low maternal positive engagement tended to be more consistently associated with maternal- and self-reported youth depressive symptoms. The present findings suggest that characteristics of mother-child interactions that are associated with youth depressive symptomatology are pertinent to youth with and without a mother with a history of depression

Sleep and chronotype in adults with persistent tic disorders

ObjectiveThis study examined sleep disorders and sleep medication use rates, nighttime tics, and sleep and chronotype in relation to tic and co-occurring symptoms in adults with persistent tic disorders (PTDs), including Tourette's disorder (TD).MethodsOne hundred twenty-five adult internet survey respondents rated sleep history, sleep, chronotype, tic severity, impairment, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anxiety, depression, and emotional and behavioral dyscontrol.ResultsBruxism, insomnia, tic-related difficulty falling asleep, and melatonin use were commonly endorsed. Sleep disturbance correlated with impairment, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and emotional and behavioral dyscontrol. Eveningness correlated with vocal and total tic severity only in TD. Controlling for age and sex, age, impairment, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms predicted sleep disturbance, and age and tic severity predicted chronotype.ConclusionsImpairment and obsessive-compulsive symptoms play a role in sleep disturbance in adults with PTDs, and may be intervention targets. Eveningness relates to tic severity, which may suggest the utility of interventions to advance chronotype

The impact of experimental sleep restriction on affective functioning in social and nonsocial contexts among adolescents.

BackgroundShort sleep duration is highly prevalent in adolescence, and it prospectively predicts problems with emotional adjustment and psychiatric health. To move beyond epidemiological associations and inform models of developmental psychopathology, we experimentally restricted sleep to observe impacts on affective functioning. Based on the importance of social contexts to adolescent emotional experiences, we also examined the impact of restricted sleep on socioaffective functioning in an ecologically valid peer interaction task.MethodsIn Study 1, adolescents (ages 11.5-15.0, n = 48) were randomly assigned to two nights of polysomnography-monitored sleep restriction (4 hr in bed) or extension (10 hr in bed). One week later, they completed the other sleep manipulation. Affective functioning was assessed by self-report and pupil response to standardized affective sounds. Study 2 used a similar protocol and invited adolescents (ages 12-15.0, n = 16) to the sleep laboratory along with 2-4 friends to observe affective behavior in a social context primed for peer conflict. Mixed effects models were used to evaluate the effect of sleep condition on affective outcomes.ResultsStudy 1 demonstrated increased negative affect following sleep restriction, relative to extension, on self-report (p = .02) and pupil measures (p = .01). Study 2 replicated these effects (both p = .04) and demonstrated greater negative affective behavior in a peer social context (p = .01). Exploratory analyses for positive affect showed reductions as assessed by self-report (p = .005), but not pupil (p = .81), in Study 1; and no significant effects in Study 2 (self-report, p = .14; pupil, p = .29; positive affective behavior, p = .43).ConclusionsExperimental sleep restriction in adolescence impacts negative affective functioning as evidenced by self-report and pupil reactivity, as well as observed behavior in a social context primed for peer conflict. Implications for the impact of short sleep on developmental trajectories of emotional adjustment and psychiatric health, and opportunities for early intervention, are briefly discussed