Article
Neurosciences
Rihui Li, Jennifer L. Bruno, Tracy Jordan, Jonas G. Miller, Cindy H. Lee, Kristi L. Bartholomay, Matthew J. Marzelli, Aaron Piccirilli, Amy A. Lightbody, Allan L. Reiss
Summary: This study reveals a specific pattern of brain activation and habituation in response to face stimuli in young girls with fragile X syndrome (FXS) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The findings strongly support the hypothesis of neural hyperactivation and accentuated sensitization during face processing in FXS, which could be developed as a biomarker for evaluating treatment trials in girls with this condition.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY-COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING
(2023)
Article
Biology
Kasra Manoocheri, Adam G. Carter
Summary: Connections from the basolateral amygdala to medial prefrontal cortex regulate memory and emotion, and disruptions to these connections can occur in neuropsychiatric disorders. This study reveals how different subregions of the basolateral amygdala target distinct networks within the prefrontal cortex, influencing memory and emotion regulation.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Peta Eggins, Stephanie Wong, Grace Wei, John R. Hodges, Masud Husain, Olivier Piguet, Muireann Irish, Fiona Kumfor
Summary: This study investigated the cognitive and neural basis of apathy in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The results showed reduced planning ability in both conditions, and lower planning ability predicted increased cognitive apathy. Brain imaging analysis also revealed that atrophy in specific brain regions was associated with planning ability and cognitive apathy.
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Lucia Caffino, Francesca Mottarlini, Gianmaria Zita, Dawid Gawlinski, Kinga Gawlinska, Karolina Wydra, Edmund Przegalinski, Fabio Fumagalli
Summary: Drug addiction is a devastating disorder that poses a huge economic and social burden on modern society, with adolescents being particularly vulnerable. Research has shown that exposure to cocaine during adolescence confers a vulnerable endophenotype primarily by inducing changes in neuroplasticity.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Pierre Petitet, Sijia Zhao, Daniel Drew, Sanjay G. Manohar, Masud Husain
Summary: Apathy and impulsivity are common traits in neuropsychiatric disorders and healthy individuals. Recent studies have shown that these traits can co-exist within the same individual, challenging the traditional view of them as opposite extremes on a motivational spectrum. In this study, researchers investigated the relationship between apathy and impulsivity in healthy individuals using a controlled task environment. The findings revealed that although apathy and impulsivity were positively correlated in questionnaire assessments, they were associated with distinct behavioral signatures on the task, with impulsivity showing a tendency for rapid anticipatory responses and apathy showing a blunted effect of reward on response vigor.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kathleen Kang, Nina Alexander, Jan R. Wessel, Pauline Wimberger, Katharina Nitzsche, Clemens Kirschbaum, Shu-Chen Li
Summary: The study found that adolescents performed better in accuracy and speed compared to children. Additionally, the pattern of behavioral adaptation to error or novelty differed between the two age groups, with children showing post-novelty slowing while error-related slowing was absent in children and only marginally significant in adolescents.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Haram R. Kim, Lakshmi Rajagopal, Herbert Y. Meltzer, Marco Martina
Summary: This study suggests that altering the polarity of GABA(A) currents in the ILC can improve cognitive performance in a mouse model of schizophrenia, indicating that bumetanide may have the potential to treat or prevent CIAS.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Sergio M. Pellis, Vivien C. Pellis, Jackson R. Ham, Rachel A. Stark
Summary: The benefits of play fighting for young animals have been speculated for over a hundred years. Understanding the behavioral development and neurobiology of laboratory rats has provided a coherent model that explains this phenomenon. Depriving rats of peer-peer play experience during their juvenile period leads to adult rats with socio-cognitive deficiencies and changes in the neurons of the prefrontal cortex. Analysis of juvenile peer play shows that the ability to engage in reciprocal play fighting is crucial for obtaining these benefits, improving a skill set that can be applied in different social contexts.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Review
Physiology
Sebastian H. H. Bitzenhofer
Summary: Rhythmic coordination in gamma oscillations provides temporal structure to neuronal activity. Gamma oscillations are commonly observed in the mammalian cerebral cortex, are altered early on in several neuropsychiatric disorders, and provide insights into the development of underlying cortical networks. This review aims to provide an overview of the development of cortical gamma oscillations, the maturation of underlying networks, and the implications for cortical function and dysfunction.
PFLUGERS ARCHIV-EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Biology
Tarek Amer, Lila Davachi
Summary: Pattern separation is the process by which highly similar stimuli or experiences in memory are represented by non-overlapping neural ensembles. It has been traditionally attributed to the hippocampus, but recent evidence suggests that it involves a network of brain regions. The 'cortico-hippocampal pattern separation' (CHiPS) framework proposes that cognitive control regions play a significant role in pattern separation, either by resolving interference in sensory regions or by directly modulating hippocampal processes.
Article
Neurosciences
Rihui Li, Amy A. Lightbody, Cindy H. Lee, Kristi L. Bartholomay, Matthew J. Marzelli, Allan L. Reiss
Summary: Compared to girls without FXS, girls with FXS exhibit greater resting-state functional connectivity in the default mode network, weaker nodal strength at the right middle temporal gyrus, stronger nodal strength at the left caudate, and higher global efficiency in the default mode network. These abnormal brain network characteristics directly correspond to the cognitive behavioral symptoms commonly observed in girls with FXS. Additionally, exploratory analysis suggests that brain network patterns at an earlier time point can predict the longitudinal development of multidomain cognitive behavioral symptoms in FXS patients.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Karina Alicia Bermudez-Rivera, Andres Molero-Chamizo, G. Nathzidy Rivera-Urbina
Summary: This study aimed to examine the effects of cognitive reflection and typical educational interventions on executive functions in teenage students. The results showed that educational interventions could improve executive functions associated with the anterior prefrontal cortex (APF), but may interfere with functions related to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPF).
CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Ate Bijlsma, Azar Omrani, Marcia Spoelder, Jeroen P. H. Verharen, Lisa Bauer, Cosette Cornelis, Beleke de Zwart, Rene van Dorland, Louk J. M. J. Vanderschuren, Corette J. Wierenga
Summary: Sensory driven activity during early life is critical for setting up the proper connectivity of the sensory cortices. This study found that social play behavior is equally important for setting up connections in the developing prefrontal cortex.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Lasse Gueldener, Antonia Juellig, David Soto, Stefan Pollmann
Summary: Adapting to novelty is crucial for survival in an uncertain world. Neuro-imaging evidence suggests that the frontopolar cortex (FPC) plays a significant role in responding to environmental changes by reweighting attentional weights. This study reveals that the FPC is involved in attentional reallocation even in the absence of conscious awareness. The findings demonstrate that unconsciously processed information can reach a global level of representation across multiple brain regions.
Article
Neurosciences
Yaara Erez, Mikiko Kadohisa, Philippe Petrov, Natasha Sigala, Mark J. Buckley, Makoto Kusunoki, John Duncan
Summary: This study used demixed principal component analysis to track the dynamics of the prefrontal cortex in behaving monkeys. The findings reveal that object and cue information is encoded in population activity with different dynamics and lateralisation, while individual neurons independently contribute to coding the three task features.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Gemma Lewis, Ramya Srinivasan, Jonathan Roiser, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Eirini Flouri, Glyn Lewis
Summary: Through cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on adolescents, it was found that there is not strong evidence of a relationship between risk-taking to obtain reward and depressive symptoms, and sex differences do not seem to contribute to this relationship.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Editorial Material
Medicine, General & Internal
Russell Viner, Chris Bonell, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, James Hargreaves, Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths
BMJ-BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Lydia Gabriela Speyer, Anastasia Ushakova, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Aja Louise Murray, Rogier Kievit
Summary: Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models have gained popularity in testing developmental hypotheses as they allow for separating between-person and within-person components. In this paper, we demonstrate how developmental researchers can implement, test, and interpret interaction effects in such models using a real-world example from developmental psychopathology research. The analysis of Within x Within and Between x Within interactions is illustrated using data from the Millennium Cohort Study based in the United Kingdom within a Bayesian Structural Equation Modelling framework. Annotated Mplus code is provided to help users understand the complexities of within-person and between-person dynamics over time.
STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING-A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Jesus Montero-Marin, Matthew Allwood, Susan Ball, Catherine Crane, Katherine De Wilde, Verena Hinze, Benjamin Jones, Liz Lord, Elizabeth Nuthall, Anam Raja, Laura Taylor, Kate Tudor, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Sarah Byford, Tim Dalgleish, Tamsin Ford, Mark T. Greenberg, Obioha C. Ukoumunne, J. Mark G. Williams, Willem Kuyken
Summary: School-based mindfulness training is not effective in preventing mental health problems in early adolescence. Higher dose and reach of training may lead to worse social-emotional-behavioral functioning. Positive gains in mindfulness skills and executive function can predict better outcomes. Hypothesized moderators and implementation factors do not have an impact on the results.
EVIDENCE-BASED MENTAL HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Willem Kuyken, Susan Ball, Catherine Crane, Poushali Ganguli, Benjamin Jones, Jesus Montero-Marin, Elizabeth Nuthall, Anam Raja, Laura Taylor, Kate Tudor, Russell M. Viner, Matthew Allwood, Louise Aukland, Darren Dunning, Triona Casey, Nicola Dalrymple, Katherine De Wilde, Eleanor-Rose Farley, Jennifer Harper, Verena Hinze, Nils Kappelmann, Maria Kempnich, Liz Lord, Emma Medlicott, Lucy Palmer, Ariane Petit, Alice Philips, Isobel Pryor-Nitsch, Lucy Radley, Anna Sonley, Jem Shackleford, Alice Tickell, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Obioha C. Ukoumunne, Mark T. Greenberg, Tamsin Ford, Tim Dalgleish, Sarah Byford, J. Mark G. Williams
Summary: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of school-based mindfulness training on teacher mental health and school climate. The results showed that providing mindfulness training to students improved teachers' mental health and school climate in the short term. However, the long-term effects were not significant. Further research is needed to explore how to sustain these improvements.
EVIDENCE-BASED MENTAL HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Iroise Dumontheil, Kristen E. Lyons, Tamara A. Russell, Philip David Zelazo
Summary: This study examined the effects of mindfulness meditation training on cognitive control and emotional reactivity in adolescents and adults. The results showed that mindfulness training led to an increase in the speed of attentional reorienting across age groups and preliminary evidence for reduced amygdala response to emotional face distractors in adolescents.
JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Gabriele Chierchia, Magdalena Soukupova, Emma J. Kilford, Cait Griffin, Jovita Leung, Stefano Palminteri, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Summary: This study explores how learning changes during human development, specifically focusing on the confirmatory learning bias. The results show that as individuals grow older, they exhibit a stronger confirmatory learning bias, but this is not due to an increase in bias magnitude. Instead, it is attributed to a decrease in uncertainty. These findings can aid in the development of tailored learning environments for individuals of different ages.
DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Sila Genc, Erika P. Raven, Mark Drakesmith, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Derek K. Jones
Summary: White matter microstructural development in late childhood and adolescence is mainly driven by increasing axon density and myelin thickness. The study used an ultra-strong gradient magnetic resonance imaging scanner to evaluate microstructural properties in the corpus callosum of typically developing participants aged 8-18 years. It found age-related differences in apparent axon diameter, myelin content, and g-ratio, with males showing larger axon diameter in the splenium and lower myelin content in the genu and body of the corpus callosum during early puberty compared to females. Overall, this study provides new insights into the developmental, pubertal, and cognitive correlates of individual differences in apparent axon diameter and myelin content in the developing human brain.
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer, Jack L. Andrews, Amy Orben, Lydia G. Speyer, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Summary: This study examined the association between the subjective experience of economic disadvantage among friends and social difficulties and poorer mental health in early adolescence. The results showed that perceived income inequality predicted adverse mental health and a range of interpersonal difficulties during adolescence, even when controlling for objective family income.
JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Bianca D. Moffett, Julia R. Pozuelo, Alastair van Heerden, Heather A. O'Mahen, Michelle Craske, Tholene Sodi, Crick Lund, Kate Orkin, Emma J. Kilford, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Mahreen Mahmud, Eustasius Musenge, Meghan Davis, Zamakhanya Makhanya, Tlangelani Baloyi, Daniel Mahlangu, Gabriele Chierchia, Sophie L. Fielmann, F. Xavier Gomez-Olive, Imraan Valodia, Stephen Tollman, Kathleen Kahn, Alan Stein
Summary: This study aims to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of digitally delivered behavioral activation therapy among adolescents with depression. It is based in rural South Africa and will recruit 200 adolescents with mild to moderately severe depression symptoms. The intervention will be evaluated using mixed methods, and the efficacy of reducing symptoms of depression will be determined.
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Jovita T. Leung, Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer, Saz P. Ahmed, Lucy Foulkes, Cait Griffin, Ashok Sakhardande, Marc Bennett, Darren L. Dunning, Kirsty Griffiths, Jenna Parker, Willem Kuyken, J. Mark G. Williams, Tim Dalgleish, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Summary: This study examined the impact of mindfulness training on adolescents' prosocial and antisocial tendencies, as well as their susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence. The findings suggest that mindfulness training does not change the likelihood of engaging in prosocial or antisocial behaviors, but participants were more influenced by prosocial influence than antisocial influence regardless of training group. Additionally, both training programs reduced participants' susceptibility to antisocial influence.
INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Amy Orben, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Editorial Material
Psychology, Clinical
Willem Kuyken, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Sarah Byford, Tim Dalgleish, Tamsin Ford, Verena Hinze, Karen Mansfield, Jesus Montero-Marin, Obioha C. Ukoumunne, Russell M. Viner
JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH
(2023)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Emily Towner, Gabriele Chierchia, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Summary: Adolescence is a period characterized by increased affective and social sensitivity. This heightened sensitivity is shown to have an impact on associative learning, with adolescents exhibiting increased Pavlovian learning but decreased instrumental learning compared to adults. These developmental differences are attributed to adolescents' heightened sensitivity to rewards and threats, as well as a lower specificity of responding. The implications of these findings for adolescent mental health and education are discussed.
TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Mathematical
Samuel Zorowitz, Gabriele Chierchia, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Nathaniel D. D. Daw
Summary: Matrix reasoning tasks are widely used in the behavioral sciences to measure cognitive ability, but the lack of publicly available tests complicates their use. In this study, the matrix reasoning item bank (MaRs-IB), an open-access set of matrix reasoning items, is investigated and validated. The results show that the MaRs-IB has desirable psychometric properties and can be used to design new matrix reasoning tests. These new tests demonstrate good reliability and validity. The materials and results provided here aim to encourage researchers to use the MaRs-IB in their research.
BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS
(2023)