Threat- and reward-related brain circuitry, perceived stress, and anxiety in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal investigation.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic led to heightened anxiety in adolescents. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) are implicated in response to stress and may contribute to anxiety. The role of threat- and reward-related circuitry in adolescent anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, is not clear.

Testing a Developmental Model of Positive Parenting, Amygdala-Subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex Connectivity, and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Neurobiological measures may inform our understanding of individual differences in adolescents' general risk for and resilience to depressive symptoms, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. We tested a developmental model linking variation in amygdala-subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) resting-state connectivity to perceived parenting experiences earlier in adolescence, to concurrent depressive symptoms before the pandemic, and to subsequent depressive symptoms during the pandemic.

Methods: We used data from a longitudinal study that included three waves ( = 214 adolescents; ages 9-15 years at time 1 [T1], 11-17 years at T2, and 12-19 years during the pandemic at T3).

Heart rate variability moderates the effects of COVID-19-related stress and family adversity on emotional problems in adolescents: Testing models of differential susceptibility and diathesis stress.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique period of stress, uncertainty, and adversity that will have significant implications for adolescent mental health. Nevertheless, stress and adversity related to COVID-19 may be more consequential for some adolescents' mental health than for others. We examined whether heart rate variability (HRV) indicated differential susceptibility to mental health difficulties associated with COVID-19 stress and COVID-19 family adversity.

Early Life Stress Predicts Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Perceived Stress.

Background: Exposure to early life stress (ELS) is alarmingly prevalent and has been linked to the high rates of depression documented in adolescence. Researchers have theorized that ELS may increase adolescents' vulnerability or reactivity to the effects of subsequent stressors, placing them at higher risk for developing symptoms of depression.

Methods: We tested this formulation in a longitudinal study by assessing levels of stress and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of adolescents from the San Francisco Bay Area ( = 109; 43 male; ages 13-20 years) who had been characterized 3-7 years earlier ( = 5.

Neural mapping of guilt: a quantitative meta-analysis of functional imaging studies.

Guilt is a self-conscious emotion associated with the negative appraisal of one's behavior. In recent years, several neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural correlates of guilt, but no meta-analyses have yet identified the most robust activation patterns. A systematic review of literature found 16 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies with whole-brain analyses meeting the inclusion criteria, for a total of 325 participants and 135 foci of activation.

dcc Haploinsufficiency results in blunted sensitivity to cocaine enhancement of reward seeking.

Mesocortical dopamine connectivity continues to mature during adolescence. This protracted development confers increased vulnerability for environmental and genetic factors to disrupt mesocortical wiring and subsequently influence responses to drugs of abuse in adulthood. The netrin-1 receptor, DCC, orchestrates medial prefrontal cortex dopamine input during adolescence and dictates the functional organization of local circuitry.

Lesions of the lateral habenula dissociate the reward-enhancing and locomotor-stimulant effects of amphetamine.

Midbrain dopamine neurons play a key role in goal-directed behaviour as well as in some psychiatric disorders. Recent studies have provided electrophysiological, anatomical and biochemical evidence that the lateral habenula (LHb) exerts strong inhibitory control over midbrain dopamine neurons. However, the behavioural relevance of this inhibitory input is poorly understood.