Neural Correlates of Adolescent Irritability and Its Comorbidity With Psychiatric Disorders.

Objective: Irritable mood, a common and impairing symptom in psychopathology, has been proposed to underlie the developmental link between oppositional problems in youth and depression in adulthood. We examined the neural correlates of adolescent irritability in IMAGEN, a sample of 2,024 14-year-old adolescents from 5 European countries.

Method: The Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) was used to assess attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, major depressive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.

Toward a Dimensional Assessment of Externalizing Disorders in Children: Reliability and Validity of a Semi-Structured Parent Interview.

Objective: This study assesses the reliability and validity of the DSM-5-based, semi-structured (ILF-EXTERNAL).

Method: Participant data were drawn from the ongoing ESCAschool intervention study. The ILF-EXTERNAL was evaluated in a clinical sample of 474 children and adolescents (aged 6-12 years, 92 females) with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Brain structure and habitat: Do the brains of our children tell us where they have been brought up?

Recently many lifestyle factors have been shown to be associated with brain structural alterations. At present we are facing increasing population shifts from rural to urban areas, which considerably change the living environments of human beings. To investigate the association between rural vs.

Aggression subtypes relate to distinct resting state functional connectivity in children and adolescents with disruptive behavior.

There is increasing evidence for altered brain resting state functional connectivity in adolescents with disruptive behavior. While a considerable body of behavioral research points to differences between reactive and proactive aggression, it remains unknown whether these two subtypes have dissociable effects on connectivity. Additionally, callous-unemotional traits are important specifiers in subtyping aggressive behavior along the affective dimension.

Development of Disordered Eating Behaviors and Comorbid Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence: Neural and Psychopathological Predictors.

Background: Eating disorders are common in adolescence and are devastating and strongly comorbid with other psychiatric disorders. Yet little is known about their etiology, knowing which would aid in developing effective preventive measures.

Methods: Longitudinal assessments of disordered eating behaviors (DEBs)-binge-eating, purging, and dieting-and comorbid psychopathology were measured in 1386 adolescents from the IMAGEN study.

Longitudinal associations between amygdala reactivity and cannabis use in a large sample of adolescents.

Rationale: The amygdala is a key brain structure to study in relation to cannabis use as reflected by its high-density of cannabinoid receptors and functional reactivity to processes relevant to drug use. Previously, we identified a correlation between cannabis use in early adolescence and amygdala hyper-reactivity to angry faces (Spechler et al. 2015).

Specific cortical and subcortical alterations for reactive and proactive aggression in children and adolescents with disruptive behavior.

Maladaptive aggression, as present in conduct disorder (CD) and, to a lesser extent, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), has been associated with structural alterations in various brain regions, such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), amygdala, insula and ventral striatum. Although aggression can be subdivided into reactive and proactive subtypes, no neuroimaging studies have yet investigated if any structural brain alterations are associated with either of the subtypes specifically. Here we investigated associations between aggression subtypes, CU traits and ADHD symptoms in predefined regions of interest.

International Consensus Statement for the Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Adolescents with Concurrent Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Substance Use Disorder.

Background: Childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for substance misuse and substance use disorder (SUD) in adolescence and (early) adulthood. ADHD and SUD also frequently co-occur in treatment-seeking adolescents, which complicates diagnosis and treatment and is associated with poor treatment outcomes. Research on the effect of treatment of childhood ADHD on the prevention of adolescent SUD is inconclusive, and studies on the diagnosis and treatment of adolescents with ADHD and SUD are scarce.

The effects of callous-unemotional traits and aggression subtypes on amygdala activity in response to negative faces.

Background: Brain imaging studies have shown altered amygdala activity during emotion processing in children and adolescents with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) compared to typically developing children and adolescents (TD). Here we aimed to assess whether aggression-related subtypes (reactive and proactive aggression) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits predicted variation in amygdala activity and skin conductance (SC) response during emotion processing.

Methods: We included 177 participants (n = 108 cases with disruptive behaviour and/or ODD/CD and n = 69 TD), aged 8-18 years, across nine sites in Europe, as part of the EU Aggressotype and MATRICS projects.

[Mindfulness in Development-oriented Approaches to Substance Use Prevention and Therapy: Rationale, Design and Objectives of the Research Consortium IMAC-Mind].

Substance use disorders (SUD) are a major contributor to morbidity and mortality. They are typically initiated during adolescence and can have fatal implications for healthy development. Despite substantial scientific advances, there remains a need to prioritize research directed at reducing risks for SUD, particularly in vulnerable periods and populations from a developmental perspective.

The IMAGEN study: a decade of imaging genetics in adolescents.

Imaging genetics offers the possibility of detecting associations between genotype and brain structure as well as function, with effect sizes potentially exceeding correlations between genotype and behavior. However, study results are often limited due to small sample sizes and methodological differences, thus reducing the reliability of findings. The IMAGEN cohort with 2000 young adolescents assessed from the age of 14 onwards tries to eliminate some of these limitations by offering a longitudinal approach and sufficient sample size for analyzing gene-environment interactions on brain structure and function.

Saccade dysmetria indicates attenuated visual exploration in autism spectrum disorder.

Background: Visual exploration in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by attenuated social attention. The underlying oculomotor function during visual exploration is understudied, whereas oculomotor function during restricted viewing suggested saccade dysmetria in ASD by altered pontocerebellar motor modulation.

Methods: Oculomotor function was recorded using remote eye tracking in 142 ASD participants and 142 matched neurotypical controls during free viewing of naturalistic videos with and without human content.

Linked patterns of biological and environmental covariation with brain structure in adolescence: a population-based longitudinal study.

Adolescence is a period of major brain reorganization shaped by biologically timed and by environmental factors. We sought to discover linked patterns of covariation between brain structural development and a wide array of these factors by leveraging data from the IMAGEN study, a longitudinal population-based cohort of adolescents. Brain structural measures and a comprehensive array of non-imaging features (relating to demographic, anthropometric, and psychosocial characteristics) were available on 1476 IMAGEN participants aged 14 years and from a subsample reassessed at age 19 years (n = 714).

Cognitive and brain development is independently influenced by socioeconomic status and polygenic scores for educational attainment.

Genetic factors and socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities play a large role in educational attainment, and both have been associated with variations in brain structure and cognition. However, genetics and SES are correlated, and no prior study has assessed their neural associations independently. Here we used a polygenic score for educational attainment (EduYears-PGS), as well as SES, in a longitudinal study of 551 adolescents to tease apart genetic and environmental associations with brain development and cognition.

Consortium neuroscience of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder: The ENIGMA adventure.

Neuroimaging has been extensively used to study brain structure and function in individuals with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) over the past decades. Two of the main shortcomings of the neuroimaging literature of these disorders are the small sample sizes employed and the heterogeneity of methods used. In 2013 and 2014, the ENIGMA-ADHD and ENIGMA-ASD working groups were respectively, founded with a common goal to address these limitations.

Neural Correlates of the Dual-Pathway Model for ADHD in Adolescents.

Objective: The dual-pathway model has been proposed to explain the heterogeneity in symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by two independent psychological pathways based on distinct brain circuits. The authors sought to test whether the hypothesized cognitive and motivational pathways have separable neural correlates.

Methods: In a longitudinal community-based cohort of 1,963 adolescents, the neuroanatomical correlates of ADHD were identified by a voxel-wise association analysis and then validated using an independent clinical sample (99 never-medicated patients with ADHD, 56 medicated patients with ADHD, and 267 healthy control subjects).

Neurobehavioural characterisation and stratification of reinforcement-related behaviour.

Reinforcement-related cognitive processes, such as reward processing, inhibitory control and social-emotional regulation are critical components of externalising and internalising behaviours. It is unclear to what extent the deficit in each of these processes contributes to individual behavioural symptoms, how their neural substrates give rise to distinct behavioural outcomes and whether neural activation profiles across different reinforcement-related processes might differentiate individual behaviours. We created a statistical framework that enabled us to directly compare functional brain activation during reward anticipation, motor inhibition and viewing emotional faces in the European IMAGEN cohort of 2,000 14-year-old adolescents.

[Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in childhood and adolescence : Current state of research].

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), defined by the core symptoms impulsiveness, inattention and motor hyperactivity, is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders beginning in early childhood.

Objective: This article reviews the current state of research on the epidemiology, etiology, diagnostics and therapeutic interventions for ADHD in children and adolescents.

Methods: A selective literature search was carried out in PubMed with reference to the German S3 clinical guidelines on ADHD in children, adolescents and adults.

Differential utility of teacher and parent-teacher combined information in the assessment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms.

Background: Consistent research findings indicate that parents and teachers observe genuinely different Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) behaviours in their respective settings.

Objective: To evaluate the utility of information provided by teacher informant assessments (INFAs) of ADHD symptoms, and the implications of aggregation algorithms in combing parents' information, i.e.

Executive functioning and emotion recognition in youth with oppositional defiant disorder and/or conduct disorder.

Executive functioning and emotion recognition may be impaired in disruptive youth, yet findings in oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) are inconsistent. We examined these functions related to ODD and CD, accounting for comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and internalising symptoms. We compared executive functioning (visual working memory, visual attention, inhibitory control) and emotion recognition between youth (8-18 years old, 123 boys, 55 girls) with ODD ( = 44) or CD (with/without ODD,  = 48), and healthy controls ( = 86).

Examination of the neural basis of psychotic-like experiences in adolescence during processing of emotional faces.

Contemporary theories propose that dysregulation of emotional perception is involved in the aetiology of psychosis. 298 healthy adolescents were assessed at age 14- and 19-years using fMRI while performing a facial emotion task. Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) were assessed with the CAPE-42 questionnaire at age 19.