Functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and amygdala underlies avoidance learning during adolescence: Implications for developmental psychopathology.

Background: Reward and threat processes work together to support adaptive learning during development. Adolescence is associated with increasing approach behavior (e.g.

Reward processes in extinction learning and applications to exposure therapy.

Anxiety disorders are common and highly distressing mental health conditions. Exposure therapy is a gold-standard treatment for anxiety disorders. Mechanisms of Pavlovian fear learning, and particularly fear extinction, are central to exposure therapy.

Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Targeting the Amygdala May Increase Psychophysiological and Subjective Negative Emotional Reactivity in Healthy Older Adults.

Background: The amygdala is highly implicated in an array of psychiatric disorders but is not accessible using currently available noninvasive neuromodulatory techniques. Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (TFUS) is a neuromodulatory technique that has the capability of reaching subcortical regions noninvasively.

Methods: We studied healthy older adult participants ( = 21, ages 48-79 years) who received TFUS targeting the right amygdala and left entorhinal cortex (active control region) using a 2-visit within-participant crossover design.

Anhedonia is associated with overgeneralization of conditioned fear during late adolescence and early adulthood.

Background: Pavlovian fear paradigms involve learning to associate cues with threat or safety. Aberrances in Pavlovian fear learning correlate with psychopathology, especially anxiety disorders. This study evaluated symptom dimensions of anxiety and depression in relation to Pavlovian fear acquisition and generalization.

Neurocognitive risk phenotyping to predict mood symptoms in adolescence.

Predicting mood disorders in adolescence is a challenge that motivates research to identify neurocognitive predictors of symptom expression and clinical profiles. This study used machine learning to test whether neurocognitive variables predicted future manic or anhedonic symptoms in two adolescent samples risk-enriched for lifetime mood disorders (Sample 1, = 73, ages = 13-25, [] = 19.22 [2.

Transcranial focused ultrasound selectively increases perfusion and modulates functional connectivity of deep brain regions in humans.

Background: Low intensity, transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) is a re-emerging brain stimulation technique with the unique capability of reaching deep brain structures non-invasively.

Objective/hypothesis: We sought to demonstrate that tFUS can selectively and accurately target and modulate deep brain structures in humans important for emotional functioning as well as learning and memory. We hypothesized that tFUS would result in significant longitudinal changes in perfusion in the targeted brain region as well as selective modulation of BOLD activity and BOLD-based functional connectivity of the target region.

General and Specific Dimensions of Mood Symptoms Are Associated With Impairments in Common Executive Function in Adolescence and Young Adulthood.

Both unipolar and bipolar depression have been linked with impairments in executive functioning (EF). In particular, mood symptom severity is associated with differences in common EF, a latent measure of general EF abilities. The relationship between mood disorders and EF is particularly salient in adolescence and young adulthood when the ongoing development of EF intersects with a higher risk of mood disorder onset.

Treatment of Spider Phobia Using Repeated Exposures and Adjunctive Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Proof-of-Concept Study.

Background: Specific phobias represent the largest category of anxiety disorders. Previous work demonstrated that stimulating the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) with repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) may improve response to exposure therapy for acrophobia.

Objective: To examine feasibility of accelerating extinction learning in subjects with spider phobia using intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (iTBS) rTMS of vmPFC.

A Novel Peer-to-Peer Coaching Program to Support Digital Mental Health: Design and Implementation.

Many individuals in need of mental health services do not currently receive care. Scalable programs are needed to reduce the burden of mental illness among those without access to existing providers. Digital interventions present an avenue for increasing the reach of mental health services.

A Multivoxel Pattern Analysis of Anhedonia During Fear Extinction: Implications for Safety Learning.

Background: Pavlovian learning processes are central to the etiology and treatment of anxiety disorders. Anhedonia and related perturbations in reward processes have been implicated in Pavlovian learning. Associations between anhedonia symptoms and neural indices of Pavlovian learning can inform transdiagnostic associations among depressive and anxiety disorders.

Stair versus elevator use in a university residence hall setting.

Objective: Determine the temporal and spatial characteristics of stairs versus elevator use in a university residence hall to inform future physical activity promotion efforts.

Participants: All residents and visitors for a single, four-story residence hall dormitory building located on a college campus in Orange, CA.

Methods: Smart mat systems capable of detecting pedestrian traffic were placed in front of the stairs and elevators on each floor plus a basement.

Behavioral mediators of stress-related mood symptoms in adolescence & young adulthood.

Background: Stress is a risk factor for unipolar and bipolar mood disorders, but the mechanisms linking stress to specific symptoms remain elusive. Behavioral responses to stress, such as impulsivity and social withdrawal, may mediate the associations between stress and particular mood symptoms.

Methods: This study evaluated behavioral mediators of the relationship between self-reported intensity of daily stress and mood symptoms over up to eight weeks of daily diary surveys.

Resting fMRI-guided TMS results in subcortical and brain network modulation indexed by interleaved TMS/fMRI.

Traditional non-invasive imaging methods describe statistical associations of functional co-activation over time. They cannot easily establish hierarchies in communication as done in non-human animals using invasive methods. Here, we interleaved functional MRI (fMRI) recordings with non-invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to map causal communication between the frontal cortex and subcortical target structures including the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) and the amygdala.

Functional Segregation of Human Brain Networks Across the Lifespan: An Exploratory Analysis of Static and Dynamic Resting-State Functional Connectivity.

Prior research has shown that during development, there is increased segregation between, and increased integration within, prototypical resting-state functional brain networks. Functional networks are typically defined by static functional connectivity over extended periods of rest. However, little is known about how time-varying properties of functional networks change with age.

Pavlovian Learning Processes in Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: A Critical Review.

Deficits in associative and Pavlovian learning are thought to lie at the center of anxiety-related disorders. However, the majority of studies have been carried out in adult populations. The aim of this review was to critically examine the behavioral and neuroimaging literature on Pavlovian learning in pediatric anxiety disorders.

Identification of Common Neural Circuit Disruptions in Emotional Processing Across Psychiatric Disorders.

Objective: Disrupted emotional processing is a common feature of many psychiatric disorders. The authors investigated functional disruptions in neural circuitry underlying emotional processing across a range of tasks and across psychiatric disorders through a transdiagnostic quantitative meta-analysis of published neuroimaging data.

Methods: A PubMed search was conducted for whole-brain functional neuroimaging findings published through May 2018 that compared activation during emotional processing tasks in patients with psychiatric disorders (including schizophrenia, bipolar or unipolar depression, anxiety, and substance use) to matched healthy control participants.

Alternative intraoral donor sites to the chin and mandibular body-ramus.

Background: Provide a review of alternative intraoral donor sites to the chin and body-ramus of the mandible that bring fewer complications and that may be used to regenerate small and medium defects.

Material And Methods: A review was conducted using the search engine PUBMED and looking manually into scientific journals.

Results: From the 35 articles included, 6 corresponded to the coronoids, 3 corresponded to the zygomatic body, 5 corresponded to the anterior maxillary sinus wall, 3 corresponded to the zygomatic alveolar process, 2 corresponded to the incisive fossa, 2 corresponded to the anterior nasal spine, 2 corresponded to the palatal region, 5 corresponded to the tuberosity, and 7 corresponded to the palatal and mandibular tori.

Selective Effects of Psychotherapy on Frontopolar Cortical Function in PTSD.

Objective: Exposure therapy is an effective treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but a comprehensive, emotion-focused perspective on how psychotherapy affects brain function is lacking. The authors assessed changes in brain function after prolonged exposure therapy across three emotional reactivity and regulation paradigms.

Method: Individuals with PTSD underwent functional MRI (fMRI) at rest and while completing three tasks assessing emotional reactivity and regulation.

Cognitive behavioral therapy increases amygdala connectivity with the cognitive control network in both MDD and PTSD.

Background: Both major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are characterized by alterations in intrinsic functional connectivity. Here we investigated changes in intrinsic functional connectivity across these disorders as a function of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), an effective treatment in both disorders.

Methods: 53 unmedicated right-handed participants were included in a longitudinal study.

Anger, frustration, boredom and the Department of Motor Vehicles: Can negative emotions impede organ donor registration?

Rationale: The IIFF Model (Information, Immediate and Complete Registration Mechanism, Focused Engagement, Favorable Activation) offers a checklist of considerations for interventions seeking to influence organ donor registration behavior. One aspect of the model, favorable activation, recommends considering the emotional and motivational state of a potential donor registrant. Given that most donor registrations occur at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), we considered whether emotions experienced while at the DMV could influence registration rates.

The Effect of Inconsistency Appeals on the Influence of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertisements: An Application of Goal Disruption Theory.

Scholars across multiple domains have identified the presence of inconsistency-arousing information in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements and have suggested that these appeals, which highlight differences between people's actual and desired lives, may create psychological disequilibrium. However, experimental assessment of the distinct influence of inconsistency-arousing information in this domain is rare. Guided by goal disruption theory-a framework that outlines people's reactions to goal expectation violations-we created direct-to-consumer advertisements designed to make people's life inconsistencies salient.

Ichthyosiform sarcoisis.

A 39-year-old woman with a 4-year history of paraparesis developed asymptomatic, ichthyosiform scale on her lower extremities. The lesions consisted of polygonal, pigmented, adherent scales, which were most prominent on the pretibial areas. A biopsy specimen showed granulomatous dermatitis in a patient with pulmonary and neurologic sarcoidosis.

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

A 32-year-old man presented with a 5-year history of cutaneous nodules on his head and a diffuse, lichenified eruption. Histopathologic examination showed an atypical lymphocytic infiltrate. Immunophenotyping studies determined that the lymphocyte population to be CD4-positive, with partial loss of CD3 and CD7, and immunogenotyping studies showed a clonal rearrangement of the T-cell receptor.