Maternal prenatal immune activation associated with brain tissue microstructure and metabolite concentrations in newborn infants.

Few human studies have assessed the association of prenatal maternal immune activation (MIA) with measures of brain development and psychiatric risk in newborn offspring. Our goal was to identify the effects of MIA during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy on newborn measures of brain metabolite concentrations, tissue microstructure, and motor development. This was a prospective longitudinal cohort study conducted with nulliparous pregnant women who were aged 14 to 19 years and recruited in their 2nd trimester, as well as their children who were followed through 14 months of age.

"All we have to fear is fear itself": Paradigms for reducing fear by preventing awareness of it.

Research on unconscious fear responses has recently been translated into experimental paradigms for reducing fear that bypass conscious awareness of the phobic stimulus and thus do not induce distress. These paradigms stand in contrast to exposure therapies for anxiety disorders, which require direct confrontation of feared situations and thus are distressing. We systematically review these unconscious exposure paradigms.

A systematic review of MRI studies on the effects of maternal obesity on offspring brain structure and function.

Maternal obesity before or during pregnancy has been associated previously in offspring with a wide range of poor neurodevelopmental outcomes and mental health problems. The effects of maternal obesity on offspring brain structure and function that may be responsible for these poor outcomes are not well understood. We, therefore, undertook a systematic review of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies that have assessed the associations of maternal obesity with brain measures in offspring.

Progression of brain injuries associated with methotrexate chemotherapy in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Background: Brain bases and progression of methotrexate-associated neurotoxicity and cognitive disturbances remain unknown. We tested whether brain abnormalities worsen in proportion to intrathecal methotrexate(IT-MTX) doses.

Methods: In this prospective, longitudinal study, we recruited 19 patients with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia 4-to-20 years of age and 20 matched controls.

A multi-site Tc-HMPAO SPECT study of cerebral blood flow in a community sample of patients with major depression.

Prior regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF) studies in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) have been limited by small, highly selective, non-representative samples that have yielded variable and poorly replicated findings. The aim of this study was to compare rCBF measures in a large, more representative community sample of adults with MDD and healthy control participants. This is a cross-sectional, retrospective multi-site cohort study in which clinical data from 338 patients 18-65 years of age with a primary diagnosis of MDD were retrieved from a central database for 8 privately owned, private-pay outpatient psychiatric centers across the United States.

Mapping Early Brain-Body Interactions: Associations of Fetal Heart Rate Variation with Newborn Brainstem, Hypothalamic, and Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Functional Connectivity.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates the body's physiology, including cardiovascular function. As the ANS develops during the second to third trimester, fetal heart rate variability (HRV) increases while fetal heart rate (HR) decreases. In this way, fetal HR and HRV provide an index of fetal ANS development and future neurobehavioral regulation.

Pre-pregnancy maternal obesity and infant neurodevelopmental outcomes in Latino infants.

Objective: This study explores the impact of maternal pre-pregnancy BMI on infant neurodevelopment at 24 months in low-income Latino families. It also investigates whether infant diet mediates this relationship.

Methods: Latino mother-infant pairs (n = 163) were enrolled at 1 month post partum and were followed for 2 years, with assessments at 6-month intervals.

A Scoping Review of the Mechanisms Underlying Developmental Anesthetic Neurotoxicity.

Although anesthesia makes painful or uncomfortable diagnostic and interventional health care procedures tolerable, it may also disrupt key cellular processes in neurons and glia, harm the developing brain, and thereby impair cognition and behavior in children. Many years of studies using in vitro, animal behavioral, retrospective database studies in humans, and several prospective clinical trials in humans have been invaluable in discerning the potential toxicity of anesthetics. The objective of this scoping review was to synthetize the evidence from preclinical studies for various mechanisms of toxicity across diverse experimental designs and relate their findings to those of recent clinical trials in real-world settings.

Tools for the Diagnosis of ADHD in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.

Context: Correct diagnosis is essential for the appropriate clinical management of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents.

Objective: This systematic review provides an overview of the available diagnostic tools.

Data Sources: We identified diagnostic accuracy studies in 12 databases published from 1980 through June 2023.

Treatments for ADHD in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.

Context: Effective treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is essential to improving youth outcomes.

Objectives: This systematic review provides an overview of the available treatment options.

Data Sources: We identified controlled treatment evaluations in 12 databases published from 1980 to June 2023; treatments were not restricted by intervention content.

Cerebrovascular responses to a 90° tilt in healthy neonates.

Background: Tilts can induce alterations in cerebral hemodynamics in healthy neonates, but prior studies have only examined systemic parameters or used small tilt angles (<90°). The healthy neonatal population, however, are commonly subjected to large tilt angles (≥90°). We sought to characterize the cerebrovascular response to a 90° tilt in healthy term neonates.

The multi-level outcome study of psychoanalysis for chronically depressed patients with early trauma (MODE): rationale and design of an international multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Background: Whether and how psychotherapies change brain structure and function is unknown. Its study is of great importance for contemporary psychotherapy, as it may lead to discovery of neurobiological mechanisms that predict and mediate lasting changes in psychotherapy, particularly in severely mentally ill patients, such as those with chronic depression. Previous studies have shown that psychoanalytic psychotherapies produce robust and enduring improvements in not only symptom severity but also personality organization in patients who have chronic depression and early life trauma, especially if therapy is delivered at a high weekly frequency.

The effects of experience of discrimination and acculturation during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain.

The experience of ethnic, racial, and structural inequalities is increasingly recognized as detrimental to health, and early studies suggest that its experience in pregnant mothers may affect the developing fetus. We characterized discrimination and acculturation experiences in a predominantly Hispanic sample of pregnant adolescent women and assessed their association with functional connectivity in their neonate's brain. We collected self-report measures of acculturation, discrimination, maternal distress (i.

Longitudinal, prospective study of head impacts in male high school football players.

Introduction: Repetitive, subconcussive events may adversely affect the brain and cognition during sensitive periods of development. Prevention of neurocognitive consequences of concussion in high school football is therefore an important public health priority. We aimed to identify the player positions and demographic, behavioral, cognitive, and impact characteristics that predict the frequency and acceleration of head impacts in high school football players.

Utilizing maternal prenatal cognition as a predictor of newborn brain measures of intellectual development.

Identifying reliable indicators of cognitive functioning prior to age five has been challenging. Prior studies have shown that maternal cognition, as indexed by intellectual quotient (IQ) and years of education, predict child intelligence at school age. We examined whether maternal full scale IQ, education, and inhibitory control (index of executive function) are associated with newborn brain measures and toddler language outcomes to assess potential indicators of early cognition.

Wearable and Mobile Technologies for the Evaluation and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Scoping Review.

Background: Smartphones and wearable biosensors can continuously and passively measure aspects of behavior and physiology while also collecting data that require user input. These devices can potentially be used to monitor symptom burden; estimate diagnosis and risk for relapse; predict treatment response; and deliver digital interventions in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a prevalent and disabling psychiatric condition that often follows a chronic and fluctuating course and may uniquely benefit from these technologies.

Objective: Given the speed at which mobile and wearable technologies are being developed and implemented in clinical settings, a continual reappraisal of this field is needed.

Maternal prenatal immune activation associated with brain tissue microstructure and metabolite concentrations in newborn infants.

Importance: Few translational human studies have assessed the association of prenatal maternal immune activation with altered brain development and psychiatric risk in newborn offspring.

Objective: To identify the effects of maternal immune activation during the 2 and 3 trimesters of pregnancy on newborn brain metabolite concentrations, tissue microstructure, and longitudinal motor development.

Design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study conducted from 2012 - 2017.

A randomized controlled trial of desvenlafaxine-induced structural brain changes in the treatment of persistent depressive disorder.

The anatomical changes that antidepressant medications induce in the brain and through which they exert their therapeutic effects remain largely unknown. We randomized 61 patients with Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD) to receive either desvenlafaxine or placebo in a 12-week trial and acquired anatomical MRI scans in 42 of those patients at baseline before randomization and immediately at the end of the trial. We also acquired MRIs once in 39 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.

Aberrant hippocampus and amygdala morphology associated with cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.

Background: Working memory deficits are thought to be a primary disturbance in schizophrenia. We aimed to identify differences in morphology of the hippocampus and amygdala in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy controls (HCs), and in patients who were either neuropsychologically near normal (NPNN) or neuropsychologically impaired (NPI). Morphological disturbances in the same subfields of the hippocampus and amygdala, but of greater magnitude in those with NPI, would strengthen evidence for the centrality of these limbic regions and working memory deficits in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

Geometry-derived statistical significance: A probabilistic framework for detecting true positive findings in MRI data.

Introduction: The false discovery rate (FDR) procedure does not incorporate the geometry of the random field and requires high statistical power at each voxel, a requirement not satisfied by the limited number of participants in imaging studies. Topological FDR, threshold free cluster enhancement (TFCE), and probabilistic TFCE improve statistical power by incorporating local geometry. However, topological FDR requires specifying a cluster defining threshold and TFCE requires specifying transformation weights.