Differential Mapping of Psychopathic Traits and General Psychopathology in a Large Young Adult Sample.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by affective-interpersonal features and an impulsive-antisocial lifestyle. Psychopathy commonly co-occurs with other forms of psychopathology, but current understanding of how behavioral features of psychopathy co-occur with, or are distinct from, other mental health problems is limited. In this study, we analysed data from a large sample of young adults to study the relationship between different facets of psychopathic traits and general psychopathology ("p").

Where do neurodevelopmental conditions fit in transdiagnostic psychiatric frameworks? Incorporating a new neurodevelopmental spectrum.

Features of autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disorders, intellectual disabilities, and communication and motor disorders usually emerge early in life and are associated with atypical neurodevelopment. These "neurodevelopmental conditions" are grouped together in the DSM-5 and ICD-11 to reflect their shared characteristics. Yet, reliance on categorical diagnoses poses significant challenges in both research and clinical settings (e.

Jumping to attributions during social evaluation.

Social learning is crucial for human relationships and well-being. Self- and other- evaluations are universal experiences, playing key roles in many psychiatric disorders, particularly anxiety and depression. We aimed to deepen our understanding of the computational mechanisms behind social learning, which have been implicated in internalizing conditions like anxiety and depression.

Candidate diagnostic biomarkers for neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents: a systematic review.

Neurodevelopmental disorders - including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, communication disorders, intellectual disability, motor disorders, specific learning disorders, and tic disorders - manifest themselves early in development. Valid, reliable and broadly usable biomarkers supporting a timely diagnosis of these disorders would be highly relevant from a clinical and public health standpoint. We conducted the first systematic review of studies on candidate diagnostic biomarkers for these disorders in children and adolescents.

Using genetic algorithms to uncover individual differences in how humans represent facial emotion.

Emotional facial expressions critically impact social interactions and cognition. However, emotion research to date has generally relied on the assumption that people represent categorical emotions in the same way, using standardized stimulus sets and overlooking important individual differences. To resolve this problem, we developed and tested a task using to derive assumption-free, participant-generated emotional expressions.

Association of subcortical gray-matter volumes with life-course-persistent antisocial behavior in a population-representative longitudinal birth cohort.

Neuropsychological evidence supports the developmental taxonomy theory of antisocial behavior, suggesting that abnormal brain development distinguishes life-course-persistent from adolescence-limited antisocial behavior. Recent neuroimaging work confirmed that prospectively-measured life-course-persistent antisocial behavior is associated with differences in cortical brain structure. Whether this extends to subcortical brain structures remains uninvestigated.

Associations between life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour and brain structure in a population-representative longitudinal birth cohort.

Background: Studies with behavioural and neuropsychological tests have supported the developmental taxonomy theory of antisocial behaviour, which specifies abnormal brain development as a fundamental aspect of life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour, but no study has characterised features of brain structure associated with life-course-persistent versus adolescence-limited trajectories, as defined by prospective data. We aimed to determine whether life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour is associated with neurocognitive abnormalities by testing the hypothesis that it is also associated with brain structure abnormalities.

Methods: We used structural MRI data collected at 45 years of age from participants in the Dunedin Study, a population-representative longitudinal birth cohort of 1037 individuals born between April 1, 1972, and March 31, 1973, in Dunedin, New Zealand, who were resident in the province and who participated in the first assessment at 3 years of age.

The role of prefrontal-subcortical circuitry in negative bias in anxiety: Translational, developmental and treatment perspectives.

Anxiety disorders are the most common cause of mental ill health in the developed world, but our understanding of symptoms and treatments is not presently grounded in knowledge of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. In this review, we discuss accumulating work that points to a role for prefrontal-subcortical brain circuitry in driving a core psychological symptom of anxiety disorders - negative affective bias. Specifically, we point to converging work across humans and animal models, suggesting a reciprocal relationship between dorsal and ventral prefrontal-amygdala circuits in promoting and inhibiting negative bias, respectively.

Frontostriatal Dysfunction During Decision Making in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Background: The aim of the current paper is to provide the first comparison of computational mechanisms and neurofunctional substrates in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) during decision making under ambiguity.

Methods: Sixteen boys with ADHD, 20 boys with OCD, and 20 matched control subjects (12-18 years of age) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging version of the Iowa Gambling Task. Brain activation was compared between groups using three-way analysis of covariance.

Disorder-Specific and Shared Brain Abnormalities During Vigilance in Autism and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are often comorbid and share similarities across some cognitive phenotypes, including certain aspects of attention. However, no functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have compared the underlying neural mechanisms contributing to these shared phenotypes.

Methods: Age- and IQ-matched boys (11-17 years old) with ASD ( = 20), boys with OCD ( = 20), and healthy control boys ( = 20) performed a parametrically modulated psychomotor vigilance functional magnetic resonance imaging task.

Shared and Disorder-Specific Neurocomputational Mechanisms of Decision-Making in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often share phenotypes of repetitive behaviors, possibly underpinned by abnormal decision-making. To compare neural correlates underlying decision-making between these disorders, brain activation of boys with ASD (N = 24), OCD (N = 20) and typically developing controls (N = 20) during gambling was compared, and computational modeling compared performance. Patients were unimpaired on number of risky decisions, but modeling showed that both patient groups had lower choice consistency and relied less on reinforcement learning compared to controls.

Neural dysfunction during temporal discounting in paediatric Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Both Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are associated with choice impulsivity, i.e. the tendency to prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards.

Sleep-amount differentially affects fear-processing neural circuitry in pediatric anxiety: A preliminary fMRI investigation.

Insufficient sleep, as well as the incidence of anxiety disorders, both peak during adolescence. While both conditions present perturbations in fear-processing-related neurocircuitry, it is unknown whether these neurofunctional alterations directly link anxiety and compromised sleep in adolescents. Fourteen anxious adolescents (AAs) and 19 healthy adolescents (HAs) were compared on a measure of sleep amount and neural responses to negatively valenced faces during fMRI.

Shared and disorder-specific task-positive and default mode network dysfunctions during sustained attention in paediatric Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and obsessive/compulsive disorder.

Patients with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and obsessive/compulsive disorder (OCD) share problems with sustained attention, and are proposed to share deficits in switching between default mode and task positive networks. The aim of this study was to investigate shared and disorder-specific brain activation abnormalities during sustained attention in the two disorders. Twenty boys with ADHD, 20 boys with OCD and 20 age-matched healthy controls aged between 12 and 18 years completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) version of a parametrically modulated sustained attention task with a progressively increasing sustained attention load.

Comparative Multimodal Meta-analysis of Structural and Functional Brain Abnormalities in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) share inhibitory control deficits possibly underlying poor control over stereotyped and repetitive and compulsive behaviors, respectively. However, it is unclear whether these symptom profiles are mediated by common or distinct neural profiles. This comparative multimodal meta-analysis assessed shared and disorder-specific neuroanatomy and neurofunction of inhibitory functions.

Loss aversion and 5HTT gene variants in adolescent anxiety.

Loss aversion, a well-documented behavioral phenomenon, characterizes decisions under risk in adult populations. As such, loss aversion may provide a reliable measure of risky behavior. Surprisingly, little is known about loss aversion in adolescents, a group who manifests risk-taking behavior, or in anxiety disorders, which are associated with risk-avoidance.

Ventral striatum response during reward and punishment reversal learning in unmedicated major depressive disorder.

Objective: Affective biases may underlie many of the key symptoms of major depressive disorder, from anhedonia to altered cognitive performance. Understanding the cause of these biases is therefore critical in the quest for improved treatments. Depression is associated, for example, with a negative affective bias in reversal learning.