Posttraumatic reexperiencing and alcohol use: Mediofrontal theta as a neural mechanism for negative reinforcement.

Over half of U.S. military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) use alcohol heavily, potentially to cope with their symptoms.

Altered Use of Context During Visual Perception in Psychotic Psychopathology: A Neurophysiological Investigation of Tuned and Untuned Suppression During Contrast Perception.

Background And Hypothesis: The human visual system streamlines visual processing by suppressing responses to textures that are similar to their surrounding context. Surround suppression is weaker in individuals with schizophrenia (ISZ); this altered use of visuospatial context may relate to the characteristic visual distortions they experience.

Study Design: To understand atypical surround suppression in psychotic psychopathology, we investigated neurophysiological responses in ISZ, healthy controls (HC), individuals with bipolar disorder (IBP), and first-degree relatives (ISZR/IBPR).

Clarifying Cognitive Control Deficits in Psychosis via Drift Diffusion Modeling and Attractor Dynamics.

Background And Hypothesis: Cognitive control deficits are prominent in individuals with psychotic psychopathology. Studies providing evidence for deficits in proactive control generally examine average performance and not variation across trials for individuals-potentially obscuring detection of essential contributors to cognitive control. Here, we leverage intertrial variability through drift-diffusion models (DDMs) aiming to identify key contributors to cognitive control deficits in psychosis.

Causal Discovery for fMRI data: Challenges, Solutions, and a Case Study.

Designing studies that apply causal discovery requires navigating many researcher degrees of freedom. This complexity is exacerbated when the study involves fMRI data. In this paper we (i) describe nine challenges that occur when applying causal discovery to fMRI data, (ii) discuss the space of decisions that need to be made, (iii) review how a recent case study made those decisions, (iv) and identify existing gaps that could potentially be solved by the development of new methods.

Integrating Causal Discovery and Clinically-Relevant Insights to Explore Directional Relationships between Autistic Features, Sex at Birth, and Cognitive Abilities.

Prevalence in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis has long been strongly male-biased. Yet, consensus has not been reached on mechanisms and clinical features that underlie sex-based discrepancies. Whereas females may be under-diagnosed because of inconsistencies in diagnostic/ascertainment procedures (sex-biased criteria, social camouflaging), diagnosed males may have exhibited more overt behaviors (e.

NeuroFreq: a MATLAB Toolbox for Time-Frequency Analysis of M/EEG Data.

Time-frequency (TF) analysis of M/EEG data enables rich understanding of cortical dynamics underlying cognition, health, and disease. There are many algorithms for time-frequency decomposition of M/EEG neural data, but they are implemented in an inconsistent manner and most existing toolboxes either 1) contain only one or a few transforms, or 2) are not adapted to analyze multichannel, multitrial M/EEG data. This makes entry into time-frequency daunting for new practitioners and limits the ability of the community to flexibly compare the performance of multiple TF methods on M/EEG data.

Clarifying Cognitive Control Deficits in Psychosis via Drift Diffusion Modeling.

Cognitive control deficits are consistently identified in individuals with schizophrenia and other psychotic psychopathologies. In this analysis, we delineated proactive and reactive control deficits in psychotic psychopathology via hierarchical Drift Diffusion Modeling (hDDM). People with psychosis (PwP; N=123), their first-degree relatives (N=79), and controls (N=51) completed the Dot Pattern Expectancy task, which allows differentiation between proactive and reactive control.

A Computational Framework for EEG Causal Oscillatory Connectivity.

Here we advance a new approach for measuring EEG causal oscillatory connectivity, capitalizing on recent advances in causal discovery analysis for skewed time series data and in spectral parameterization of time-frequency (TF) data. We first parameterize EEG TF data into separate oscillatory and aperiodic components. We then measure causal interactions between separated oscillatory data with the recently proposed causal connectivity method Greedy Adjacencies and Non-Gaussian Orientations (GANGO).

Posttraumatic reexperiencing and alcohol use: mediofrontal theta as a neural mechanism for negative reinforcement.

Objective: Over half of US military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) use alcohol heavily, potentially to cope with their symptoms. This study investigated the neural underpinnings of PTSD symptoms and heavy drinking in veterans. We focused on brain responses to salient outcomes within predictive coding theory.

Subtypes in addiction and their neurobehavioral profiles across three functional domains.

Rates of return to use in addiction treatment remain high. We argue that the development of improved treatment options will require advanced understanding of individual heterogeneity in Substance Use Disorders (SUDs). We hypothesized that considerable individual differences exist in the three functional domains underlying addiction-approach-related behavior, executive function, and negative emotionality.

Impact of reduced-dimensionality independent components analysis on event-related potential measurements.

Independent components analysis (ICA) is an effective and ubiquitous tool for cleaning EEG. To reduce computation time, many analysis pipelines decrease EEG dimensionality prior to ICA. A 2018 report by Artoni and colleagues detailed the deleterious effects of such reduced-dimensionality ICA (rdICA) on the dipolarity and reliability of independent components.

Explainable machine learning analysis reveals sex and gender differences in the phenotypic and neurobiological markers of Cannabis Use Disorder.

Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) has been linked to a complex set of neuro-behavioral risk factors. While many studies have revealed sex and gender differences, the relative importance of these risk factors by sex and gender has not been described. We used an "explainable" machine learning approach that combined decision trees [gradient tree boosting, XGBoost] with factor ranking tools [SHapley's Additive exPlanations (SHAP)] to investigate sex and gender differences in CUD.

The resting-state causal human connectome is characterized by hub connectivity of executive and attentional networks.

We demonstrate a data-driven approach for calculating a "causal connectome" of directed connectivity from resting-state fMRI data using a greedy adjacency search and pairwise non-Gaussian edge orientations. We used this approach to construct n = 442 causal connectomes. These connectomes were very sparse in comparison to typical Pearson correlation-based graphs (roughly 2.

Gender Differences in the Psychosocial Determinants Underlying the Onset and Maintenance of Alcohol Use Disorder.

A large number of different mechanisms have been linked to Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), including psychosocial, neurocognitive, affective, and neurobiological factors. Gender has been shown to impact the presentation and progression of AUD; yet, little work has been done to parse the different mechanisms underlying AUD within the lens of gender differences. A review of the literature on adolescence revealed that psychosocial factors, in particular lack of family social support and interactions with peers, drive the onset of alcohol use more strongly in girls relative to boys.

Win, lose, or draw: Examining salience, reward memory, and depression with the reward positivity.

The reward positivity (RewP) is a putative biomarker of depression. Careful control of stimulus properties and manipulation of both stimulus valence and salience could facilitate interpretation of the RewP. RewP interpretation could further be improved by investigating functional outcomes of a blunted RewP in depression, such as reduced memory for rewarding outcomes.

Negative urgency as a risk factor for hazardous alcohol use: Dual influences of cognitive control and reinforcement processing.

Negative Urgency (NU) is a prominent risk factor for hazardous alcohol use. While research has helped elucidate how NU relates to neurobiological functioning with respect to alcohol use, no known work has contextualized such functioning within existing neurobiological theories in addiction. Therefore, we elucidated mechanisms contributing to the NU-hazardous alcohol use relationship by combining NU theories with neurobiological dual models of addiction, which posit addiction is related to cognitive control and reinforcement processing.

Frontal midline theta differentiates separate cognitive control strategies while still generalizing the need for cognitive control.

Cognitive control processes encompass many distinct components, including response inhibition (stopping a prepotent response), proactive control (using prior information to enact control), reactive control (last-minute changing of a prepotent response), and conflict monitoring (choosing between two competing responses). While frontal midline theta activity is theorized to be a general marker of the need for cognitive control, a stringent test of this hypothesis would require a quantitative, within-subject comparison of the neural activation patterns indexing many different cognitive control strategies, an experiment lacking in the current literature. We recorded EEG from 176 participants as they performed tasks that tested inhibitory control (Go/Nogo Task), proactive and reactive control (AX-Continuous Performance Task), and resolving response conflict (Global/Local Task-modified Flanker Task).

The aversion positivity: Mediofrontal cortical potentials reflect parametric aversive prediction errors and drive behavioral modification following negative reinforcement.

Reinforcement learning capitalizes on prediction errors (PEs), representing the deviation of received outcomes from expected outcomes. Mediofrontal event-related potentials (ERPs), in particular the feedback-related negativity (FRN)/reward positivity (RewP), are related to PE signaling, but there is disagreement as to whether the FRN/RewP encode signed or unsigned PEs. PE encoding can potentially be dissected by time-frequency analysis, as frontal theta [4-8 Hz] might represent poor outcomes, while central delta [1-3 Hz] might instead represent rewarding outcomes.

Parametric Cortical Representations of Complexity and Preference for Artistic and Computer-Generated Fractal Patterns Revealed by Single-Trial EEG Power Spectral Analysis.

Fractals are self-similar patterns that repeat at different scales, the complexity of which are expressed as a fractional Euclidean dimension D between 0 (a point) and 2 (a filled plane). The drip paintings of American painter Jackson Pollock (JP) are fractal in nature, and Pollock's most illustrious works are of the high-D (~1.7) category.

An integrated multimodal model of alcohol use disorder generated by data-driven causal discovery analysis.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has high prevalence and adverse societal impacts, but our understanding of the factors driving AUD is hampered by a lack of studies that describe the complex neurobehavioral mechanisms driving AUD. We analyzed causal pathways to AUD severity using Causal Discovery Analysis (CDA) with data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP; n = 926 [54% female], 22% AUD [37% female]). We applied exploratory factor analysis to parse the wide HCP phenotypic space (100 measures) into 18 underlying domains, and we assessed functional connectivity within 12 resting-state brain networks.

Feedback-Related Negativity and Frontal Midline Theta Reflect Dissociable Processing of Reinforcement.

Prediction errors (PEs) encode representations of rewarding and aversive experiences and are critical to reinforcement processing. The feedback-related negativity (FRN), a component of the event-related potential (ERP) that is sensitive to valenced feedback, is believed to reflect PE signals. Reinforcement is also studied using frontal midline theta (FMΘ) activity, which peaks around the same time as the FRN and increases in response to unexpected events compared to expected events.

Delta phase reset predicts conflict-related changes in P3 amplitude and behavior.

When multiple competing responses are activated, we respond more slowly than if only one response is activated (response conflict). Conflict-induced slowing is reduced for consecutive high-conflict stimuli, an effect known as conflict adaptation. Verguts and Notebaert's (2009) adaptation by binding theory suggests this is due to Hebbian learning of cognitive control, potentiated by the response of the locus coeruleus norepinephrine (NE) system.

Attentional Conflict Moderates the Association Between Anxiety and Emotional Eating Behavior: An ERP Study.

Emotional eating is an attempt to avoid, control, or cope with negative emotions through eating a large amount of calorie dense sweet and/or high fat foods. Several factors, including various attentional mechanisms, negative affect, and stress, impact emotional eating behavior. For example, attentional narrowing on negative events may increase attentional stickiness and thereby prevent the processing of more peripheral events, such as eating behavior.

The roles of selective attention and desensitization in the association between video gameplay and aggression: An ERP investigation.

A number of studies have indicated that violent video gameplay is associated with higher levels of aggression and that desensitization and selective attention to violent content may contribute to this association. Utilizing an emotionally-charged rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, the current study used two event-related potentials (ERPs) - the N1 and P3 - that have been associated with selective attention and desensitization as neurocognitive mechanisms potentially underlying the connection between gameplay and higher levels of aggression. Results indicated that video game players and non-players differed in N1 and P3 activation when engaged with emotionally-charged imagery.