Specific Associations Between Type of Childhood Abuse and Elevated C-Reactive Protein in Young Adult Psychiatric Rehabilitation Participants.

Background: Early-life adversity such as childhood emotional, physical, and sexual trauma is associated with later-life psychiatric and chronic medical conditions, including elevated inflammatory markers. Although previous research suggests a role for chronic inflammatory dysfunctions in several disease etiologies, specific associations between childhood trauma types and later-life inflammation and health status are poorly understood.

Methods: We studied patients (n = 280) admitted to a psychiatric rehabilitation center.

Cross-ethnicity/race generalization failure of behavioral prediction from resting-state functional connectivity.

Algorithmic biases that favor majority populations pose a key challenge to the application of machine learning for precision medicine. Here, we assessed such bias in prediction models of behavioral phenotypes from brain functional magnetic resonance imaging. We examined the prediction bias using two independent datasets (preadolescent versus adult) of mixed ethnic/racial composition.

Transcription Factor Motifs Associated with Anterior Insula Gene Expression Underlying Mood Disorder Phenotypes.

Mood disorders represent a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide but the brain-related molecular pathophysiology in mood disorders remains largely undefined. Because the anterior insula is reduced in volume in patients with mood disorders, RNA was extracted from the anterior insula postmortem anterior insula of mood disorder samples and compared with unaffected controls for RNA-sequencing identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in (a) bipolar disorder (BD; n = 37) versus (vs.) controls (n = 33), and (b) major depressive disorder (MDD n = 30) vs.

BDNF ValMet polymorphism tunes frontolimbic circuitry during affective contextual learning.

Adaptive learning impairments are common in cognitive and behavioral disorders, but the neurogenetic mechanisms supporting human affective learning are poorly understood. We designed a higher-order contextual learning task in which healthy participants genotyped for the ValMet polymorphism of the brain derived neurotropic factor gene (BDNF) were required to choose the member of a picture pair most congruent with the emotion in a previously-viewed facial expression video in order to produce an advantageous monetary outcome. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) identified frontolimbic blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) reactivity that was associated with BDNF ValMet genotype during all three phases of the learning task: aversive and reward-predictive learning, contextually-challenging decision-making, and choice-related monetary loss-avoidance and gain outcomes.

Variation in the Williams syndrome GTF2I gene and anxiety proneness interactively affect prefrontal cortical response to aversive stimuli.

Characterizing the molecular mechanisms underlying the heritability of complex behavioral traits such as human anxiety remains a challenging endeavor for behavioral neuroscience. Copy-number variation (CNV) in the general transcription factor gene, GTF2I, located in the 7q11.23 chromosomal region that is hemideleted in Williams syndrome and duplicated in the 7q11.

Convergent BOLD and Beta-Band Activity in Superior Temporal Sulcus and Frontolimbic Circuitry Underpins Human Emotion Cognition.

The processing of social information in the human brain is widely distributed neuroanatomically and finely orchestrated over time. However, a detailed account of the spatiotemporal organization of these key neural underpinnings of human social cognition remains to be elucidated. Here, we applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) in the same participants to investigate spatial and temporal neural patterns evoked by viewing videos of facial muscle configurations.

The Williams syndrome chromosome 7q11.23 hemideletion confers hypersocial, anxious personality coupled with altered insula structure and function.

Although it is widely accepted that genes can influence complex behavioral traits such as human temperament, the underlying neurogenetic mechanisms remain unclear. Williams syndrome (WS), a rare disorder caused by a hemizygous deletion on chromosome 7q11.23, including genes important for neuronal migration and maturation (LIMK1 and CLIP2), is typified by a remarkable hypersocial but anxious personality and offers a unique opportunity to investigate this open issue.

Bridging the gene-behavior divide through neuroimaging deletion syndromes: Velocardiofacial (22q11.2 Deletion) and Williams (7q11.23 Deletion) syndromes.

Investigating the relationship between genes and the neural substrates of complex human behavior promises to provide essential insight into the pathophysiology of mental disorders. One approach to this inquiry is through neuroimaging of individuals with microdeletion syndromes that manifest in specific neuropsychiatric phenotypes. Both Velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) and Williams syndrome (WS) involve haploinsufficiency of a relatively small set of identified genes on the one hand and association with distinct, clinically relevant behavioral and cognitive profiles on the other hand.

Investigating the molecular basis of major depressive disorder etiology: a functional convergent genetic approach.

Genes play a major role in behavioral adaptation to challenging environmental stimuli, but the complexity of their contribution remains unclear. There is growing evidence linking disease phenotypes with genes on the one hand, and the genesis of stress-related disorders like major depression, as a result of exposure to stressful environmental pathogens on the other. Here we illustrate the convergent role of monoaminergic genes in regulating the underlying biological mechanisms of stress and the emotions.

Inferior frontal gyrus activity triggers anterior insula response to emotional facial expressions.

The observation of movies of facial expressions of others has been shown to recruit similar areas involved in experiencing one's own emotions: the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the anterior insula and adjacent frontal operculum (IFO). The causal link between activity in these 2 regions, associated with motor and emotional simulation, respectively, has remained unknown. Here using psychophysiological interaction and Granger Causality Modeling, we show that activity in the IFO is causally triggered by activity in the IFG, and that this effective connectivity is specific to the IFG.

A common anterior insula representation of disgust observation, experience and imagination shows divergent functional connectivity pathways.

Similar brain regions are involved when we imagine, observe and execute an action. Is the same true for emotions? Here, the same subjects were scanned while they (a) experience, (b) view someone else experiencing and (c) imagine experiencing gustatory emotions (through script-driven imagery). Capitalizing on the fact that disgust is repeatedly inducible within the scanner environment, we scanned the same participants while they (a) view actors taste the content of a cup and look disgusted (b) tasted unpleasant bitter liquids to induce disgust, and (c) read and imagine scenarios involving disgust and their neutral counterparts.

Convergent genetic modulation of the endocrine stress response involves polymorphic variations of 5-HTT, COMT and MAOA.

Highly prevalent stress-related disorders such as major depression (MD) are characterised by a dysregulation of the neuroendocrine system. Although heritability for these disorders is high, the role of genes in the underlying pathophysiology is poorly understood. Here, we show that polymorphic variations in genes coding for serotonin transporter (5-HTT), catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) and monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) as well as sex differences influence the regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis response to acute psychological and endocrine challenges.

Catechol-o-methyltransferase polymorphism and susceptibility to major depressive disorder modulates psychological stress response.

Objectives: The stress response is related to both physiological and psychological factors and is strongly marked by a neuroendocrine component. Genetic factors are believed to underlie individual differences in the degree of stress resilience and thereby contribute in determining susceptibility to stress-related pathologies like major depressive disorder (MDD). Little, however, is known about the genetic influence on the endocrine and behavioural stress response in relation to MDD.

Empathy for positive and negative emotions in the gustatory cortex.

Anterior insula and adjacent frontal operculum (hereafter referred to as IFO) are active during exposure to tastants/odorants (particularly disgusting ones), and during the viewing of disgusted facial expressions. Together with lesion data, the IFO has thus been proposed to be crucial in processing disgust-related stimuli. Here, we examined IFO involvement in the processing of other people's gustatory emotions more generally by exposing participants to food-related disgusted, pleased and neutral facial expressions during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).