Task-related neural mechanisms of persecutory ideation in schizophrenia and community monozygotic twin-pairs.

Perceptions of spiteful behavior are common, distinct from rational fear, and may undergird persecutory ideation. To test this hypothesis and investigate neural mechanisms of persecutory ideation, we employed a novel economic social decision-making task, the Minnesota Trust Game (MTG), during neuroimaging in patients with schizophrenia (n = 30) and community monozygotic (MZ) twins (n = 38; 19 pairs). We examined distinct forms of mistrust, task-related brain activation and connectivity, and investigated relationships with persecutory ideation.

Neuropsychological characterization of three adolescent females with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis in the acute, post-acute, and chronic phases: an inter-institutional case series.

Objective: Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate (anti-NMDA) receptor encephalitis is an acute, immune-mediated paraneoplastic syndrome that often presents with psychobehavioral changes, abnormal movements, autonomic instability, seizures, and cognitive dysfunction. While the disease continues to be more readily identified and appropriately treated, the course of cognitive deficits from the acute to post-acute to chronic phase has not been well described, particularly in the pediatric population. This case series describes the neuropsychological functioning of three adolescent females with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis from its early presentation to long-term follow-up.

Age-related changes in the intrinsic functional connectivity of the human ventral vs. dorsal striatum from childhood to middle age.

The striatum codes motivated behavior. Delineating age-related differences within striatal circuitry can provide insights into neural mechanisms underlying ontogenic behavioral changes and vulnerabilities to mental disorders. To this end, a dual ventral/dorsal model of striatal function was examined using resting state intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) imaging in 106 healthy individuals, ages 9-44.

Associations between cortical thickness and general intelligence in children, adolescents and young adults.

Neuroimaging research indicates that human intellectual ability is related to brain structure including the thickness of the cerebral cortex. Most studies indicate that general intelligence is positively associated with cortical thickness in areas of association cortex distributed throughout both brain hemispheres. In this study, we performed a cortical thickness mapping analysis on data from 182 healthy typically developing males and females ages 9 to 24 years to identify correlates of general intelligence () scores.

Dopaminergic modulation of incentive motivation in adolescence: age-related changes in signaling, individual differences, and implications for the development of self-regulation.

Behavioral activation that is associated with incentive-reward motivation increases in adolescence relative to childhood and adulthood. This quadratic developmental pattern is generally supported by behavioral and experimental neuroscience findings. It is suggested that a focus on changes in dopamine neurotransmission is informative in understanding the mechanism for this adolescent increase in reward-related behavioral activation and subsequent decline into adulthood.

Associations between cortical thickness and verbal fluency in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood.

Neuroimaging studies of normative human brain development indicate that the brain matures at differing rates across time and brain regions, with some areas maturing into young adulthood. In particular, changes in cortical thickness may index maturational progressions from an overabundance of neuropil toward efficiently pruned neural networks. Developmental changes in structural MRI measures have rarely been examined in relation to discrete neuropsychological functions.