Cigarette smoking is associated with reduced neuroinflammation and better cognitive control in people living with HIV.

People living with HIV (HIV+) are roughly twice as likely to smoke cigarettes (Smok+) as the general population. With the advent of effective antiretroviral therapies, it is increasingly important to understand the effects of chronic HIV infection and cigarette smoking on brain function and cognition since HIV+ individuals have heightened neuroinflammation and cognitive deficits even with such therapies. Based on prior studies demonstrating that smoking reduces a marker for neuroinflammation in HIV- individuals, we hypothesized that HIV+/Smok+ individuals would have less neuroinflammation and better cognitive control than HIV+/Smok- individuals.

Cross-species translational paradigms for assessing positive valence system as defined by the RDoC matrix.

Functions associated with processing reward-related information are fundamental drivers of motivation, learning, and goal-directed behavior. Such functions have been classified as the positive valence system under the Research Domain and Criteria (RDoC) criteria and are negatively impacted across a range of psychiatric disorders and mental illnesses. The positive valence system is composed of three comprehensive categories containing related but dissociable functions that are organized into either Reward Responsiveness, Reward Learning, or Reward Valuation.

Psychometric Evaluation of Cognitive and Positive Valence Tasks Chosen for the NIMH Research Domain Criteria Project.

The NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative seeks to utilize multidimensional patterns of socio-cognitive behavior to improve understanding of mental illness. We aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of a subset of RDoC tasks. Specifically, we investigated two positive valence tasks and five cognitive tasks.

Acute nicotine vapor normalizes sensorimotor gating and reduces locomotor activity deficits in HIV-1 transgenic rats.

Rationale: Despite improved life expectancy of people with HIV (PWH), HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment (NCI) persists, alongside deficits in sensorimotor gating and neuroinflammation. PWH exhibit high smoking rates, possibly due to neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and cognitive-enhancing effects of nicotine, suggesting potential self-medication.

Objectives: Here, we tested the effects of acute nicotine vapor exposure on translatable measures of sensorimotor gating and exploratory behavior in the HIV-1 transgenic (HIV-1Tg) rat model of HIV.

The Impact of Cannabis Use on Cognition in People with HIV: Evidence of Function-Dependent Effects and Mechanisms from Clinical and Preclinical Studies.

Purpose Of Review: Cannabis may have beneficial anti-inflammatory effects in people with HIV (PWH); however, given this population's high burden of persisting neurocognitive impairment (NCI), clinicians are concerned they may be particularly vulnerable to the deleterious effects of cannabis on cognition. Here, we present a systematic scoping review of clinical and preclinical studies evaluating the effects of cannabinoid exposure on cognition in HIV.

Recent Findings: Results revealed little evidence to support a harmful impact of cannabis use on cognition in HIV, with few eligible preclinical data existing.

Psychosis superspectrum II: neurobiology, treatment, and implications.

Alternatives to traditional categorical diagnoses have been proposed to improve the validity and utility of psychiatric nosology. This paper continues the companion review of an alternative model, the psychosis superspectrum of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP). The superspectrum model aims to describe psychosis-related psychopathology according to data on distributions and associations among signs and symptoms.

Sex differences in risk-based decision-making and the modulation of risk preference by dopamine-2 like receptors in rats.

Heightened risk-based decision-making is observed across several neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and Parkinson's disease, yet no treatments exist that effectively normalize this aberrant behavior. Preclinical risk-based decision-making paradigms have identified the important modulatory roles of dopamine and sex in the performance of such tasks, though specific task parameters may alter such effects (e.g.

Novice driver crashes: The relation between putative causal factors, countermeasures, real world implementations, and policy - A case study in simple, scalable solutions.

Novice drivers are at a greatly inflated risk of crashing. This led in the 20th century to numerous attempts to develop training programs that could reduce their crash risk. Yet, none proved effective.

Daily mood and cognitive performance of women with and without bipolar disorder: role of menopausal status.

We examined the role of menopausal status in daily mood and cognitive performance among women with bipolar disorder (BD) compared to healthy comparison women. We analyzed the association of menopausal status, bipolar diagnosis, and their interaction on daily mood assessed by mobile surveys and attentional performance measured multiple times over 2 weeks. Menopausal status was associated with more daily negative affect in women with BD, but not related to attentional performance.

Electric shock causes a fleeing-like persistent behavioral response in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

Behavioral persistency reflects internal brain states, which are the foundations of multiple brain functions. However, experimental paradigms enabling genetic analyses of behavioral persistency and its associated brain functions have been limited. Here, we report novel persistent behavioral responses caused by electric stimuli in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

The Role of Cannabis and The Endocannabinoid System in Sleep Regulation and Cognition: A Review of Human and Animal Studies.

Objectives: Both sleep and cognition are partially modulated by the endocannabinoid (ECB) system. Cannabis has been reported to have effects on sleep and cognition. This review aims to summarize the recent literature on the ECB system, the role of cannabis and the ECB system on sleep regulation and cognition.

Impaired cognitive control after moderate prenatal alcohol exposure corresponds to altered EEG power during a rodent touchscreen continuous performance task.

Although it is well established that alcohol consumption during pregnancy can lead to lifelong difficulties in offspring, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) remain a common neurodevelopmental syndrome. Translational behavioral tools that target similar brain circuits across species can facilitate understanding of these cognitive consequences. Touchscreen behavioral tasks for rodents enable easy integration of dura recordings of electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in awake behaving animals, with clear translational generalizability.

CADM2 is implicated in impulsive personality and numerous other traits by genome- and phenome-wide association studies in humans and mice.

Impulsivity is a multidimensional heritable phenotype that broadly refers to the tendency to act prematurely and is associated with multiple forms of psychopathology, including substance use disorders. We performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of eight impulsive personality traits from the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and the short UPPS-P Impulsive Personality Scale (N = 123,509-133,517 23andMe research participants of European ancestry), and a measure of Drug Experimentation (N = 130,684). Because these GWAS implicated the gene CADM2, we next performed single-SNP phenome-wide studies (PheWAS) of several of the implicated variants in CADM2 in a multi-ancestral 23andMe cohort (N = 3,229,317, European; N = 579,623, Latin American; N = 199,663, African American).

Perspective on equitable translational studies and clinical support for an unbiased inclusion of the LGBTQIA2S+community.

Research regarding the mental health of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, 2 Spirit (LGBTQIA2S+) community has been historically biased by individual and structural homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia, resulting in research that does not represent the best quality science. Furthermore, much of this research does not serve the best interests or priorities of LGBTQIA2S + communities, despite significant mental health disparities and great need for quality mental health research and treatments in these populations. Here, we will highlight how bias has resulted in missed opportunities for advancing understanding of mental health within LGBTQIA2S + communities.

Development of cross-species translational paradigms for psychiatric research in the Research Domain Criteria era.

The past 30 years of IBNS has included research attempting to treat the cognitive and behavioral deficits observed in people with psychiatric conditions. Early work utilized drugs identified from tests thought to be cognition-relevant, however the high failure rate crossing the translational-species barrier led to focus on developing valid cross-species translational tests. The face, predictive, and neurobiological validities used to assess animal models of psychiatry can be used to validate these tests.

Short-active gestational photoperiod reduces effortful choice behavior in mice, partial normalization by d-amphetamine.

Rationale: Seasonal birth patterns consistently implicate winter gestation as a risk factor for several psychiatric conditions. We recently demonstrated that short-active (SA; 19:5 light:dark)-i.e.

A Pilot Assessment of the Effects of HIV and Methamphetamine Dependence on Socially Dysregulated Behavior in the Human Behavioral Pattern Monitor.

Deficits in social cognition are seen in both people living with HIV (PWH) and people with a history of methamphetamine (METH) dependence. Dually affected individuals may experience additive negative effects on social cognition due to these conditions. We evaluated social cognition in 4 diagnostic groups (HIV-/METH-, HIV-/METH+, HIV+/METH-, HIV+/METH+).

Reinforcement learning deficits exhibited by postnatal PCP-treated rats enable deep neural network classification.

The ability to appropriately update the value of a given action is a critical component of flexible decision making. Several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, are associated with impairments in flexible decision making that can be evaluated using the probabilistic reversal learning (PRL) task. The PRL task has been reverse-translated for use in rodents.

Modulation of ventromedial orbitofrontal cortical glutamatergic activity affects the explore-exploit balance and influences value-based decision-making.

The balance between exploration and exploitation is essential for decision-making. The present study investigated the role of ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex (vmOFC) glutamate neurons in mediating value-based decision-making by first using optogenetics to manipulate vmOFC glutamate activity in rats during a probabilistic reversal learning (PRL) task. Rats that received vmOFC activation during informative feedback completed fewer reversals and exhibited reduced reward sensitivity relative to rats.

iTat transgenic mice exhibit hyper-locomotion in the behavioral pattern monitor after chronic exposure to methamphetamine but are unaffected by Tat expression.

Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) has increased the quality of life and lifespan in people living with HIV (PWH), millions continue to suffer from the neurobehavioral effects of the virus. Additionally, the abuse of illicit drugs (methamphetamine in particular) is significantly higher in PWH compared to the general population, which may further impact their neurological functions. The HIV regulatory protein, Tat, has been implicated in the neurobehavioral impacts of HIV and is purported to inhibit dopamine transporter (DAT) function in a way similar to methamphetamine.