White matter predictors of worsening of subthreshold hypomania severity in non-bipolar young adults parallel abnormalities in individuals with bipolar disorder.

Background: Identifying neural predictors of worsening subthreshold hypomania severity can help identify risk of progression to BD. While diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) studies reported white matter microstructural abnormalities in tracts supporting emotional regulation in individuals with BD, it remains unknown whether similar patterns of white matter microstructure predict worsening of subthreshold hypomania severity in non-BD individuals.

Methods: dMRI data were collected in: 81 non-BD individuals recruited across a range of subthreshold depression and hypomania, and followed for six months; and independent samples of 75 BD and 58 healthy individuals.

Trauma Affects Prospective Relationships Between Reward-Related Ventral Striatal and Amygdala Activation and 1-Year Future Hypo/Mania Trajectories.

Background: Trauma exposure is associated with a more severe, persistent course of affective and anxiety symptoms. Markers of reward neural circuitry function, specifically activation to reward prediction error (RPE), are impacted by trauma and predict the future course of affective symptoms. This study's purpose was to determine how lifetime trauma exposure influences relationships between reward neural circuitry function and the course of future affective and anxiety symptoms in a naturalistic, transdiagnostic observational context.

A specific neural substrate predicting current and future impulsivity in young adults.

Impulsivity (rash action with deleterious outcomes) is common to many psychiatric disorders. While some studies indicate altered amygdala and prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity associated with impulsivity, it remains unclear whether these patterns of neural activity are specific to impulsivity or common to a range of affective and anxiety symptoms. To elucidate neural markers specific to impulsivity, we aimed to differentiate patterns of amygdala-PFC activity and functional connectivity associated with impulsivity from those associated with affective and anxiety symptoms, and identify measures of this circuitry predicting future worsening of impulsivity.

Emotional regulation neural circuitry abnormalities in adult bipolar disorder: dissociating effects of long-term depression history from relationships with present symptoms.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is common and debilitating and confounding effects of depression history on neural activity in BD are unknown. We aimed to dissociate neural activity reflecting past depression-load vs. present symptom severity using the Course and Outcome of Bipolar Youth (COBY), a prospective longitudinal cohort study of pediatric-onset BD.

Depression and anxiety mediate the relationship between frontotemporal white matter integrity and quality of life in distressed young adults.

Depression and anxiety have been linked to poor quality of life (QoL) - one's subjective perception of relationships, physical health, daily functioning, general sense of well-being and life satisfaction. Elucidating abnormal white matter microstructure associated with mood and other symptoms and QoL is important to facilitate treatment. Ninety-six young adults (18-25 years old) seeking help for psychological distress, irrespective of presence or absence of psychiatric diagnosis completed diffusion weighted and anatomical scans, clinical and behavioral measures, and QoL assessment.

Assessing Relationships Among Impulsive Sensation Seeking, Reward Circuitry Activity, and Risk for Psychopathology: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Replication and Extension Study.

Background: High trait impulsive sensation seeking (ISS), the tendency to engage in behavior without forethought and to seek out new or extreme experiences, is a transdiagnostic risk factor for externalizing and mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder. We published a positive association between trait ISS and reward expectancy-related activity in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (L vlPFC) and the ventral striatum. We aimed to replicate this finding and extend it by testing for mediation effects of ISS on relationships between reward expectancy-related activity and measures denoting hypomania.

Predicting Bipolar Disorder Risk Factors in Distressed Young Adults From Patterns of Brain Activation to Reward: A Machine Learning Approach.

Background: The aim of this study was to apply multivariate pattern recognition to predict the severity of behavioral traits and symptoms associated with risk for bipolar spectrum disorder from patterns of whole-brain activation during reward expectancy to facilitate the identification of individual-level neural biomarkers of bipolar disorder risk.

Methods: We acquired functional neuroimaging data from two independent samples of transdiagnostically recruited adults (18-25 years of age; n = 56, mean age 21.9 ± 2.

Anhedonia Reduction and the Association Between Left Ventral Striatal Reward Response and 6-Month Improvement in Life Satisfaction Among Young Adults.

Importance: Anhedonia is a symptom of multiple psychiatric conditions in young adults that is associated with poorer mental health and psychosocial function and abnormal ventral striatum reward processing. Aberrant function of neural reward circuitry is well documented in anhedonia and other psychiatric disorders. Longitudinal studies to identify potential biomarkers associated with a reduction in anhedonia are necessary for the development of novel treatment targets.

Longitudinal changes in brain activation during anticipation of monetary loss in bipolar disorder.

Background: Individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) show aberrant brain activation patterns during reward and loss anticipation. We examined for the first time longitudinal changes in brain activation during win and loss anticipation to identify trait markers of aberrant anticipatory processing in BD.

Methods: Thirty-four euthymic and depressed individuals with BD-I and 17 healthy controls (HC) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging twice 6 months apart during a reward task.

Trauma-associated anterior cingulate connectivity during reward learning predicts affective and anxiety states in young adults.

Background: Trauma exposure is associated with development of depression and anxiety; yet, some individuals are resilient to these trauma-associated effects. Differentiating mechanisms underlying development of negative affect and resilience following trauma is critical for developing effective interventions. One pathway through which trauma could exert its effects on negative affect is reward-learning networks.

Anticipation-related brain connectivity in bipolar and unipolar depression: a graph theory approach.

Bipolar disorder is often misdiagnosed as major depressive disorder, which leads to inadequate treatment. Depressed individuals versus healthy control subjects, show increased expectation of negative outcomes. Due to increased impulsivity and risk for mania, however, depressed individuals with bipolar disorder may differ from those with major depressive disorder in neural mechanisms underlying anticipation processes.

Glutamate and GABA contributions to medial prefrontal cortical activity to emotion: implications for mood disorders.

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (MdPFC) and anterior cingulate cortices (ACC) play a critical role in implicit emotion regulation; however the understanding of the specific neurotransmitters that mediate such role is lacking. In this study, we examined relationships between MdPFC concentrations of two neurotransmitters, glutamate and γ-amino butyric acid (GABA), and BOLD activity in ACC during performance of an implicit facial emotion-processing task. Twenty healthy volunteers, aged 20-35 years, were scanned while performing an implicit facial emotion-processing task, whereby presented facial expressions changed from neutral to one of the four emotions: happy, anger, fear, or sad.