Electroencephalography (EEG) data processing to derive event-related potentials (ERPs) follows a standard set of procedures to maximize signal-to-noise ratio. This often includes ocular correction, which corrects for artifacts introduced by eye movements, typically measured by electrooculogram (EOG) using facial electrodes near the eyes. Yet, attaching electrodes to the face may be uncomfortable for some populations, best to avoid in some situations, and contribute to data loss.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepression is a prevalent, debilitating, and costly disorder that often manifests in adolescence. There is an urgent need to understand core pathophysiological processes for depression to inform more targeted intervention efforts. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Positive Valence Systems (PVS) and Negative Valence Systems (NVS) have both been implicated in depression symptomatology and vulnerability; however, the nature of NVS alterations is unclear across studies, and associations between single neural measures and symptoms are often small in magnitude and inconsistent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrauma exposure is associated with a heightened risk for depression and such risk is thought to vary based on the type of traumatic events (e.g., interpersonal, including abuse and domestic violence, or non-interpersonal, including accidents or natural disasters).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pregnancy is marked by physiological and psychosocial changes for women, and event-related potentials (ERP) are comfortable and safe for examining brain function across pregnancy. The late positive potential (LPP) ERP, a measure of allocated attention to emotional stimuli, may provide insight into associations between internalizing symptoms and neural processing of infant emotion cues, which may be particularly salient in this life stage.
Methods: We developed a task to examine neural and behavioral responses to infant faces in pregnant women (N = 120, Mage=31.
Reduced activation of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) positive valence systems (PVS) is observed in high-risk (HR) children of depressed mothers and predictive of future psychopathologies. We developed a dyadic, neuroscience-informed preventive intervention, Family Promoting Positive Emotions (FPPE), designed to prevent psychopathology in HR children by targeting PVS processes. We evaluated the initial efficacy of FPPE compared to written information (WI) psychoeducation in engaging PVS-related targets and reducing perceived stress and emotional distress symptoms in HR youth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGroup cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for adolescent depression, but outcomes vary. Our goal was to examine interpersonal factors that predict response to group CBT for adolescent depression using a broad range of outcomes, including depressive symptoms, session attendance, treatment completion, engagement, and improvement. Seventy adolescents (age 14-18) with depression completed self-report measures of social support and parental conflict and were offered an established 16-session group CBT program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic imposed profound effects on health and daily life, with widespread stress exposure and increases in psychiatric symptoms. Despite these challenges, pandemic research provides unique insights into individual differences in emotion and cognition that predict responses to stress, with general implications for understanding stress vulnerability. We examined predictors of responses to COVID-19-related stress in an online sample of 450 emerging adults recruited in May 2020 to complete questionnaires assessing baseline stress and psychiatric symptoms, rumination, cognitive reappraisal use and intolerance of uncertainty.
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