Developmental Differences in a Hippocampal-Cingulate Pathway Involved in Learned Safety Following Interpersonal Trauma Exposure.

Objective: Nearly 65% of youth experience trauma, and up to one-third of youth with trauma exposure face profound mental health sequelae. There remains a need to elucidate factors that contribute to psychopathology following trauma exposure, and to optimize interventions for youth who do not benefit sufficiently from existing treatments. Here, we probe safety signal learning (SSL), which is a mechanism of fear reduction that leverages learned safety to inhibit fear in the presence of threat-associated stimuli and has been shown to attenuate fear via a hippocampal-cingulate--specifically, a dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)--pathway.

Investigating an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-Based Exposure Therapy Intervention in Treatment-Refractory OCD and Related Disorders: Changes in Psychological Flexibility, Treatment Engagement, and Treatment Perceptions.

While exposure therapy is the most effective psychological treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, and traumatic stress-related disorders, it is not universally effective, indicating a need for further treatment optimization. This study investigated a shift in approach to exposure therapy with 29 treatment-refractory adults in an OCD clinic not responding to standard treatment, comprising habituation-based exposure therapy. Participants completed standard exposure as a continuation of standard clinic treatment, followed by an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) consultation session to assess psychological inflexibility processes interfering with treatment progress, and then an ACT-based exposure targeting behavior change through increasing psychological flexibility.

Dynamic Alterations in Neural Networks Supporting Aversive Learning in Children Exposed to Trauma: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Psychopathology.

Background: Altered aversive learning represents a potential mechanism through which childhood trauma (CT) might influence risk for psychopathology. This study examines the temporal dynamics of neural activation and patterns of functional connectivity during aversive learning in children with and without exposure to CT involving interpersonal violence and evaluates whether these neural patterns mediate the association of CT with psychopathology in a longitudinal design.

Methods: A total of 147 children (aged 8-16 years, 77 with CT) completed a fear conditioning procedure during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan.

Neural Abnormalities in Fear Generalization in Schizophrenia and Associations With Negative Symptoms.

Background: Associative learning and memory processes, including the generalization of previously learned associations, may be altered in schizophrenia. Deficits in schizophrenia in stimulus generalization, one of the simplest forms of memory, could interfere with the ability to efficiently categorize related, similar information, potentially leading to impairments in daily functioning.

Methods: To measure generalization in schizophrenia, 37 individuals with a nonaffective psychotic disorder and 32 demographically matched healthy control subjects underwent a Pavlovian fear conditioning and generalization procedure, which accounted for variation in perceptual ability across participants, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Elevated Amygdala Activity in Young Adults With Familial Risk for Depression: A Potential Marker of Low Resilience.

Background: Amygdala overactivity has been frequently observed in patients with depression, as well as in nondepressed relatives of patients with depression. A remaining unanswered question is whether elevated amygdala activity in those with familial risk for depression is related to the presence of subthreshold symptoms or to a trait-level vulnerability for illness.

Methods: To examine this question, functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected in nondepressed young adults with (family history [FH+]) (n = 27) or without (FH-) (n = 45) a first-degree relative with a history of depression while they viewed images of "looming" or withdrawing stimuli (faces and cars) that varied in salience by virtue of their apparent proximity to the subject.

Mechanisms linking childhood adversity with psychopathology: Learning as an intervention target.

Exposure to childhood adversity is common and a powerful risk factor for many forms of psychopathology. In this opinion piece, we argue for greater translation of knowledge about the developmental processes that are influenced by childhood adversity into targeted interventions to prevent the onset of psychopathology. Existing evidence has consistently identified several neurodevelopmental pathways that serve as mechanisms linking adversity with psychopathology.

Increased amygdala-visual cortex connectivity in youth with persecutory ideation.

Background: Subclinical delusional ideas, including persecutory beliefs, in otherwise healthy individuals are heritable symptoms associated with increased risk for psychotic illness, possibly representing an expression of one end of a continuum of psychosis severity. The identification of variation in brain function associated with these symptoms may provide insights about the neurobiology of delusions in clinical psychosis.

Methods: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan was collected from 131 young adults with a wide range of severity of subclinical delusional beliefs, including persecutory ideas.

Correlation Between Levels of Delusional Beliefs and Perfusion of the Hippocampus and an Associated Network in a Non-Help-Seeking Population.

Background: Delusions are a defining and common symptom of psychotic disorders. Recent evidence suggests that subclinical and clinical delusions may represent distinct stages on a phenomenological and biological continuum. However, few studies have tested whether subclinical psychotic experiences are associated with neural changes that are similar to those observed in clinical psychosis.

Abnormalities in personal space and parietal-frontal function in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is associated with subtle abnormalities in day-to-day social behaviors, including a tendency in some patients to "keep their distance" from others in physical space. The neural basis of this abnormality, and related changes in social functioning, is unknown. Here we examined, in schizophrenic patients and healthy control subjects, the functioning of a parietal-frontal network involved in monitoring the space immediately surrounding the body ("personal space").