The Dichotomy of Threat and Deprivation as Subtypes of Childhood Maltreatment: Differential Functional Connectivity Patterns of Threat and Reward Circuits in an Adult Trauma Sample.

Background: Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced activation of the nucleus accumbens, a central region in the reward network, and overactivity in the amygdala, a key region in threat processing. However, the long-lasting impact of these associations in the context of later-life stress is not well understood. The current study explored the association between childhood threat and deprivation and functional connectivity of threat and reward regions in an adult trauma sample.

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and the Neurobiology of Uncertainty in Traumatically Injured Adults.

Background: Individuals residing in more socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods experience greater uncertainty through insecurity of basic needs such as food, employment, and housing, compared with more advantaged neighborhoods. Although the neurobiology of uncertainty has been less frequently examined in relation to neighborhood disadvantage, there is evidence that neighborhood disadvantage is associated with widespread neural alterations.

Methods: Recently traumatically injured participants ( = 90) completed a picture anticipation task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner, in which they viewed images presented in a temporally predictable or unpredictable manner.

Acute White Matter Integrity Post-trauma and Prospective Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.

Little is known about what distinguishes those who are resilient after trauma from those at risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous work indicates white matter integrity may be a useful biomarker in predicting PTSD. Research has shown changes in the integrity of three white matter tracts-the cingulum bundle, corpus callosum (CC), and uncinate fasciculus (UNC)-in the aftermath of trauma relate to PTSD symptoms.

Hippocampal Resting-State Functional Connectivity Forecasts Individual Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: A Data-Driven Approach.

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder, and there is no current accurate prediction of who develops it after trauma. Neurobiologically, individuals with chronic PTSD exhibit aberrant resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the hippocampus and other brain regions (e.g.

Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Supplementary Motor Area Associated with Skin-Picking Symptom Severity.

Pathological skin picking (excoriation) is a relatively common disorder. Although it has been hypothesized to share a similar pathophysiological basis as other obsessive-compulsive (OC) spectrum disorders, to date, little work has specifically examined the precise neurobiological mechanisms involved in excoriation. Disruption in functional circuits involving the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) and supplementary motor area (SMA) may be particularly relevant to skin-picking pathology as these regions have been implicated in other OC-spectrum disorders for their roles in response inhibition and voluntary motor action, respectively.

Multi-voxel pattern analysis of amygdala functional connectivity at rest predicts variability in posttraumatic stress severity.

Introduction: Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) studies demonstrate that individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibit atypical functional connectivity (FC) between the amygdala, involved in the generation of emotion, and regions responsible for emotional appraisal (e.g., insula, orbitofrontal cortex [OFC]) and regulation (prefrontal cortex [PFC], anterior cingulate cortex).

Reward-related distracters and working memory filtering.

Reward-related stimuli capture attention, even when they are task irrelevant. A consequence of attentional prioritization of reward-related stimuli is that they may also have preferential access to working memory like other forms of emotional information. However, whether reward-related distracters leak into working memory remains unknown.

State Anxiety Impairs Proactive but Enhances Reactive Control.

Cognitive control is a construct that prioritizes how we process stimuli and information to flexibly and efficiently adapt to internal goals and external environmental changes. The Dual Mechanism of Control (DMC) theory delineates two distinct cognitive control operations: proactive control and reactive control (Braver, 2012). Anxiety has been posited to differentially affect proactive and reactive control, due to its influence on working memory and attention allocation (Eysenck et al.

Structural Connectivity of the Posterior Cingulum Is Related to Reexperiencing Symptoms in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a heterogeneous disorder with disturbances in hyper-arousal or avoidance behaviors, and intrusive or re-experiencing thoughts. The uncinate fasciculus (UF) and cingulum bundle are white matter pathways implicated in stress and trauma pathophysiology, yet their structural integrity related to PTSD symptom domains is yet to be understood. Forty-four trauma-exposed young adults underwent structural and diffusion-weighted MRI.

Moderating Effects of Harm Avoidance on Resting-State Functional Connectivity of the Anterior Insula.

As an index of behavioral inhibition and an individual's propensity to avoid, rather than seek, potentially dangerous situations, harm avoidance has been linked to internalizing psychopathology. Altered connectivity within intrinsic functional neural networks (i.e.

Cortico-limbic connectivity changes following fear extinction and relationships with trait anxiety.

Fear extinction is a powerful model of adaptive and anxiety-related maladaptive fear inhibition. This learning process is dependent upon plastic interactions between the amygdala, the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), the hippocampus, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). With regard to the amygdala, the basolateral (BLA) and centromedial amygdala (CMA) serve unique roles in fear extinction.

Abnormal cortical gyrification in criminal psychopathy.

Background: Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by interpersonal and emotional abnormalities (e.g., lack of empathy and guilt) and antisocial behavior.

Neural circuitry governing anxious individuals' mis-allocation of working memory to threat.

Dispositional anxiety is a trait-like phenotype that confers increased risk for a range of debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders. Like many patients with anxiety disorders, individuals with elevated levels of dispositional anxiety are prone to intrusive and distressing thoughts in the absence of immediate threat. Recent electrophysiological research suggests that these symptoms are rooted in the mis-allocation of working memory (WM) resources to threat-related information.

The effects of stimulus novelty and negativity on BOLD activity in the amygdala, hippocampus, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.

novelty; bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; BNST; amygdale; fMRI; BST.

Cortical Gyrification Patterns Associated with Trait Anxiety.

Dispositional anxiety is a stable personality trait that is a key risk factor for internalizing disorders, and understanding the neural correlates of trait anxiety may help us better understand the development of these disorders. Abnormal cortical folding is thought to reflect differences in cortical connectivity occurring during brain development. Therefore, assessing gyrification may advance understanding of cortical development and organization associated with trait anxiety.