Network Connectivity Alterations across the MAPT Mutation Clinical Spectrum.

Objective: Microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) mutations cause frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and novel biomarkers are urgently needed for early disease detection. We used task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) mapping, a promising biomarker, to analyze network connectivity in symptomatic and presymptomatic MAPT mutation carriers.

Methods: We compared cross-sectional fMRI data between 17 symptomatic and 39 presymptomatic carriers and 81 controls with (1) seed-based analyses to examine connectivity within networks associated with the 4 most common MAPT-associated clinical syndromes (ie, salience, corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome, and default mode networks) and (2) whole-brain connectivity analyses.

Thalamo-cortical network hyperconnectivity in preclinical progranulin mutation carriers.

Mutations in progranulin (GRN) cause heterogeneous clinical syndromes, including behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), primary progressive aphasia (PPA), corticobasal syndrome (CBS) and Alzheimer-type dementia (AD-type dementia). Human studies have shown that presymptomatic GRN carriers feature reduced connectivity in the salience network, a system targeted in bvFTD. Mice with homozygous deletion of GRN, in contrast, show thalamo-cortical hypersynchrony due to aberrant pruning of inhibitory synapses onto thalamo-cortical projection neurons.

Attenuated Neural Processing of Risk in Young Adults at Risk for Stimulant Dependence.

Objective: Approximately 10% of young adults report non-medical use of stimulants (cocaine, amphetamine, methylphenidate), which puts them at risk for the development of dependence. This fMRI study investigates whether subjects at early stages of stimulant use show altered decision making processing.

Methods: 158 occasional stimulants users (OSU) and 50 comparison subjects (CS) performed a "risky gains" decision making task during which they could select safe options (cash in 20 cents) or gamble them for double or nothing in two consecutive gambles (win or lose 40 or 80 cents, "risky decisions").

Common and disorder-specific neural responses to emotional faces in generalised anxiety, social anxiety and panic disorders.

Background: Although evidence exists for abnormal brain function across various anxiety disorders, direct comparison of neural function across diagnoses is needed to elicit abnormalities common across disorders and those distinct to a particular diagnosis.

Aims: To delineate common and distinct abnormalities within generalised anxiety (GAD), panic and social anxiety disorder (SAD) during affective processing.

Method: Fifty-nine adults (15 with GAD, 15 with panic disorder, 14 with SAD, and 15 healthy controls) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing a facial emotion matching task with fearful, angry and happy faces.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder is associated with attenuation of limbic activation to threat-related facial emotions.

Background: The neural processes underlying the benefits of cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are not well understood.

Methods: Twenty-one (n=21) adults with a principal diagnosis of GAD and eleven (n=11) non-anxious healthy controls (HC) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing a facial emotion processing task. Responses to threat-related emotionality (i.

Neural functional and structural correlates of childhood maltreatment in women with intimate-partner violence-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a strong risk factor for development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) upon adult exposure to extreme adverse events. However, the neural underpinnings of this relationship are not well understood. Here, we test the hypothesis that severity of CM history is positively correlated with emotion-processing limbic and prefrontal brain activation/connectivity and negatively correlated with prefrontal gray matter volumes in women with PTSD due to intimate-partner violence (IPV-PTSD).

Young adults at risk for stimulant dependence show reward dysfunction during reinforcement-based decision making.

Background: While stimulant-dependent individuals continue to make risky decisions, in spite of poor outcomes, much less is known about decision-making characteristics of occasional stimulant users (OSU) at risk for developing stimulant dependence. This study examines whether OSU exhibit inefficient learning and execution of reinforced decision-outcome contingencies.

Methods: Occasional stimulant users (n = 161) and stimulant-naïve comparison subjects (CTL) (n = 48) performed a Paper Scissors Rock task during functional magnetic resonance imaging.

The effects of temporal unpredictability in anticipation of negative events in combat veterans with PTSD.

Background: Exposure to psychological stress during combat can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Anticipation of aversive events is often associated with an intense emotional state in individuals with PTSD. Both the valence (i.