Multimodal predictive modeling: Scalable imaging informed approaches to predict future brain health.

Background: Predicting future brain health is a complex endeavor that often requires integrating diverse data sources. The neural patterns and interactions identified through neuroimaging serve as the fundamental basis and early indicators that precede the manifestation of observable behaviors or psychological states.

New Method: In this work, we introduce a multimodal predictive modeling approach that leverages an imaging-informed methodology to gain insights into future behavioral outcomes.

Cannabis cue-reactivity in cannabis use disorder: Diverging evidence in two distinct cannabis cultures.

Background: Cannabis policies and attitudes play a role in the development and presentation of cannabis use disorder (CUD), but it is unclear how these factors are related to biomarkers of addiction. The current study examined cross-cultural differences in cannabis attitudes, cannabis cue-reactivity in the brain and its associations with cannabis use measures and cannabis attitudes.

Design: Cross-sectional fMRI study.

Development and Analytical Validation of a Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Paper Lateral Flow Immunoassay for Detection of the Ubiquitin C-Terminal Hydrolase-L1 Traumatic Brain Injury Biomarker.

Paper lateral flow immunoassays combined with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology have gained increasing attention due to their high sensitivity characteristics resulting from the amplified SERS signals of the plasmon-enhanced optical probes. In contrast to conventional colorimetric lateral flow strips, SERS paper lateral flow strips (SERS-PLFSs) are currently not commercially available for widespread use. Analytical validation is the key step for commercialization.

Greater physical fitness ( ) in healthy older adults associated with increased integrity of the locus coeruleus-noradrenergic system.

Aim: Physical activity (PA) is a key component for brain health and Reserve, and it is among the main dementia protective factors. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underpinning Reserve are not fully understood. In this regard, a noradrenergic (NA) theory of cognitive reserve (Robertson, 2013) has proposed that the upregulation of NA system might be a key factor for building reserve and resilience to neurodegeneration because of the neuroprotective role of NA across the brain.

Multimodal Predictive Modeling: Scalable Imaging Informed Approaches to Predict Future Brain Health.

Background: Predicting future brain health is a complex endeavor that often requires integrating diverse data sources. The neural patterns and interactions identified through neuroimaging serve as the fundamental basis and early indicators that precede the manifestation of observable behaviors or psychological states.

New Method: In this work, we introduce a multimodal predictive modeling approach that leverages an imaging-informed methodology to gain insights into future behavioral outcomes.

Neural consequences of binaural beat stimulation on auditory sentence comprehension: an EEG study.

A growing literature has shown that binaural beat (BB)-generated by dichotic presentation of slightly mismatched pure tones-improves cognition. We recently found that BB stimulation of either beta (18 Hz) or gamma (40 Hz) frequencies enhanced auditory sentence comprehension. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to characterize neural oscillations pertaining to the enhanced linguistic operations following BB stimulation.

Toward precision brain health: accurate prediction of a cognitive index trajectory using neuroimaging metrics.

The goal of precision brain health is to accurately predict individuals' longitudinal patterns of brain change. We trained a machine learning model to predict changes in a cognitive index of brain health from neurophysiologic metrics. A total of 48 participants (ages 21-65) completed a sensorimotor task during 2 functional magnetic resonance imaging sessions 6 mo apart.

Investigating the link between regional oxygen metabolism and cognitive speed in multiple sclerosis: Implications for fatigue.

Background: Most multiple sclerosis (MS) patients experience fatigue and cognitive decline but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Previous work has shown whole brain resting cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO) is associated with the extent of these symptoms. However, it is not known if the association between global CMRO and MS-related cognitive speed and fatigue can be localized to specific brain regions.

Exploring how brain health strategy training informs the future of work.

Introduction: The workplace typically affords one of the longest periods for continued brain health growth. Brain health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the promotion of optimal brain development, cognitive health, and well-being across the life course, which we expanded to also include connectedness to people and purpose. This work was motivated by prior work showing individuals, outside of an aggregate setting, benefitted from training as measured by significant performance gains on a holistic BrainHealth Index and its factors (i.

Novel Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder 24 Months After Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents.

Objective: The authors sought to identify predictive factors of new-onset or novel oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder assessed 24 months after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Methods: Children ages 5 to 14 years who had experienced TBI were recruited from consecutive hospital admissions. Soon after injury, participants were assessed for preinjury characteristics, including psychiatric disorders, socioeconomic status (SES), psychosocial adversity, and family function, and the presence and location of lesions were documented by MRI.

A cross-cultural fMRI investigation of cannabis approach bias in individuals with cannabis use disorder.

Introduction: As cannabis policies and attitudes become more permissive, it is crucial to examine how the legal and social environment influence neurocognitive mechanisms underlying cannabis use disorder (CUD). The current study aimed to assess whether cannabis approach bias, one of the mechanisms proposed to underlie CUD, differed between environments with distinct recreational cannabis policies (Amsterdam, The Netherlands (NL) and Dallas, Texas, United States of America (TX)) and whether individual differences in cannabis attitudes affect those differences.

Methods: Individuals with CUD (NL-CUD: 64; TX-CUD: 48) and closely matched non-using controls (NL-CON: 50; TX-CON: 36) completed a cannabis approach avoidance task (CAAT) in a 3T MRI.

Latent profiles of substance use, early life stress, and attention/externalizing problems and their association with neural correlates of reinforcement learning in adolescents.

Background: Adolescent substance use, externalizing and attention problems, and early life stress (ELS) commonly co-occur. These psychopathologies show overlapping neural dysfunction in the form of reduced recruitment of reward processing neuro-circuitries. However, it is unclear to what extent these psychopathologies show common different neural dysfunctions as a function of symptom profiles, as no studies have directly compared neural dysfunctions associated with each of these psychopathologies to each other.

Greater physical fitness (Vo2Max) in healthy older adults associated with increased integrity of the Locus Coeruleus-Noradrenergic system.

Physical activity (PA) is a key component for brain health and Reserve, and it is among the main dementia protective factors. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underpinning Reserve are not fully understood. In this regard, (Robertson, 2013) proposed that the upregulation of NA system might be a key factor for building reserve and resilience to neurodegeneration because of the neuroprotective role of NA across the brain.

Effects of online brain training on self-reported mental health symptoms for generally healthy adults during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Background: The cognitive training Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training (SMART) has been shown to improve symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress when completed using in-person delivery, but mental health outcomes have not yet been studied for online delivery of SMART.

Methods: Data was analyzed from 145 generally healthy adults participating in the BrainHealth Project pilot study who had access to 12 weeks of online self-paced SMART and self-reported mental health symptoms on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) pre- and post-training. We utilized linear models to examine the change in self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress following the 12-week training period and to explore the influence of age, gender, and education on changes in symptomatology.

Novel Psychiatric Disorder 6 Months After Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents.

Objective: To investigate the factors predictive of novel psychiatric disorders in the interval 0-6 months following traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Methods: Children ages 5-14 years consecutively hospitalized for mild to severe TBI at five hospitals were recruited. Participants were evaluated at baseline (soon after injury) for pre-injury characteristics including psychiatric disorders, socioeconomic status (SES), psychosocial adversity, family function, family psychiatric history, and adaptive function.

An Interpretable and Predictive Connectivity-Based Neural Signature for Chronic Cannabis Use.

Background: Cannabis is one of the most widely used substances in the world, with usage trending upward in recent years. However, although the psychiatric burden associated with maladaptive cannabis use has been well established, reliable and interpretable biomarkers associated with chronic use remain elusive. In this study, we combine large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging with machine learning and network analysis and develop an interpretable decoding model that offers both accurate prediction and novel insights into chronic cannabis use.

Investing in Late-Life Brain Capital.

Within many societies and cultures around the world, older adults are too often undervalued and underappreciated. This exacerbates many key challenges that older adults may face. It also undermines the many positive aspects of late life that are of tremendous value at both an individual and societal level.

Higher-Order Executive Function in Middle School: Training Teachers to Enhance Cognition in Young Adolescents.

The epoch of adolescent brain development is an ideal time to train complex thinking skills, and middle schools provide an ideal environment to train and foster this acquisition. Unfortunately, few teachers are equipped with enough knowledge of the science of learning and evidence-based methodology, to ensure all students are given sufficient opportunity to develop their cognitive capacity to the fullest. Using our evidenced-based higher-order executive function training program, we trained current teachers to provide cognitive training to their students.

Parenting With a Kind Mind: Exploring Kindness as a Potentiator for Enhanced Brain Health.

A growing body of research has suggested that high levels of family functioning-often measured as positive parent-child communication and low levels of parental stress-are associated with stronger cognitive development, higher levels of school engagement, and more successful peer relations as youth age. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought tremendous disruption to various aspects of daily life, especially for parents of young children, ages 3-5, who face isolation, disconnection, and unprecedented changes to how they engage and socialize. Fortunately, both youth and parent brains are plastic and receptive to change.

Altered linear coupling between stimulus-evoked blood flow and oxygen metabolism in the aging human brain.

Neural-vascular coupling (NVC) is the process by which oxygen and nutrients are delivered to metabolically active neurons by blood vessels. Murine models of NVC disruption have revealed its critical role in healthy neural function. We hypothesized that, in humans, aging exerts detrimental effects upon the integrity of the neural-glial-vascular system that underlies NVC.

Time for a paradigm shift: The adolescent brain in addiction treatment.

Objective: One route to improve adolescent addiction treatment outcomes is to use translational approaches to help identify developmental neuroscience mechanisms that undergird active treatment ingredients and advance adolescent behavior change.

Methods: This sample included 163 adolescents (ages 15-19) randomized to motivational interviewing (MI) vs. brief adolescent mindfulness (BAM).

Divided attention at retrieval does not influence neural correlates of recollection in young or older adults.

Age-related decline in episodic memory has been partially attributed to older adults' reduced domain general processing resources. In the present study, we examined the effects of divided attention (DA) - a manipulation assumed to further deplete the already limited processing resources of older adults - on the neural correlates of recollection in young and older adults. Participants underwent fMRI scanning while they performed an associative recognition test in single and dual (tone detection) task conditions.

Novel Oppositional Defiant Disorder 12 Months After Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents.

Objective: The investigators examined the factors predictive of novel oppositional defiant disorder in the 6-12 months following traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Methods: Children ages 5-14 years old who experienced a TBI were recruited from consecutive admissions to five hospitals. Participants were evaluated soon after injury (baseline) for preinjury characteristics, including psychiatric disorders, adaptive function, family function, psychosocial adversity, family psychiatric history, socioeconomic status, and injury severity, to develop a biopsychosocial predictive model for development of novel oppositional defiant disorder.