Factors Associated With Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist Participation in Public Insurance: Evidence From Georgia State.

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate rates of public insurance participation among the different psychotherapist professions as well as among psychiatrists. In addition, it seeks to assess individual and contextual factors that are associated with public insurance participation.

Background: Historically, Medicaid- and Medicare-insured individuals have faced unique barriers to access to mental health professionals.

Adaptation, calibration, and validation of a cognitive assessment battery for telephone and video administration.

Background: Events such as global pandemics can force rapid adoption of new modes of assessment. We describe the evaluation of a modified neuropsychological assessment for web and telephone administration.

Methods: Telephone and video conferencing-based neuropsychological assessment procedures were developed and implemented within an ongoing observational study, the Successful Aging following Elective Surgery II (SAGES) study (N = 420 persons).

A sexually dimorphic signature of activity-dependent BDNF signaling on the intrinsic excitability of pyramidal neurons in the prefrontal cortex.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders with strong genetic heterogeneity and more prevalent in males than females. We and others hypothesize that diminished activity-dependent neural signaling is a common molecular pathway dysregulated in ASD caused by diverse genetic mutations. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a key growth factor mediating activity-dependent neural signaling in the brain.

Macro-scale patterns in functional connectivity associated with ongoing thought patterns and dispositional traits.

Complex macro-scale patterns of brain activity that emerge during periods of wakeful rest provide insight into the organisation of neural function, how these differentiate individuals based on their traits, and the neural basis of different types of self-generated thoughts. Although brain activity during wakeful rest is valuable for understanding important features of human cognition, its unconstrained nature makes it difficult to disentangle neural features related to personality traits from those related to the thoughts occurring at rest. Our study builds on recent perspectives from work on ongoing conscious thought that highlight the interactions between three brain networks - ventral and dorsal attention networks, as well as the default mode network.

Validation of a Malayalam Version of the Apathy Evaluation Scale.

Background: The apathy evaluation scale (AES) measures apathy, but its usefulness as a screening tool in diverse populations is limited without translation into more languages. To date, there is no reported translation of the AES into Malayalam, a language spoken by over 32 million people in the southern Indian state of Kerala. In the present study, we aimed to validate the Malayalam version of the AES.

A protocol for a randomized controlled trial of couples motivational interviewing to reduce drug use and HIV transmission risk among male couples in the US: the Couples Health Project.

Background: To reduce substance use and sexual HIV transmission risk among sexual minority men (SMM) requires the development of interventions tailored for those in relationships. In the past 5 years, there have been considerable advances in the development of motivational nterviewing (MI) with couples. The Couples Health Project (CHP) is the first multi-session risk reduction protocol built on this formative research.

Investigating social orienting in children with Phelan-McDermid syndrome and 'idiopathic' autism.

Background: Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) is a rare genetic syndrome characterized by developmental delay/intellectual disability, absent or delayed speech, physical dysmorphic features and high rates of autistic features. However, it is currently unknown whether people with PMS have similar neurocognitive atypicalities to those previously identified in idiopathic autism. Disruption in social orienting has previously been suggested as an early hallmark feature of idiopathic autism that impacts social learning and social interaction.

Biomarkers for Cognitive Control, Response Inhibition, Aggressivity, Impulsivity, and Violence.

Deficits in cognitive control contribute to behavioral impairments across neuropsychiatric disorders. Cognitive control is captured as a construct in the Research Domain Construct (RDoC) matrix and incorporate subdomains of goal selection, response selection, and performance monitoring. Relevant tasks for these subdomains include the "AX" version of the continuous performance task (goal selection) and the Go/NoGo and Stop-Signal reaction time tasks (response selection).

Delineating a Pathway for the Discovery of Functional Connectome Biomarkers of Autism.

The promise of individually tailored care for autism has driven efforts to establish biomarkers. This chapter appraises the state of precision-medicine research focused on biomarkers based on the functional brain connectome. This work is grounded on abundant evidence supporting the brain dysconnection model of autism and the advantages of resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI) for studying the brain in vivo.

Auditory Biomarkers of Neuropsychiatric Disorders in Nonhuman Primates.

Animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders with appropriate biomarkers can greatly inform the neurobiological basis of disorder-related deficits of cognitive and/or sensory processes. Given the genetic, physiologic, and behavioral similarities between humans and nonhuman primates (NHPs), NHP studies are monumentally important for preclinical translational research. Capitalizing on the NHP's similarities with human systems provides one of the best opportunities to gain detailed insight into the mechanisms underlying disorder-related symptoms and to accumulate a foundation of information for the development of therapeutic interventions.

Methods for and Use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Psychiatry.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive technique for measuring brain activity that uses MRI to measure the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal. Over the 30+ years since the technique was first described (Ogawa et al. 1990), BOLD-fMRI has uncovered much about the organization and function of the human brain and is now beginning to fulfill its promise as a tool for diagnostic and prognostic biomarker of psychiatric conditions.

Trajectories of human brain functional connectome maturation across the birth transition.

Understanding the sequence and timing of brain functional network development at the beginning of human life is critically important from both normative and clinical perspectives. Yet, we presently lack rigorous examination of the longitudinal emergence of human brain functional networks over the birth transition. Leveraging a large, longitudinal perinatal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data set, this study models developmental trajectories of brain functional networks spanning 25 to 55 weeks of post-conceptual gestational age (GA).

The Association Between Bilingual Animal Naming and Memory Among Bilingual Mexican American Older Adults.

Background: Monolingual cognitive assessments are standard for bilinguals; the value of bilingual assessment is unknown. Since declines in animal naming accompany memory declines in dementia, we examined the association between bilingual animal naming and memory among bilingual Mexican American (MA) older adults.

Methods: Bilingual MA (n = 155) completed the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) in a Texas community study.

Fidelity to Common Elements of Coordinated Specialty Care: Outcomes of Clients With First-Episode Psychosis.

Objective: The present study examined whether clients enrolled in coordinated specialty care (CSC) programs for first-episode psychosis (FEP) across 22 states and territories showed improved clinical and functional outcomes and assessed whether program- or client-level predictors were associated with client outcomes. The study included CSC programs that subscribe to a variety of models, including Early Assessment and Support Alliance, OnTrack, and NAVIGATE.

Methods: Deidentified demographic and outcome data were collected from clients (N=770) receiving CSC services in 36 programs at the time of program entry and every 6 months for up to 18 months.

Structural neural plasticity evoked by rapid-acting antidepressant interventions.

A feature in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD), a mood disorder, is the impairment of excitatory synapses in the prefrontal cortex. Intriguingly, different types of treatment with fairly rapid antidepressant effects (within days or a few weeks), such as ketamine, electroconvulsive therapy and non-invasive neurostimulation, seem to converge on enhancement of neural plasticity. However, the forms and mechanisms of plasticity that link antidepressant interventions to the restoration of excitatory synaptic function are still unknown.

Computational and Neural Evidence for Altered Fast and Slow Learning from Losses in Problem Gambling.

Learning occurs across multiple timescales, with fast learning crucial for adapting to sudden environmental changes, and slow learning beneficial for extracting robust knowledge from multiple events. Here, we asked if miscalibrated fast vs slow learning can lead to maladaptive decision-making in individuals with problem gambling. We recruited participants with problem gambling (PG; N = 20; 9 female and 11 male) and a recreational gambling control group without any symptoms associated with PG (N = 20; 10 female and 10 male) from the community in Los Angeles, CA.

Improving Survey Inference Using Administrative Records Without Releasing Individual-Level Continuous Data.

Probability surveys are challenged by increasing nonresponse rates, resulting in biased statistical inference. Auxiliary information about populations can be used to reduce bias in estimation. Often continuous auxiliary variables in administrative records are first discretized before releasing to the public to avoid confidentiality breaches.

Symmetry engineering in 2D bioelectronics facilitating augmented biosensing interfaces.

Symmetry lies at the heart of two-dimensional (2D) bioelectronics, determining material properties at the fundamental level. Breaking the symmetry allows emergent functionalities and effects. However, symmetry modulation in 2D bioelectronics and the resultant applications have been largely overlooked.

Adaptation of a couples intervention to promote coparenting and reduce hazardous drinking during transition to parenthood.

Introduction: Hazardous drinking by fathers poses a significant risk for negative family interactions and child outcomes. The transition to parenthood may be a time when expectant parents are potentially motivated for health behavior change, suggesting that implementing preventive interventions during this period may be particularly effective. This article provides an overview of the rationale for an innovative prevention strategy incorporating alcohol-use intervention with a family-focused program.

Electrophysiological dynamics of salience, default mode, and frontoparietal networks during episodic memory formation and recall revealed through multi-experiment iEEG replication.

Dynamic interactions between large-scale brain networks underpin human cognitive processes, but their electrophysiological mechanisms remain elusive. The triple network model, encompassing the salience network (SN), default mode network (DMN), and frontoparietal network (FPN), provides a framework for understanding these interactions. We analyzed intracranial electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from 177 participants across four diverse episodic memory experiments, each involving encoding as well as recall phases.