Ángel Romero-Martínez, María Beser-Robles, Leonor Cerdá-Alberich, Fernando Aparici, Luis Martí-Bonmatí, Carolina Sarrate-Costa, Marisol Lila, Luis Moya-Albiol
{"title":"Executive dysfunction and cortical variations among intimate partner violence perpetrators and the association with sexism.","authors":"Ángel Romero-Martínez, María Beser-Robles, Leonor Cerdá-Alberich, Fernando Aparici, Luis Martí-Bonmatí, Carolina Sarrate-Costa, Marisol Lila, Luis Moya-Albiol","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae046","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae046","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Malfunctioning in executive functioning has been proposed as a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV). This is not only due to its effects on behavioral regulation but also because of its association with other variables such as sexism. Executive dysfunctions have been associated with frontal and prefrontal cortical thickness. Therefore, our first aim was to assess differences in cortical thickness in frontal and prefrontal regions, as well as levels of sexism, between two groups of IPV perpetrators (with and without executive dysfunctions) and a control group of non-violent men. Second, we analyzed whether the cortical thickness in the frontal and prefrontal regions would explain sexism scores. Our results indicate that IPV perpetrators classified as dysexecutive exhibited a lower cortical thickness in the right rostral anterior cingulate superior frontal bilaterally, caudal middle frontal bilaterally, right medial orbitofrontal, right paracentral, and precentral bilaterally when compared with controls. Furthermore, they exhibited higher levels of sexism than the rest of the groups. Most importantly, in the brain structures that distinguished between groups, lower thickness was associated with higher sexism scores. This research emphasizes the need to incorporate neuroimaging techniques to develop accurate IPV profiles or subtypes based on neuropsychological functioning.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11223607/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141447905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mary B Ritchie, Shannon A H Compton, Lindsay D Oliver, Elizabeth Finger, Richard W J Neufeld, Derek G V Mitchell
{"title":"The impact of acute violent videogame exposure on neurocognitive markers of empathic concern.","authors":"Mary B Ritchie, Shannon A H Compton, Lindsay D Oliver, Elizabeth Finger, Richard W J Neufeld, Derek G V Mitchell","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae031","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae031","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research examining the purported association between violent gaming and aggression remains controversial due to concerns related to methodology, unclear neurocognitive mechanisms, and the failure to adequately consider the role of individual differences in susceptibility. To help address these concerns, we used fMRI and an emotional empathy task to examine whether acute and cumulative violent gaming exposure were associated with abnormalities in emotional empathy as a function of trait-empathy. Emotional empathy was targeted given its involvement in regulating not only aggression, but also other important social functions such as compassion and prosocial behaviour. We hypothesized that violent gaming exposure increases the risk of aberrant social behaviour by altering the aversive value of distress cues. Contrary to expectations, neither behavioural ratings nor empathy-related brain activity varied as a function of violent gaming exposure. Notably, however, activation patterns in somatosensory and motor cortices reflected an interaction between violent gaming exposure and trait empathy. Thus, our results are inconsistent with a straightforward relationship between violent gaming exposure and reduced empathy. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of considering both individual differences in susceptibility and other aspects of cognition related to social functioning to best inform public concern regarding safe gaming practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11223611/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140900781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lauren R Borchers, Anthony J Gifuni, Tiffany C Ho, Jaclyn S Kirshenbaum, Ian H Gotlib
{"title":"Threat- and reward-related brain circuitry, perceived stress, and anxiety in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal investigation.","authors":"Lauren R Borchers, Anthony J Gifuni, Tiffany C Ho, Jaclyn S Kirshenbaum, Ian H Gotlib","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae040","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae040","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic led to heightened anxiety in adolescents. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) are implicated in response to stress and may contribute to anxiety. The role of threat- and reward-related circuitry in adolescent anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, is not clear. Ninety-nine adolescents underwent resting-state fMRI ∼1 year before the pandemic. Following shelter-in-place orders, adolescents reported their perceived stress and, 1 month later, their anxiety. Generalized multivariate analyses identified BLA and NAcc seed-based whole-brain functional connectivity maps with perceived stress. In the resulting significant clusters, we examined the association between seed-based connectivityand subsequent anxiety. Perceived stress was associated with bilateral BLA and NAcc connectivity across distributed clusters that included prefrontal, limbic, temporal, and cerebellar regions. Several NAcc connectivity clusters located in ventromedial prefrontal, parahippocampal, and temporal cortices were positively associated with anxiety; NAcc connectivity with the inferior frontal gyrus was negatively associated. BLA connectivity was not associated with anxiety. These results underscore the integrative role of the NAcc in responding to acute stressors and its relation to anxiety in adolescents. Elucidating the involvement of subcortical-cortical circuitry in adolescents' capacity to respond adaptively to environmental challenges can inform treatment for anxiety-related disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11219304/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141319414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yoojin Lee, Jessica R Gilbert, Laura R Waldman, Carlos A Zarate, Elizabeth D Ballard
{"title":"Potential association between suicide risk, aggression, impulsivity, and the somatosensory system.","authors":"Yoojin Lee, Jessica R Gilbert, Laura R Waldman, Carlos A Zarate, Elizabeth D Ballard","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae041","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae041","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Aggression and impulsivity are linked to suicidal behaviors, but their relationship to the suicidal crisis remains unclear. This magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigated the link between aggression, impulsivity, and resting-state MEG power and connectivity. Four risk groups were enrolled: high-risk (HR; n = 14), who had a recent suicidal crisis; lower-risk (LR; n = 41), who had a history of suicide attempts but no suicide attempt or ideation in the past year; clinical control (CC; n = 38), who had anxiety/mood disorders but no suicidal history; and minimal risk (MR; n = 28), who had no psychiatric/suicidal history. No difference in resting-state MEG power was observed between the groups. Individuals in the HR group with high self-reported aggression and impulsivity scores had reduced MEG power in regions responsible for sensory/emotion regulation vs. those in the HR group with low scores. The HR group also showed downregulated bidirectional glutamatergic feedback between the precuneus (PRE) and insula (INS) compared to the LR, CC, and MR groups. High self-reported impulsivity was linked to reduced PRE to INS feedback, whereas high risk-taking impulsivity was linked to upregulated INS to postcentral gyrus (PCG) and PCG to INS feedback. These preliminary findings suggest that glutamatergic-mediated sensory and emotion-regulation processes may function as potential suicide risk markers.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11219302/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141319413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maria R Dauvermann, Laura Moreno-Lopéz, Benedetta Vai, Nadia González-García, Sofia Orellana, Peter B Jones, Ed Bullmore, Ian M Goodyer, Anne-Laura van Harmelen
{"title":"Early adolescent perceived friendship quality aids affective and neural responses to social inclusion and exclusion in young adults with and without adverse childhood experiences.","authors":"Maria R Dauvermann, Laura Moreno-Lopéz, Benedetta Vai, Nadia González-García, Sofia Orellana, Peter B Jones, Ed Bullmore, Ian M Goodyer, Anne-Laura van Harmelen","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae044","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae044","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Friendships increase mental wellbeing and resilient functioning in young people with childhood adversity (CA). However, the mechanisms of this relationship are unknown. We examined the relationship between perceived friendship quality at age 14 after the experience of CA and reduced affective and neural responses to social exclusion at age 24. Resilient functioning was quantified as psychosocial functioning relative to the degree of CA severity in 310 participants at age 24. From this cohort, 62 young people with and without CA underwent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to assess brain responses to social inclusion and exclusion. We observed that good friendship quality was significantly associated with better resilient functioning. Both friendship quality and resilient functioning were related to increased affective responses to social inclusion. We also found that friendship quality, but not resilient functioning, was associated with increased dorsomedial prefrontal cortex responses to peer exclusion. Our findings suggest that friendship quality in early adolescence may contribute to the evaluation of social inclusion by increasing affective sensitivity to positive social experiences and increased brain activity in regions involved in emotion regulation to negative social experiences. Future research is needed to clarify this relationship with resilient functioning in early adulthood.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11219303/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141433721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effects of peer victimization on cortical processing of social-evaluative stress in patients with major depressive disorder.","authors":"Benjamin Iffland, Hanna Kley, Frank Neuner","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae037","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae037","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Peer victimization contributes to the development of major depressive disorders (MDDs). While previous studies reported differentiated peripheral physiological responses in peer-victimized individuals with depression, little is known about potential alterations of cortical event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to social stimuli in depressive patients with a history of peer victimization. Using a social condition paradigm, the present study examined whether peer victimization alters conditioned cortical responses to potentially threatening social stimuli in MDD patients and healthy controls. In the task, we studied ERPs to conditioned stimuli (CSs), i.e. still images of faces, that were coupled to unconditioned socially negative and neutral evaluative video statements. Peer victimization was related to more pronounced P100 amplitudes in reaction to negative and neutral CSs. Attenuated P200 amplitudes in peer-victimized individuals were found in response to negative CSs. Cortical responses to CSs were not influenced by a diagnosis of MDD. The results suggest altered responsiveness to interpersonal information in peer-victimized individuals. Facilitated early processing of social threat indicators may prevent peer-victimized individuals from adaptive responses to social cues, increasing their vulnerability for depression.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11182063/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141319412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
James B Wyngaarden, Camille R Johnston, Daniel Sazhin, Jeff B Dennison, Ori Zaff, Dominic Fareri, Michael McCloskey, Lauren B Alloy, David V Smith, Johanna M Jarcho
{"title":"Corticostriatal responses to social reward are linked to trait reward sensitivity and subclinical substance use in young adults.","authors":"James B Wyngaarden, Camille R Johnston, Daniel Sazhin, Jeff B Dennison, Ori Zaff, Dominic Fareri, Michael McCloskey, Lauren B Alloy, David V Smith, Johanna M Jarcho","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae033","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Aberrant levels of reward sensitivity have been linked to substance use disorder and are characterized by alterations in reward processing in the ventral striatum (VS). Less is known about how reward sensitivity and subclinical substance use relate to striatal function during social rewards (e.g. positive peer feedback). Testing this relation is critical for predicting risk for development of substance use disorder. In this pre-registered study, participants (N = 44) underwent fMRI while completing well-matched tasks that assess neural response to reward in social and monetary domains. Contrary to our hypotheses, aberrant reward sensitivity blunted the relationship between substance use and striatal activation during receipt of rewards, regardless of domain. Moreover, exploratory whole-brain analyses showed unique relations between substance use and social rewards in temporoparietal junction. Psychophysiological interactions demonstrated that aberrant reward sensitivity is associated with increased connectivity between the VS and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during social rewards. Finally, we found that substance use was associated with decreased connectivity between the VS and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex for social rewards, independent of reward sensitivity. These findings demonstrate nuanced relations between reward sensitivity and substance use, even among those without substance use disorder, and suggest altered reward-related engagement of cortico-VS responses as potential predictors of developing disordered behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11182064/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141083058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Simone P Haller, Joel Stoddard, Sofia I Cardenas, Kelly Dombek, Caroline MacGillivray, Christian Botz-Zapp, Hong N T Bui, Caitlin M Stavish, Katharina Kircanski, Matt Jones, Melissa A Brotman
{"title":"Differentiating neural sensitivity and bias during face-emotion processing in youth: a computational approach.","authors":"Simone P Haller, Joel Stoddard, Sofia I Cardenas, Kelly Dombek, Caroline MacGillivray, Christian Botz-Zapp, Hong N T Bui, Caitlin M Stavish, Katharina Kircanski, Matt Jones, Melissa A Brotman","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae034","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae034","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ability to interpret face-emotion displays is critical for the development of adaptive social interactions. Using a novel variant of a computational model and fMRI data, we examined behavioral and neural associations between two metrics of face-emotion labeling (sensitivity and bias) and age in youth. Youth and adults (n = 44, M age = 20.02, s.d. = 7.44, range = 8-36) completed an explicit face-emotion labeling fMRI task including happy to angry morphed face emotions. A drift-diffusion model was applied to choice and reaction time distributions to examine sensitivity and bias in interpreting face emotions. Model fit and reliability of parameters were assessed on adult data (n = 42). Linear and quadratic slopes modeled brain activity associated with dimensions of face-emotion valence and ambiguity during interpretation. Behaviorally, age was associated with sensitivity. The bilateral anterior insula exhibited a more pronounced neural response to ambiguity with older age. Associations between sensitivity and bias metrics and activation patterns indicated that systems encoding face-emotion valence and ambiguity both contribute to the ability to discriminate face emotions. The current study provides evidence for age-related improvement in perceptual sensitivity to facial affect across adolescence and young adulthood.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11173199/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141094732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abigail Casalvera, Madeline Goodwin, Kevin G Lynch, Marta Teferi, Milan Patel, Christian Grillon, Monique Ernst, Nicholas L Balderston
{"title":"Threat of shock increases distractor susceptibility during the short-term maintenance of visual information.","authors":"Abigail Casalvera, Madeline Goodwin, Kevin G Lynch, Marta Teferi, Milan Patel, Christian Grillon, Monique Ernst, Nicholas L Balderston","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae036","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae036","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Elevated arousal in anxiety is thought to affect attention control. To test this, we designed a visual short-term memory (VSTM) task to examine distractor suppression during periods of threat and no-threat. We hypothesized that threat would impair performance when subjects had to filter out large numbers of distractors. The VSTM task required subjects to attend to one array of squares while ignoring a separate array. The number of target and distractor squares varied systematically, with high (four squares) and low (two squares) target and distractor conditions. This study comprised two separate experiments. Experiment 1 used startle responses and white noise as to directly measure threat-induced anxiety. Experiment 2 used BOLD to measure brain responses. For Experiment 1, subjects showed significantly larger startle responses during threat compared to safe period, supporting the validity of the threat manipulation. For Experiment 2, we found that accuracy was affected by threat, such that the distractor load negatively impacted accuracy only in the threat condition. We also found threat-related differences in parietal cortex activity. Overall, these findings suggest that threat affects distractor susceptibility, impairing filtering of distracting information. This effect is possibly mediated by hyperarousal of parietal cortex during threat.</p>","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11173208/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141176891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social and Affective Neuroscience: Ensuring our future.","authors":"Matthew D Lieberman","doi":"10.1093/scan/nsae035","DOIUrl":"10.1093/scan/nsae035","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":94208,"journal":{"name":"Social cognitive and affective neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11215486/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141176890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}