The people behind the papers - Andy Yang and Stephane Angers.

Activation of the Wnt signalling pathway is vital in the anterior-posterior patterning during neural development. In a new study, Stephane Angers and colleagues leverage previously developed selective antibodies against Frizzled receptors of the Wnt pathway to stimulate midbrain progenitor differentiation in human pluripotent stem cells. We caught up with first author Andy Yang and corresponding author Stephane Angers, Professor at the University of Toronto, to learn more about the story behind the paper.

Global trends in emotional distress.

In this study, we examined emotional distress using annual representative survey data from 1.53 million individuals surveyed in 113 countries from 2009 to 2021. Participants reported whether they had experienced worry, sadness, stress, or anger during a lot of the previous day. Within-country estimates showed that the prevalence of feelings of emotional distress increased from 25 to 31% between 2009 and 2021, with those with low levels of education and income experiencing the largest increases in distress. On a global level, the pandemic period was characterized by an initial increase in distress in 2020 followed by recovery in 2021.

Induced emotion counter-regulation affects attentional inhibition of emotional information: ERP evidence from a randomized manipulation approach.

Automatic emotion counter-regulation refers to an unintentional attentional shift away from the current emotional state and toward information of the opposite valence. It is a useful emotion regulation skill that prevents the escalation of current emotional state. However, the cognitive mechanisms of emotion counter-regulation are not fully understood. Using a randomization approach, this study investigated how automatic emotion counter-regulation impacted attentional inhibition of emotional stimuli, an important aspect of emotion processing closely associated with emotion regulation and mental health. Forty-six university students were randomly assigned to an emotion counter-regulation group and a control group. The former group watched an anger-inducing video to evoke automatic emotion counter-regulation of anger, while the latter group watched an emotionally neutral video. Next, both groups completed a negative priming task of facial expressions with EEG recorded. In the emotion counter-regulation group, we observed an enhanced attentional inhibition of the angry, but not happy, faces, as indicated by a prolonger response time, a larger N2, and a smaller P3 in response to angry versus happy stimuli. These patterns were not observed in the control group, supporting the role of elicited emotion counter-regulation of anger in causing these modulation patterns in responses.

Implicit weight bias: shared neural substrates for overweight and angry facial expressions revealed by cross-adaptation.

The perception of facial expression plays a crucial role in social communication, and it is known to be influenced by various facial cues. Previous studies have reported both positive and negative biases toward overweight individuals. It is unclear whether facial cues, such as facial weight, bias facial expression perception. Combining psychophysics and event-related potential technology, the current study adopted a cross-adaptation paradigm to examine this issue. The psychophysical results of Experiments 1A and 1B revealed a bidirectional cross-adaptation effect between overweight and angry faces. Adapting to overweight faces decreased the likelihood of perceiving ambiguous emotional expressions as angry compared to adapting to normal-weight faces. Likewise, exposure to angry faces subsequently caused normal-weight faces to appear thinner. These findings were corroborated by bidirectional event-related potential results, showing that adaptation to overweight faces relative to normal-weight faces modulated the event-related potential responses of emotionally ambiguous facial expression (Experiment 2A); vice versa, adaptation to angry faces relative to neutral faces modulated the event-related potential responses of ambiguous faces in facial weight (Experiment 2B). Our study provides direct evidence associating overweight faces with facial expression, suggesting at least partly common neural substrates for the perception of overweight and angry faces.

Genetic algorithms reveal profound individual differences in emotion recognition.

Emotional communication relies on a mutual understanding, between expresser and viewer, of facial configurations that broadcast specific emotions. However, we do not know whether people share a common understanding of how emotional states map onto facial expressions. This is because expressions exist in a high-dimensional space too large to explore in conventional experimental paradigms. Here, we address this by adapting genetic algorithms and combining them with photorealistic three-dimensional avatars to efficiently explore the high-dimensional expression space. A total of 336 people used these tools to generate facial expressions that represent happiness, fear, sadness, and anger. We found substantial variability in the expressions generated via our procedure, suggesting that different people associate different facial expressions to the same emotional state. We then examined whether variability in the facial expressions created could account for differences in performance on standard emotion recognition tasks by asking people to categorize different test expressions. We found that emotion categorization performance was explained by the extent to which test expressions matched the expressions generated by each individual. Our findings reveal the breadth of variability in people's representations of facial emotions, even among typical adult populations. This has profound implications for the interpretation of responses to emotional stimuli, which may reflect individual differences in the emotional category people attribute to a particular facial expression, rather than differences in the brain mechanisms that produce emotional responses.

Do They Look the Same Unless They Are Angry? Investigating the Other-Race Effect in the Presence of Angry Expressions.

Ethnic out-group members are disproportionately more often the victim of misidentifications. The so-called other-race effect (ORE), the tendency to better remember faces of individuals belonging to one's own ethnic in-group than faces belonging to an ethnic out-group, has been identified as one causal ingredient in such tragic incidents. Investigating an important aspect for the ORE-that is, emotional expression-the seminal study by Ackerman and colleagues (2006) found that White participants remembered neutral White faces better than neutral Black faces, but crucially, Black angry faces were better remembered than White angry faces (i.e., a reversed ORE). In the current study, we sought to replicate this study and directly tackle the potential causes for different results with later work. Three hundred ninety-six adult White U.S. citizens completed our study in which we manipulated the kind of employed stimuli (as in the original study vs. more standardized ones) whether participants knew of the recognition task already at the encoding phase. Additionally, participants were asked about the unusualness of the presented faces. We were able to replicate results from the Ackerman et al. (2006) study with the original stimuli but not with more standardized stimuli.

Devaluation by Omission: Limited Identity Options Elicit Anger and Increase Identification.

In the present research, we explored social-identity threat caused by subtle acts of omission, specifically situations in which social-identity information is requested but one's identity is not among the options provided. We predicted that being unable to identify with one's group-that is, in the demographics section of a survey-may signal social-identity devaluation, eliciting negative affect (e.g., anger) and increasing the importance of the omitted identity to group members' sense of self. Six preregistered experiments (N = 2,964 adults) sampling members of two minority-identity groups (i.e., gender minorities and members of a minority political party) support these predictions. Our findings document the existence of a subtle but likely pervasive form of social-identity threat.

Psychological Health and Ischemic Heart Disease in Women: A Review of Current Evidence and Clinical Considerations across the Healthspan.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Psychological health encompasses a constellation of negative and positive factors-i.e., psychosocial stress, depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness and social isolation, anger and hostility, optimism, and a sense of purpose. This narrative review presents current evidence at the intersection of psychological health, risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD), and IHD-related outcomes, with an emphasis on associations in women. RECENT FINDINGS: For women, relations between psychological health and IHD reflect important sex and gender differences in biological and psychosocial factors. Although efforts devoted to understanding psychological health and IHD risk have varied by psychological factor-scientific evidence is strongest for psychosocial stress and depression, while anxiety, trauma, and positive psychological factors warrant more investigation-less optimal psychological health is consistently associated with an earlier and greater risk of IHD morbidity and mortality in women. Still, many past prospective studies of psychological factors and IHD risk had a limited representation of women, did not include analyses by sex, or failed to account for other influential, sex-specific factors. Thus, there are multiple pathways for further, rigorous investigation into psychological health-IHD associations, mechanisms, and empirically supported psychological interventions to mitigate IHD risk among women. Given the robust evidence linking psychological health with women's risk for IHD, implementing routine, brief, psychological screening is recommended. Significant life events, developmental milestones specific to women, and IHD diagnoses or events could cue further psychological assessment and referral, efforts which will mutually strengthen the evidence for integrated psychological and IHD care and delivery of such care to this vulnerable group.

Micro-sequences of anger and shame and non-suicidal self-injury in youth: an ecological momentary assessment study.

OBJECTIVE: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a significant mental health concern with the highest prevalence among adolescents. NSSI has been conceptualized as one of the maladaptive strategies to cope with challenging affect or a form of self-punishment. Although characterizing moment-to-moment associations between shame and NSSI in individuals' real-world environment and partitioning between- and within-person effects is critical for mobile and timely interventions, most studies examined habitual experiences of negative affective states and focused on adults. METHOD: In this study, we focused on in vivo anger at self and others and shame and NSSI among 158 adolescents 3 weeks following their psychiatric hospitalizations using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) technology. RESULTS: We found that greater between-person levels of anger at self and others were linked to a higher number of subsequent NSSI occurrences within a day. These findings remained primarily unchanged when we statistically adjusted for participants' age, sex assigned at birth, the number of current psychiatric diagnoses, EMA response rates, and youth lifetime history of SI. Within-person increases in NSSI were linked to increased anger at self over and beyond between-person average levels of NSSI. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the potential regulatory role of NSSI to decrease negative affective states and point to the clinical utility of assessing and early mobile interventions targeting challenging affect in youth.

A network approach to the investigation of childhood irritability: probing frustration using social stimuli.

BACKGROUND: Self-regulation in early childhood develops within a social context. Variations in such development can be attributed to inter-individual behavioral differences, which can be captured both as facets of temperament and across a normal:abnormal dimensional spectrum. With increasing emphasis on irritability as a robust early-life transdiagnostic indicator of broad psychopathological risk, linkage to neural mechanisms is imperative. Currently, there is inconsistency in the identification of neural circuits that underlie irritability in children, especially in social contexts. This study aimed to address this gap by utilizing a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm to investigate pediatric anger/frustration using social stimuli. METHODS: Seventy-three children (M = 6 years, SD = 0.565) were recruited from a larger longitudinal study on irritability development. Caregivers completed questionnaires assessing irritable temperament and clinical symptoms of irritability. Children participated in a frustration task during fMRI scanning that was designed to induce frustration through loss of a desired prize to an animated character. Data were analyzed using both general linear modeling (GLM) and independent components analysis (ICA) and examined from the temperament and clinical perspectives. RESULTS: ICA results uncovered an overarching network structure above and beyond what was revealed by traditional GLM analyses. Results showed that greater temperamental irritability was associated with significantly diminished spatial extent of activation and low-frequency power in a network comprised of the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and the precuneus (p < .05, FDR-corrected). However, greater severity along the spectrum of clinical expression of irritability was associated with significantly increased extent and intensity of spatial activation as well as low- and high-frequency neural signal power in the right caudate (p < .05, FDR-corrected). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings point to specific neural circuitry underlying pediatric irritability in the context of frustration using social stimuli. Results suggest that a deliberate focus on the construction of network-based neurodevelopmental profiles and social interaction along the normal:abnormal irritability spectrum is warranted to further identify comprehensive transdiagnostic substrates of the irritability.

Oncology clinicians' feelings towards patients presented in supervision: A pre-post assessment using the feeling word checklist.

OBJECTIVE: Clinical supervision of oncology clinicians by psycho-oncologists is an important means of psychosocial competence transfer and support. Research on this essential liaison activity remains scarce. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of supervision on oncology clinicians' feelings towards patients presented in supervision. METHODS: Oncology clinicians' (n = 23) feelings towards patients presented in supervision were assessed with the Feeling Word Checklist (FWC). The FWC was filled in by supervisees prior and after their supervision sessions (n = 91), which were conducted by experienced supervisors (n = 6). Pre- post-modification of feelings was evaluated based on a selection of FWC items, which were beforehand considered as likely to change in a beneficial supervision. Items were evaluated on session level using t-tests for dependent groups. Composite scores were calculated for feelings expected to raise and feelings expected to decrease and analysed on the level of supervisees. RESULTS: Feelings related to threats, loss of orientation or hostility such as "anxious", "overwhelmed", "impotent", "confused", "angry", "depreciated" and "guilty" decreased significantly after supervision, while feelings related to the resume of the relationship ("attentive", "happy"), a better understanding of the patient ("empathic"), a regain of control ("confident") and being "useful" significantly increased. Feeling "interested" and "calm" remained unchanged. Significant increase or decrease in the composite scores for supervisees confirmed these results. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates modification of feelings towards patients presented in supervision. This modification corresponds to the normative, formative, and especially restorative function (support of the clinician) of supervision.

College Students' Day-to-Day Maladaptive Drinking Responses to Stress Severity and Stressor-Related Guilt and Anger.

BACKGROUND: Stress is a common part of college students' daily lives that may influence their physical activity (PA) and alcohol use. Understanding features of daily stress processes that predict health behaviors could help identify targets for just-in-time interventions. PURPOSE: This study used intensive longitudinal data to examine whether prior day stress processes predict current day PA or alcohol use. METHODS: Participants (N=58, Mage=20.5, 59% women, 70% White) were 18-to-25-year-old students who engaged in binge drinking at least twice monthly and used cannabis or tobacco in the past year. They wore activity (activPAL4) and alcohol (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor) monitors for 11 days to assess daily PA (e.g., step counts) and alcohol use (e.g., drinking day), and completed daily surveys about yesterday's stress, including number of stressors (i.e., frequency), stressor intensity (i.e., severity), and frequency of affective states (e.g., guilt). Multilevel models examined prior day stress predicting current day PA or alcohol use. RESULTS: Participants had higher odds of current day drinking (odds ratio=1.21) and greater area under the curve (B=0.08) when they experienced greater than usual stress severity the prior day. Participants had higher current day peak transdermal alcohol concentration (B=0.12) and area under the curve (B=0.11) when they more frequently experienced guilt due to stressors the prior day. CONCLUSIONS: College students' unhealthy response of increasing alcohol use due to stress could adversely impact health outcomes. There is a critical need for interventions addressing students' ability to effectively manage and respond to the stress-inducing, daily demands of student life.

College students experience stress regularly, which may influence their physical activity (PA) and drinking behaviors. Understanding how daily stress predicts health behaviors could be useful for stress-reduction interventions. This study examined whether prior day stress predicted current day PA or alcohol use. Participants (N = 58) were 18- to 25-year-old college students who binge drank at least twice per month and used cannabis or tobacco in the past year. They wore PA and alcohol sensors for 11 days to assess daily PA and alcohol use, and completed daily surveys about yesterday's stress, including the number of stressors experienced (i.e., frequency), stressor intensity (i.e., severity), and mood responses related to stress (anger, anxiety, guilt, sadness). Participants were 21% more likely to drink and drank at higher intensity when they experienced greater than usual stress severity the prior day. Participants had higher current day alcohol use intensity when they more frequently experienced guilt due to stressors the prior day. College students' unhealthy response of increasing alcohol use due to stress could negatively impact short- and long-term health outcomes. There is a critical need for interventions addressing students' ability to effectively manage and respond to the stress-inducing, daily demands of student life.

Amygdala and cortical gamma-band responses to emotional faces are modulated by attention to valence.

The amygdala might support an attentional bias for emotional faces. However, whether and how selective attention toward a specific valence modulates this bias is not fully understood. Likewise, it is unclear whether amygdala and cortical signals respond to emotion and attention in a similar way. We recorded gamma-band activity (GBA, > 30 Hz) intracranially in the amygdalae of 11 patients with epilepsy and collected scalp recordings from 19 healthy participants. We presented angry, neutral, and happy faces randomly, and we denoted one valence as the target. Participants detected happy targets most quickly and accurately. In the amygdala, during attention to negative faces, low gamma-band activity (LGBA, < 90 Hz) increased for angry compared with happy faces from 160 ms. From 220 ms onward, amygdala high gamma-band activity (HGBA, > 90 Hz) was higher for angry and neutral faces than for happy ones. Monitoring neutral faces increased amygdala HGBA for emotions compared with neutral faces from 40 ms. Expressions were not differentiated in GBA while monitoring positive faces. On the scalp, only threat monitoring resulted in expression differentiation. Here, posterior LGBA was increased selectively for angry targets from 60 ms. The data show that GBA differentiation of emotional expressions is modulated by attention to valence: Top-down-controlled threat vigilance coordinates widespread GBA in favor of angry faces. Stimulus-driven emotion differentiation in amygdala GBA occurs during a neutral attentional focus. These findings align with a multi-pathway model of emotion processing and specify the role of GBA in this process.

Neurophysiological responses to emotional faces predict dynamic fluctuations in affect in adolescents.

The ability to accurately identify and interpret others' emotions is critical for social and emotional functioning during adolescence. Indeed, previous research has identified that laboratory-based indices of facial emotion recognition and engagement with emotional faces predict adolescent mood states. Whether socioemotional information processing relates to real-world affective dynamics using an ecologically sensitive approach, however, has rarely been assessed. In the present study, adolescents (N = 62; ages 13-18) completed a Facial Recognition Task, including happy, angry, and sad stimuli, while EEG data were acquired. Participants also provided ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data probing their current level of happiness, anger, and sadness for 1-week, resulting in indices of emotion (mean-level, inertia, instability). Analyses focused on relations between (1) accuracy for and (2) prolonged engagement with (LPP) emotional faces and EMA-reported emotions. Greater prolonged engagement with happy faces was related to less resistance to changes in happiness (i.e., less happiness inertia), whereas greater prolonged engagement with angry faces associated with more resistance to changes in anger (i.e., greater anger inertia). Results suggest that socioemotional processes captured by laboratory measures have real-world implications for adolescent affective states and highlight potentially actionable targets for novel treatment approaches (e.g., just-in-time interventions). Future studies should continue to assess relations among socioemotional informational processes and dynamic fluctuations in adolescent affective states.

Social threat processing in adults and children: Faster orienting to, but shorter dwell time on, angry faces during visual search.

Attention to emotional signals conveyed by others is critical for gleaning information about potential social partners and the larger social context. Children appear to detect social threats (e.g., angry faces) faster than non-threatening social signals (e.g., neutral faces). However, methods that rely on behavioral responses alone are limited in identifying different attentional processes involved in threat detection or responding. To address this question, we used a visual search paradigm to assess behavioral (i.e., reaction time to select a target image) and attentional (i.e., eye-tracking fixations, saccadic shifts, and dwell time) responses in children (ages 7-10 years old, N = 42) and adults (ages 18-23 years old, N = 46). In doing so, we compared behavioral responding and attentional detection and engagement with threatening (i.e., angry and fearful faces) and non-threatening (i.e., happy faces) social signals. Overall, children and adults were faster to detect social threats (i.e., angry faces), but spent a smaller proportion of time dwelling on them and had slower behavioral responses. Findings underscore the importance of combining different measures to parse differences between processing versus responding to social signals across development. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Children and adults are slower to select angry faces when measured by time to mouse-click but faster to detect angry faces when measured by time to first eye fixation. The use of eye-tracking addresses some limitations of prior visual search tasks with children that rely on behavioral responses alone. Results suggest shorter time to first fixation, but subsequently, shorter duration of dwell on social threat in children and adults.

The determinants of mental health inequalities between Chinese migrants and non-migrants during the Shanghai 2022 lockdown: a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition.

BACKGROUND: The mental health inequality between migrants and non-migrants was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying key determinants of this inequality is essential in promoting health equity. METHODS: This cross-sectional study recruited Shanghai residents by purposive sampling during the city-wide lockdown (from April 29 to June 1, 2022) using an online questionnaire. Migration statuses (non-migrants, permanent migrants, and temporary migrants) were identified by migration experience and by household registration in Shanghai. Mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, loneliness, and problematic anger) were assessed by self-report scales. The nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition was used to quantify mental health inequality (i.e., differences in predicted probabilities between migration groups) and the contribution of expected correlates (i.e., change in predicted probability associated with variation in the correlate divided by the group difference). RESULTS: The study included 2738 participants (771 [28.2%] non-migrants; 389 [14.2%] permanent migrants; 1578 [57.6%] temporary migrants). We found inequalities in depression (7.1%) and problematic anger (7.8%) between permanent migrants and non-migrants, and inequalities in anxiety (7.3%) and loneliness (11.3%) between temporary migrants and non-migrants. When comparing permanent migrants and non-migrants, age and social capital explained 12.7% and 17.1% of the inequality in depression, and 13.3% and 21.4% of the inequality in problematic anger. Between temporary migrants and non-migrants, age and social capital also significantly contributed to anxiety inequality (23.0% and 18.2%) and loneliness inequality (26.5% and 16.3%), while monthly household income (20.4%) and loss of monthly household income (34.0%) contributed the most to anxiety inequality. CONCLUSIONS: Significant inequalities in depression and problematic anger among permanent migrants and inequalities in anxiety and loneliness among temporary migrants were observed. Strengthening social capital and economic security can aid in public health emergency preparedness and promote mental health equity among migrant populations.

Betrayal Trauma Anger: Clinical Implications for Therapeutic Treatment based on the Sexually Betrayed Partner's Experience Related to Anger after Intimate Betrayal.

This article provides insight into the complex anger often following the discovery of broken trust and attachment in a relationship as a result of sexual betrayal. In the past, the helping profession viewed angry betrayed partners from a pathological lens. Through research and progression in the mental health field, betrayed partners are now viewed from a trauma lens as traumatized individuals, and a greater understanding exists of why partners will most likely experience complex anger after betrayal. This article aims to add to the existing literature on the topic of betrayal trauma and provide clinical considerations for assessment and treatment of those seeking therapeutic help to manage and reduce anger. 297 sexually betrayed partners participated in a Betrayal Trauma Anger Survey. Results revealed 83.5% of participants remain in the relationships with their betrayers. 39% of betrayed partners reported not being provided specific help to manage anger from their helping professional. 87% reported self-blame and 43% considered harming themselves. Results clearly indicate that betrayed partners are significantly impacted physiologically, psychologically, behaviorally, and spiritually, and they experience feelings of intense anger with 84% reporting their experienced anger is more intense than at any other time they experienced anger prior to discovering betrayal.

Emotion dysregulation, impulsivity and anger rumination in borderline personality disorder: the role of amygdala and insula.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder, characterized by deficits in emotion regulation, interpersonal dysfunctions, dissociation and impulsivity. Brain abnormalities have been generally explored; however, the specific contribution of different limbic structures to BPD symptomatology is not described. The aim of this study is to cover this gap, exploring functional and structural alterations of amygdala and insula and to highlight their contribution to neuropsychiatric symptoms. Twenty-eight BPD patients (23.7 ± 3.42 years; 6 M/22F) and twenty-eight matched healthy controls underwent a brain MR protocol (1.5 T, including a 3D T1-weighted sequence and resting-state fMRI) and a complete neuropsychiatric assessment. Volumetry, cortical thickness and functional connectivity of amygdala and insula were evaluated, along with correlations with the neuropsychiatric scales. BPD patients showed a lower cortical thickness of the left insula (p = 0.027) that negatively correlated with the Anger Rumination Scale (p = 0.019; r = - 0.450). A focused analysis on female patients showed a significant reduction of right amygdala volumes in BPD (p = 0.037), that correlate with Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (p = 0.031; r = - 0.415), Beck Depression Inventory (p = 0.009; r = - 0.50) and Ruminative Response Scale (p = 0.045; r = - 0.389). Reduced functional connectivity was found in BPD between amygdala and frontal pole, precuneus and temporal pole. This functional connectivity alterations correlated with Anger Rumination Scale (p = .009; r = - 0.491) and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (p = 0.020; r = - 0.447). Amygdala and insula are altered in BPD patients, and these two limbic structures are implicated in specific neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as difficulty in emotion regulation, depression, anger and depressive rumination.

Personal insult disrupts regulatory brain networks in violent offenders.

The failure to adequately regulate negative emotions represents a prominent characteristic of violent offenders. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we used technical, nonsocial frustration to elicit anger in violent offenders (n = 19) and then increased the provocation by adding personal insults (social provocation). The aim was to investigate neural connectivity patterns involved in anger processing, to detect the effect of increasing provocation by personal insult, and to compare anger-related connectivity patterns between offenders and noncriminal controls (n = 12). During technical frustration, the offenders showed increased neural connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex compared to the controls. Conversely, personal insults, and thus increased levels of provocation, resulted in a significant reduction of neural connectivity between regions involved in cognitive control in the offenders but not controls. We conclude that, when (nonsocially) frustrated, offenders were able to employ regulatory brain networks by displaying stronger connectivity between regulatory prefrontal and limbic regions than noncriminal controls. In addition, offenders seemed particularly sensitive to personal insults, which led to increased implicit aggression (by means of motoric responses) and reduced connectivity in networks involved in cognitive control (including dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, middle/superior temporal regions).

Person-specific dynamics between negative emotions and suicidal thoughts.

INTRODUCTION: Recent technology has enabled researchers to collect ecological momentary assessments (EMA) to examine within-person correlates of suicidal thoughts. Prior studies examined generalized temporal dynamics of emotions and suicidal thinking over brief periods, but it is not yet known how variable these processes are across people. METHOD: We use data EMA data delivered over two weeks with youth/young adults (N = 60) who reported past year self-injurious thoughts/behaviors. We used group iterative multiple model estimation (GIMME) to model group- and person-specific associations of negative emotions (i.e., fear, sadness, shame, guilt, and anger) and suicidal thoughts. RESULTS: 29 participants (48.33%) reported at least one instance of a suicidal thought and were included in GIMME models. In group level models, we consistently observed autoregressive effects for suicidal thoughts (e.g., earlier thoughts predicting later thoughts), although the magnitude and direction of this link varied from person-to-person. Among emotions, sadness was most frequently associated with contemporaneous suicidal thoughts, but this was evident for less than half of the sample, while other emotional correlates of suicidal thoughts broadly differed across people. No emotion variable was linked to future suicidal thoughts in >14% of the sample, CONCLUSIONS: Emotion-based correlates of suicidal thoughts are heterogeneous across people. Better understanding of the individual-level pathways maintaining suicidal thoughts/behaviors may lead to more effective, personalized interventions.