Behavioral Apophenia and Dimensions of Psychoticism in Adolescents with and without Mood Disorders.

Apophenia is the tendency to falsely detect meaningful relationships and may indicate susceptibility to more extreme expressions on the psychotic spectrum. This pilot investigated the fragmented ambiguous object task (FAOT), a new measure designed to assess apophenia behaviorally in a sample of adolescents with and without mood disorders using an image recognition task. Our primary hypothesis was that increased image recognition would be associated with PID-5 psychoticism. Participants were 33 (79% female) adolescents with (n = 18) and without (n = 15) mood disorders. Consistent with predictions, increased recognition of ambiguous images correlated positively with psychoticism. There was also moderate evidence for long-term stability of FAOT apophenia scores over time (mean interval of approximately 10 months). These findings offer preliminary evidence that the FAOT may be reflective of underlying psychoticism in our target population.

Corrigendum: White Matter Microstructure in Adolescents and Young Adults With Non-Suicidal Self-Injury.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.01019.].

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation in depressed adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is characterized by causing harm to one's own body without the intent of suicide. While major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with elevated cortisol (at least in some subgroups), prior studies in NSSI have suggested that NSSI is associated with blunted reactivity to stress of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, possibly consistent with an allostatic load model. The present study used a multi-level approach to examine salivary cortisol in the context of a social stressor in 162 adolescents (ages 12 to 19 years old) with MDD with a history of repeated engagement in NSSI (MDD/NSSI) versus MDD without repeated NSSI (MDD), and healthy controls (HC). Observed (expressed) and self-reported (experienced) ratings of stress were also obtained during the social stress paradigm. The results showed that MDD/NSSI exhibited lower salivary cortisol levels and differed in cortisol trajectories in the context of a social stressor compared to HC and MDD. Observed stress, but not self-reported stress, during the social stress paradigm was greater for the MDD/NSSI than HC. Follow-up analyses suggested the possibility that this pattern of lower cortisol for those who engage in NSSI was present in females and males, and was more pronounced in those with repeated NSSI (but not subthreshold NSSI) and those with a history of NSSI and suicide attempts. Overall, these findings add to the prior literature and begin to show a consistent pattern for how stress is processed in atypical ways for those who engage in repeated NSSI. Importantly, these results suggest that some of the heterogeneity across adolescent depression may be better represented by these underlying biological processes, perhaps even representing subgroups that will benefit from different types of intervention. Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Dysregulation in Depressed Adolescents with Non-Suicidal Self-Injury.

White Matter Microstructure in Adolescents and Young Adults With Non-Suicidal Self-Injury.

Background: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a growing public health concern that commonly begins in adolescence, and can persist into young adulthood. A promising approach for advancing our understanding of NSSI in youth is to examine white matter microstructure using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI). Method: The present study examined whole-brain group differences in structural connectivity (as measured by generalized fractional anisotropy [GFA]) between 28 female adolescents and young adults ages 13-21 years with NSSI and 22 age-matched healthy controls (HC). We also explored the association between clinical characteristics including NSSI severity and duration, impulsivity, emotion regulation and personality traits within the NSSI group and GFA of the uncinate fasciculus and cingulum. Results: Compared to the HC group, participants with NSSI had lower GFA in several white matter tracts, including the uncinate fasciculus, cingulum, bilateral superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi, anterior thalamic radiation, callosal body, and corticospinal tract. When controlling for depressive symptoms, the NSSI group showed an association between NSSI duration (time since initiating NSSI behavior) and lower GFA in the left cingulum. Higher levels of attentional impulsivity were related to lower GFA in the left uncinate fasciculus within the NSSI group. Conclusions: We found evidence suggesting widespread white matter microstructure deficits in adolescents and young adults with NSSI versus HC. We also report inverse associations between white matter integrity and clinical characteristics (duration of NSSI and attentional impulsivity). These white matter microstructural deficits may represent a possible neurobiologically-based vulnerability to developing maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as NSSI. Additionally, results suggest that this white matter disorganization may either worsen with prolonged engagement in NSSI or predict persistent NSSI; thereby highlighting the importance of early intervention targeting this behavior.

Conceptualizing the neurobiology of non-suicidal self-injury from the perspective of the Research Domain Criteria Project.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) commonly starts in adolescence and is associated with an array of negative outcomes. Neurobiological research investigating NSSI is in its early stages and most studies have examined this behavior within the context of specific diagnoses. However, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative encourages researchers to examine brain-behavior relationships across diagnoses. This review on the neurobiology associated with NSSI is organized using the domains proposed by RDoC: Negative Valence, Positive Valence, Cognitive, Social Processes, and Arousal/Regulatory Systems. Evidence of neurobiological anomalies is found in each of these domains. We also propose future research directions, especially in regard to human development. Future NSSI studies should address this behavior independent of diagnosis, examine relevant constructs across multiple units of analysis, and assess how systems change across development and course of illness. These advances will be essential for guiding neurobiologically informed intervention and prevention strategies to target NSSI. In doing so, we may prevent the associated negative outcomes across the lifespan.