Dignity of Risk in Adolescent Development: A Neuropsychological Perspective.

Although the notion of "dignity of risk" has primarily been used in reference to adolescents with disabilities, this concept can be applied to all adolescents, as parents and guardians are challenged by how to balance adolescents' need for self-determination with the need for safety and supervision. In the context of maturing cognitive and emotional neural circuits, normative adolescent development involves temporal shifts in social and environmental factors that are inherently associated with both higher risk-taking and opportunities for growth and new learning. The challenge for parents of balancing risk and opportunity is influenced by social, cultural, and environmental factors, previous experience, personality, and the perceived capability of the adolescent. When perceived capability is lower, the challenge becomes even more acute, such as when an adolescent has a developmental, physical, or psychiatric disability that impacts cognitive, emotional, or adaptive functioning. This article reviews the literature on normative brain development from the perspective of balancing risk and self-determination in adolescence and discusses the implications for families and clinicians across a range of ability and disability. Potential approaches to fostering self-determination are discussed.

The costs of anticipating and perseverating about racism: Mechanisms of the associations between racial discrimination, anxious arousal, and low positive affect.

Although numerous studies have documented an association between racial discrimination and internalizing psychopathology symptoms, there is a lack of empirical work that establishes cognitive and emotional mechanisms through which racial discrimination is associated with specific transdiagnostic mental health outcomes (i.e., anxious arousal and low positive affect) among Black Americans. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to test a new etiological model of how racial discrimination is associated with anxious arousal and low positive affect. The overarching model posits that racial discrimination will be associated with anxious arousal and low positive affect through prolonged activation of race-related stress processes (i.e., anticipatory race-related fear and race-related rumination), the effects of which are conditioned on attention bias to threat. METHOD: A total of 326 Black participants (72.4% women) completed the study. RESULTS: For anxious arousal, the indirect effect of racial discrimination through anticipatory race-related fear depended on degree of attention bias, with the effect only reaching statistical significance at mean and relatively higher levels of attention bias to threat. For low positive affect, the indirect effect of racial discrimination through race-related rumination only reached a statistical significance at mean and relatively lower levels of attention bias to threat. CONCLUSIONS: Racial discrimination is indirectly associated with anxious arousal and low positive affect through the effects of anticipatory race-related fear and race-related rumination, respectively. Implications for etiology and treatment of anxious arousal and low positive affect are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A double-blind study of empathic support and expectation as mechanisms of symptom change.

Objective: A novel brief intervention was used to investigate how empathic support and expectation can induce changes in mood, anxiety, and perceived stress. Method: Seventy-six undergraduates with high negative affect were assigned to three conditions of a program involving tasks with no known therapeutic benefit. In Group 1: Expectation Only, participants were given a deceptive description of the benefits of the program to quantify the magnitude of symptom change due to expectation alone. In Group 2: Empathic Support + Expectation, participants were also instructed to write about past and current sources of distress and provided with supportive notes each week to quantify the role of empathic support plus expectation. In Group 3: Control, participants were told they were "norming" the instruments. Results: Participants in Groups 1 and 2 demonstrated decreases in depression, anxiety, and rumination, with significant medium effect reductions found in the empathic support plus expectation condition. Conclusions: Evidence suggests that empathic support and expectation cause reduction of symptoms spanning depression and anxiety.

The Impact of Focused Attention on Emotional Experience: A Functional MRI Investigation.

Emotional well-being depends on the ability to adaptively cope with various emotional challenges. Most studies have investigated the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation strategies deployed relatively later in the timing of processing that leads to full emotional experiences. However, less is known about strategies that are engaged in earlier stages of emotion processing, such as those involving attentional deployment. We investigated the neural mechanisms associated with self-guided Focused Attention (FA) in mitigating subjective negative emotional experiences. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were recorded while participants viewed a series of composite negative and neutral images with distinguishable foreground (FG) and background (BG) areas. Participants were instructed to focus either on the FG or BG components of the images, and then rated their emotional experiences. Behavioral results showed that FA was successful in decreasing emotional ratings for negative images viewed in BG Focus condition. At the neural level, the BG Focus was associated with increased activity in regions typically implicated in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lateral parietal cortex) and decreased activity in regions linked to affective processing (amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex). Dissociable brain activity linked to FA also was identified in visual cortices, including between the parahippocampal and fusiform gyri, showing increased versus decreased activity, respectively, during the BG Focus. These findings complement the evidence from prior FA studies with recollected emotional memories as internal stimuli and further demonstrate the effectiveness of self-guided FA in mitigating negative emotional experiences associated with processing of external unpleasant stimuli.

Time Course of Brain Network Reconfiguration Supporting Inhibitory Control.

Hemodynamic research has recently clarified key nodes and links in brain networks implementing inhibitory control. Although fMRI methods are optimized for identifying the structure of brain networks, the relatively slow temporal course of fMRI limits the ability to characterize network operation. The latter is crucial for developing a mechanistic understanding of how brain networks shift dynamically to support inhibitory control. To address this critical gap, we applied spectrally resolved Granger causality (GC) and random forest machine learning tools to human EEG data in two large samples of adults (test sample n = 96, replication sample n = 237, total N = 333, both sexes) who performed a color-word Stroop task. Time-frequency analysis confirmed that recruitment of inhibitory control accompanied by slower behavioral responses was related to changes in theta and alpha/beta power. GC analyses revealed directionally asymmetric exchanges within frontal and between frontal and parietal brain areas: top-down influence of superior frontal gyrus (SFG) over both dorsal ACC (dACC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), dACC control over middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and frontal-parietal exchanges (IFG, precuneus, MFG). Predictive analytics confirmed a combination of behavioral and brain-derived variables as the best set of predictors of inhibitory control demands, with SFG theta bearing higher classification importance than dACC theta and posterior beta tracking the onset of behavioral response. The present results provide mechanistic insight into the biological implementation of a psychological phenomenon: inhibitory control is implemented by dynamic routing processes during which the target response is upregulated via theta-mediated effective connectivity within key PFC nodes and via beta-mediated motor preparation.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Hemodynamic neuroimaging research has recently clarified regional structures in brain networks supporting inhibitory control. However, due to inherent methodological constraints, much of this research has been unable to characterize the temporal dynamics of such networks (e.g., direction of information flow between nodes). Guided by fMRI research identifying the structure of brain networks supporting inhibitory control, results of EEG source analysis in a test sample (n = 96) and replication sample (n = 237) using effective connectivity and predictive analytics strategies advance a model of inhibitory control by characterizing the precise temporal dynamics by which this network operates and exemplify an approach by which mechanistic models can be developed for other key psychological processes.

Reconfiguration of brain networks supporting inhibition of emotional challenge.

Reacting to the salient emotional features of a stimulus is adaptive unless the information is irrelevant or interferes with goal-directed behavior. The ability to ignore salient but otherwise extraneous information involves restructuring of brain networks and is a key impairment in several psychological disorders. Despite the importance of understanding inhibitory control of emotional response, the associated brain network mechanisms remain unknown. Utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data obtained from 103 participants performing an emotion-word Stroop (EWS) task, the present study applied graph-theory analysis to identify how brain regions subserving emotion processing and cognitive control are integrated within the global brain network to promote more specialized and efficient processing during successful inhibition of response to emotional distractors. The present study identified two sub-networks associated with emotion inhibition, one involving hyper-connectivity to prefrontal cortex and one involving hyper-connectivity to thalamus. Brain regions typically associated with identifying emotion salience were more densely connected with the thalamic hub, consistent with thalamic amplification of prefrontal cortex control of these regions. Additionally, stimuli high in emotional arousal prompted restructuring of the global network to increase clustered processing and overall communication efficiency. These results provide evidence that inhibition of emotion relies on interactions between cognitive control and emotion salience sub-networks.

Flexible brain network reconfiguration supporting inhibitory control.

The ability to inhibit distracting stimuli from interfering with goal-directed behavior is crucial for success in most spheres of life. Despite an abundance of studies examining regional brain activation, knowledge of the brain networks involved in inhibitory control remains quite limited. To address this critical gap, we applied graph theory tools to functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected while a large sample of adults (n = 101) performed a color-word Stroop task. Higher demand for inhibitory control was associated with restructuring of the global network into a configuration that was more optimized for specialized processing (functional segregation), more efficient at communicating the output of such processing across the network (functional integration), and more resilient to potential interruption (resilience). In addition, there were regional changes with right inferior frontal sulcus and right anterior insula occupying more central positions as network hubs, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex becoming more tightly coupled with its regional subnetwork. Given the crucial role of inhibitory control in goal-directed behavior, present findings identifying functional network organization supporting inhibitory control have the potential to provide additional insights into how inhibitory control may break down in a wide variety of individuals with neurological or psychiatric difficulties.

Transdiagnostic dimensions of anxiety and depression moderate motivation-related brain networks during goal maintenance.

BACKGROUND: Advancing research on the etiology, prevention, and treatment of psychopathology requires the field to move beyond modular conceptualizations of neural dysfunction toward understanding disturbance in key brain networks. Although some studies of anxiety and depression have begun doing so, they typically suffer from several drawbacks, including: (1) a categorical approach ignoring transdiagnostic processes, (2) failure to account for substantial anxiety and depression comorbidity, (3) examination of networks at rest, which overlooks disruption manifesting only when networks are challenged. Accordingly, the present study examined relationships between transdiagnostic dimensions of anxiety/depression and patterns of functional connectivity while goal maintenance was challenged. METHODS: Participants (n = 179, unselected community members and undergraduates selected to be high/low on anxiety/depression) performed a task in which goal maintenance was challenged (color-word Stroop) while fMRI data were collected. Analyses examined moderation by anxiety/depression of condition-dependent coupling between regions of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) previously associated with approach and avoidance motivation and amygdala/orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). RESULTS: Anxious arousal was positively associated with amygdala↔right dlPFC coupling. Depression was positively associated with OFC↔right dlPFC coupling and negatively associated with OFC↔left dlPFC coupling. CONCLUSIONS: Findings advance the field toward an integrative model of the neural instantiation of anxiety/depression by identifying specific, distinct dysfunctions associated with anxiety and depression in networks important for maintaining approach and avoidance goals. Specifically, findings shed light on potential neural mechanisms involved in attentional biases in anxiety and valuation biases in depression and underscore the importance of examining transdiagnostic dimensions of anxiety/depression while networks are challenged.

Emotional distractors can enhance attention.

The deleterious effects of emotional distractors on attention have been well demonstrated. However, it is unclear whether emotional distractors inevitably disrupt task-relevant attention. In the research reported here, the impact of the valence and arousal of distracting emotional stimuli and individual differences in anxiety on task-relevant processing were examined using multilevel modeling. Consistent with prior literature, results showed that high-arousal negative distractors, compared with positive and neutral distractors, were associated with poorer task-relevant attention. However, low-arousal negative distractors were associated with better task-relevant performance than were positive and neutral distractors. Furthermore, these effects were accentuated by individual differences in worry. These findings challenge assumptions that distraction and worry must be minimized for augmented attentional performance. Overall, these results emphasize the importance of taking into account emotional dimensions of arousal and valence as well as individual differences in anxiety when examining attention in the presence of emotional distractors.

Neuropsychological differentiation of adaptive creativity and schizotypal cognition.

Both creativity and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders have been associated with activation of remote semantic concepts, but this activation results in innovative output in one case and communication disturbances in the other. The present study examined the relationship between monitoring semantic information (which relies on executive brain function), creativity, and characteristics of schizotypy in an undergraduate population. Results indicate that executive function differentiates the use of semantic information in creativity and schizotypy. Specification of the balance between executive monitoring and activation of semantic information is important for determining how communication disturbances manifest, and for the measurement of creativity and schizotypy in the general population.

Theories of psychopathology: Potential to promote clinical science, empowerment, and justice.

This invited commentary evaluates eight target articles that offer ambitious theoretical frameworks intended to advance psychopathology research. We discuss their consideration of the perspectives and priorities of treatment-seekers, including respect for and promotion of individuals' agency and self-determination; their positioning of individuals within dynamic social systems and their consideration of interventions beyond the individual level; their assumptions and proposals about the relationship between psychological and biological concepts and phenomena, relative to the reductionism that has been dominant but unsuccessful in the psychopathology literature in recent decades; and their implications for clinical care and for individual and community health. Despite some overlapping features, the articles cover very different ground and offer different challenges to the status quo, which has seen strikingly slow progress for decades. None of the proposed theories is comprehensive, but each has unique appeals; each has limitations, and each warrants consideration and development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Threat effects on attention networks in individuals with a history of externalizing behaviors.

Research identifying the biobehavioral processes that link threat exposure to cognitive alterations can inform treatments designed to reduce perpetration of stress-induced aggression. The present study attempted to specify the effects of relatively predictable versus unpredictable threat on two attention networks, attentional alerting and executive control. In a sample of adults (n = 74, 35 % identifying as women, Mage = 32.85) with high rates of externalizing behaviors (e.g., substance use, criminal/legal system involvement, aggressivity), we measured event-related brain activity during an attention network test that manipulated cognitive systems activation under relatively unpredictable and predictable threat conditions. Results showed that threat exposure alters attentional alerting and executive control. The predictable threat condition, relative to unpredictable threat, increased visual alerting (N1 amplitude to alert vs. no alert cue conditions) and decreased attention to the task (P3 amplitude to subsequent task-relevant flankers, but these effects did not survive adjusting for multiple tests. In contrast, overall threat and unpredictable threat conditions were associated with faster response time to alert cue (versus no cue) and poorer conflict processing, operationalized as flanker N2 reductions and slower response time to incongruent (versus congruent) flanker trials. These results expand what is known about threat-related modulation of cognition in a sample of individuals with histories of externalizing behaviors.

The dimensional structure of internalizing psychopathology: Relation to diagnostic categories.

Recent approaches aim to represent the dimensional structure of psychopathology, but relatively little research has rigorously tested sub-dimensions within internalizing psychopathology. This study tests pre-registered models of the dimensional structure of internalizing psychopathology, and their relations with current and lifetime depressive and anxiety disorders diagnostic data, in adult samples harmonized across three sites (n=427). Across S-1 bifactor and hierarchical models, we found converging evidence for both general and specific internalizing dimensions. Depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and panic attacks were all associated with a general internalizing factor that we posit primarily represents motivational anhedonia. GAD was also associated with a specific anxious apprehension factor, and SAD with specific anxious apprehension and low positive affect factors. We suggest that dimensional approaches capturing shared and specific internalizing symptom facets more accurately describe the structure of internalizing psychopathology and provide useful alternatives to categorical diagnoses to advance clinical science.

Daily exposure to virtual nature reduces symptoms of anxiety in college students.

Exposure to natural environments offers an array of mental health benefits. Virtual reality provides simulated experiences of being in nature when outdoor access is limited. Previous studies on virtual nature have focused mainly on single "doses" of virtual nature. The effects of repeated exposure remain poorly understood. Motivated by this gap, we studied the influence of a daily virtual nature intervention on symptoms of anxiety, depression, and an underlying cause of poor mental health: rumination. Forty college students (58% non-Hispanic White, median age = 19) were recruited from two U.S. universities and randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Over several weeks, anxious arousal (panic) and anxious apprehension (worry) decreased with virtual nature exposure. Participants identifying as women, past VR users, experienced with the outdoors, and engaged with the beauty in nature benefited particularly strongly from virtual nature. Virtual nature did not help symptoms of anhedonic depression or rumination. Further research is necessary to distinguish when and for whom virtual nature interventions impact mental health outcomes.

Trait motivation moderates neural activation associated with goal pursuit.

Research has indicated that regions of left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) are involved in integrating the motivational and executive function processes related to, respectively, approach and avoidance goals. Given that sensitivity to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli is an important feature of conceptualizations of approach and avoidance motivation, it is possible that these regions of DLPFC are preferentially activated by valenced stimuli. The present study tested this hypothesis by using a task in which goal pursuit was threatened by distraction from valenced stimuli while functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected. The analyses examined whether the impact of trait approach and avoidance motivation on the neural processes associated with executive function differed depending on the valence or arousal level of the distractor stimuli. The present findings support the hypothesis that the regions of DLPFC under investigation are involved in integrating motivational and executive function processes, and they also indicate the involvement of a number of other brain areas in maintaining goal pursuit. However, DLPFC did not display differential sensitivity to valence.

Emotion mindsets and depressive symptoms in adolescence: The role of emotion regulation competence.

Recent theories posit that emotion mindsets (i.e., the extent to which individuals believe emotions are malleable or fixed) play a crucial role in experiences of emotion and influence emotion regulation (ER) processes. Drawing from mindset theory, this study examined the hypothesis that fixed emotion mindsets (FEMs) would predict depressive symptoms via compromised ER competence in adolescence, a period when many first episodes of depression occur. Results supported these hypotheses across two studies assessing participants in midadolescence (ages 14-18; M age = 16.17) and late adolescence (ages 18-21; M age = 18.52). Using a comprehensive approach to assessing ER, results demonstrated that FEMs were associated with less voluntary engagement and more disengagement and emotion dysregulation. In turn, higher voluntary engagement was associated with lower depressive symptoms, whereas higher disengagement and emotion dysregulation were associated with higher depressive symptoms. These findings highlight that one understudied pathway from FEMs to depressive symptoms may be the manner in which individuals respond to their emotions, implicating emotion mindsets as one target for efforts to improve clinical outcomes during adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Trait approach and avoidance motivation: lateralized neural activity associated with executive function.

Motivation and executive function are both necessary for the completion of goal-directed behavior. Research investigating the manner in which these processes interact is beginning to emerge and has implicated middle frontal gyrus (MFG) as a site of interaction for relevant neural mechanisms. However, this research has focused on state motivation, and it has not examined functional lateralization. The present study examined the impact of trait levels of approach and avoidance motivation on neural processes associated with executive function. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted while participants performed a color-word Stroop task. Analyses identified brain regions in which trait approach and avoidance motivation (measured by questionnaires) moderated activation associated with executive control. Approach was hypothesized to be associated with left-lateralized MFG activation, whereas avoidance was hypothesized to be associated with right-lateralized MFG activation. Results supported both hypotheses. Present findings implicate areas of middle frontal gyrus in top-down control to guide behavior in accordance with motivational goals.

Inhibitory control of emotional processing: Theoretical and empirical considerations.

Although inhibitory control appears to support successful emotion regulation (ER; Joorman and Gotlib, 2010; McCabe et al., 2010), few emotion inhibition studies position themselves in the literature on ER, and even fewer ER studies reference the role of emotion inhibition. Perhaps contributing to this, the ER literature is frequently divided into implicit or "automatic" (which subsumes emotion inhibition) and explicit or "effortful" control (Braunstein et al., 2017; Gyurak et al., 2011). The present paper evaluates relationships among constructs of inhibitory control, emotion inhibition, and ER to assess neural evidence for and against distinctions between implicit and explicit ER. We argue that, whereas the distinction between implicit and explicit ER may appear organizationally or conceptually helpful, such categorical distinctions are not supported by available research and in fact contribute to imbalances in the research literature.

The Structure of Executive Dysfunction in Depression and Anxiety.

BACKGROUND: Although research has demonstrated that depression and anxiety are associated with problematic executive function (EF), results are often inconsistent and underspecified. Delineating specific EF impairments in depression and anxiety has the potential to provide a mechanistic account of symptom presentation and course in these highly co-occurring disorders. The present study evaluated associations between components of EF and symptom dimensions of depression (depressed mood) and anxiety (anxious apprehension, anxious arousal) using factor analyses and structural equation modeling. METHODS: Undergraduates (N = 1,123) completed self-report measures of EF in everyday life and of psychopathology. Based on a three-factor model (Miyake et al., 2000), item-level exploratory (n = 561) and confirmatory (n = 562) factor analyses were conducted on inhibition, shifting, and working memory scales chosen from the EF measure. Structural equation modeling tested the relationship of EF factors to dimensions of psychopathology using the total sample. RESULTS: A three-factor model of EF best fit the data and was replicated via confirmatory factor analysis. Depressed mood and anxious arousal evidenced broad deficits across all EF domains, whereas anxious apprehension evidenced shifting disruptions. LIMITATIONS: Perceived EF may not index the same constructs as performance-based EF tests. Further, the present study was restricted to college students, warranting replication in other samples. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that depressed mood and anxious arousal are characterized by a general disruption in the ability to maintain task goals, whereas anxious apprehension is characterized by cognitive inflexibility. EF impairments are likely contributory factors in the maintenance of affective disorders.

Alterations in the default mode-salience network circuit provide a potential mechanism supporting negativity bias in depression.

Aberrant effective connectivity between default mode (DMN) and salience (SAL) networks may support the tendency of depressed individuals to find it difficult to disengage from self-focused, negatively-biased thinking and may contribute to the onset and maintenance of depression. Assessment of effective connectivity, which can statistically characterize the direction of influence between regions within neural circuits, may provide new insights into the nature of DMN-SAL connectivity disruptions in depression. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was collected from 38 individuals with a history of major depression and 50 healthy comparison participants during completion of an emotion-word Stroop task. Activation within DMN and SAL networks and effective connectivity between DMN and SAL, assessed via Granger causality, were examined. Individuals with a history of depression exhibited greater overall network activation, greater directed connectivity from DMN to SAL, and less directed connectivity from SAL to DMN than healthy comparison participants during negative-word trials. Among individuals with a history of depression, greater DMN-to-SAL connectivity was associated with lower overall network activation and worse task performance during positive-word trials; this pattern was not observed among healthy participants. Present findings indicate that greater network activation and, specifically, influence of DMN on SAL, support negativity bias among previously depressed individuals.