Probing the content of affective semantic memory following caregiving-related early adversity.

Cognitive science has demonstrated that we construct knowledge about the world by abstracting patterns from routinely encountered experiences and storing them as semantic memories. This preregistered study tested the hypothesis that caregiving-related early adversities (crEAs) shape affective semantic memories to reflect the content of those adverse interpersonal-affective experiences. We also tested the hypothesis that because affective semantic memories may continue to evolve in response to later-occurring positive experiences, child-perceived attachment security will inform their content. The sample comprised 160 children (ages 6-12 at Visit 1; 87F/73 M), 66% of whom experienced crEAs (n = 105). At Visit 1, crEA exposure prior to study enrollment was operationalized as parental-reports endorsing a history of crEAs (abuse/neglect, permanent/significant parent-child separation); while child-reports assessed concurrent attachment security. A false memory task was administered online ∼2.5 years later (Visit 2) to probe the content of affective semantic memories-specifically attachment schemas. Results showed that crEA exposure (vs. no exposure) was associated with a higher likelihood of falsely endorsing insecure (vs. secure) schema scenes. Attachment security moderated the association between crEA exposure and insecure schema-based false recognition. Findings suggest that interpersonal-affective semantic schemas include representations of parent-child interactions that may capture the quality of one's own attachment experiences and that these representations shape how children remember attachment-relevant narrative events. Findings are also consistent with the hypothesis that these affective semantic memories can be modified by later experiences. Moving forward, the approach taken in this study provides a means of operationalizing Bowlby's notion of internal working models within a cognitive neuroscience framework. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Affective semantic memories representing insecure schema knowledge (child needs + needs-not-met) may be more salient, elaborated, and persistent among youths exposed to early caregiving adversity. All youths, irrespective of early caregiving adversity exposure, may possess affective semantic memories that represent knowledge of secure schemas (child needs + needs-met). Establishing secure relationships with parents following early-occurring caregiving adversity may attenuate the expression of insecure semantic memories, suggesting potential malleability. Affective semantic memories include schema representations of parent-child interactions that may capture the quality of one's own attachment experiences and shape how youths remember attachment-relevant events.

Mindfulness-based real-time fMRI neurofeedback: a randomized controlled trial to optimize dosing for depressed adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is characterized by a heightened vulnerability for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) onset, and currently, treatments are only effective for roughly half of adolescents with MDD. Accordingly, novel interventions are urgently needed. This study aims to establish mindfulness-based real-time fMRI neurofeedback (mbNF) as a non-invasive approach to downregulate the default mode network (DMN) in order to decrease ruminatory processes and depressive symptoms. METHODS: Adolescents (N = 90) with a current diagnosis of MDD ages 13-18-years-old will be randomized in a parallel group, two-arm, superiority trial to receive either 15 or 30 min of mbNF with a 1:1 allocation ratio. Real-time neurofeedback based on activation of the frontoparietal network (FPN) relative to the DMN will be displayed to participants via the movement of a ball on a computer screen while participants practice mindfulness in the scanner. We hypothesize that within-DMN (medial prefrontal cortex [mPFC] with posterior cingulate cortex [PCC]) functional connectivity will be reduced following mbNF (Aim 1: Target Engagement). Additionally, we hypothesize that participants in the 30-min mbNF condition will show greater reductions in within-DMN functional connectivity (Aim 2: Dosing Impact on Target Engagement). Aim 1 will analyze data from all participants as a single-group, and Aim 2 will leverage the randomized assignment to analyze data as a parallel-group trial. Secondary analyses will probe changes in depressive symptoms and rumination. DISCUSSION: Results of this study will determine whether mbNF reduces functional connectivity within the DMN among adolescents with MDD, and critically, will identify the optimal dosing with respect to DMN modulation as well as reduction in depressive symptoms and rumination. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study has been registered with clinicaltrials.gov, most recently updated on July 6, 2023 (trial identifier: NCT05617495).

Heterogeneity in caregiving-related early adversity: Creating stable dimensions and subtypes.

Early psychosocial adversities exist at many levels, including caregiving-related, extrafamilial, and sociodemographic, which despite their high interrelatedness may have unique impacts on development. In this paper, we focus on caregiving-related early adversities (crEAs) and parse the heterogeneity of crEAs via data reduction techniques that identify experiential cooccurrences. Using network science, we characterized crEA cooccurrences to represent the comorbidity of crEA experiences across a sample of school-age children (n = 258; 6-12 years old) with a history of crEAs. crEA dimensions (variable level) and crEA subtypes (subject level) were identified using parallel factor analysis/principal component analysis and graph-based Louvain community detection. Bagging enhancement with cross-validation provided estimates of robustness. These data-driven dimensions/subtypes showed evidence of stability, transcended traditional sociolegally defined groups, were more homogenous than sociolegally defined groups, and reduced statistical correlations with sociodemographic factors. Finally, random forests showed both unique and common predictive importance of the crEA dimensions/subtypes for childhood mental health symptoms and academic skills. These data-driven outcomes provide additional tools and recommendations for crEA data reduction to inform precision medicine efforts in this area.

Adaptation in the face of adversity: Decrements and enhancements in children's cognitive control behavior following early caregiving instability.

Cognitive control is typically described as disrupted following exposure to early caregiving instability. While much of the work within this field has approached cognitive control broadly, evidence from adults retrospectively reporting early-life instability has shown more nuanced effects on cognitive control, even demonstrating enhancements in certain subdomains. That is, exposure to unstable caregiving may disrupt some areas of cognitive control, yet promote adaptation in others. Here, we investigated three domains of cognitive control in a sample of school-age children (N = 275, Age = 6-12 years) as a function of early caregiving instability, defined as the total number of caregiving switches. Results demonstrated that caregiving instability was associated with reduced response inhibition (Go/No-Go) and attentional control (Flanker), but enhanced cognitive flexibility (Dimensional Change Card Sort Task Switching). Conversely, there were no statistically significant associations with group (i.e., institutional care versus foster care) or maltreatment exposure and these patterns. These findings build on the specialization framework, suggesting that caregiving instability results in both decrements and enhancements in children's cognitive control, consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive control development is scaffolded by early environmental pressures.

Tip-of-the-tongue states predict enhanced feedback processing and subsequent memory.

This article investigates the relations among the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state, event related potentials (ERPs) to correct feedback to questions, and subsequent memory. ERPs were used to investigate neurocognitive responses to feedback to general information questions for which participants had expressed either being or not being in a TOT state. For questions in which participants were unable to answer within 3 s, they indicated whether they were experiencing a TOT state and then were immediately provided with the correct answer. Feedback during a TOT state, as opposed to not knowing the answer, was associated with enhanced positivity over centro-parietal electrodes 250-700 ms post-feedback, and this enhanced positivity mediated a positive relationship between TOTs and later recall. Although effects of increased semantic access during TOT states cannot be ruled out, these results suggest that information received during TOT states elicits enhanced processing-suggestive of curiosity-leading to enhanced learning of studied material.

Mindfulness-based Neurofeedback: A Systematic Review of EEG and fMRI studies.

Neurofeedback concurrent with mindfulness meditation may reveal meditation effects on the brain and facilitate improved mental health outcomes. Here, we systematically reviewed EEG and fMRI studies of mindfulness meditation with neurofeedback (mbNF) and followed PRISMA guidelines. We identified 10 fMRI reports, consisting of 177 unique participants, and 9 EEG reports, consisting of 242 participants. Studies of fMRI focused primarily on downregulating the default-mode network (DMN). Although studies found decreases in DMN activations during neurofeedback, there is a lack of evidence for transfer effects, and the majority of studies did not employ adequate controls, e.g. sham neurofeedback. Accordingly, DMN decreases may have been confounded by general task-related deactivation. EEG studies typically examined alpha, gamma, and theta frequency bands, with the most robust evidence supporting the modulation of theta band activity. Both EEG and fMRI mbNF have been implemented with high fidelity in clinical populations. However, the mental health benefits of mbNF have not been established. In general, mbNF studies would benefit from sham-controlled RCTs, as well as clear reporting (e.g. CRED-NF).

Identifying factors impacting missingness within smartphone-based research: Implications for intensive longitudinal studies of adolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Intensive longitudinal research-including experience sampling and smartphone sensor monitoring-has potential for identifying proximal risk factors for psychopathology, including suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB). Yet, missing data can complicate analysis and interpretation. This study aimed to address whether clinical and study design factors are associated with missing data and whether missingness predicts changes in symptom severity or STB. Adolescents ages 13- to 18 years old (N = 179) reporting depressive, anxiety, and/or substance use disorders were enrolled; 65% reported current suicidal ideation and 29% indicated a past-year attempt. Passively acquired smartphone sensor data (e.g., global positioning system, accelerometer, and keyboard inputs), daily mood surveys, and weekly suicidal ideation surveys were collected during the 6-month study period using the effortless assessment research system smartphone app. First, acquisition of passive smartphone sensor data (with data on ∼80% of days across the whole sample) was strongly associated with survey data acquisition on the same day (∼44% of days). Second, STB and psychiatric symptoms were largely not associated with missing data. Rather, temporal features (e.g., length of time in study, weekends, and summer) explained more missingness of survey and passive smartphone sensor data. Last, within-participant changes in missing data over time neither followed nor predicted subsequent change in suicidal ideation and psychiatric symptoms. Findings indicate that considering technical and study design factors impacting missingness is critical and highlight several factors that should be addressed to maximize the validity of clinical interpretations in intensive longitudinal research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Added Value of Crosstalk Between Developmental Circuit Neuroscience and Clinical Practice to Inform the Treatment of Adolescent Anxiety.

Significant advances have been made in recent years regarding the developmental trajectories of brain circuits and networks, revealing links between brain structure and function. Emerging evidence highlights the importance of developmental trajectories in determining early psychiatric outcomes. However, efforts to encourage crosstalk between basic developmental neuroscience and clinical practice are limited. Here, we focus on the potential advantage of considering features of neural circuit development when optimizing treatments for adolescent patient populations. Drawing on characteristics of adolescent neurodevelopment, we highlight two examples, safety cues and incentives, that leverage insights from neural circuit development and may have great promise for augmenting existing behavioral treatments for anxiety disorders during adolescence. This commentary seeks to serve as a framework to maximize the translational potential of basic research in developmental populations for strengthening psychiatric treatments. In turn, input from clinical practice including the identification of age-specific clinically relevant phenotypes will continue to guide future basic research in the same neural circuits to better reflect clinical practices. Encouraging reciprocal communication to bridge the gap between basic developmental neuroscience research and clinical implementation is an important step toward advancing both research and practice in this domain.

The tip-of-the-tongue state and curiosity.

Theories of study time allocation and of curiosity suggest that people are most engaged with and want to devote their time to materials that are not completely mastered but also are not so difficult that they might be impossible. Their curiosity is thought to be triggered by items that are almost known, or are in what is sometimes called the region of proximal learning. Answers that are on the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT)-not immediately recallable but nevertheless evoking a feeling of imminent recall-seem, intuitively, to be materials that have this characteristic of being almost, but not quite, fully known. We therefore, hypothesized that people would be particularly curious to see the answers to questions for which the answers were on the tips of their tongues. To test the TOT curiosity hypothesis, we gave participants 82 general information questions and quickly asked whether the answers were or were not on the tips of their tongues and whether they wanted to see the answers later. Overwhelmingly, items that were accompanied by a TOT feeling were those which evoked participants' curiosity, regardless of whether the feeling occurred in conjunction with an error of commission, an error of omission, or even with the correct answer.