Sensory processing challenges as a novel link between early caregiving experiences and mental health.

Early caregiving adversity (ECA) is associated with elevated psychological symptomatology. While neurobehavioral ECA research has focused on socioemotional and cognitive development, ECA may also increase risk for "low-level" sensory processing challenges. However, no prior work has compared how diverse ECA exposures differentially relate to sensory processing, or, critically, how this might influence psychological outcomes. We examined sensory processing challenges in 183 8-17-year-old youth with and without histories of institutional (orphanage) or foster caregiving, with a particular focus on sensory over-responsivity (SOR), a pattern of intensified responses to sensory stimuli that may negatively impact mental health. We further tested whether sensory processing challenges are linked to elevated internalizing and externalizing symptoms common in ECA-exposed youth. Relative to nonadopted comparison youth, both groups of ECA-exposed youth had elevated sensory processing challenges, including SOR, and also had heightened internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Additionally, we found significant indirect effects of ECA on internalizing and externalizing symptoms through both general sensory processing challenges and SOR, covarying for age and sex assigned at birth. These findings suggest multiple forms of ECA confer risk for sensory processing challenges that may contribute to mental health outcomes, and motivate continuing examination of these symptoms, with possible long-term implications for screening and treatment following ECA.

Understanding preferences of general educators for supporting classwide behavior.

Innovations, such as novel evidence-based practices, are not likely to diffuse to practice without explicit effort and design (Rogers, 2003). In an effort to understand how interventions should be designed to meet teacher preferences, the present study utilized a full-profile two-alternative forced-choice experiment to examine teacher preferences when selecting a classwide intervention to address student disruptive behavior. Attributes and levels for the experiment were derived in response to four characteristics from Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory. Results from 266 general education teachers of Grades K-5 indicated that nearly all theorized characteristics influenced teacher preference, with the exception of the observability of the intervention (i.e., receiving feedback from others). Specific findings of levels within attributes suggest that, for instance, short online video trainings are preferable to full-day workshops and specific details on adaptations for inclusivity are highly preferred. Given school psychologists' roles in consultation and behavior support, knowledge of teacher preferences may be utilized to support intervention uptake and more general dissemination efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

"It's so Cute I Could Crush It!": Understanding Neural Mechanisms of Cute Aggression.

The urge people get to squeeze or bite cute things, albeit without desire to cause harm, is known as "cute aggression." Using electrophysiology (ERP), we measured components related to emotional salience and reward processing. Participants aged 18-40 years (n = 54) saw four sets of images: cute babies, less cute babies, cute (baby) animals, and less cute (adult) animals. On measures of cute aggression, feeling overwhelmed by positive emotions, approachability, appraisal of cuteness, and feelings of caretaking, participants rated more cute animals significantly higher than less cute animals. There were significant correlations between participants' self-report of behaviors related to cute aggression and ratings of cute aggression in the current study. N200: A significant effect of "cuteness" was observed for animals such that a larger N200 was elicited after more versus less cute animals. A significant correlation between N200 amplitude and the tendency to express positive emotions in a dimorphous manner (e.g., crying when happy) was observed. RewP: For animals and babies separately, we subtracted the less cute condition from the more cute condition. A significant correlation was observed between RewP amplitude to cute animals and ratings of cute aggression toward cute animals. RewP amplitude was used in mediation models. Mediation Models: Using PROCESS (Hayes, 2018), mediation models were run. For both animals and babies, the relationship between appraisal and cute aggression was significantly mediated by feeling overwhelmed. For cute animals, the relationship between N200 amplitude and cute aggression was significantly mediated by feeling overwhelmed. For cute animals, there was significant serial mediation for RewP amplitude through caretaking, to feeling overwhelmed, to cute aggression, and RewP amplitude through appraisal, to feeling overwhelmed, to cute aggression. Our results indicate that feelings of cute aggression relate to feeling overwhelmed and feelings of caretaking. In terms of neural mechanisms, cute aggression is related to both reward processing and emotional salience.

Repetitive behaviors in autism are linked to imbalance of corticostriatal connectivity: a functional connectivity MRI study.

The neural underpinnings of repetitive behaviors (RBs) in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), ranging from cognitive to motor characteristics, remain unknown. We assessed RB symptomatology in 50 ASD and 52 typically developing (TD) children and adolescents (ages 8-17 years), examining intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) of corticostriatal circuitry, which is important for reward-based learning and integration of emotional, cognitive and motor processing, and considered impaired in ASDs. Connectivity analyses were performed for three functionally distinct striatal seeds (limbic, frontoparietal and motor). Functional connectivity with cortical regions of interest was assessed for corticostriatal circuit connectivity indices and ratios, testing the balance of connectivity between circuits. Results showed corticostriatal overconnectivity of limbic and frontoparietal seeds, but underconnectivity of motor seeds. Correlations with RBs were found for connectivity between the striatal motor seeds and cortical motor clusters from the whole-brain analysis, and for frontoparietal/limbic and motor/limbic connectivity ratios. Division of ASD participants into high (n = 17) and low RB subgroups (n = 19) showed reduced frontoparietal/limbic and motor/limbic circuit ratios for high RB compared to low RB and TD groups in the right hemisphere. Results suggest an association between RBs and an imbalance of corticostriatal iFC in ASD, being increased for limbic, but reduced for frontoparietal and motor circuits.