Adolescence is associated with maturation of function within neural networks supporting the processing of social information. Previous longitudinal studies have established developmental influences ...on youth's neural response to facial displays of emotion. Given increasing recognition of the importance of non-facial cues to social communication, we build on existing work by examining longitudinal change in neural response to vocal expressions of emotion in 8- to 19-year-old youth. Participants completed a vocal emotion recognition task at two timepoints (one year apart), while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The right inferior frontal gyrus, right dorsal striatum, and right precentral gyrus showed decreases in activation to emotional voices across timepoints, which may reflect focalization of response in these areas. Activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was positively associated with age, but was stable across timepoints. In addition, the slope of change across visits varied as a function of participants' age in the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ): this pattern of activation across timepoints and age may reflect ongoing specialization of function across childhood and adolescence. Decreased activation in the striatum and TPJ across timepoints was associated with better emotion recognition accuracy. Findings suggest that specialization of function in social cognitive networks may support the growth of vocal emotion recognition skills across adolescence.
Many transgender adolescents experience clinically elevated anxiety and depression. Testosterone (T), used as a gender affirming treatment, may reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. We assessed ...the effect of gender affirming T treatment on internalizing symptoms, body image dissatisfaction, and activation patterns within the amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuit in transgender adolescent boys.
Symptoms of generalized anxiety, social anxiety, depression, suicidality and body image dissatisfaction were measured by self-report and brain activation was measured during a face processing task with functional MRI in a group of 19 adolescent transgender boys receiving T treatment and 23 not receiving gonadal hormone treatment (UT).
Severity of anxiety and depression was significantly lower in the T treated group relative to the UT group, along with a trend of lower suicidality. The T group also reported less distress with body features and exhibited stronger connectivity within the amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuit compared to the UT group. Finally, group differences on depression and suicidality were directly associated with body image dissatisfaction, and anxiety symptoms were moderated by amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity differences between groups.
T treatment is associated with lower levels of internalizing symptoms among transgender adolescent boys. T is also associated with greater body satisfaction and greater connectivity in a neural circuit associated with anxiety and depression. Satisfaction with body image was found to overlap with the association between T and both depression and suicidality, and amygdala-prefrontal co-activation moderated the role of T on anxiety.
•Testosterone treated transgender youth have reduced internalizing symptoms.•Testosterone associated with improved body image satisfaction in transgender youth.•Testosterone associated with stronger amygdala-prefrontal cortex co-activation.
Does silently talking to yourself in the third-person constitute a relatively effortless form of self control? We hypothesized that it does under the premise that third-person self-talk leads people ...to think about the self similar to how they think about others, which provides them with the psychological distance needed to facilitate self control. We tested this prediction by asking participants to reflect on feelings elicited by viewing aversive images (Study 1) and recalling negative autobiographical memories (Study 2) using either "I" or their name while measuring neural activity via ERPs (Study 1) and fMRI (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that third-person self-talk reduced an ERP marker of self-referential emotional reactivity (i.e., late positive potential) within the first second of viewing aversive images without enhancing an ERP marker of cognitive control (i.e., stimulus preceding negativity). Conceptually replicating these results, Study 2 demonstrated that third-person self-talk was linked with reduced levels of activation in an a priori defined fMRI marker of self-referential processing (i.e., medial prefrontal cortex) when participants reflected on negative memories without eliciting increased levels of activity in a priori defined fMRI markers of cognitive control. Together, these results suggest that third-person self-talk may constitute a relatively effortless form of self-control.
•Children with refractory epilepsy have difficulty with social cognition including mentalizing.•Altered age-related thinning of gray matter in prefrontal cortex, but normative changes in other ...regions were found.•Modest reductions in white matter tracts emanating from the prefrontal cortex were found.•Significantly more white matter tracts emanating from the right posterior STS were found in the epilepsy group.•Refractory epilepsy is associated with atypical developmental trajectory in brain social cognitive networks.
Refractory focal epilepsy (rFE) is commonly comorbid with impaired social functioning, which significantly reduces quality of life. Previous research has identified a mentalizing network in the brain—composed of the anterior temporal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior temporal sulcus (pSTS), and temporoparietal junction—that is thought to play a critical role in social cognition. In typically-developing (TD) youth, this network undergoes a protracted developmental process with cortical thinning and white matter expansion occurring across adolescence. Because epilepsy is associated with both social dysfunction and irregular neural development, we investigated whether gray and white matter in the mentalizing network differed between youth with rFE (n = 22) and TD youth (n = 41) aged 8–21 years. Older age was associated with reduced cortical thickness in the bilateral mPFC in TD youth, but not in rFE youth. Compared to TD youth, rFE youth had greater white matter density in the right pSTS. Our findings suggest that rFE youth show atypical patterns of cortical thickness and white matter density in regions of the brain that are typically associated with social information processing, potentially as a result of ongoing seizures, comorbid conditions, or other illness-related factors. These results encourage future research to examine whether such variations in neural structure are predictive of specific social deficits in rFE youth.
The amygdala is critically involved in processing emotion. Through bidirectional connections, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is hypothesized to influence amygdala reactivity. However, research that ...elucidates the nature of amygdala-PFC interactions – through mapping amygdala-prefrontal tracts, quantifying variability among tracts, and linking this variability to amygdala activation – is lacking. Using probabilistic tractography to map amygdala-prefrontal white matter connectivity in 142 adolescents, the present study found that white matter connectivity was greater between the amygdala and the subgenual cingulate, orbitofrontal (OFC), and dorsomedial (dmPFC) prefrontal regions than with the dorsal cingulate and dorsolateral regions. Then, using a machine-learning regression, we found that greater amygdala-PFC white matter connectivity was related to attenuated amygdala reactivity. This effect was driven by amygdala white matter connectivity with the dmPFC and OFC, supporting implicit emotion processing theories which highlight the critical role of these regions in amygdala regulation. This study is among the first to map and compare specific amygdala-prefrontal white matter tracts and to relate variability in connectivity to amygdala activation, particularly among a large sample of adolescents from a well-sampled study. By examining the association between specific amygdala-PFC tracts and amygdala activation, the present study provides novel insight into the nature of this emotion-based circuit.
•The amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are critical to emotion processing.•We used probabilistic tractography to map amygdala-PFC white matter connectivity.•We related adolescent amygdala-PFC white matter connectivity to amygdala reactivity.•Amygdala-PFC white matter is widespread and varies across the PFC.•Amygdala reactivity is modulated by orbitofrontal and dorsomedial PFC connections.
Internalizing disorders (i.e., depression and anxiety) are common comorbidities in people with epilepsy. In adults with epilepsy, comorbid depression or anxiety is associated with worse seizure ...control and reduced quality of life, and may be linked to specific neural biomarkers. Less is known about brain correlates of internalizing symptoms in pediatric populations. In the current study, we performed a retrospective analysis of 45 youth between the ages of 6 and 18 years old with intractable epilepsy. Individuals were evaluated for internalizing symptoms on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and underwent magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) imaging as part of the clinical evaluation for surgical treatment of epilepsy. Forty-two percent of patients experienced clinically significant internalizing symptoms based on parent report. Compared with individuals who scored in the normal range, youth with clinical levels of internalizing problems showed overall reductions in cortex volume, as well as widespread reductions in cortical thickness and functional activation in the bilateral occipital/parietal lobe, left temporal regions, and left inferior frontal cortex on MR and PET scans. There were no group differences in amygdala or hippocampus volumes, nor other patient- or illness-related variables such as age, sex, or the type, lateralization, or duration of epilepsy. Results suggest that high rates of internalizing disorders are present in youth with refractory epilepsy. Multifocal reductions in cortical thickness and function may be nonspecific risk factors for clinically meaningful internalizing symptoms in youth with chronic epilepsy. As such, the presence of broad cortical thinning and reduced glucose uptake upon radiological examination may warrant more focused clinical evaluation of psychological symptoms.
•42% of youth with intractable epilepsy had clinical levels of internalizing symptoms.•Clinical symptoms were related to diffuse reductions in brain structure and function.•Mesial temporal structure was not associated with internalizing symptoms.•No epilepsy-related factor (e.g., localization/type) was linked to clinical symptoms.•Youth with broad cortical alterations may benefit from psychological evaluation.
Transgender/non-binary (TNB) youth are at increased risk for anxiety, depression, and suicidality compared to cisgender youth. Gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT, i.e., testosterone or estrogen) ...is a standard of care option for TNB youth, and we have recently shown that GAHT (testosterone) in transgender youth assigned a female sex at birth is associated with reductions in internalizing symptomatology. The current analysis explores: 1) whether these benefits are observed in both TNB youth assigned female at birth (TNBAFAB) and TNB youth assigned male at birth (TNBAMAB) and 2) the extent to which body image dissatisfaction and alteration in neural circuitry relate to internalizing symptoms.
The current study is an expansion of a previous publication from our lab that explored the association between gender-affirming testosterone and internalizing symptomatology. While participants in our previous study consisted of 42 TNBAFAB youth, participants in the current study included adolescent TNBAFAB receiving GAHT (n = 21; GAHT+) and not receiving GAHT (n = 29; GAHT-) as well as adolescent GAHT+ TNBAMAB (n = 15) and GAHT- TNBAMAB (n = 17). Participants reported symptoms of trait and social anxiety, depression, suicidality in the past year, and body image dissatisfaction. Brain activation was measured during a face processing task designed to elicit amygdala activation during functional MRI.
GAHT+ TNBAFAB had significantly lower rates of social anxiety, depression, and suicidality compared to GAHT- TNBAFAB. While there were no significant relationships between estrogen and depression and anxiety symptoms, longer duration of estrogen was related to less suicidality. Both testosterone and estrogen administration were related to significantly lower rates of body image dissatisfaction compared to GAHT- youth. No significant differences emerged for BOLD response in the left or right amygdala during the face processing task, however, there was a significant main effect of GAHT on functional connectivity between the right amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, such that GAHT+ youth had stronger co-activation between the two regions during the task. Body image dissatisfaction, greater functional connectivity, their interaction effect, and age predicted depression symptomatology and body image dissatisfaction additionally predicted suicidality in the past year.
The current study suggests that GAHT is associated with fewer short-term internalizing symptoms in TNBAFAB than in TNBAMAB, although internalizing symptoms among TNBAMAB may diminish with longer durations of estrogen treatment. Controlling for age and sex assigned at birth, our findings indicate that less body image dissatisfaction and greater functional connectivity between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex were both predictors of fewer levels of internalizing symptoms following GAHT.
•Gender-affirming testosterone was associated with fewer internalizing symptoms.•Longer duration of gender-affirming estrogen was related to fewer depressive symptoms.•Body image dissatisfaction and brain connectivity predict current depressive symptoms.•Body image dissatisfaction predicts suicidality in the past year.
Individuals with epilepsy are at risk for social cognition deficits, including impairments in the ability to recognize nonverbal cues of emotion (i.e., emotion recognition ER skills). Such deficits ...are particularly pronounced in adult patients with childhood-onset seizures and are already evident in children and adolescents with epilepsy. Though these impairments have been linked to blunted neural response to emotional information in faces in adult patients, little is known about the neural correlates of ER deficits in youth with epilepsy. The current study compared ER accuracy and neural response to emotional faces during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in youth with intractable focal epilepsy and typically developing youth. Relative to typically developing participants, individuals with epilepsy showed a) reduced accuracy in the ER task and b) blunted response to emotional faces (vs. neutral faces) in the bilateral fusiform gyri and right superior temporal gyrus (STG). Activation in these regions was correlated with performance, suggesting that aberrant response within these face-responsive regions may play a functional role in ER impairments. Reduced engagement of neural circuits relevant to processing socioemotional cues may be markers of risk for social cognitive deficits in youth with focal epilepsy.
•Youth with focal epilepsy showed a deficit in the capacity to label emotion in faces.•These youth had blunted fusiform and superior temporal response to emotional faces.•In contrast, typically developing youth showed enhanced response to the same stimuli.•Enhanced neural response was positively correlated with emotion recognition capacity.
Adolescence is a period of intensive development in body, brain, and behavior. Potentiated by changes in hormones and neural response to social stimuli, teenagers undergo a process of social ...re-orientation away from their caregivers and toward expanding peer networks. The current study examines how relative relational closeness to peers (compared to parents) during adolescence is linked to neural response to the facial emotional expressions of other teenagers. Self-reported closeness with friends (same- and opposite-sex) and parents (mother and father), and neural response to facial stimuli during fMRI, were assessed in 8- to 19-year-old typically developing youth (
= 40,
age = 13.90 years old,
= 3.36; 25 female). Youth who reported greater relative closeness with peers than with parents showed decreased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during stimulus presentation, which may reflect lessened inhibitory control or regulatory response to peer-aged faces. Functional connectivity between the dlPFC and dorsal striatum was greatest in older youth who were closer to peers; in contrast, negative coupling between these regions was noted for both younger participants who were closer to peers and older participants who were closer to their parents. In addition, the association between relative closeness to peers and neural activation in regions of the social brain varied by emotion type and age. Results suggest that the re-orientation toward peers that occurs during adolescence is accompanied by changes in neural response to peer-aged social signals in social cognitive, prefrontal, and subcortical networks.
PDF
