150 Psychologie
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- ADHD (1)
- Aggression (1)
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (1)
- CHAID-Analyse (1)
- CHAID-Analysis (1)
- COVID-19 (1)
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- Leitliniengerechte Behandlung (1)
- Major depressive disorder (1)
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- V4 (1)
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- cognitive impairment (CI) (1)
- detection task (1)
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- eye tracking (ET) (1)
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- multiple sclerosis (1)
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- Medizin (7) (remove)
Highlights
• Microstimulation of visual area V4 improves visual stimulus detection
• Effects of V4 microstimulation extend to the other hemifield
• Microstimulation effects are time dependent and consistent with attention dynamics
Summary
Neuronal activity in visual area V4 is well known to be modulated by selective attention, and there are reports on V4 lesions leading to attentional deficits. However, it remains unclear whether V4 microstimulation can elicit attentional benefits. To test this hypothesis, we performed local microstimulation in area V4 and explored its spatial and time dynamics in two macaque monkeys performing a visual detection task. Microstimulation was delivered via chronically implanted multi-electrode arrays. We found that microstimulation increases average performance by 35% and reduces luminance detection thresholds by −30%. This benefit critically depends on the onset of microstimulation relative to the stimulus, consistent with known dynamics of endogenous attention. These results show that local microstimulation of V4 can improve behavior and highlight the critical role of V4 for attention.
Conduct Disorder (CD) is an impairing psychiatric disorder of childhood and adolescence characterized by aggressive and dissocial behavior. Environmental factors such as maternal smoking during pregnancy, socio-economic status, trauma, or early life stress are associated with CD. Although the number of females with CD is rising in Western societies, CD is under-researched in female cohorts. We aimed at exploring the epigenetic signature of females with CD and its relation to psychosocial and environmental risk factors. We performed HpaII sensitive genome-wide methylation sequencing of 49 CD girls and 50 matched typically developing controls and linear regression models to identify differentially methylated CpG loci (tags) and regions. Significant tags and regions were mapped to the respective genes and tested for enrichment in pathways and brain developmental processes. Finally, epigenetic signatures were tested as mediators for CD-associated risk factors. We identified a 12% increased methylation 5’ of the neurite modulator SLITRK5 (FDR = 0.0046) in cases within a glucocorticoid receptor binding site. Functionally, methylation positively correlated with gene expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines. At systems-level, genes (uncorr. P < 0.01) were associated with development of neurons, neurite outgrowth or neuronal developmental processes. At gene expression level, the associated gene-networks are activated perinatally and during early childhood in neocortical regions, thalamus and striatum, and expressed in amygdala and hippocampus. Specifically, the epigenetic signatures of the gene network activated in the thalamus during early childhood correlated with the effect of parental education on CD status possibly mediating its protective effect. The differential methylation patterns identified in females with CD are likely to affect genes that are expressed in brain regions previously indicated in CD. We provide suggestive evidence that protective effects are likely mediated by epigenetic mechanisms impairing specific brain developmental networks and therefore exerting a long-term effect on neural functions in CD. Our results are exploratory and thus, further replication is needed.
Depressive symptoms in youth with ADHD: the role of impairments in cognitive emotion regulation
(2022)
Youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk to develop co-morbid depression. Identifying factors that contribute to depression risk may allow early intervention and prevention. Poor emotion regulation, which is common in adolescents, is a candidate risk factor. Impaired cognitive emotion regulation is a fundamental characteristic of depression and depression risk in the general population. However, little is known about cognitive emotion regulation in youth with ADHD and its link to depression and depression risk. Using explicit and implicit measures, this study assessed cognitive emotion regulation in youth with ADHD (N = 40) compared to demographically matched healthy controls (N = 40) and determined the association with depressive symptomatology. As explicit measure, we assessed the use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies via self-report. As implicit measure, performance in an ambiguous cue-conditioning task was assessed as indicator of affective bias in the processing of information. Compared to controls, patients reported more frequent use of maladaptive (i.e., self-blame, catastrophizing, and rumination) and less frequent use of adaptive (i.e., positive reappraisal) emotion regulation strategies. This pattern was associated with the severity of current depressive symptoms in patients. In the implicit measure of cognitive bias, there was no significant difference in response of patients and controls and no association with depression. Our findings point to depression-related alterations in the use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in youth with ADHD. The study suggests those alterations as a candidate risk factor for ADHD-depression comorbidity that may be used for risk assessment and prevention strategies.
The knowledge that brain functional connectomes are both unique and reliable has enabled behaviourally relevant inferences at a subject level. However, it is unknown whether such “fingerprints” persist under altered states of consciousness. Ayahuasca is a potent serotonergic psychedelic which elicits a widespread dysregulation of functional connectivity. Used communally in religious ceremonies, its shared use may highlight relevant novel interactions between mental state and FC inherency. Using 7T fMRI, we assessed resting-state static and dynamic FCs for 21 Santo Daime members after collective ayahuasca intake in an acute, within-subject study. Here, connectome fingerprinting revealed a shared functional space, accompanied by a spatiotemporal reallocation of keypoint edges. Importantly, we show that interindividual differences in higher-order FCs motifs are relevant to experiential phenotypes, given that they can predict perceptual drug effects. Collectively, our findings offer an example as to how individualised connectivity markers can be used to trace a subject’s functional connectome across altered states of consciousness.
Background: Standardized neuropsychological testing serves to quantify cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, the exact mechanism underlying the translation of cognitive dysfunction into difficulties in everyday tasks has remained unclear. To answer this question, we tested if MS patients with intact vs. impaired information processing speed measured by the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) differ in their visual search behavior during ecologically valid tasks reflecting everyday activities.
Methods: Forty-three patients with relapsing-remitting MS enrolled in an eye-tracking experiment consisting of a visual search task with naturalistic images. Patients were grouped into “impaired” and “unimpaired” according to their SDMT performance. Reaction time, accuracy and eye-tracking parameters were measured.
Results: The groups did not differ regarding age, gender, and visual acuity. Patients with impaired SDMT (cut-off SDMT-z-score < −1.5) performance needed more time to find and fixate the target (q = 0.006). They spent less time fixating the target (q = 0.042). Impaired patients had slower reaction times and were less accurate (both q = 0.0495) even after controlling for patients' upper extremity function. Exploratory analysis revealed that unimpaired patients had higher accuracy than impaired patients particularly when the announced target was in unexpected location (p = 0.037). Correlational analysis suggested that SDMT performance is inversely linked to the time to first fixation of the target only if the announced target was in its expected location (r = −0.498, p = 0.003 vs. r = −0.212, p = 0.229).
Conclusion: Dysfunctional visual search behavior may be one of the mechanisms translating cognitive deficits into difficulties in everyday tasks in MS patients. Our results suggest that cognitively impaired patients search their visual environment less efficiently and this is particularly evident when top-down processes have to be employed.
The consequences of the current COVID-19 pandemic for mental health remain unclear, especially regarding the effects on suicidal behaviors. To assess changes in the pattern of suicide attempt (SA) admissions and completed suicides (CS) in association with the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of a longitudinal study, SA admissions and CS are systematically documented and analyzed in all psychiatric hospitals in Frankfurt/Main (765.000 inhabitants). Number, sociodemographic factors, diagnoses and methods of SA and CS were compared between the periods of March–December 2019 and March–December 2020. The number of CS did not change, while the number of SA significantly decreased. Age, sex, occupational status, and psychiatric diagnoses did not change in SA, whereas the percentage of patients living alone while attempting suicide increased. The rate and number of intoxications as a SA method increased and more people attempted suicide in their own home, which was not observed in CS. Such a shift from public places to home is supported by the weekday of SA, as the rate of SA on weekends was significantly lower during the pandemic, likely because of lockdown measures. Only admissions to psychiatric hospitals were recorded, but not to other institutions. As it seems unlikely that the number of SA decreased while the number of CS remained unchanged, it is conceivable that the number of unreported SA cases increased during the pandemic. Our data suggest that a higher number of SA remained unnoticed during the pandemic because of their location and the use of methods associated with lower lethality.
Hintergrund: Depressionen sind häufige, schwere und oft lebensbedrohliche Erkrankungen, bei denen es – trotz sehr guter Behandlungsmethoden – Versorgungslücken gibt. Hierzu tragen Vorbehalte gegen eine leitlinienkonforme pharmako- und/oder psychotherapeutische Behandlung bei. Ziel der Arbeit ist es zu ermitteln, in welchen soziodemographischen Bevölkerungssegmenten diese Vorbehalte besonders ausgeprägt sind.
Methodik: Die Untersuchung basiert auf Online-Befragungen der deutschen Bevölkerung aus den Jahren 2021, 2020 und 2019, darunter 1656 Personen (2021), 1775 Personen (2020) und 1729 Personen (2019) ohne Depressionserfahrungen. Mit einer CHAID-Analyse wurde geprüft, in welchen Bevölkerungssegmenten die Vorbehalte gegen eine leitliniengerechte Behandlung besonders groß sind.
Ergebnisse: Vorbehalte gegen Pharmakotherapie hatten insgesamt 69,8 % der Befragten ohne Depressionserfahrungen. Am größten waren die Vorbehalte unter jüngeren Personen (< 40 Jahre); hier lag der Anteil bei 74,2 %. Vorbehalte gegen Psychotherapie äußerten 31,4 % ohne Depressionserfahrungen; unter Frauen mit geringerer Schulbildung hatten 40,5 % Vorbehalte gegen eine Psychotherapie; unter Männern mit geringerer Schulbildung waren es 39,1 %. Vorbehalte gegen beide Behandlungsformen zeigten 27,7 %. Am größten waren die Vorbehalte unter Männern mit Schulbildung unterhalb der Hochschulreife (34,1 %). Die Ergebnisse sind signifikant (χ2-Test, p < 0,05).
Diskussion: Eine allgemeine Informationsstrategie wäre geeignet, Vorbehalten gegen Pharmakotherapie und Psychotherapie gleichermaßen zu verringern. Für eine spezifische Informationsstrategie müssen die Botschaften hinsichtlich Inhalt und Kommunikationskanälen so gestaltet werden, dass die jüngere Zielgruppe zuverlässig erreicht wird.