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Browsing by Author "Blair, R. James R."
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Item Alcohol Use Disorder and Cannabis Use Disorder Symptomatology in Adolescents and Aggression: Associations With Recruitment of Neural Regions Implicated in Retaliation(Elsevier, 2021) Blair, R. James R.; Bajaj, Sahil; Sherer, Noah; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Zhang, Ru; Aloi, Joseph; Hammond, Chris; Lukoff, Jennie; Schwartz, Amanda; Elowsky, Jaimie; Tyler, Patrick; Filbey, Francesca M.; Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, Karina S.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBackground: Alcohol and cannabis are commonly used by adolescents in the United States. Both alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) have been associated with an increased risk of aggression. One form of aggression seen during retaliation is reactive aggression to social provocation. This study investigated the association between AUD and CUD symptom severity and recruitment of neural regions implicated in retaliation. Methods: In this study, 102 youths aged 13-18 years (67 male; 84 in residential care) completed self-report measures of aggression-related constructs and participated in a retaliation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the association between relative severity of AUD/CUD and atypical recruitment of regions implicated in retaliation. Results: AUD Identification Test scores were positively associated with irritability and reactive aggression scores. CUD Identification Test scores were positively associated with callous-unemotional traits and both proactive and reactive aggression scores. In functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses, only AUD Identification Test (not CUD Identification Test) scores were associated with an exaggerated recruitment of regions implicated in retaliation (dorsomedial frontal, anterior insula cortices, caudate, and, to a lesser extent, periaqueductal gray). Conclusions: These data suggest that relative severity of AUD is associated with a disinhibited, exaggerated retaliation response that relates to an increased risk for reactive aggression. Similar findings were not related to severity of CUD.Item Childhood neglect is associated with alterations in neural prediction error signaling and the response to novelty(Cambridge University Press, 2024-10-24) Aloi, Joseph; Crum, Kathleen I.; Blair, Karina S.; Zhang, Ru; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Bajaj, Sahil; Hwang, Soonjo; Averbeck, Bruno B.; Tottenham, Nim; Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, R. James R.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBackground: One in eight children experience early life stress (ELS), which increases risk for psychopathology. ELS, particularly neglect, has been associated with reduced responsivity to reward. However, little work has investigated the computational specifics of this disrupted reward response - particularly with respect to the neural response to Reward Prediction Errors (RPE) - a critical signal for successful instrumental learning - and the extent to which they are augmented to novel stimuli. The goal of the current study was to investigate the associations of abuse and neglect, and neural representation of RPE to novel and non-novel stimuli. Methods: One hundred and seventy-eight participants (aged 10-18, M = 14.9, s.d. = 2.38) engaged in the Novelty task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. In this task, participants learn to choose novel or non-novel stimuli to win monetary rewards varying from $0 to $0.30 per trial. Levels of abuse and neglect were measured using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Results: Adolescents exposed to high levels of neglect showed reduced RPE-modulated blood oxygenation level dependent response within medial and lateral frontal cortices particularly when exploring novel stimuli (p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons) relative to adolescents exposed to lower levels of neglect. Conclusions: These data expand on previous work by indicating that neglect, but not abuse, is associated with impairments in neural RPE representation within medial and lateral frontal cortices. However, there was no association between neglect and behavioral impairments on the Novelty task, suggesting that these neural differences do not necessarily translate into behavioral differences within the context of the Novelty task.Item Dysfunction in differential reward-punishment responsiveness in conduct disorder relates to severity of callous-unemotional traits but not irritability(Cambridge University Press, 2023) Zhang, Ru; Aloi, Joseph; Bajaj, Sahil; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Lukoff, Jennie; Schwartz, Amanda; Elowsky, Jamie; Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, Karina S.; Blair, R. James R.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBackground: Conduct disorder (CD) has been associated with dysfunction in reinforcement-based decision-making. Two forms of affective traits that reflect the components of CD severity are callous-unemotional (CU; reduced guilt/empathy) traits and irritability. The form of the reinforcement-based decision-making dysfunction with respect to CD and CU traits remains debated and has not been examined with respect to irritability in cases with CD. The goals of the current study were to determine the extent of dysfunction in differential (reward v. punishment) responsiveness in CD, and CU traits and irritability in participants with CD. Methods: The study involved 178 adolescents [typically developing (TD; N = 77) and cases with CD (N = 101)]. Participants were scanned with fMRI during a passive avoidance task that required participants to learn to respond to (i.e. approach) stimuli that engender reward and refrain from responding to (i.e. passively avoid) stimuli that engender punishment. Results: Adolescents with CD showed reduced differential reward-punishment responsiveness within the striatum relative to TD adolescents. CU traits, but not irritability, were associated with reduced differential reward-punishment responsiveness within the striatum, rostromedial, and lateral frontal cortices. Conclusions: The results suggest CD is associated with reduced differential reward-punishment responsiveness and the extent of this dysfunction in participants with CD is associated with the severity of CU traits but not irritability.Item Evaluating Instrumental Learning and Striatal-cortical Functional Connectivity in Adolescent Alcohol and Cannabis Use(Wiley, 2023) Hubbard, Nicholas A.; Miller, Kevin B.; Aloi, Joseph; Bajaj, Sahil; Wakabayashi, Ken T.; Blair, R. James R.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineAdolescence is a vulnerable time for the acquisition of substance use disorders, potentially relating to ongoing development of neural circuits supporting instrumental learning. Striatal-cortical circuits undergo dynamic changes during instrumental learning and are implicated in contemporary addiction theory. Human studies have not yet investigated these dynamic changes in relation to adolescent substance use. Here, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used while 135 adolescents without (AUD-CUDLow ) and with significant alcohol (AUDHigh ) or cannabis use disorder symptoms (CUDHigh ) performed an instrumental learning task. We assessed how cumulative experience with instrumental cues altered cue selection preferences and functional connectivity strength between reward-sensitive striatal and cortical regions. Adolescents in AUDHigh and CUDHigh groups were slower in learning to select optimal instrumental cues relative to AUD-CUDLow adolescents. The relatively fast learning observed for AUD-CUDLow adolescents coincided with stronger functional connectivity between striatal and frontoparietal regions during early relative to later periods of task experience, whereas the slower learning for the CUDHigh group coincided with the opposite pattern. The AUDHigh group not only exhibited slower learning but also produced more instrumental choice errors relative to AUD-CUDLow adolescents. For the AUDHigh group, Bayesian analyses evidenced moderate support for no experience-related changes in striatal-frontoparietal connectivity strength during the task. Findings suggest that adolescent cannabis use is related to slowed instrumental learning and delays in peak functional connectivity strength between the striatal-frontoparietal regions that support this learning, whereas adolescent alcohol use may be more closely linked to broader impairments in instrumental learning and a general depression of the neural circuits supporting it.Item Individual associations of adolescent alcohol use disorder versus cannabis use disorder symptoms in neural prediction error signaling and the response to novelty(Elsevier, 2021-04) Aloi, Joseph; Crum, Kathleen I.; Blair, Karina S.; Zhang, Ru; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Bajaj, Sahil; Schwartz, Amanda; Carollo, Erin; Hwang, Soonjo; Leiker, Emily; Filbey, Francesca M.; Averbeck, Bruno B.; Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, R. James R.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineTwo of the most commonly used illegal substances by adolescents are alcohol and cannabis. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) are associated with poorer decision-making in adolescents. In adolescents, level of AUD symptomatology has been negatively associated with striatal reward responsivity. However, little work has explored the relationship with striatal reward prediction error (RPE) representation and the extent to which any augmentation of RPE by novel stimuli is impacted. One-hundred fifty-one adolescents participated in the Novelty Task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this task, participants learn to choose novel or non-novel stimuli to gain monetary reward. Level of AUD symptomatology was negatively associated with both optimal decision-making and BOLD response modulation by RPE within striatum and regions of prefrontal cortex. The neural alterations in RPE representation were particularly pronounced when participants were exploring novel stimuli. Level of CUD symptomatology moderated the relationship between novelty propensity and RPE representation within inferior parietal lobule and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. These data expand on an emerging literature investigating individual associations of AUD symptomatology levels versus CUD symptomatology levels and RPE representation during reinforcement processing and provide insight on the role of neuro-computational processes underlying reinforcement learning/decision-making in adolescents.Item Reduced neural differentiation of rewards and punishment during passive avoidance learning in adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder(Wiley, 2021-08) Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Aloi, Joseph; Zhang, Ru; Bajaj, Sahil; Carollo, Erin; Elowsky, Jaimie; Schwartz, Amanda; Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, R. James R.; Blair, Karina S.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBackground: It has been proposed that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) show dysfunctional computations related to approach-avoidance decision-making. However, few studies have examined the neural basis of this impairment, particularly in adolescents with GAD. The goal of the current study was to address this gap in the literature. Method: The study involved 51 adolescents with GAD and 51 typically developing (TD) comparison individuals matched on age (16.10 and 15.75 respective means), gender (30 F/21 M and 24 F/27 M), and IQ (103.20 and 103.18 respective means). Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a passive avoidance task. Results: We found a significant Group-by-Reinforcement interaction within reward-related brain regions including the caudate, putamen, mid cingulate/paracentral lobule, and superior and middle frontal gyrus. TD adolescents showed a greater differential response to reward versus punishment feedback within these regions relative to adolescents with GAD. In particular, this reflected reduced responses to rewards in the adolescents with GAD. There were no group differences in neural responses when making approach/avoidance responses. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest reduced differential responsiveness to reinforcement as a component of the pathophysiology seen in adolescents with GAD. This dysfunction likely underpins decision-making impairments that may exacerbate the participants' worry.