Browsing by Author "Hajcak, Greg"

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    Neighborhood Disadvantage Associated With Blunted Amygdala Reactivity to Predictable and Unpredictable Threat in a Community Sample of Youth
    (Elsevier, 2022) Huggins, Ashley A.; McTeague, Lisa M.; Davis, Megan M.; Bustos, Nicholas; Crum, Kathleen I.; Polcyn, Rachel; Adams, Zachary W.; Carpenter, Laura A.; Hajcak, Greg; Halliday, Colleen A.; Joseph, Jane E.; Kmett Danielson, Carla; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Background: Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is a form of adversity associated with alterations in critical frontolimbic circuits involved in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. Most work has focused on individual-level socioeconomic position, yet individuals living in deprived communities typically encounter additional environmental stressors that have unique effects on the brain and health outcomes. Notably, chronic and unpredictable stressors experienced in the everyday lives of youth living in disadvantaged neighborhoods may impact neural responsivity to uncertain threat. Methods: A community sample of children (N = 254) ages 8 to 15 years (mean = 12.15) completed a picture anticipation task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, during which neutral and negatively valenced photos were presented in a temporally predictable or unpredictable manner. Area Deprivation Index (ADI) scores were derived from participants' home addresses as an index of relative neighborhood disadvantage. Voxelwise analyses examined interactions of ADI, valence, and predictability on neural response to picture presentation. Results: There was a significant ADI × valence interaction in the middle temporal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala. Higher ADI was associated with less amygdala activation to negatively valenced images. ADI also interacted with predictability. Higher ADI was associated with greater activation of lingual and calcarine gyri for unpredictably presented stimuli. There was no three-way interaction of ADI, valence, and predictability. Conclusions: Neighborhood disadvantage may impact how the brain perceives and responds to potential threats. Future longitudinal work is critical for delineating how such effects may persist across the life span and how health outcomes may be modifiable with community-based interventions and policies.
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    Neurophysiology of predictable unpleasant event processing in pre-adolescents and early adolescents, part II: Reflex and event-related potential markers of defensive reactivity and peripheral attention modulation
    (Wiley, 2023) Sege, Christopher T.; McTeague, Lisa M.; Kegley, Molly; Shacklewood, Curtisha; Halliday, Colleen A.; Calhoun, Casey D.; Joseph, Jane E.; Adams, Zachary W.; Hajcak, Greg; Danielson, Carla Kmett; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    The ability to anticipate and process predictable unpleasant events, while also regulating emotional reactivity, is an adaptive skill. The current article and a companion in this issue test for potential changes in predictable event processing across the childhood-to-adolescence transition, a key developmental period for biological systems that support cognitive/ emotional abilities. While the companion article focuses on neurophysiology of predictable event processing itself, the present article examines peripheral emotional response regulation and attention modulation that coincides with event processing. A total of 315 third-, sixth-, or ninth-grade individuals saw 5-s cues predicting "scary," "every day," or uncertain pictures, and here, blink reflexes and brain event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by peripheral noise probes are analyzed. During the cue, blink reflexes and probe ERP (P200) amplitudes were increased when the cue predicted scary, compared to everyday, content. After picture onset, reflex enhancement by scary content then disappeared for predictable images, whereas ERP modulation was similar regardless of predictability. Patterns are similar to those in adults and suggest (1) sustained defensive response priming and enhancement of peripheral attention during aversive anticipation, and (2) an ability, even in pre-adolescents, to downregulate defensive priming while maintaining attentional modulation once an awaited predictable aversive event occurs
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    Neurophysiology of predictable unpleasant event processing in preadolescents and early adolescents, part I: Event-related potential markers of unpleasant image anticipation and processing
    (Wiley, 2023) Sege, Christopher T.; McTeague, Lisa M.; Kegley, Molly; Shacklewood, Curtisha; Halliday, Colleen A.; Calhoun, Casey D.; Joseph, Jane E.; Adams, Zachary W.; Hajcak, Greg; Danielson, Carla Kmett; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    The ability to anticipate and process predictable unpleasant events, while also regulating emotional reactivity, is an adaptive skill. The current article and a companion in this issue test for potential changes in predictable event processing across the childhood-to-adolescence transition, a key developmental period for biological systems that support cognitive/emotional abilities. While the companion article focuses on emotion regulation and peripheral attention modulation in predictable unpleasant contexts, the current paper presents neurophysiological markers of predictable event processing itself. 315 third-, sixth-, or ninth-grade individuals saw 5-s cues predicting "scary," "every day," or uncertain image content; in this paper, cue- and picture-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) are analyzed. During the cue, early ERP positivities were increased and later slow-wave negativities were reduced when predicted content was scary as compared with mundane. After picture onset, a picture processing-related positivity was then increased for scary compared with everyday images regardless of predictability. Cue-interval data suggest enhanced processing of scary cues and reduced anticipatory processing of scary images-opposite to adults. After event onset, meanwhile, emotional ERP enhancement regardless of predictability is similar to adults and suggests that even preadolescent individuals maintain preferential engagement with unpleasant events when they are predictable.