Browsing by Author "Schwartz, Amanda"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    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 Medicine
    Background: 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.
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    Correction: Neural correlates of automatic emotion regulation and their association with suicidal ideation in adolescents during the first 90-days of residential care
    (Springer Nature, 2024-02-19) Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, Karina S.; Aloi, Joseph; Bajaj, Sahil; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Mathur, Avantika; Zhang, Ru; Carollo, Erin; Schwartz, Amanda; Elowsky, Jaimie; Ringle, J. L.; Tyler, Patrick; Blair, R. James; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Correction to: Translational Psychiatry 10.1038/s41398-023-02723-9, published online 23 January 2024 In this article, the affiliation details for Author Sahil Bajaj were incorrectly given as “Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, MD Anderson Center, South Campus Research Bldg, Houston, TX, USA” but should have been “Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA” The original article has been corrected.
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    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 Medicine
    Background: 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.
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    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 Medicine
    Two 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.
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    Latent profiles of substance use, early life stress, and attention/externalizing problems and their association with neural correlates of reinforcement learning in adolescents
    (Cambridge University Press, 2023) Crum, Kathleen I.; Aloi, Joseph; Blair, Karina S.; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Bajaj, Sahil; Zhang, Ru; Hwang, Soonjo; Schwartz, Amanda; Elowsky, Jaimie; Filbey, Francesca M.; Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, R. James; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Background: Adolescent substance use, externalizing and attention problems, and early life stress (ELS) commonly co-occur. These psychopathologies show overlapping neural dysfunction in the form of reduced recruitment of reward processing neuro-circuitries. However, it is unclear to what extent these psychopathologies show common v. different neural dysfunctions as a function of symptom profiles, as no studies have directly compared neural dysfunctions associated with each of these psychopathologies to each other. Methods: In study 1, a latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted in a sample of 266 adolescents (aged 13-18, 41.7% female, 58.3% male) from a residential youth care facility and the surrounding community to investigate substance use, externalizing and attention problems, and ELS psychopathologies and their co-presentation. In study 2, we examined a subsample of 174 participants who completed the Passive Avoidance learning task during functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine differential and/or common reward processing neuro-circuitry dysfunctions associated with symptom profiles based on these co-presentations. Results: In study 1, LPA identified profiles of substance use plus rule-breaking behaviors, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and ELS. In study 2, the substance use/rule-breaking profile was associated with reduced recruitment of reward processing and attentional neuro-circuitries during the Passive Avoidance task (p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). Conclusions: Findings indicate that there is reduced responsivity of striato-cortical regions when receiving outcomes on an instrumental learning task within a profile of adolescents with substance use and rule-breaking behaviors. Mitigating reward processing dysfunction specifically may represent a potential intervention target for substance-use psychopathologies accompanied by rule-breaking behaviors.
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    Neural correlates of automatic emotion regulation and their association with suicidal ideation in adolescents during the first 90-days of residential care
    (Springer Nature, 2024-01-23) Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, Karina S.; Aloi, Joseph; Bajaj, Sahil; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Mathur, Avantika; Zhang, Ru; Carollo, Erin; Schwartz, Amanda; Elowsky, Jaimie; Ringle, J. L.; Tyler, Patrick; Blair, R. James; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States. However, relatively little is known about the forms of atypical neuro-cognitive function that are correlates of suicidal ideation (SI). One form of cognitive/affective function that, when dysfunctional, is associated with SI is emotion regulation. However, very little work has investigated the neural correlates of emotion dysregulation in adolescents with SI. Methods: Participants (N = 111 aged 12-18, 32 females, 31 [27.9%] reporting SI) were recruited shortly after their arrival at a residential care facility where they had been referred for behavioral and mental health problems. Daily reports of SI were collected during the participants' first 90-days in residential care. Participants were presented with a task-fMRI measure of emotion regulation - the Affective Number Stroop task shortly after recruitment. Participants were divided into two groups matched for age, sex and IQ based on whether they demonstrated SI. Results: Participants who demonstrated SI showed increased recruitment of regions including dorsomedial prefrontal cortex/supplemental motor area and parietal cortex during task (congruent and incongruent) relative to view trials in the context of emotional relative to neutral distracters. Conclusions: Participants with SI showed increased recruitment of regions implicated in executive control during the performance of a task indexing automatic emotion regulation. Such data might suggest a relative inefficiency in the recruitment of these regions in individuals with SI.
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    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 Medicine
    Background: 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.