Browsing by Subject "Externalizing psychopathology"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Delay Discounting in At-Risk Preadolescents: Brain Mechanisms and Behavior
    (2021-12) Butcher, Tarah J.; Oberlin, Brandon; Lapish, Christopher; Hulvershorn, Leslie
    It is well documented that adolescent substance use is associated with deficits in brain function and behavior. However, possible deficits that predate substance use initiation remain poorly characterized in preadolescents at-risk for developing substance use disorder (SUD). To characterize potential brain and behavioral differences that predate substance use, substance naïve preadolescents, ages 11–12, were recruited into three groups to complete functional magnetic resonance imaging delay discounting: (1) High-risk youth (n=35) with a family history of SUD and externalizing psychiatric disorders, (2) psychiatric controls (n=35) with no family history of SUD, but equivalent externalizing psychiatric disorders as high-risk youth, and (3) healthy controls (n=29) with no family history of SUD and minimal psychopathology. While no behavioral differences between groups were identified, there were group differences in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) function during decision making. Specifically, the high-risk group showed stronger deactivation of the PCC than healthy controls. These results suggest that high-risk preadolescents may need to suppress activity of key nodes of the default mode network (a task negative network) to a greater extent to properly allocate attention to the task.
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    Neural Modulation in Approach-Avoidance Conflicts in Externalizing Psychopathology
    (Springer, 2021) Lake, Allison J.; Finn, Peter R.; James, Thomas W.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Externalizing psychopathology (EXT) is characterized by poor decision-making in situations that involve simultaneous cues for approach and avoidance behavior (i.e. approach-avoidance conflicts). Previous studies of EXT have examined these deficits primarily using tasks involving decisions between positive reward and negative punishment, suggesting that EXT is characterized by a general bias towards high salience (e.g. temporally proximal or reward) cues relative to low salience (e.g. temporally distal or loss) cues. However, in order to better characterize decision-making in approach-avoidance conflicts, the present study utilized a novel task to examine neural activation in contexts involving both positive reward and negative punishment as well as positive punishment and negative reward by manipulating physical proximity of affective cues. Neuroimaging results indicated that EXT was associated with deficits related to cue prioritization based on salience, suggesting that failure to differentiate relevant from less relevant information contributes to poor decision-making among individuals with EXT.