Social anhedonia is associated with neural abnormalities during face emotion processing

Brain structures and functional connectivity in neglected children with no other types of maltreatment

Child maltreatment can adversely affect brain development, leading to vulnerabilities in brain structure and function and various psychiatric disorders. Among the various types of child maltreatment, neglect has the highest incidence rate (76.0%); however, data on its sole adverse influence on the brain remain limited. This case-control brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study identified the changes in gray matter structure and function that distinguish neglected children with no other type of maltreatment (Neglect group, n = 23) from typically developing children (TD group, n = 140), and investigated the association between these structural and functional differences and specific psychosocial phenotypes observed in neglected children. Our results showed that the Neglect group had a larger right and left anterior cingulate cortex (R/L.ACC) and smaller left angular gyrus (L.AG) gray matter volume. The larger R/L.ACC was associated with hyperactivity and inattention. Resting-state functional analysis showed increased functional connectivity (FC) between the left supramarginal gyrus (L.SMG) in the salience network (SN) and the right middle frontal gyrus (R.MFG) simultaneously with a decrease in FC with the L.ACC for the same seed. The increased FC for the R.MFG was associated with difficulty in peer problems and depressive symptoms; a mediating effect was evident for depressive symptoms. These results suggest that the structural atypicality of the R/L.ACC indirectly contributes to the disturbed FCs within the SN, thereby exacerbating depressive symptoms in neglected children. In conclusion, exposure to neglect in childhood may lead to maladaptive brain development, particularly neural changes associated with depressive symptoms.

Dimensional and Categorical Solutions to Parsing Depression Heterogeneity in a Large Single-Site Sample

BACKGROUND

Recent studies have reported significant advances in modeling the biological basis of heterogeneity in major depressive disorder, but investigators have also identified important technical challenges, including scanner-related artifacts, a propensity for multivariate models to overfit, and a need for larger samples with more extensive clinical phenotyping. The goals of the current study were to evaluate dimensional and categorical solutions to parsing heterogeneity in depression that are stable and generalizable in a large, single-site sample.

METHODS

We used regularized canonical correlation analysis to identify data-driven brain-behavior dimensions that explain individual differences in depression symptom domains in a large, single-site dataset comprising clinical assessments and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data for 328 patients with major depressive disorder and 461 healthy control participants. We examined the stability of clinical loadings and model performance in held-out data. Finally, hierarchical clustering on these dimensions was used to identify categorical depression subtypes.

RESULTS

The optimal regularized canonical correlation analysis model yielded 3 robust and generalizable brain-behavior dimensions that explained individual differences in depressed mood and anxiety, anhedonia, and insomnia. Hierarchical clustering identified 4 depression subtypes, each with distinct clinical symptom profiles, abnormal resting-state functional connectivity patterns, and antidepressant responsiveness to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results define dimensional and categorical solutions to parsing neurobiological heterogeneity in major depressive disorder that are stable, generalizable, and capable of predicting treatment outcomes, each with distinct advantages in different contexts. They also provide additional evidence that regularized canonical correlation analysis and hierarchical clustering are effective tools for investigating associations between functional connectivity and clinical symptoms.

Facing emotions: real-time fMRI-based neurofeedback using dynamic emotional faces to modulate amygdala activity

Introduction

Maladaptive functioning of the amygdala has been associated with impaired emotion regulation in affective disorders. Recent advances in real-time fMRI neurofeedback have successfully demonstrated the modulation of amygdala activity in healthy and psychiatric populations. In contrast to an abstract feedback representation applied in standard neurofeedback designs, we proposed a novel neurofeedback paradigm using naturalistic stimuli like human emotional faces as the feedback display where change in the facial expression intensity (from neutral to happy or from fearful to neutral) was coupled with the participant's ongoing bilateral amygdala activity.

Methods

The feasibility of this experimental approach was tested on 64 healthy participants who completed a single training session with four neurofeedback runs. Participants were assigned to one of the four experimental groups (n = 16 per group), i.e., happy-up, happy-down, fear-up, fear-down. Depending on the group assignment, they were either instructed to "try to make the face happier" by upregulating (happy-up) or downregulating (happy-down) the amygdala or to "try to make the face less fearful" by upregulating (fear-up) or downregulating (fear-down) the amygdala feedback signal.

Results

Linear mixed effect analyses revealed significant amygdala activity changes in the fear condition, specifically in the fear-down group with significant amygdala downregulation in the last two neurofeedback runs as compared to the first run. The happy-up and happy-down groups did not show significant amygdala activity changes over four runs. We did not observe significant improvement in the questionnaire scores and subsequent behavior. Furthermore, task-dependent effective connectivity changes between the amygdala, fusiform face area (FFA), and the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) were examined using dynamic causal modeling. The effective connectivity between FFA and the amygdala was significantly increased in the happy-up group (facilitatory effect) and decreased in the fear-down group. Notably, the amygdala was downregulated through an inhibitory mechanism mediated by mOFC during the first training run.

Discussion

In this feasibility study, we intended to address key neurofeedback processes like naturalistic facial stimuli, participant engagement in the task, bidirectional regulation, task congruence, and their influence on learning success. It demonstrated that such a versatile emotional face feedback paradigm can be tailored to target biased emotion processing in affective disorders.

Orbitofrontal and striatal metabolism, volume, thickness and structural connectivity in relation to social anhedonia in depression: A multimodal study

BACKGROUND

Social anhedonia is common within major depressive disorder (MDD) and associated with worse treatment outcomes. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is implicated in both reward (medial OFC) and punishment (lateral OFC) in social decision making. Therefore, to understand the biology of social anhedonia in MDD, medial/lateral OFC metabolism, volume, and thickness, as well as structural connectivity to the striatum, amygdala, and ventral tegmental area/nucleus accumbens were examined. A positive relationship between social anhedonia and these neurobiological outcomes in the lateral OFC was hypothesized, whereas an inverse relationship was hypothesized for the medial OFC. The association between treatment-induced changes in OFC neurobiology and depression improvement were also examined.

METHODS

85 medication-free participants diagnosed with MDD were assessed with Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales to assess social anhedonia and received pretreatment simultaneous fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including structural and diffusion. Participants were then treated in an 8-week randomized placebo-controlled double-blind course of escitalopram. PET/MRI were repeated following treatment. Metabolic rate of glucose uptake was quantified from dynamic FDG-PET frames using Patlak graphical analysis. Structure (volume and cortical thickness) was quantified from structural MRI using Freesurfer. To assess structural connectivity, probabilistic tractography was performed on diffusion MRI and average FA was calculated within the derived tracts. Linear mixed models with Bonferroni correction were used to examine the relationships between variables.

RESULTS

A significantly negative linear relationship between pretreatment social anhedonia score and structural connectivity between the medial OFC and the amygdala (estimated coefficient: -0.006, 95 % CI: -0.0108 - -0.0012, p-value = 0.0154) was observed. However, this finding would not survive multiple comparisons correction. No strong evidence existed to show a significant linear relationship between pretreatment social anhedonia score and metabolism, volume, thickness, or structural connectivity to any of the regions examined. There was also no strong evidence to suggest significant linear relationships between improvement in depression and percent change in these variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on these multimodal findings, the OFC likely does not underlie social anhedonia in isolation and therefore should not be the sole target of treatment for social anhedonia. This is consistent with previous reports that other areas of the brain such as the amygdala and the striatum are highly involved in this behavior. Relatedly, amygdala-medial OFC structural connectivity could be a future target. The results of this study are crucial as, to our knowledge, they are the first to relate structure/function of the OFC with social anhedonia severity in MDD. Future work may need to involve a whole brain approach in order to develop therapeutics for social anhedonia.

Cognitive Processes and Resting-State Functional Neuroimaging Findings in High Schizotypal Individuals and Schizotypal Personality Disorder Patients: A Systematic Review

Ample research findings indicate that there is altered brain functioning in the schizophrenia spectrum. Nevertheless, functional neuroimaging findings remain ambiguous for healthy individuals expressing high schizotypal traits and patients with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). The purpose of this systematic review was to identify patterns of task-related and resting-state neural abnormalities across these conditions. MEDLINE-PubMed and PsycINFO were systematically searched and forty-eight studies were selected. Forty studies assessed healthy individuals with high schizotypal traits and eight studies examined SPD patients with functional neuroimaging techniques (fNIRS; fMRI; Resting-state fMRI). Functional alterations in striatal, frontal and temporal regions were found in healthy individuals with high schizotypal traits. Schizotypal personality disorder was associated with default mode network abnormalities but further research is required in order to better conceive its neural correlates. There was also evidence for functional compensatory mechanisms associated with both conditions. To conclude, the findings suggest that brain dysfunctions are evident in individuals who lie along the subclinical part of the spectrum, further supporting the continuum model for schizophrenia susceptibility. Additional research is required in order to delineate the counterbalancing processes implicated in the schizophrenia spectrum, as this approach will provide promising insights for both conversion and protection from conversion into schizophrenia.

Right amygdala-right precuneus connectivity is associated with childhood trauma in major depression patients and healthy controls

The present study investigated the effect of childhood trauma (CT) on amygdala and hippocampus functional connectivity (FC) and the association with clinical presentations of major depressive disorder (MDD). Participants included 73 MDD patients (42 with moderate-to-severe CT and 31 with no or low CT) and 64 healthy controls (HC; 30 with moderate-to-severe CT and 34 with no or low CT). Seed-based whole-brain resting-state FC analyses were performed with seeds located in amygdala and hippocampus. Individuals with moderate-to-severe CT, irrespective of MDD diagnosis, had decreased right amygdala-right precuneus connectivity compared to those with no or low CT. Right amygdala-right precuneus connectivity was significantly correlated with physical and social trait anhedonia in MDD. Mediation effects of this FC on relationship between CT (specifically neglect but not abuse) and trait anhedonia in MDD were significant. MDD patients demonstrated increased right amygdala-left middle frontal gyrus FC, decreased right amygdala-right medial superior frontal gyrus (mSFG) FC and decreased right hippocampus-bilateral mSFG FC relative to HC. Findings highlight the effect of CT on right amygdala-right precuneus FC irrespective of MDD diagnosis. FC of right amygdala-right precuneus may be involved in the mechanism linking CT and depression through its association with trait anhedonia.

Proactive and reactive cognitive control for emotional conflict in individuals with high schizotypy: An ERP study

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to examine how individuals with high schizotypy, a high risk group of schizophrenia patients, resolve emotional conflict in proactive and reactive control and the underlying neural mechanisms.

METHODS

Thirty-two individuals with high schizotypy and 30 matched individuals with low schizotypy completed an emotional face-word Stroop task with electroencephalographic data recorded. The proportion of incongruent trials was manipulated in the task to induce proactive control (mostly incongruent trials context, MI context) or reactive control (mostly congruent trials context, MC context). Two event-related potential (ERP) components (N170 and N2) were examined, which represent face processing and cognitive control processes, respectively.

RESULTS

In the MC context, significantly decreased N2 and N170 amplitudes were found in high schizotypy individuals compared with low schizotypy individuals, suggesting abnormal neural activity of reactive control in high schizotypy individuals. No significant differences were found between the two groups in the MI context.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide initial evidence for dissociation of neural activity of proactive and reactive control on emotional conflict in individuals with high schizotypy.

SIGNIFICANCE

The current findings provide important insight into the emotional conflict resolution in the schizophrenia spectrum.

Blunted superior temporal gyrus activity to negative emotional expression after mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for late-life depression

Facial emotion recognition plays an important role in social functioning. Patients with late-life depression (LLD) often have abnormal facial emotion recognition. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is beneficial in treating depression. This study examined whether MBCT can act as an effective augmentation of antidepressants and improve facial emotion recognition in patients with LLD and its underlying neural mechanism. Patients with LLD were randomized into two groups (n = 30 per group). The MBCT group received an eight-week MBCT in conjunction with stable medication treatment. The other group was treated as usual (TAU group) with stable medication treatment. The positive affect (PA) scale, negative affect (NA) scale, and facial emotion recognition task with an fMRI scan were performed before and after the trial. After eight weeks of treatment, the repeated ANOVA showed that the PA score in the MBCT group significantly increased [F_(1,54) = 13.31, p = 0.001], but did not change significantly [F_(1,54) = 0.58, p = 0.449] in the TAU group. The NA scores decreased significantly in both the MBCT group [F_(1,54) = 19.01, p < 0.001] and the TAU group [F_(1,54) = 16.16, p < 0.001]. Patients showed an increase in recognition accuracy and speed of angry and sad faces after 8 weeks of MBCT. No improvement was detected in the TAU group after treatment. A significant interaction effect was found in the change of activation of the left superior temporal gyrus (L-STG) to negative emotional expression between time and groups. Furthermore, a decrease in activation of L-STG to negative emotional expression was positively correlated with the increase in PA score. The MBCT is beneficial for improving affect status and facial emotion recognition in patients with LLD, and the L-STG is involved in this process.

Impaired socio-affective, but intact socio-cognitive skills in patients with treatment-resistant, recurrent depression

BACKGROUND

Social withdrawal is a key symptom of depression. The resulting loss of social reinforcement in turn contributes to chronic, recurrent courses of the disease. However, it is not clear whether depressed patients have less motivation to socially interact, or whether their skills in doing so are impaired. The current study investigates potential skill deficits in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

METHODS

15 TRD patients and 19 age- and sex-matched healthy controls performed the EmpaToM, a paradigm which includes naturalistic video stimuli of either neutral or emotional valence and which differentiates between socio-affective (affective empathy, compassion) and socio-cognitive (theory of mind) skills.

RESULTS

Controlling for the baseline affective state in neutral situations, TRD patients displayed significantly reduced affective empathy towards emotional situations compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, TRD patients were less compassionate in both neutral and emotional situations. In contrast, socio-cognitive skill performances did not differ between patients and healthy controls.

LIMITATIONS

Further studies might explore socio-affective and socio-cognitive skills in TRD patients using socio-affective/-cognitive tasks involving face-to-face social interactions.

CONCLUSION

Our study revealed a specific socio-affective deficit in TRD patients, while showing intact socio-cognitive skills. Patients were less able to affectively resonate with others (affective empathy) and exhibited generally reduced feelings of compassion. These deficits might interfere with providing and receiving social support. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the underlying causes of social withdrawal and stresses the need to specifically address pervasive socio-affective deficits in psychotherapy of TRD patients.

Childhood trauma is associated with social anhedonia and brain gray matter volume differences in healthy subjects

The present study tested the effects of childhood trauma (CT) on trait social anhedonia (SA) and on gray matter volume (GMV) and explored the possible relationships among CT, SA and brain GMV. Forty-three healthy individuals with experience of moderate-to-severe CT and sixty-eight individuals with no or low CT participated in the present study. Trait SA was evaluated using the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale. GMV was measured using voxel-based morphometry. Participants with moderate-to-severe CT had elevated trait SA, as well as brain volumetric differences in left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), left precuneus, right insula, left superior temporal gyrus, and left middle occipital gyrus extending into middle temporal gyrus relative to participants with no or low level of CT. CT was also found to be positively correlated with GMV in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral precuneus. Partial mediation effect of GMV in left IPL and right DLPFC on the relationship between CT and trait SA was significant. These findings suggest that CT may have effects on trait SA and on GMV of widespread brain regions. GMV differences in DLPFC and left IPL may mediate the effect of CT on trait SA, although this needs to be verified by future longitudinal studies.

The Relationship Between the Recognition of Basic Emotions and Negative Symptoms in Individuals With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders - An Exploratory Study

Current research suggests that emotion recognition is impaired in individuals affected by schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). However, the specific impact of negative symptoms on the ability to recognize single basic emotions has not yet been explored sufficiently and is the aim of the present study. A sample of N = 66 individuals diagnosed with SSD was recruited at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. In a first step, correlation analyses were conducted between seven different negative symptom subdomains of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the accuracy and latency in recognizing the six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) using the Emotion Recognition Task (ERT) of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). The significant correlations were subjected to linear regression models that controlled for the significant covariates diagnoses, age, sex, and education. Results revealed that in individuals with SSD the negative symptom domain of blunted affect significantly predicted the accuracy of emotion recognition performance (p < 0.05), particularly, when recognizing happiness (p < 0.05). Additionally, we found that stereotyped thinking also predicted the performance of emotion recognition, especially the response latency (p < 0.05) and difficulty in abstract thinking predicted the recognition of fear (p < 0.05). However, the nominal significances did not withstand correction for multiple tests and therefore need to be followed up in further studies with a larger sample.

Social brain network predicts real-world social network in individuals with social anhedonia

Social anhedonia (SA) impairs social functioning in schizophrenia. Previous evidence suggested that certain brain regions predict longitudinal change of real-world social outcomes, yet previous study designs have failed to capture the corresponding functional connectivity among the brain regions involved. This study measured the real-world social network in 22 pairs of individuals with high and low levels of SA, and followed up them for 21 months. We further explored whether resting-state social brain network characteristics could predict the longitudinal variations of real-world social network. Our results showed that social brain network characteristics could predict the change of real-world social networks in both the high SA and low SA groups. However, the results differed between the two groups, i.e., the topological characteristics of the social brain network predicted real-world social network change in the high SA group; whereas the functional connectivity within the social brain network predicted real-world social network change in the low SA group. Principal component analysis and linear regression analysis on the entire sample showed that the functional connectivity component centered at the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus could best predict social network change. Our findings support the notion that social brain network characteristics could predict social network development.

Effects of inescapable stress on responses to social incentive stimuli and modulation by escitalopram

RATIONALE

Stress is a well-known risk factor for anhedonia, and its impacts on social reward functions may be mitigated by its controllability. Moreover, there are questions about the effectiveness of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on improving social hedonic functioning deficits characteristic of major depression.

OBJECTIVES

The current study in male Sprague-Dawley rats investigated the effects of uncontrollable stress on responses to social incentive stimuli and possible modulation by the SSRI escitalopram (ESC).

METHODS

The effects of inescapable foot-shocks on preferential responses to a conspecific, and to a compartment that was previously paired with the presence of a conspecific, were assessed in a Y-apparatus in rats that received 0, 5, or 10 mg/kg ESC.

RESULTS

Although inescapable foot-shock exposure did not significantly alter the investigation of the conspecific, it did impair the response to the social-paired compartment and, importantly, this impairment was reversed by ESC.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that psychophysical stress can negatively impact reactivity to learned social rewards and that SSRI administration can have positive therapeutic effects.

Cognitive test scores vary with choice of personal digital device

Mobile- and web-based psychological research are a valuable addition to the set of tools available for scientific study, reducing logistical barriers for research participation and allowing the recruitment of larger and more diverse participant groups. However, this comes at the cost of reduced control over the technology used by participants, which can introduce new sources of variability into study results. In this study, we examined differences in measured performance on timed and untimed cognitive tests between users of common digital devices in 59,587 (Study 1) and 3818 (Study 2) visitors to TestMyBrain.org , a web-based cognitive testing platform. Controlling for age, gender, educational background, and cognitive performance on an untimed vocabulary test, users of mobile devices, particularly Android smartphones, showed significantly slower performance on tests of reaction time than users of laptop and desktop computers, suggesting that differences in device latency affect measured reaction times. Users of devices that differ in user interface (e.g. screen size, mouse vs. touchscreen) also show significant differences (p < 0.001) in measured performance on tests requiring fast reactions or fine motor movements. By quantifying the contribution of device differences to measured cognitive performance in an online setting, we hope to improve the accuracy of mobile- and web-based cognitive assessments, allowing these methods to be used more effectively.

Altered activation and functional connectivity in individuals with social anhedonia when envisioning positive future episodes

BACKGROUND

Anticipatory pleasure deficits are closely correlated with negative symptoms in schizophrenia, and may be found in both clinical and subclinical populations along the psychosis continuum. Prospection, which is an important component of anticipatory pleasure, is impaired in individuals with social anhedonia (SocAnh). In this study, we examined the neural correlates of envisioning positive future events in individuals with SocAnh.

METHODS

Forty-nine individuals with SocAnh and 33 matched controls were recruited to undergo functional MRI scanning, during which they were instructed to simulate positive or neutral future episodes according to cue words. Two stages of prospection were distinguished: construction and elaboration.

RESULTS

Reduced activation at the caudate and the precuneus when prospecting positive (v. neutral) future events was observed in individuals with SocAnh. Furthermore, compared with controls, increased functional connectivity between the caudate and the inferior occipital gyrus during positive (v. neutral) prospection was found in individuals with SocAnh. Both groups exhibited a similar pattern of brain activation for the construction v. elaboration contrast, regardless of the emotional context.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results provide further evidence on the neural mechanism of anticipatory pleasure deficits in subclinical individuals with SocAnh and suggest that altered cortico-striatal circuit may play a role in anticipatory pleasure deficits in these individuals.

A Social Affective Neuroscience Model of Risk and Resilience in Adolescent Depression: Preliminary Evidence and Application to Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents

Depression is a disorder of dysregulated affective and social functioning, with attenuated response to reward, heightened response to threat (perhaps especially social threat), excessive focus on negative aspects of the self, ineffective engagement with other people, and difficulty modulating all of these responses. Known risk factors provide a starting point for a model of developmental pathways to resilience, and we propose that the interplay of social threat experiences and neural social-affective systems is critical to those pathways. We describe a model of risk and resilience, review supporting evidence, and apply the model to sexual and gender minority adolescents, a population with high disparities in depression and unique social risk factors. This approach illustrates the fundamental role of a socially and developmentally informed clinical neuroscience model for understanding a population disproportionately affected by risk factors and psychopathology outcomes. We consider it a public health imperative to apply conceptual models to high-need populations to elucidate targets for effective interventions to promote healthy development and enhance resilience.

Association of Chronic Low Back Pain With Personal Space Regulation

Background: While most previous studies regarding patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) mainly focused on pain, disability, psychological damage, and intervention measures, the effect of CLBP on personal space remains unclear. The study aimed to assess the personal space of patients with CLBP and healthy controls, explored the differences between the two groups, and examined whether pain, dysfunction, anxiety, and depression affected the personal space regulation. Methods: The cross-sectional study recruited 24 patients with CLBP and 24 healthy controls at Shanghai Shangti Orthopedic Hospital and Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China, from December 2018 to January 2019. A stop-distance paradigm was applied to measure the comfortable and uncomfortable distance under four conditions. A self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and a self-rating depression scale (SDS) were used to examine the anxiety and depression levels of all participants. The pain intensity and dysfunction in the CLBP group were evaluated by the numeric rating scale and Roland-Morris questionnaire (RMDQ), respectively. Results: When approaching another individual or when being approached, the interpersonal distance under all the conditions in the CLBP group significantly differed from that in the healthy control group with larger space distances (p < 0.01). Gender had a significant main effect on the regulation of personal space in patients with CLBP (p < 0.05). The average pain intensity, scores on RMDQ, SAS, and SDS had a significant positive correlation with the interpersonal distance under the Same or Opposite Gender condition (p < 0.05). Conclusion: People with CLBP show an atypical personal space behavior and indeed have a greater interpersonal distance to strangers. The higher the pain intensity, dysfunction, anxiety, and depression, the greater the interpersonal distance in patients with CLBP. In the future, the effect and underlying neural mechanisms of pain and negative emotions on social withdrawal in patients should be examined.

High Schizotypy Predicts Emotion Recognition Independently of Negative Affect

Introduction: Deficits in Emotion Recognition (ER) contribute significantly to poorer functional outcomes in people with schizophrenia. However, rather than reflecting a core symptom of schizophrenia, reduced ER has been suggested to reflect increased mood disorder co-morbidity and confounds of patient status such as medication. We investigated whether ER deficits are replicable in psychometrically defined schizotypy, and whether this putative association is mediated by increased negative affect. Methods: Two hundred and nine participants between the ages of 18 and 69 (66% female) were recruited from online platforms: 80% held an undergraduate qualification or higher, 44% were current students, and 46% were in current employment. Participants were assessed on psychometric schizotypy using the O-LIFE which maps onto the same symptoms structure (positive, negative, and disorganised) as schizophrenia. Negative affect was assessed using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Emotion Recognition of both positive and negative emotions was assessed using the short version of the Geneva Emotion Recognition Task (GERT-S). Results: Negative schizotypy traits predicted poorer ER accuracy to negative emotions (β = -0.192, p = 0.002) as predicted. Unexpectedly, disorganised schizotypy traits predicted improved performance to negative emotions (β = 0.256, p = 0.007) (primarily disgust). Negative affect was found to be unrelated to ER performance of either valence (both p > 0.591). No measure predicted ER accuracy of positive emotions. Positive schizotypy traits were not found to predict either positive or negative ER accuracy. However, positive schizotypy predicted increased confidence in decisions and disorganised schizotypy predicted reduced confidence in decisions. Discussion: The replication of ER deficits in non-clinical negative schizotypy suggests that the association between negative symptoms and ER deficits in clinical samples may be independent of confounds of patient status (i.e., anti-psychotic medication). The finding that this association was independent of negative affect further suggests ER deficits in patients may also be independent of mood disorder co-morbidity. This association was not demonstrated for the positive symptom dimension of the O-LIFE, which may be due to low levels of this trait in the current sample.

Impaired perceptual processing of facial expression categorization in social anhedonia

The current event-related potential study investigated the perceptual processing of the categorization advantage of happy over sad faces in social anhedonia with a nonclinical sample. A high social anhedonia (HSA, N = 25) group and a low social anhedonia (LSA, N = 27) group performed a facial expression categorization task during which they classified facial expressions (happy, neutral, sad), irrespective of face orientation (upright, upside-down). Behaviorally, happy faces were identified more quickly than sad ones in the upright but not inverted orientation. Electrophysiologically, the LSA group showed earlier N170 latencies for happy than for sad faces in the upright but not upside-down orientation, whereas the HSA group did not show any expression effect on N170 latencies. Moreover, N170 and P2 amplitude results revealed that HSA relative to LSA individuals showed delayed neural discrimination between happy and sad faces. These results suggest that social anhedonia is associated with a deficit of perceptual processing during facial expression categorization.

Feeling addressed! The neural processing of social communicative cues in patients with major depression

The feeling of being addressed is the first step in a complex processing stream enabling successful social communication. Social impairments are a relevant characteristic of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Here, we investigated a mechanism which—if impaired—might contribute to withdrawal or isolation in MDD, namely, the neural processing of social cues such as body orientation and gesture. During funtional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquisition, 33 patients with MDD and 43 healthy control subjects watched video clips of a speaking actor: one version with a gesture accompanying the speech and one without gesture. Videos were filmed simultaneously from two different viewpoints: one with the actor facing the viewer head‐on (frontal) and one side‐view (lateral). After every clip, the participants were instructed to evaluate whether they felt addressed or not. Despite overall comparable addressment ratings and a large overlap in activation patterns in MDD and healthy subjects for gesture processing, the anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral superior/middle frontal cortex, and right angular gyrus were more strongly activated in patients than in healthy subjects for the frontal conditions. Our analyses revealed that patients showed specifically higher activation than healthy subjects for the frontal condition without gesture in regions including the posterior cingulate cortex, left prefrontal cortex, and the left hippocampus. We conclude that MDD patients can recognize and interpret social cues such as gesture or body orientation; however, they seem to require more neural resources. This additional effort might affect successful communication and contribute to social isolation in MDD.

Social cognition or social class and culture? On the interpretation of differences in social cognitive performance

BACKGROUND

The ability to understand others' mental states carries profound consequences for mental and physical health, making efforts at validly and reliably assessing mental state understanding (MSU) of utmost importance. However, the most widely used and current NIMH-recommended task for assessing MSU - the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (RMET) - suffers from potential assessment issues, including reliance on a participant's vocabulary/intelligence and the use of culturally biased stimuli. Here, we evaluate the impact of demographic and sociocultural factors (age, gender, education, ethnicity, race) on the RMET and other social and non-social cognitive tasks in an effort to determine the extent to which the RMET may be unduly influenced by participant characteristics.

METHODS

In total, 40 248 international, native-/primarily English-speaking participants between the ages of 10 and 70 completed one of five measures on TestMyBrain.org: RMET, a shortened version of RMET, a multiracial emotion identification task, an emotion discrimination task, and a non-social/non-verbal processing speed task (digit symbol matching).

RESULTS

Contrary to other tasks, performance on the RMET increased across the lifespan. Education, race, and ethnicity explained more variance in RMET performance than the other tasks, and differences between levels of education, race, and ethnicity were more pronounced for the RMET than the other tasks such that more highly educated, non-Hispanic, and White/Caucasian individuals performed best.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest that the RMET may be unduly influenced by social class and culture, posing a serious challenge to assessing MSU in clinical populations given shared variance between social status and psychiatric illness.

Serum oxytocin levels are elevated in body dysmorphic disorder and related to severity of psychopathology

The neurobiological mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are not well-understood. Oxytocin is a central nervous system peptide which regulates socioemotional functioning and may mediate physiologic processes in a range of psychiatric disorders, particularly those characterized by interpersonal dysfunction. Examining the role of oxytocin in the development and maintenance of BDD may elucidate new targets for intervention. The present study examined endogenous serum oxytocin levels in BDD. Given the prominent deficits in social functioning in BDD, we expected that BDD would be characterized by low basal serum oxytocin concentrations, relative to healthy controls, and that low oxytocin levels would be associated with BDD symptom severity as well as poor performance on measures of social cognition. Twenty individuals with BDD and 28 healthy controls completed a fasting blood draw consisting of frequent sampling every five minutes for one hour to measure pooled levels of oxytocin. Contrary to our hypotheses, people with BDD displayed higher concentrations of oxytocin, compared to their healthy control counterparts, and their oxytocin levels were positively correlated with BDD symptom severity. There were no associations between oxytocin levels and measures of social cognition. These findings suggest increased production of endogenous oxytocin in BDD. Prospective research is needed to determine whether this contributes to or is a consequence of BDD symptomatology.

Functional connectivity of the default mode network is associated with prospection in schizophrenia patients and individuals with social anhedonia

BACKGROUND

Prospection, which is closely related to negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia, is mainly associated with the Default Mode Network (DMN). Although abnormalities of the DMN have been reported in schizophrenia patients and at-risk individuals, little is known about the relationship between functional connectivity of the DMN and prospection in these clinical and subclinical populations.

METHOD

Study 1 recruited 40 schizophrenia patients and 29 healthy controls, while 31 individuals with social anhedonia (SocAhn) and 28 controls participated in Study 2. Participants in both studies were asked to complete a prospection task and underwent resting-state functional MRI scans. Eleven regions of interest (ROIs) in the DMN were defined. Functional connectivity between each ROI and whole brain voxels were calculated and compared between groups (schizophrenia vs. control and SocAhn vs. control). Correlation analysis was conducted between altered functional connectivity and prospection variables in the schizophrenia and SocAhn groups.

RESULTS

Schizophrenia patients showed both hyper-connectivity and hypo-connectivity at the medial temporal lobe (MTL) subsystem of the DMN. Decreased connectivity between the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) and the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) was correlated with poor thought/emotion details in prospection. In individuals with SocAhn, decreased connectivity between the retrosplenial cortex (Rsp), a region of the MTL subsystem, and the right fusiform gyrus, was found and this was correlated with their prospection performance.

CONCLUSION

Altered functional connectivity of the key nodes of the MTL subsystem was found in both patients with schizophrenia and individuals with SocAhn. Moreover, hypo-connectivity of the vMPFC was found to be correlated with prospection impairments in schizophrenia patients.

Complementary Neural Circuits for Divergent Effects of Oxytocin: Social Approach Versus Social Anxiety

Oxytocin (OT) is widely known for promoting social interactions, but there is growing appreciation that it can sometimes induce avoidance of social contexts. The social salience hypothesis posed an innovative solution to these apparently opposing actions by proposing that OT enhances the salience of both positive and negative social interactions. The mesolimbic dopamine system was put forth as a likely system to evaluate social salience owing to its well-described role in motivation. Evidence from several sources supports the premise that OT acting within the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area facilitates social reward and approach behavior. However, in aversive social contexts, additional pathways play critical roles in mediating the effects of OT. Recent data indicate that OT acts in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis to induce avoidance of potentially dangerous social contexts. Here, we review evidence for neural circuits mediating the effects of OT in appetitive and aversive social contexts. Specifically, we propose that distinct but potentially overlapping circuits mediate OT-dependent social approach or social avoidance. We conclude that a broader and more inclusive consideration of neural circuits of social approach and avoidance is needed as the field continues to evaluate the potential of OT-based therapeutics.

A Transdiagnostic Perspective on Social Anhedonia

Humans are highly social beings, yet people with social anhedonia experience reduced interest in or reward from social situations. Social anhedonia is a key facet of schizotypal personality, an important symptom of schizophrenia, and increasingly recognized as an important feature in a range of other psychological disorders. However, to date, there has been little examination of the similarities and differences in social anhedonia across diagnostic borders. Here, our goal was to conduct a selective review of social anhedonia in different psychological and life course contexts, including the psychosis continuum, depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and autism spectrum disorders, along with developmental and neurobiological factors. Current evidence suggests that the nature and expression of social anhedonia vary across psychological disorders with some groups showing deficient learning about, enjoyment from, and anticipation of the pleasurable aspects of social interactions, while for others, some of these components appear to remain intact. However, study designs and methodologies are diverse, the roles of developmental and neurobiological factors are not routinely considered, and direct comparisons between diagnostic groups are rare-which prevents a more nuanced understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved. Future studies, parsing the wanting, liking, and learning components of social reward, will help to fill gaps in the current knowledge base. Consistent across disorders is diminished pleasure from social situations, subsequent withdrawal, and poorer social functioning in those who express social anhedonia. Nonetheless, feelings of loneliness often remain, which suggests the need for social connection is not entirely absent. Adolescence is a particularly important period of social and neural development and may provide a valuable window on the developmental origins of social anhedonia. Adaptive social functioning is key to recovery from mental health disorders; therefore, understanding the intricacies of social anhedonia will help to inform treatment and prevention strategies for a range of diagnostic categories.

The subjective-objective deficit paradox in schizotypy extends to emotion regulation and awareness

There is an emerging subjective-objective deficit paradox in schizotypy. Individuals with schizotypy report severe subjective complaints in several key functional domains commensurate with that of individuals with schizophrenia. However, objective assessments of the same domains show relatively intact performance. We examined whether this subjective-objective deficit paradox extends to two closely linked affective processes: emotion regulation and awareness. Individuals with elevated social anhedonia (SocAnh; n = 61) and elevated perceptual aberration/magical ideation (PerMag; n = 73) were compared to control participants (n = 81) on subjective and objective measures of emotion regulation and awareness. Subjective measures included self-report questionnaires assessing regulatory ability, attention to emotion, and emotional clarity. Implicit emotion regulation was assessed by the Emotion Regulation-Implicit Association Test (ER-IAT) while objective emotional awareness was assessed by the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), a performance-based test. Results showed that both SocAnh and PerMag groups reported notable deficits in almost all subjective measures relative to controls (composite ds > 0.55). In contrast, performance on ER-IAT and LEAS was very similar to controls (composite ds < 0.11). The current study suggests that the subjective-objective deficit paradox extends to emotion regulation and awareness, highlighting the importance of higher-order cognitive bias in understanding emotional abnormalities in schizotypy.

Near-infrared spectroscopy reveals neural perception of vocal emotions in human neonates

Processing affective prosody, that is the emotional tone of a speaker, is fundamental to human communication and adaptive behaviors. Previous studies have mainly focused on adults and infants; thus the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of affective prosody in newborns remain unclear. Here, we used near-infrared spectroscopy to examine the ability of 0-to-4-day-old neonates to discriminate emotions conveyed by speech prosody in their maternal language and a foreign language. Happy, fearful, and angry prosodies enhanced neural activation in the right superior temporal gyrus relative to neutral prosody in the maternal but not the foreign language. Happy prosody elicited greater activation than negative prosody in the left superior frontal gyrus and the left angular gyrus, regions that have not been associated with affective prosody processing in infants or adults. These findings suggest that sensitivity to affective prosody is formed through prenatal exposure to vocal stimuli of the maternal language. Furthermore, the sensitive neural correlates appeared more distributed in neonates than infants, indicating a high-level of neural specialization between the neonatal stage and early infancy. Finally, neonates showed preferential neural responses to positive over negative prosody, which is contrary to the "negativity bias" phenomenon established in adult and infant studies.

Distinct effects of social motivation on face evaluations in adolescents with and without autism

Individual differences in social motivation have an influence on many behaviours in both clinical and non-clinical populations. As such, social motivation has been identified as a biological trait that is particularly well-suited for dimensional approaches cutting across neuropsychological conditions. In the present paper, we tested whether social motivation had a similar impact in the general population and in a neuropsychological condition characterized by diminished social motivation: Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). More precisely, we evaluated the effect of social motivation on face evaluations in 20 adolescents with ASD and 20 matched controls using avatars parametrically varying in dominance and trustworthiness. In line with previous research, we found in the control group that participants with higher levels of social motivation relied more on perceived trustworthiness when producing likeability judgments. However, this pattern was not found in the ASD group. Social motivation thus appears to have a different effect in ASD and control populations, which raises questions about the relevance of subclinical or non-clinical populations to understand ASD.

Social cognition and self-other distinctions in neuropsychiatry: Insights from schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome

Impairments in social cognition may reflect dysfunction of disorder specific or disorder general mechanisms. Although cross-disorder comparison may prove insightful, few studies have compared social cognition in different neuropsychiatric disorders. Parallel investigation of schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome (TS) is encouraged by similarities including the presence of problematic social behavior, echophenomena, emotional dysregulation and dopamine dysfunction. Focusing on tests of social cognition administered in both disorders, this review aims to summarize behavioral, neurophysiological and neuroimaging findings, before exploring how these may contribute to clinical symptoms. Studies investigating social cognition (imitation, emotion recognition, and understanding of beliefs or intentions) in patients with schizophrenia or TS were identified through Web of Science and PubMed searches. Although findings indicate that social cognitive deficits are more apparent in schizophrenia, adults with TS can exhibit similar task performance to patients with paranoia. In both disorders, behavioral and neuroimaging findings raise the possibility of increased internal simulation of others' actions and emotions, in combination with a relative under-application of mentalizing. More specifically, dysfunction in neurobiological substrates such as temporo-parietal junction and inferior frontal gyrus may underlie problems with self-other distinctions in both schizophrenia and TS. Difficulties in distinguishing between actions and mental states linked to the self and other may contribute to a range of psychiatric symptoms, including emotional dysregulation, paranoia, social anhedonia and socially disruptive urges. Comparing different patient populations could therefore reveal common neuro-cognitive risk factors for the development of problematic social behaviors, in addition to markers of resilience, coping strategies and potential neuro-compensation mechanisms.

Automatic processing of emotional facial expressions as a function of social anhedonia

Anhedonia is an important feature of major depression and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Few neuroimaging studies have investigated neural alterations in high anhedonia, isolated from other psychopathological variables, by including only participants without clinical diagnoses. The present study examined healthy individuals scoring high (N = 18) vs. low (N = 19) in social anhedonia, who were carefully selected from a sample of N = 282 participants. To examine differences in automatic brain responses to social-affective stimuli between high vs. low social anhedonia participants, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging. To assess early, automatic stages of emotion processing, we administered a paradigm presenting brief (33ms), backward-masked happy, sad, and neutral facial expressions. Individuals high in social anhedonia demonstrated increased activation in the bilateral thalamus and left red nucleus in response to masked sad faces relative to individuals low in social anhedonia. No significant group differences in brain activation emerged in other regions known to be involved in emotion and reward processing, including the amygdala and nucleus accumbens. Our results suggest that high social anhedonia in otherwise healthy individuals is associated with exaggerated automatic reactivity in the thalamus, which is a brain structure that has been implicated in the mediation of attentional processes.

Impaired Emotional Mirroring in Parkinson's Disease-A Study on Brain Activation during Processing of Facial Expressions

Background

Affective dysfunctions are common in patients with Parkinson’s disease, but the underlying neurobiological deviations have rarely been examined. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by a loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra resulting in impairment of motor and non-motor basal ganglia-cortical loops. Concerning emotional deficits, some studies provide evidence for altered brain processing in limbic- and lateral-orbitofrontal gating loops. In a second line of evidence, human premotor and inferior parietal homologs of mirror neuron areas were involved in processing and understanding of emotional facial expressions. We examined deviations in brain activation during processing of facial expressions in patients and related these to emotion recognition accuracy.

Methods

13 patients and 13 healthy controls underwent an emotion recognition task and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurement. In the Emotion Hexagon test, participants were presented with blends of two emotions and had to indicate which emotion best described the presented picture. Blended pictures with three levels of difficulty were included. During fMRI scanning, participants observed video clips depicting emotional, non-emotional, and neutral facial expressions or were asked to produce these facial expressions themselves.

Results

Patients performed slightly worse in the emotion recognition task, but only when judging the most ambiguous facial expressions. Both groups activated inferior frontal and anterior inferior parietal homologs of mirror neuron areas during observation and execution of the emotional facial expressions. During observation, responses in the pars opercularis of the right inferior frontal gyrus, in the bilateral inferior parietal lobule and in the bilateral supplementary motor cortex were decreased in patients. Furthermore, in patients, activation of the right anterior inferior parietal lobule was positively related to accuracy in the emotion recognition task.

Conclusion

Our data provide evidence for a contribution of human homologs of monkey mirror areas to the emotion recognition deficit in Parkinson’s disease.

Anhedonia in Trauma-Exposed Individuals: Functional Connectivity and Decision-Making Correlates

BACKGROUND

Reward processing deficits have been increasingly associated with trauma exposure and are a core feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While altered resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of ventral striatal regions, including the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), has been associated with anhedonia in some stress-related disorders, relationships between NAcc rsFC and anhedonia have not previously been investigated in trauma-exposed individuals. Additionally, relationships between anhedonia and reward-related decision making remain unexplored in relation to trauma exposure. We hypothesized that elevated anhedonia would be associated with altered rsFC between NAcc and default mode network regions and with increased delay discounting.

METHODS

The sample included 51 participants exposed to a DSM-IV PTSD Criterion A event related to community trauma. Participants completed the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale, the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, a computerized delay discounting paradigm, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. rsFC data were analyzed in SPM12 and CONN.

RESULTS

Higher levels of anhedonia were associated with increased rsFC between seed regions of bilateral NAcc and areas of right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. This relationship remained significant after accounting for Clinician Administered PTSD Scale total scores, Beck Depression Inventory total scores, or diagnostic group in the regression. Additionally, anhedonia was associated with elevated (increased) delay discounting.

CONCLUSIONS

Greater anhedonia was related to higher positive connectivity between NAcc and right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and to increased delay discounting, i.e., greater preference for smaller immediate versus larger delayed rewards. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature emphasizing the importance of anhedonia in trauma-exposed individuals.

Facial affect recognition and social functioning among individuals with varying degrees of schizotypy

Facial affect recognition (FAR) accuracy is impaired in schizophrenia and, to a lesser extent, in individuals at-risk for psychosis. Reduced reaction time and negative bias on FAR tasks are also evident in schizophrenia, though few studies have examined these measures in at-risk samples. Social dysfunction is associated with FAR deficits in schizophrenia and at-risk individuals. We aimed to elucidate the nature of FAR and social functioning among individuals from a non-clinical population reporting a range of schizotypal traits (i.e., risk for psychosis), and to examine whether FAR mediates the relationship between schizotypal traits and social functioning. Participants completed self-report measures assessing schizotypal traits and social functioning, and a computerized FAR task remotely via the Internet. High schizotypy individuals performed significantly worse than low schizotypy individuals on FAR total and neutral accuracy, demonstrated a negative bias, and reported significantly worse social functioning. Schizotypal traits were also negatively correlated with FAR performance and social functioning in the total sample. FAR accuracy did not mediate the direct relationship between schizotypal traits and social functioning. FAR may be an important social-cognitive endophenotype of psychosis risk with implications for understanding etiology of psychotic spectrum disorders, improving ways of identifying at-risk individuals, and developing preventive strategies.

Social functioning in patients with depressive and anxiety disorders

OBJECTIVE

Adaptive social functioning is severely impeded in depressive and anxiety disorders, even after remission. However, a comprehensive overview is still lacking.

METHOD

Using data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), behavioural (network size, social activities, social support) and affective (loneliness, affiliation, perceived social disability) indicators of social functioning were analyzed in patients with anxiety (N = 540), depressive (N = 393), comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders ('comorbid', N = 748), remitted participants (N = 621), and healthy control subjects (N = 650).

RESULTS

Analyses revealed an increasing trend of social dysfunction among patient groups, in patients with comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders, showing the most severe impairments, followed by depressed and anxious patients (P's < 0.001 for all social functioning indicators). Affective indicators showed the largest effect sizes (Cohen's d range from 0.13 to 1.76). We also found impairments in social functioning among remitted patients. Furthermore, perceived social disability among patients was predictive of still having a depressive and/or anxiety diagnosis 2 years later (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Behavioural but especially affective indicators of social functioning are impaired in patients with anxiety or depressive disorders and most in patients with comorbid disorders. After remission of affective psychopathology, residual impairments tend to remain, while social dysfunction in patients seems predictive of future psychopathology.

Emotion processing deficits in the different dimensions of psychometric schizotypy

Schizotypy refers to a personality structure indicating "proneness" to schizophrenia. Around 10% of the general population has increased schizotypal traits, they also share other core features with schizophrenia and are thus at heightened risk for developing schizophrenia and spectrum disorders. A key aspect in schizophrenia-spectrum pathology is the impairment observed in emotion-related processes. This review summarizes findings on impairments related to central aspects of emotional processes, such as emotional disposition, alexithymia, facial affect recognition and speech prosody, in high schizotypal individuals in the general population. Although the studies in the field are not numerous, the current findings indicate that all these aspects of emotional processing are deficient in psychometric schizotypy, in accordance to the schizophrenia-spectrum literature. A disturbed frontotemporal neural network seems to be the critical link between these impairments, schizotypy and schizophrenia. The limitations of the current studies and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Loss-of-function of PTPR γ and ζ, observed in sporadic schizophrenia, causes brain region-specific deregulation of monoamine levels and altered behavior in mice

RATIONALE

The receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPRG has been genetically associated with psychiatric disorders and is a ligand for members of the contactin family, which are themselves linked to autism spectrum disorders.

OBJECTIVE

Based on our finding of a phosphatase-null de novo mutation in PTPRG associated with a case of sporadic schizophrenia, we used PTPRG knockout (KO) mice to model the effect of a loss-of-function mutation. We compared the results with loss-of-function in its close paralogue PTPRZ, previously associated with schizophrenia. We tested PTPRG ^-/- , PTPRZ ^-/- , and wild-type male mice for effects on social behavior, forced swim test, and anxiety, as well as on regional brain neurochemistry.

RESULTS

The most notable behavioral consequences of PTPRG gene inactivation were reduced immobilization in the forced swim test, suggestive of some negative symptoms of schizophrenia. By contrast, PTPRZ ^-/- mice demonstrated marked social alteration with increased aggressivity, reminiscent of some positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Both knockouts showed elevated dopamine levels in prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and most particularly amygdala, but not striatum, accompanied by reduced dopamine beta hydroxylase activity only in amygdala. In addition, PTPRG KO elicited a distinct increase in hippocampal serotonin level not observed in PTPRZ KO.

CONCLUSION

PTPRG and PTPRZ gene loss therefore induces distinct patterns of behavioral change and region-specific alterations in neurotransmitters, highlighting their usefulness as models for neuropsychiatric disorder mechanisms and making these receptors attractive targets for therapy.

Brain connectivity changes occurring following cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis predict long-term recovery

Little is known about the psychobiological mechanisms of cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) and which specific processes are key in predicting favourable long-term outcomes. Following theoretical models of psychosis, this proof-of-concept study investigated whether the long-term recovery path of CBTp completers can be predicted by the neural changes in threat-based social affective processing that occur during CBTp. We followed up 22 participants who had undergone a social affective processing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging along with self-report and clinician-administered symptom measures, before and after receiving CBTp. Monthly ratings of psychotic and affective symptoms were obtained retrospectively across 8 years since receiving CBTp, plus self-reported recovery at final follow-up. We investigated whether these long-term outcomes were predicted by CBTp-led changes in functional connections with dorsal prefrontal cortical and amygdala during the processing of threatening and prosocial facial affect. Although long-term psychotic symptoms were predicted by changes in prefrontal connections during prosocial facial affective processing, long-term affective symptoms were predicted by threat-related amygdalo-inferior parietal lobule connectivity. Greater increases in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex connectivity with amygdala following CBTp also predicted higher subjective ratings of recovery at long-term follow-up. These findings show that reorganisation occurring at the neural level following psychological therapy can predict the subsequent recovery path of people with psychosis across 8 years. This novel methodology shows promise for further studies with larger sample size, which are needed to better examine the sensitivity of psychobiological processes, in comparison to existing clinical measures, in predicting long-term outcomes.

Association between polygenic risk for schizophrenia, neurocognition and social cognition across development

Breakthroughs in genomics have begun to unravel the genetic architecture of schizophrenia risk, providing methods for quantifying schizophrenia polygenic risk based on common genetic variants. Our objective in the current study was to understand the relationship between schizophrenia genetic risk variants and neurocognitive development in healthy individuals. We first used combined genomic and neurocognitive data from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (4303 participants ages 8-21 years) to screen 26 neurocognitive phenotypes for their association with schizophrenia polygenic risk. Schizophrenia polygenic risk was estimated for each participant based on summary statistics from the most recent schizophrenia genome-wide association analysis (Psychiatric Genomics Consortium 2014). After correction for multiple comparisons, greater schizophrenia polygenic risk was significantly associated with reduced speed of emotion identification and verbal reasoning. These associations were significant by age 9 years and there was no evidence of interaction between schizophrenia polygenic risk and age on neurocognitive performance. We then looked at the association between schizophrenia polygenic risk and emotion identification speed in the Harvard/MGH Brain Genomics Superstruct Project sample (695 participants ages 18-35 years), where we replicated the association between schizophrenia polygenic risk and emotion identification speed. These analyses provide evidence for a replicable association between polygenic risk for schizophrenia and a specific aspect of social cognition. Our findings indicate that individual differences in genetic risk for schizophrenia are linked with the development of aspects of social cognition and potentially verbal reasoning, and that these associations emerge relatively early in development.

Social functioning in major depressive disorder

Depression is associated with social risk factors, social impairments and poor social functioning. This paper gives an overview of these social aspects using the NIMH Research and Domain Criteria 'Systems for Social Processes' as a framework. In particular, it describes the bio-psycho-social interplay regarding impaired affiliation and attachment (social anhedonia, hyper-sensitivity to social rejection, competition avoidance, increased altruistic punishment), impaired social communication (impaired emotion recognition, diminished cooperativeness), impaired social perception (reduced empathy, theory-of-mind deficits) and their impact on social networks and the use of social media. It describes these dysfunctional social processes at the behavioural, neuroanatomical, neurochemical and genetic levels, and with respect to animal models of social stress. We discuss the diagnostic specificity of these social deficit constructs for depression and in relation to depression severity. Since social factors are importantly involved in the pathogenesis and the consequences of depression, such research will likely contribute to better diagnostic assessments and concepts, treatments and preventative strategies both at the diagnostic and transdiagnostic level.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Normalizes Functional Connectivity for Social Threat in Psychosis

Psychosis is often characterized by paranoia and poor social functioning. Neurally, there is evidence of functional dysconnectivity including abnormalities when processing facial affect. We sought to establish whether these abnormalities are resolved by cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis (CBTp). The study involved 38 outpatients with one or more persistent positive psychotic symptoms, and 20 healthy participants. All participants completed an implicit facial affect processing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Subsequently, patients either continued to receive standard care only (SCO,n= 16) or received CBTp on top of standard care (+CBTp,n= 22), with fMRI repeated 6-8 months later. To examine the mechanisms underlying CBTp-led changes in threat processing and appraisal, functional connectivity during the social threat (angry faces) condition was assessed separately from left amygdala and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) seeds. At baseline, patients, compared with healthy participants, showed greater amygdala connectivity with the insula and visual areas, but less connectivity with somatosensory areas. These differences normalized following CBTp and, compared with the SCO group, the +CBTp group showed greater increases in amygdala connectivity with DLPFC and inferior parietal lobule, with the latter correlating with improvement in positive symptoms. From the DLPFC seed, the +CBTp (compared with SCO) group showed significantly greater increase in DLPFC connectivity with other prefrontal regions including dorsal anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings indicate that CBTp strengthens connectivity between higher-order cognitive systems and those involved in threat and salience, potentially facilitating reappraisal.

Functional brain substrate of quality of life in patients with schizophrenia: A brain SPECT multidimensional analysis

The aim of this study was to investigate the functional brain substrate of quality of life (QoL) in patients with schizophrenia. Participants comprised 130 right-handed patients with schizophrenia who underwent whole-brain single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with (99m)Tc-labeled ethylcysteinate dimer ((99m)Tc-ECD) for exploring correlations of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) with the eight dimensions score of the Schizophrenia Quality of Life questionnaire (S-QoL 18). A significant positive correlation was found between the global index of the S-QoL 18 and rCBF in the right superior temporal sulcus and between psychological well-being dimension and rCBF in Brodmann area (BA)6, BA8, BA9, and BA10 and between self-esteem dimension and rCBF in striatum and between family relationship dimension and rCBF in BA1, BA2, BA3, BA4, BA8, BA22, BA40, BA42 and BA44 and between relationship with friends dimension and rCBF in BA44 and between physical well-being dimension and rCBF in parahippocampal gyrus, and finally between autonomy dimension and rCBF in cuneus and precuneus. A significant negative correlation was found between resilience dimension and rCBF in precuneus and between sentimental life dimension and rCBF in BA10. Our findings provide neural correlates of QoL. Brain regions involved in cognitions, emotional information processing and social cognition underlie the different QoL dimensions.

Chronic stress and antidepressant induced changes in Hdac5 and Sirt2 affect synaptic plasticity

Changes in histone acetylation could contribute to the pathogenesis of depression and antidepressant therapy. Using the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) model of depression and different antidepressant treatments we studied the regulation of histone deacetylases (Hdac׳s) and synaptic plasticity markers in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Further, functional implication of identified Hdac׳s in brain plasticity was explored. Mice were exposed to CSDS (10 days) followed by saline or imipramine (4 weeks). PFC Hdac׳s mRNA abundance was studied and compared to human׳s. Further, protein expression of acetylated histones (AcH3 and AcH4), neuroplasticity markers (CREB and pro-BDNF) and selected Hdac׳s were analyzed. Moreover, other antidepressants (fluoxetine and reboxetine) and selective HDAC inhibitors were studied. CSDS increased Hdac5 and Sirt2 mRNA whereas repeated imipramine did the opposite. Accordingly, stress and imipramine induced opposite changes on AcH3, AcH4 and CREB expression. At protein level, CSDS upregulated nuclear fraction of Hdac5 and repeated imipramine and reboxetine increased its phosphorylated form (p-Hdac5), mainly located in the cytoplasm. Moreover, Sirt2 was downregulated by all monoaminergic antidepressants. Further, repeated treatment with the class IIa Hdac inhibitor MC1568 and the Sirt2 inhibitor 33i for three weeks increased synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex. Our results suggest that Hdac5 and Sirt2 upregulation could constitute stable stress-induced neuronal adaptations. Noteworthy, the SIRT2 upregulation in depressed patients supports the interest of this target for therapeutic intervention. On the other hand, cytoplasmic Hdac5 export and Sirt2 downregulation induced by monoaminergic antidepressants could contribute to the well-known beneficial effects of antidepressants on brain plasticity.

Cascading and combined effects of cognitive deficits and residual symptoms on functional outcome in schizophrenia - A path-analytical approach

Understanding the complex relationship among determinants of real-world functioning in schizophrenia patients in remission is important in planning recovery-oriented interventions. We explored two path-analytical models of functioning in schizophrenia. 170 Schizophrenia patients remitted from positive symptoms underwent fairly comprehensive assessments of cognition - neurocognition (NC) and social cognition (SC), residual symptoms - insight, motivation and other negative symptoms, and socio-occupational functioning. We explored (a) a cascading model, where NC predicted functional outcome through its effects on other determinants and (b) a combined model, incorporating additional direct paths from each of the determinants. The combined model, and not the cascading model demonstrated a good fit. Post-hoc trimming of the combined model by elimination of non-significant paths maintained the goodness-of-fit and was retained as the final model. In addition to the direct paths, this final model demonstrated that (a) NC influenced functioning through SC and insight and (b) SC influenced functioning through motivation and negative symptoms. This suggests that NC and SC may influence functional outcome directly, as well as indirectly, via specific impact on insight, and motivation and negative symptoms respectively.

Adults with high social anhedonia have altered neural connectivity with ventral lateral prefrontal cortex when processing positive social signals

Social anhedonia (SA) is a debilitating characteristic of schizophrenia, a common feature in individuals at psychosis-risk, and a vulnerability for developing schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Prior work (Hooker et al., 2014) revealed neural deficits in the ventral lateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) when processing positive social cues in a community sample of people with high SA. Lower VLPFC neural activity was related to more severe self-reported schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms as well as the exacerbation of symptoms after social stress. In the current study, psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analysis was applied to further investigate the neural mechanisms mediated by the VLPFC during emotion processing. PPI analysis revealed that, compared to low SA controls, participants with high SA exhibited reduced connectivity between the VLPFC and the motor cortex, the inferior parietal and the posterior temporal regions when viewing socially positive (relative to neutral) emotions. Across all participants, VLPFC connectivity correlated with behavioral and self-reported measures of attentional control, emotion management, and reward processing. Our results suggest that impairments to the VLPFC mediated neural circuitry underlie the cognitive and emotional deficits associated with social anhedonia, and may serve as neural targets for prevention and treatment of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Childhood Adversity Is Associated with Adult Theory of Mind and Social Affiliation, but Not Face Processing

People vary substantially in their ability to acquire and maintain social ties. Here, we use a combined epidemiological and individual differences approach to understand the childhood roots of adult social cognitive functioning. We assessed exposure to 25 forms of traumatic childhood experiences in over 5000 adults, along with measures of face discrimination, face memory, theory of mind, social motivation, and social support. Retrospectively-reported experiences of parental maltreatment in childhood (particularly physical abuse) were the most broadly and robustly associated with adult variations in theory of mind, social motivation, and social support. Adult variations in face discrimination and face memory, on the other hand, were not significantly associated with exposure to childhood adversity. Our findings indicate domains of social cognition that may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of adverse childhood environments, and suggest mechanisms whereby environmental factors might influence the development of social abilities.