The Effect of Emotion and Reward Contingencies on Relational Memory in Major Depression: An Eye-Movement Study with Follow-Up

Pattern of non-suicidal self-injury in Chinese male prisoners: A latent class analysis

OBJECTIVES

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) occurs more frequently in the prisoner population than in the general population. Monitoring and management of this behavior is challenging because NSSI may present in diverse ways. People often use more than one method of NSSI, and there are many possible combinations of these behaviors. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify subgroups of male inmates based on methods and frequency of NSSI.

METHODS

A total of 1042 male prisoners in China (Mage  = 38.45, SD = 10.67) completed measures of hopelessness, sensation seeking, identity integration, and suicidal ideation, and NSSI was assessed in a structured interview.

RESULTS

Results of the LCA supported a three-class model: high-NSSI (1.8%), moderate-NSSI (8.0%), and no-or-negligible NSSI (90.2%). Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that prisoners in the high-NSSI and moderate-NSSI classes were significantly more likely than those in the no-or-negligible NSSI class to show high hopelessness, high sensation seeking, and low identity. Furthermore, suicidal ideation was significantly higher in the high-NSSI and moderate-NSSI classes than in the no-or-negligible NSSI class.

CONCLUSIONS

Classifying groups of prisoners based on features of NSSI is potentially useful for understanding risk factors and for developing tailored prevention and treatment strategies.

A locus coeruleus-dorsal CA1 dopaminergic circuit modulates memory linking

Individual memories are often linked so that the recall of one triggers the recall of another. For example, contextual memories acquired close in time can be linked, and this is known to depend on a temporary increase in excitability that drives the overlap between dorsal CA1 (dCA1) hippocampal ensembles that encode the linked memories. Here, we show that locus coeruleus (LC) cells projecting to dCA1 have a key permissive role in contextual memory linking, without affecting contextual memory formation, and that this effect is mediated by dopamine. Additionally, we found that LC-to-dCA1-projecting neurons modulate the excitability of dCA1 neurons and the extent of overlap between dCA1 memory ensembles as well as the stability of coactivity patterns within these ensembles. This discovery of a neuromodulatory system that specifically affects memory linking without affecting memory formation reveals a fundamental separation between the brain mechanisms modulating these two distinct processes.

The abnormal implicit memory to positive and negative stimuli in patients with current and remitted major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION

In patients with current major depressive disorder (cMDD) a general abnormal implicit memory has been reported. However, the elaborate function of implicit memory when processing stimuli with different emotions (i.e., positive, neutral, and negative) in current and remitted (rMDD) patients is unclear. The present review examines implicit memory's general and elaborate in cMDD and rMDD patients.

METHODS

We conducted meta-analyses based on published studies meeting criteria in Web of Science, PubMed, and EMBASE databases between 1990 and July 2022. The full sample patients included cMDD = 601 and rMDD = 143.

RESULTS

Initial analysis of cMDD patients revealed a general implicit memory deficit. Subsequent subgroup analyses showed that the implicit memory performance to neutral stimuli is poorer in cMDD patients than controls, but recovered in rMDD patients; the deficient implicit memory to positive stimuli existed in cMDD and rMDD patients; the implicit memory performance to negative stimuli in cMDD patients is similar to controls but poorer in rMDD patients.

CONCLUSION

These findings indicate that the negative bias in cMDD patients might compensate for the general implicit memory deficit. Together, the implicit memory to neutral stimuli could recover with remission, whereas still abnormal in processing positive and negative stimuli. These results suggested that the abnormal implicit memory to positive and negative information might be relevant to depression pathogenesis.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero, identifier CRD42020205003.

Eye tracking - The overlooked method to measure cognition in neurodegeneration?

Eye tracking (ET) studies are becoming increasingly popular due to rapid methodological and technological advances as well as the development of cost efficient and portable eye trackers. Although historically ET has been mostly employed in psychophysics or developmental cognition studies, there is also promising scope to use ET for movement disorders and measuring cognitive processes in neurodegeneration. Particularly, ET can be a powerful tool for cognitive and neuropsychological assessments of patients with pathologies affecting motor and verbal abilities, as tasks can be adapted without requiring motor (except eye movements) or verbal responses. In this review, we will examine the existing evidence of ET methods in neurodegenerative conditions and its potential clinical impact for cognitive assessment. We highlight that current evidence for ET is mostly focused on diagnostics of cognitive impairments in neurodegenerative disorders, where it is debatable whether it has any more sensitivity or specificity than existing cognitive assessments. By contrast, there is currently a lack of ET studies in more advanced disease stages, when patients' motor and verbal functions can be significantly affected, and standard cognitive assessments are challenging or often not possible. We conclude that ET is a promising method not only for cognitive diagnostics but more importantly, for potential cognitive disease tracking in progressive neurodegenerative conditions.