A5038068153- Mental Health Research Topics
- Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Gene expression and cancer classification
- Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Treatment of Major Depression
- Traumatic Brain Injury Research
- Molecular Biology Techniques and Applications
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Cell Image Analysis Techniques
- Bioinformatics and Genomic Networks
- Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
- Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Migration, Health and Trauma
- Reinforcement Learning in Robotics
- Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
Emory University
2024-2025
Virginia Tech
2015-2024
University of Pittsburgh
2018-2024
Biomedical Research Institute
2021-2024
Duke University
2013-2021
Wake Forest University
2021
Trinity College
2021
Carilion Clinic
2015-2018
Durham VA Medical Center
2013
Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers
2012
Context: Smaller hippocampal volumes are well established in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but the relatively few studies of amygdala volume PTSD have produced equivocal results.Objective: To assess a large cohort recent military veterans with and trauma-exposed control subjects, sufficient power to perform definitive assessment effect on volumetric changes hippocampus contribution illness duration, trauma load, depressive symptoms.Design: Case-controlled design structural magnetic...
Abstract Fear conditioning is an established model for investigating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, symptom triggers may vaguely resemble the initial traumatic event, differing on a variety of sensory and affective dimensions. We extended fear-conditioning to assess generalization conditioned fear processing neurocircuitry in PTSD. Military veterans ( n =67) consisting PTSD =32) trauma-exposed comparison =35) groups underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during low...
Major depressive disorder is prevalent and impairing. Parsing neurocomputational substrates of reinforcement learning in individuals with depression may facilitate a mechanistic understanding the suggest new cognitive therapeutic targets.To determine associations among computational model-derived parameters, symptoms, symptom changes after treatment.In this mixed cross-sectional-cohort study, performed reward loss variants probabilistic task during functional magnetic resonance imaging at...
Loneliness has been shown to be inversely correlated with empathy in younger adults. The present study extends previous research by investigating the association between and loneliness across adult lifespan examining role of relevant demographic personality factors. 110 community-dwelling adults (18 81 years old) completed UCLA Scale Empathy Quotient. scores were associated rated predicted 8.7% variance after accounting for sex, age, relationship status, education, neuroticism. Social Skills...
To address a controversy in the literature concerning whether monkeys show an aversion to inequity, individuals of New World monkey species, cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) were tested offering task and bartering task. At issue was rejected rewards because violation expectancy preferred reward, or they sensitivity socially mediated inequity. The data from both tasks indicated that subjects more likely reject when presented, either another animal eating reward (the social condition)...
Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) show altered cognition when trauma-related material is present. PTSD may lead to enhanced processing of material, or it cause impaired trauma-unrelated information. However, other forms emotional information also alter in PTSD. In this review, we discuss the behavioral and neural effects emotion on PTSD, a focus neuroimaging results. We propose model emotion-cognition interaction based evidence two network models brain activation The...
Disproportionate reactions to unexpected stimuli in the environment are a cardinal symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we test whether these heightened responses associated with disruptions distinct components reinforcement learning. Specifically, using functional neuroimaging, loss-learning task, and computational model-based approach, assessed mechanistic hypothesis that overreactions PTSD arise from anomalous gating attention during learning (i.e., associability)....
Compulsive behaviors are a core feature of obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders but appear across broad psychological conditions. It is thought that compulsions reflect failure to override habitual "stamped in" through repeated practice and short-term distress reduction. Animal models suggest possible causal role the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in compulsive behaviors, human studies have largely been limited by correlational designs. The goal this study was establish first experimental...
Hippocampal maps and ventral prefrontal cortex (vPFC) value goal representations support foraging in continuous spaces. How might hippocampal-vPFC interactions control the balance between behavioral exploration exploitation? Using fMRI reinforcement learning modeling, we investigated vPFC hippocampal responses as humans explored exploited a one-dimensional space, with out-of-session out-of-sample replication. The spatial distribution of rewards, or landscape, modulated activity hippocampus...
Suicide is linked to impaired value-based decision-making and impulsivity, but whether these risk factors share neural underpinnings unclear. Disrupted ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) value signals may underlie this behavioral phenotype. We investigated vmPFC signals, vmPFC-frontoparietal connectivity, the impact of impulsivity during in depressed individuals with without suicidal behavior. Middle-aged older adults (n = 116; 35 a history suicide attempts, 25 ideation only, controls no...
To facilitate high-throughput 3D imaging of brain gene expression, a new method called voxelation has been developed. Spatially registered voxels (cubes) are analyzed, resulting in multiple volumetric maps expression analogous to the images reconstructed biomedical systems. Using microarrays, 40 voxel for 9000 genes were acquired from brains both normal mice and which pharmacological model Parkinson's disease (PD) had induced by methamphetamine. Quality-control analyses established...
Model-based planning is thought to protect against over-reliance on habits. It reduced in individuals high compulsivity, but effect sizes are small and may depend subtle features of the tasks used assess it. We developed a diamond-shooting smartphone game that measures model-based an at-home setting, varied game's structure within across participants how it affects measurement reliability validity with respect previously established correlates planning, focus compulsivity. Increasing number...
Voxelation is a new method for acquisition of three dimensional (3D) gene expression patterns in the brain. It employs high-throughput analysis spatially registered voxels (cubes) to produce multiple volumetric maps analogous images reconstructed biomedical imaging systems. Using microarrays, 24 voxel coronal hemisections at level hippocampus both normal human brain and Alzheimer's disease were acquired 2000 genes. The revealed common network coregulated genes, allowed identification...
In substance-dependent individuals, drug deprivation and use trigger divergent behavioral responses to environmental cues. These are consonant with data showing that short- long-term adaptations in dopamine signaling similarly sensitive state of use. The literature suggests a state-dependent role learning maintaining substance use; evidence linking both reinforcement addiction provides framework test this possibility.In randomized crossover design, 22 participants current cocaine disorder...
Abstract To investigate how unpredictable threat during goal pursuit impacts fronto-limbic activity and functional connectivity in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we compared military veterans with PTSD ( n = 25) vs. trauma-exposed control 25). Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while engaged a computerized chase-and-capture game task that involved optimizing monetary rewards obtained from capturing virtual prey simultaneously avoiding capture by predators. The...
Prior studies sought to explain the predisposition suicidal behavior in terms of myopic preference for immediate versus delayed reward, generating mixed evidence. Data from gambling and bandit tasks, however, suggest that suboptimal decisions individuals are explained by inconsistent valuation rather than preferences. We tested these two alternative hypotheses using a delay discounting task 622 adults (suicide attempters with depression, suicide ideators nonsuicidal participants healthy...