Test-retest reliability of the play-or-pass version of the Iowa Gambling Task.

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is used to assess decision-making in clinical populations. The original IGT does not disambiguate reward and punishment learning; however, an adaptation of the task, the "play-or-pass" IGT, was developed to better distinguish between reward and punishment learning. We evaluated the test-retest reliability of measures of reward and punishment learning from the play-or-pass IGT and examined associations with self-reported measures of reward/punishment sensitivity and internalizing symptoms. Participants completed the task across two sessions, and we calculated mean-level differences and rank-order stability of behavioral measures across the two sessions using traditional scoring, involving session-wide choice proportions, and computational modeling, involving estimates of different aspects of trial-level learning. Measures using both approaches were reliable; however, computational modeling provided more insights regarding between-session changes in performance, and how performance related to self-reported measures of reward/punishment sensitivity and internalizing symptoms. Our results show promise in using the play-or-pass IGT to assess decision-making; however, further work is still necessary to validate the play-or-pass IGT.

An in vivo Dissection, and Analysis of Socio-Affective Symptoms related to Cerebellum-Midbrain Reward Circuitry in Humans.

Emerging research in non-human animals implicates cerebellar projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in appetitive behaviors, but these circuits have not been characterized in humans. Here, we mapped cerebello-VTA white-matter connectivity in humans using probabilistic tractography on diffusion imaging data from the Human Connectome Project. We uncovered the topographical organization of these connections by separately tracking from parcels of cerebellar lobule VI, crus I/II, vermis, paravermis, and cerebrocerebellum. Results revealed that connections from the cerebellum to the VTA predominantly originate in the right hemisphere, interposed nucleus, and paravermal cortex, and terminate mostly ipsilaterally. Paravermal crus I sends the most connections to the VTA compared to other lobules. We discovered a medial-to-lateral gradient of connectivity, such that the medial cerebellum has the highest connectivity with the VTA. Individual differences in microstructure were associated with measures of negative affect and social functioning. By splitting the tracts into quarters, we found that the socio-affective effects were driven by the third quarter of the tract, corresponding to the point at which the fibers leave the deep nuclei. Taken together, we produced detailed maps of cerebello-VTA structural connectivity for the first time in humans and established their relevance for trait differences in socio-affective regulation.

Adolescents at risk for depression show increased white matter microstructure with age across diffuse areas of the brain.

Maternal history of depression is a strong predictor of depression in offspring and linked to structural and functional alterations in the developing brain. However, very little work has examined differences in white matter in adolescents at familial risk for depression. In a sample aged 9-14 (n = 117), we used tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to examine differences in white matter microstructure between adolescents with (n = 42) and without (n = 75) maternal history of depression. Microstructure was indexed using fractional anisotropy (FA). Threshold-free cluster enhancement was applied and cluster maps were thresholded at whole-brain family-wise error < .05. There was no significant main effect of risk status on FA. However, there was a significant interaction between risk status and age, such that large and diffuse portions of the white matter skeleton showed relatively increased FA with age for youth with a maternal history of depression compared to those without. Most tracts identified by the interaction were robust to controlling for sex, youth internalizing, in-scanner motion, neighborhood SES, and intra-cranial volume, evidence that maternal depression is a unique predictor of white matter alterations in youth. Widespread increases in FA with age may correspond to a global pattern of accelerated brain maturation in youth at risk for depression.

From Classical Methods to Generative Models: Tackling the Unreliability of Neuroscientific Measures in Mental Health Research.

Advances in computational statistics and corresponding shifts in funding initiatives over the past few decades have led to a proliferation of neuroscientific measures being developed in the context of mental health research. Although such measures have undoubtedly deepened our understanding of neural mechanisms underlying cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes associated with various mental health conditions, the clinical utility of such measures remains underwhelming. Recent commentaries point toward the poor reliability of neuroscientific measures to partially explain this lack of clinical translation. Here, we provide a concise theoretical overview of how unreliability impedes clinical translation of neuroscientific measures; discuss how various modeling principles, including those from hierarchical and structural equation modeling frameworks, can help to improve reliability; and demonstrate how to combine principles of hierarchical and structural modeling within the generative modeling framework to achieve more reliable, generalizable measures of brain-behavior relationships for use in mental health research.

Validation of a novel method of ultraviolet-induced cutaneous inflammation and its associations with anhedonia.

Affective immunology of the skin is a growing area; however, established protocols for measuring individual differences in cutaneous inflammation are lacking. To address this, we present a preliminary validation of Precision Implementation of Minimal Erythema Dose (PI-MED) testing as a method for measuring cutaneous inflammation. PI-MED is a recently adapted protocol, optimized for reproducibility and individual differences research, that uses ultraviolet (UV) light to evoke cutaneous erythema, or inflammatory skin reddening. PI-MED's novel UV dosage schedule produces standardized erythema responses across different skin pigmentation types and shows strong internal consistency within person and good test-retest reliability across 8-10 weeks. In line with predictions, increased PI-MED erythema was associated with heightened anhedonia, across several measures, beyond influences of non-affective covariates. While future work should further refine the dosage schedule for the lightest and darkest skin types, overall, evidence supports PI-MED as a protocol for inducing and measuring individual differences in cutaneous inflammation. Further, PI-MED-induced erythema can expand psychoneuroimmunology research by offering a complementary assessment for general inflammatory tone. This work adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating a distinct relationship between inflammation and anhedonia.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Specifically Improves Social Anhedonia Among Adults with Chronic Stress.

This randomized controlled trial examined the effects of mindfulness on anhedonic symptoms in a sample of adults reporting high levels of chronic stress. Meditation-naïve adults (N = 68, Mage = 32, 62% female) were randomized to either an 8-week group-based MBSR intervention (N = 35), or a waitlist control group (N = 33). We hypothesized that changes in mindfulness would mediate the relationship between condition and changes in anhedonic symptoms. Additionally, the present study aimed to determine if other theoretically linked mechanisms (i.e., stress, negative affect [NA], depression) were involved in producing changes in anhedonic symptoms. Results provided evidence for full mediation of the effect of MBSR on social anhedonia through its essential mechanism of ΔMindfulness. These results highlight specificity of anhedonic symptoms targeted by MBSR, with social anhedonia symptoms being modified by changes in mindfulness whereas other anhedonic domains were not. The specificity of effects to the social anhedonia domain may be in part due to the group-based nature of MBSR. Additionally, although associative relationships were present for stress, depression, NA, and anhedonic symptoms, no mediational relationships emerged. Results presented here should be evaluated in light of study limitations, such as the reliance on self-report measures as well as a lack of information regarding cultural or geographic diversity.

A missing link in affect regulation: the cerebellum.

The cerebellum is one-third the size of the cerebrum yet holds twice the number of neurons. Historically, its sole function was thought to be in the calibration of smooth movements through the creation and ongoing modification of motor programs. This traditional viewpoint has been challenged by findings showing that cerebellar damage can lead to striking changes in non-motor behavior, including emotional changes. In this manuscript, we review the literature on clinical and subclinical affective disturbances observed in individuals with lesions to the cerebellum. Disorders include pathological laughing and crying, bipolar disorder, depression and mixed mood changes. We propose a theoretical model based on cerebellar connectivity to explain how the cerebellum calibrates affect. We conclude with actionable steps for future researchers to test this model and improve upon the limitations of past literature.

Evaluating the item-level factor structure of anhedonia.

BACKGROUND: Anhedonia has long been theorized to be a multidimensional construct, focusing on domains of reward stimuli and temporal relationship to reward. However, little empirical work has directly examined whether there is support for this assertion. METHODS: The study used data from young adults from four independent samples (n = 2098). Participants completed multiple measures of anhedonia. RESULTS: We used rigorous conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on items from six commonly used anhedonia measures to examine dimensions underlying anhedonia. Results suggested a four-factor solution with factors reflecting social reward, social disinterest, status/achievement, and physical/natural reward. The identified factors reflected broad content domains of pleasure, but not specific reward processes. The four factors were modestly associated with one another, suggesting a weak common underlying anhedonia trait that manifests across multiple dimensions. Factor scores were associated with personality measures, reward-related indices, and depression symptoms, supporting the validity of the factors. LIMITATIONS: Participants were all young adults and we assessed anhedonia only at the level of self-report. CONCLUSION: Anhedonia is a multidimensional construct. However, the dimensions of anhedonia only distinguish domains of, but not temporal processes of anhedonia. Future work should continue to refine the structures underlying the construct of anhedonia through iterative theory- and data-driven research and examine associations between anhedonia and clinical outcomes.

Enhancing the Psychometric Properties of the Iowa Gambling Task Using Full Generative Modeling.

Poor psychometrics, particularly low test-retest reliability, pose a major challenge for using behavioral tasks in individual differences research. Here, we demonstrate that full generative modeling of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) substantially improves test-retest reliability and may also enhance the IGT's validity for use in characterizing internalizing pathology, compared to the traditional analytic approach. IGT data (n=50) was collected across two sessions, one month apart. Our full generative model incorporated (1) the Outcome Representation Learning (ORL) computational model at the person-level and (2) a group-level model that explicitly modeled test-retest reliability, along with other group-level effects. Compared to the traditional 'summary score' (proportion good decks selected), the ORL model provides a theoretically rich set of performance metrics (Reward Learning Rate (A+), Punishment Learning Rate (A-), Win Frequency Sensitivity (ßf), Perseveration Tendency (ßp), Memory Decay (K)), capturing distinct psychological processes. While test-retest reliability for the traditional summary score was only moderate (r=.37, BCa 95% CI [.04, .63]), test-retest reliabilities for ORL performance metrics produced by the full generative model were substantially improved, with test-retest correlations ranging between r=.64-.82 for the five ORL parameters. Further, while summary scores showed no substantial associations with internalizing symptoms, ORL parameters were significantly associated with internalizing symptoms. Specifically, Punishment Learning Rate was associated with higher self-reported depression and Perseveration Tendency was associated with lower self-reported anhedonia. Generative modeling offers promise for advancing individual differences research using the IGT, and behavioral tasks more generally, through enhancing task psychometrics.

From childhood maltreatment to adult inflammation: Evidence for the mediational status of social anxiety and low positive affect.

Prior work has established a robust association between childhood maltreatment and systemic inflammatory activation later in life; however, the mechanisms involved in this process remain incompletely understood. The purpose of this investigation was to examine potential mechanistic roles for social anxiety (SA) symptoms and low positive affect (PA) in the path from childhood maltreatment to elevations in circulating interleukin (IL)-6, a common biomarker of inflammatory activation. In addition, building on prior work establishing linkages between mindful awareness and reductions in systemic inflammation, we examined the potential role of trait mindfulness as a moderator of the relationships among childhood maltreatment, SA, low PA, and IL-6. A serial mediation model utilizing a large epidemiologic dataset (final N â€‹= â€‹527) supported our central hypothesis that the direct effect of childhood maltreatment on IL-6 was fully serially statistically mediated by SA symptoms and low PA (but not high negative affect). Additionally, results indicated that individuals falling in the upper versus lower quartiles of SA symptoms demonstrated significantly elevated concentrations of IL-6, a finding that has not been previously reported. Trait mindfulness moderated the association between low PA and IL-6, to the exclusion of any paths related to negative affect. Additionally, results indicated that the effect of child maltreatment on IL-6 bypasses SA to indirectly impact IL-6 via negative affect. Overall, we conclude that childhood maltreatment and SA symptoms have a significant influence on IL-6, albeit indirectly via low PA, and the influence of PA on IL-6 may be uniquely susceptible to influence by individual differences in mindfulness.

Subjective arousal and perceived control clarify heterogeneity in inflammatory and affective outcomes.

Only a portion of individuals experiencing chronic stress and associated increases in inflammation go on to develop pathological elevations in mood and anxiety symptoms. Some prevailing models suggest that the outcomes of chronic stress may largely depend on individual differences in perceived control. In the current study, we used this theoretical framework to disambiguate the influence of autonomic arousal and perceived control on inflammatory and psychological outcomes in a large sample of adults from the Midlife in the United States dataset (wave 2; MIDUS-2) (Final N â€‹= â€‹1030), and further replicated our approach in a second (MIDUS-Refresher) cohort (Final N â€‹= â€‹728). Using k-means clustering we created subgroups systematically differing in subjective arousal (high/low) and perceived control (low/high) and compared these subgroups on inflammatory markers and psychological outcomes. Overall results showed that individuals in the high subjective arousal subgroups had higher levels of IL-6, CRP, and FIB, independent of level of CNTL. However, distinctive, and pathological psychological symptom patterns became more apparent when individuals were characterized by both subjective arousal and perceived control. These findings suggest that subtyping individuals based on subjective arousal and perceived control can help us disentangle pathological versus adaptive mental health outcomes in those with co-occurring inflammation and may help identify those vulnerable to psychopathology in the context of physical or psychological stressor exposure.

Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Adolescent Social Anxiety: A Unique Convergence of Factors.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a debilitating and often chronic psychiatric disorder that typically onsets during early adolescence. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), the current "gold-standard" treatment for SAD, tends to focus on threat- and fear-based systems hypothesized to maintain the disorder. Despite this targeted approach, SAD ranks among the least responsive anxiety disorders to CBT in adolescent samples, with a considerable proportion of individuals still reporting clinically significant symptoms following treatment, suggesting that the CBT-family of interventions may not fully target precipitating or maintaining factors of the disorder. This gap in efficacy highlights the need to consider new therapeutic modalities. Accordingly, this brief review critically evaluates the emergent literature supporting the use of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for treating adolescent SAD. MBIs may be particularly relevant for addressing maintaining factors within this diagnosis, as they may target and interrupt cycles of avoidance and de-motivation. Despite limitations in the relative lack of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on this topic, a unique convergence of factors emerge from the extant literature that support the notion that MBIs may hold particular promise for attenuating symptoms of SAD in adolescents. These factors include: (1) MBIs demonstrate the ability to directly engage symptoms of SAD; (2) MBIs also show consistent reduction of anxiety, including symptoms of social anxiety in adolescent populations; and (3) MBIs demonstrate high rates of feasibility and acceptability in anxious adolescent samples. We briefly review each topic and conclude that MBIs are an encouraging treatment approach for reducing symptoms of social anxiety in adolescents. However, given the lack of research within MBIs for adolescent SAD in particular, more research is needed to determine if MBIs are more advantageous than other current treatment approaches.

Reward Circuitry and Motivational Deficits in Social Anxiety Disorder: What Can Be Learned From Mouse Models?

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common and serious psychiatric condition that typically emerges during adolescence and persists into adulthood if left untreated. Prevailing interventions focus on modulating threat and arousal systems but produce only modest rates of remission. This gap in efficacy suggests that most mainstream treatment concepts do not sufficiently target core processes involved in the onset and maintenance of SAD. This idea has further driven the development of new theoretical models that target dopamine (DA)-driven reward circuitry and motivational deficits that appear to be systematically altered in SAD. Most of the available data linking systemic alterations in DA neurobiology to SAD in humans, although abundant, remains at the level of correlational evidence. Accordingly, the purpose of this brief review is to critically evaluate the relevance of experimental work in rodent models that link details of DA function to symptoms of social anxiety. We conclude that, despite certain systematic limitations inherent in animal models, these approaches provide useful insights into human biomarkers of social anxiety including that (1) adolescence may serve as a critical period for the convergence of neurobiological and environmental factors that modify future expectations about social reward through experience dependent changes in DA-ergic circuitry, (2) females may show unique susceptibility to social anxiety symptoms when encountering relational instability that influences DA-related neural processes, and (3) separate from fear and arousal systems, the functional neurobiology of central DA systems contribute uniquely to susceptibility and maintenance of anhedonic factors relevant to human models of SAD.

Precision Implementation of Minimal Erythema Dose (MED) Testing to Assess Individual Variation in Human Inflammatory Response.

Minimal erythema dose (MED) testing is frequently used in clinical settings for determining the smallest amount of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation necessary to produce erythema (inflammatory reddening) on the surface of the skin. In this context, the MED is regarded as a key factor in determining starting doses for UV phototherapy for common skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. In research settings, MED testing also has potential to be a powerful tool for assessing within- and between-persons variation in inflammatory responses. However, MED testing has not been widely adopted for use in research settings, likely owing to a lack of published guidelines, which is a barrier to obtaining reproducible results from this assay. Also, protocols and equipment for establishing MED vary widely, making it difficult to compare results across laboratories. Here, we describe a precise and reproducible method to induce and measure superficial erythema using newly designed protocols and methods that can easily be adapted to other equipment and laboratory environments. The method described here includes detail on procedures that will allow extrapolation of a standardized dosage schedule to other equipment so that this protocol can be adapted to any UV radiation source.

Sensitivity shift theory: A developmental model of positive affect and motivational deficits in social anxiety disorder.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common and impairing condition that emerges in early adolescence, confers significant interpersonal disability and often persists into adulthood. Prevailing interventions for socially anxious youth are largely based on cognitive-behavioral models originally developed in adult samples, but produce only modest rates of remission in adolescents. The purposes of this review are to examine plausible explanations for these modest rates of treatment response and to critically evaluate the relevance of developmental mechanisms related to reward circuitry function. In doing so, we propose Sensitivity Shift Theory (SST), an integrated theoretical model addressing the development of social anhedonia in a meaningful subset of adolescents and adults with SAD. The central prediction of SST involves a shift, or developmental transition from social sensitivity during the late childhood/early adolescent period into later-emerging social anhedonia that includes reductions in positive affect, infrequent social approach behaviors and social skills deficits. We further provide a complementary mechanistic account by which these newly identified processes may be addressed using available evidence-based treatments that influence positive affect, including mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). Collectively, SST provides a mechanisms-focused framework for explaining relatively modest rates of response to current front-line treatments in socially anxious youth, as well as discrepant observations in SAD samples of both high- and low- levels of social motivation depending on developmental factors and learning history.

Worth working for: The influence of effort costs on teens' choices during a novel decision making game.

Decision making requires consideration of both the benefits of a given choice and the costs, which can include risk, delay, and effort. Previous research has examined the developmental trajectory of adolescent decision making regarding risk and delay; however, the effects of effort on adolescent decision making remain largely unexplored. In the present study, we pilot tested a novel, developmentally-appropriate task designed to examine developmental differences in the willingness to expend effort during goal pursuit in adolescents (ages 13-16, n = 23) versus young adults (ages 18-23, n = 25). Self-reported reward responsivity correlated with task-related parameter estimates for effort and reward, providing evidence of task validity. Adolescents exhibited reduced sensitivity to physical effort costs compared to adults, effects which did not appear to be driven by differences in subjective task motivation or awareness of the effort requirements. These findings provide preliminary evidence that adolescence may be a time of increased willingness to expend effort during goal pursuit. Effort-based decision making is an understudied but exciting avenue for developmental research, as the willingness to engage in effortful pursuit of new experiences during adolescence may help to facilitate the path to independence.

Reward circuitry activation reflects social preferences in the face of cognitive effort.

Research at the intersection of social neuroscience and cognitive effort is an interesting new area for exploration. There is great potential to broaden our understanding of how social context and cognitive effort processes, currently addressed in disparate literatures, interact with one another. In this paper, we briefly review the literature on cognitive effort, focusing on effort-linked valuation and the gap in the literature regarding cognitive effort in the social domain. Next, we present a study designed to explore valuation processes linked to cognitive effort within the social context of an inequality manipulation. More specifically, we created monetary inequality among the participant (SELF, endowed with $50) and two confederates: one also endowed with $50 (OTHER HIGH) and another with only $5 (OTHER LOW). We then scanned participants using fMRI as they attempted to earn bonus payments for themselves and others through a cognitively effortful feedback-based learning task. Positive feedback produced significantly greater activation than negative feedback in key valuation regions, the ventral striatum (VS) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), both when participants were performing the task on their own behalf and when earning rewards for others. While reward-related activity in the VS was exaggerated for SELF compared to OTHER HIGH for both positive and negative feedback, activity in the vmPFC did not distinguish between recipients in the group-level results. Furthermore, participants naturally fell into two groups: those most engaged when playing for themselves and those who reported engagement for others. While Self-Engaged participants showed differences between the SELF and both OTHER conditions in the VS and vmPFC, Other-Engaged participants only showed an attenuated response to negative feedback for OTHER HIGH compared to SELF in the VS and no differences between recipient conditions in the vmPFC. Together, this work shows the importance of individual differences and the fragility of advantageous inequality aversion in the face of cognitive effort, highlighting the need to study cognitive effort in the social domain.

Control and Effort Costs Influence the Motivational Consequences of Choice.

The act of making a choice, apart from any outcomes the choice may yield, has, paradoxically, been linked to both the enhancement and the detriment of intrinsic motivation. Research has implicated two factors in potentially mediating these contradictory effects: the personal control conferred by a choice and the costs associated with a choice. Across four experiments, utilizing a physical effort task disguised as a simple video game, we systematically varied costs across two levels of physical effort requirements (Low-Requirement, High-Requirement) and control over effort costs across three levels of choice (Free-Choice, Restricted-Choice, and No-Choice) to disambiguate how these factors affect the motivational consequences of choosing within an effortful task. Together, our results indicated that, in the face of effort requirements, illusory control alone may not sufficiently enhance perceptions of personal control to boost intrinsic motivation; rather, the experience of actual control may be necessary to overcome effort costs and elevate performance. Additionally, we demonstrated that conditions of illusory control, while otherwise unmotivating, can through association with the experience of free-choice, be transformed to have a positive effect on motivation.