Forty-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations of rat pups predict adult behavior in the elevated plus-maze behavior but not the effect of cocaine on 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations

Ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) are emitted by both young pups and adult rats to convey positive or negative emotional states. These USV manifestations are contingent on factors including developmental stage, situational requirements, and individual dispositions. Pups emit 40-kHz USV when separated from their mother and litter, which function to elicit maternal care. Conversely, adult rats can produce 50-kHz USV in response to stimuli that elicit reward-related states, including natural rewards, stimulant drugs, and reward-predictive stimuli. The present study aims to investigate whether pup 40-kHz USV can serve as predictors of behaviors related to positive or negative states in adult rats. Both male and female Wistar pups were initially tested on the 11th postnatal day and subsequently in adulthood. There was no significant difference in the number of 40-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations between male and female pups. However, cocaine elicited more 50-kHz USV and hyperactivity in adult females compared to males. Notably, cocaine increased the proportion of step and trill USV subtypes in both adult males and females. Interestingly, this effect of cocaine was stronger in females that were in the diestrus, compared to the estrus phase. In males, a significant positive correlation was found between pup 40-kHz USV and lower anxiety scores in adult male but not female rats tested on the elevated plus-maze test. Furthermore, no significant correlation was found between pup 40-kHz and adult 50-kHz USV in both males and females, whether in undrugged (saline) or in cocaine-treated rats. It is possible that the 40-kHz USV emitted by pups predicted reduced anxiety-like behavior only for male rats because they could elicit maternal care directed specifically to male pups. These findings suggest that 40-kHz USV can serve as an indicator of the emotional link between the rat mother and male pups. Indeed, this suggests that maternal care exerts a positive influence on the emotional state during adulthood.

Self-esteem and cortical thickness correlate with aggression in healthy children: A surface-based analysis

Aggressive behavior can have serious physical, psychological, and social consequences. However, little is known about the personality and neurological antecedents underlying aggressive behavior in children. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-esteem, aggression, and brain structure (i.e., cortical thickness and surface area) in a population of healthy children (N = 78; 9-12 years; mean age: 9.95 ± 0.90 years). The results revealed that self-esteem showed a negative association with aggression and significantly predicted aggressive behavior. No gender differences were found in aggression and its neural correlates. We performed the cortical parcellation method to further explore the neural foundations underlying the association of self-esteem with aggression. Children with higher aggression had increased cortical thickness in four clusters after multiple comparison correction: right medial orbitofrontal cortex, right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, right superior frontal gyrus, and left insula. In a mediation analysis, cortical thickness in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex contributed to the effect of self-esteem on aggression. These findings extend our understanding of morphological correlates of aggression in children, suggesting that an increased cortical thickness in childhood is a potential mechanism linking low self-esteem to aggression.

Environmental stress during adolescence promotes depression-like behavior and endocrine abnormalities in rats

OBJECTIVE

To assess the ability of environmental stress (ES) during adolescence on depression-like behaviors and endocrinology in rats.

METHODS

Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats before or during puberty were divided into three groups: control group (CON), low-frequency ES group (LF), and high-frequency ES group (HF). ES included water/food deprivation and reversal of day and night. After 4 weeks of ES, the behavioral tests were performed. Plasma concentrations of hormones and peptides were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

RESULTS

ES induced a significant decrease in sucrose preference value in female adolescent rats but not males. In prepubertal rats, the reductions in sucrose preference upon ES were observed without a sex-specific effect. Compared with the CON group, female adolescent rats showed a significant increase, while male adolescent rats showed a significant decrease in plasma corticosterone (CORT) after ES. Also, ES significantly increased plasma leptin in female and male adolescent rats. Moreover, ES significantly increased plasma cholecystokinin (CCK), neuropeptide Y (NPY), and testosterone (TS) levels in adolescent female rats but not in males. No significant differences were found in plasma progesterone and E2 among adolescent rats. The prepubertal male rats showed significant plasma E2 and TS increase after ES, while there were no significant differences between groups in plasma CORT, leptin, CCK, NPY, and progesterone.

CONCLUSIONS

ES may cause depression-like behaviors in adolescent female rats. Our findings supplement the scientific basis for formulating strategies to treat and prevent adolescent depression.

Behavioural characteristics and sex differences of a treatment-resistant depression model: Chronic mild stress in the Wistar-Kyoto rat

Depression affects 20% of the general population and is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with a strong female prevalence. Current pharmacotherapies have significant limitations, and one third of patients are unresponsive. Male Wistar-Kyoto rats exposed to chronic mild stress (CMS) were recently proposed as a model to study antidepressant resistance. However, sex differences and interindividual vulnerability to stress are yet unexplored in this model. We aimed to investigate these in the context of the behavioural impact of CMS in the sucrose preference test, elevated plus maze (EPM), forced swim test (FST), open field test and daily locomotor activity rhythms, in male and female WKY rats exposed or not to a 4-week CMS protocol. CMS-exposed animals were clustered through K-means into subgroups based on the EPM and FST results. In both sexes, one subgroup behaved similarly to non-stressed animals and was labelled stress-non vulnerable; the second exhibited less open arms exploration in the EPM and higher immobility in the FST and was named stress-vulnerable. Vulnerable males presented phase delay in daily locomotor activity following CMS, but no significant rhythm could be determined in females. CMS-exposed males of both groups showed hyperlocomotion in reaction to novelty and slower weight gain through the course of CMS, while CMS-exposed females showed smaller sucrose intake. Unexpectedly, CMS did not affect sucrose preference. Our findings strengthen the view that in models of psychiatric pathologies based on stress exposure it is important to consider the effect of sex and to differentiate the non vulnerable and vulnerable subpopulations.

The relation between effortful control and executive function training in preschoolers

In recent years, the question of whether executive function (EF) is malleable has been widely documented. Despite using the same training tasks, transfer effects remain uncertain. Researchers suggested that the inconsistency might be attributed to individual differences in temperamental traits. In the current study, we investigated how effortful control, a temperamental trait, would affect EF training outcomes in children. Based on parent rating, 79 6-year-old preschoolers were identified as having higher or lower effort control and were assigned to three conditions: working memory (WM) training, inhibitory control (IC) training, and a business-as-usual control group. Children completed assessments at baseline, 1 week after intervention (posttest), and 3 months after intervention (follow-up). As compared with the control group, the WM and IC training groups showed improvement in both trained tasks and nontrained measures. At baseline, children with higher effortful control scores showed greater WM capacity and better IC. Furthermore, effortful control was positively correlated with training gain in both training groups, with children with higher effortful control benefitting more through training. In the WM training group, effortful control was positively correlated with near transfer on WM outcomes both immediately and longitudinally. At posttest, the WM and IC training groups showed a positive correlation between effortful control and fluid intelligence performance. Our results underscore the importance of individual differences in training benefits, in particular the role of effortful control, and further illustrate the potential avenues for designing more effective individualized cognitive training programs to foster learning and optimize children's development.

Profiles of fear of missing out and their social media use among young adults: A six-month longitudinal study

This longitudinal study used a person-centered approach to differentiate fear of missing out (FoMO) among subgroups of individuals using latent profile analysis (LPA). The subgroups were identified according to trait-FoMO (a specific predisposition) and state-FoMO (a specific cognition in the online context) items. Data were collected from 1125 participants (70.04 % female, age range 17-26 years, Mage = 20.52 years). The LPA showed five distinct profiles: highest FoMO, high trait-FoMO high state-FoMO, high trait-FoMO low state-FoMO, low trait-FoMO high state-FoMO, and low trait-FoMO low state-FoMO. We further explored how these profiles relate to social media use. The results revealed significant differences between profiles in terms of social media engagement, social media self-control failure, and problematic social media use and could be used to predict social media use behaviors of 437 participants (77.35 % female, age range 18-27 years, Mage = 20.60 years) six months later. Thus, the combination of high trait-FoMO and high state-FoMO may mean more frequent social media engagement and could be an important risk factor for social media self-control failure and problematic social media use. Additionally, state-FoMO should be considered in prevention and intervention strategies aimed at addressing young adults' problematic social media use.

Rapport building with adolescents to enhance reporting and disclosure

Adolescents comprise a vulnerable population that is exposed to crime and also may be reluctant to disclose full details of their experiences. Little research has addressed effective ways of increasing their willingness to disclose and provide complete reports. Strategies that improve honesty and report completeness in other age groups have not been evaluated to determine whether they are similarly effective at increasing adolescents' reporting. In the current study, we tested whether rapport building techniques, modified from those commonly used with children and adults to address reasons why adolescents are likely reluctant, enhance the amount of detail adolescents provide about prior experiences. The participants, 14- to 19-year-olds (N = 125), completed an online questionnaire regarding significant events (e.g., big argument with family member) they experienced during the last 12 months. After a delay, they completed a remote interview asking them to recount details of one of the events. The interview began with either standard rapport building composed of largely yes/no questions about the adolescents' background or one of two expanded rapport building phases: open-ended (questions about the adolescents' backgrounds that required narrative answers) or enhanced (open-ended questions paired with the interviewer also sharing personal information). Although only adolescents in the standard condition showed age-related increases in information disclosed, overall adolescents in the enhanced condition provided significantly longer and more detailed narratives than adolescents in the other conditions. This effect was largest for the youngest adolescents, suggesting that mutual self-disclosure may be especially beneficial for eliciting honest complete reports from adolescents about salient prior experiences.

Conceptualizing Consciousness: a Change in Perspective: The Elephant Still Surprises Those only Touching Its Trunk

Providers of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) face clinical and ethical challenges that could be lessened by becoming acquainted with the subjective and objective aspects of consciousness. A first step to improving DoC taxonomies, management, and outcomes might be to recognize the shortcomings of the medical concept of consciousness and to improve the terminology used for the clinical parameters assessed. The authors critically review the medical perspective of consciousness represented by three sub-concepts that do not necessarily correlate with one another and discuss how none of them reflects fully the personal subjective nature of consciousness.

Longitudinal associations between parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and young children's mathematics attainment

The associations between parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and children's mathematics attainment in early primary school were explored. Initially, parents of preschool children (Mage = 3;11 [years;months]) completed a questionnaire indexing parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and the frequency of preschool home number experiences. The children completed mathematics assessments in their first year (n = 231, Mage = 5;2) and second year (n = 119, Mage = 6;3) of schooling and a mathematics anxiety questionnaire in their third year of schooling (n = 119, Mage = 6;7). A questionnaire indexing the frequency of primary school home number experiences was completed by 119 of the parents in their children's second year of schooling (Mage = 6;0). All indices of parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes predicted children's mathematics attainment in their first school year. These associations were independent of parental mathematics attainment and were not mediated by the frequency of preschool home number experiences. Furthermore, the positive association between preschool home number experiences and children's mathematics attainment was not weaker in the context of high parental mathematics anxiety or negative parental mathematics attitudes. One index of parental mathematics attitudes predicted children's mathematics attainment in their second school year, but this association was not significant when prior attainment was controlled. There was a stronger association between maternal mathematics anxiety and girls' attainment versus boys' attainment. Parental mathematics anxiety did not predict children's mathematics anxiety. The findings suggest that children whose parents have high mathematics anxiety or negative mathematics attitudes are more likely to have lower mathematics attainment in their first year of school. However, the mechanism underpinning this association is not yet established.

Event-related potential correlates of implicit processing of own- and other-race faces in children

Human adults typically experience difficulties in recognizing and discriminating individual faces belonging to racial groups other than their own. The origin of this "other-race" effect is set in infancy, but the understanding of its developmental course is fragmented. We aimed to access the mechanisms of the other-race effect in childhood by unraveling the neural time course of own- and other-race face processing during a masked priming paradigm. White 6- and 7-year-old children (N = 19) categorized fully visible Asian (other-race) or White (own-race) target faces according to gender. Target faces were preceded by masked same-identity or different-identity prime faces, matching the target for race and gender. We showed an early priming effect on the N100 component, with larger amplitude to different-face pairs than to same-face pairs, and a later race effect on the N200 component, with larger amplitude to own-race face pairs than to other-race face pairs. Critically, race did not interact with priming at any processing stage (P100, N100, P200, N200, or P300). Our results suggest that race could have a temporally limited impact on face processing and that the implicit and unconscious identity processing of own- and other-race faces could be similar in 6- and 7-year-olds, depicting an immature other-race effect during childhood.

Automatic imitation in school-aged children

Children imitate others for different reasons: To learn from others and to reach social goals such as affiliation or prosociality. So far, imitative acts have been measured using diverging methods in children and adults. Here, we investigated whether school-aged children's imitation can be measured via their automatic imitation with a classical imitation-inhibition task (Brass et al., 2000) as has been used in adults. To this end, we measured automatic imitation in N=94 7-8-year-olds and N=10 adults. The results were similar in children and adults: Observing actions that are incongruent with participants' actions interferes with their responses resulting in increased reaction times and error rates. This shows that assessing automatic imitation via the imitation-inhibition task is feasible in children, and creates the basis for future studies to compare the behaviour of different age groups with the same imitation task.

Elucidating mechanisms linking mothers' and fathers' mind-mindedness in infancy with children's self-regulation at early preschool age

Extensive research has examined factors that contribute to individual differences in children's self-regulation (SR), a key social-emotional competence crucial to adjustment and mental health. Those differences become salient and measurable at late toddler age. In the CAPS (N = 200 community families), we examined mothers' and fathers' appropriate mind-mindedness (MM)-the ability to view the child as a psychological agent and correctly interpret his or her mental states-as a predictor of children's SR. MM was observed in parent-child interactions at 8 months, and SR was observed as the capacity for deliberate delay in standard tasks at 3 years. Reflecting a family system perspective, processes both within and across mother-child and father-child relationships were examined in one model. Parent-child mutual responsiveness, observed during interactions at 16 months, was modeled as a mediator of the paths from MM to SR. Fathers' MM had a significant, direct positive effect on SR; in addition, it enhanced mutual responsiveness in both father-child and mother-child dyads and promoted child SR through enhanced mother-child mutual responsiveness. The findings elucidate relatively poorly understood mechanisms linking parental MM in infancy with SR at early preschool age, highlight similarities and differences in the processes unfolding in mother-child and father-child relationships, and emphasize interparental dynamics in socialization.

Developmental trajectories and predictors of Internet gaming disorder across the university years: A person-centered five-wave cohort study

With a rapid rise in internet gaming, internet gaming disorder (IGD) has become a contemporary concern. However, little is known about the long-term dynamic changes in IGD over time. Using a person-centered five-wave longitudinal design, the current study explored the heterogeneous trajectories of IGD among 5787 students during their university years, and examined the role of protective and risk factors in differentiating distinct patterns of IGD. The growth mixture modeling revealed three distinct trajectories of IGD: stable-low pattern (n = 4575, 87.42 %), increasing pattern (n = 357, 6.80 %), and decreasing pattern (n = 302, 5.78 %). Additionally, the students with high self-control and self-compassion were more likely to be in the stable-low group instead of the other risk groups. Depressive symptoms and peer conflicts, as two time-varying variables, were significant risk predictors for IGD. These findings highlight the importance of identifying high-risk groups for IGD and providing them with personalized and effective mental health services to reduce their risk of developing IGD in the future.

Trajectories of body mass index and combustible and electronic cigarette use across adolescence: Findings from the PATH study

PURPOSE

Associations between empirically-generated body mass index (BMI) trajectories and risk of current use of combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes across adolescence were examined using longitudinal data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study.

METHODS

The PATH study is an ongoing annual longitudinal population-based study of adolescents. We utilized Waves 1-4 conducted from 2013 to 2017. Adolescents completed self-reported surveys of their height, weight, and current tobacco use at Waves 1-4 and their tobacco weight control beliefs at Waves 1-2.

RESULTS

Using latent growth mixture modeling, six trajectories of BMI were identified. The largest group ("normal weight increasing;" n = 4,858; 86.6 %), which was used as the comparator in subsequent analyses, consisted of adolescents ages 12-17 who were normal weight at Wave 1 with a significant increase in BMI across Waves 2--4. The "overweight early increasing," "overweight late increasing," and "obesity stable" classes had greater likelihood of current combustible cigarette use during the study compared to the "normal weight increasing class." The "overweight early increasing," "overweight late increasing," and "overweight increasing then decreasing" classes showed elevated risk for e-cigarette use during the study. Compared to those in the "normal weight increasing" class, those in the "overweight increasing then decreasing" and "obesity stable" classes had greater weight control beliefs at Wave 1 and those in the "obesity stable" class had greater weight control beliefs at Wave 2.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings highlight the importance of weight trajectories and weight control beliefs by tobacco product use across adolescence and the need for mechanistic and intervention research.

Smoking cessation interventions for U.S. adults with disabilities: A systematic review

INTRODUCTION

People with disabilities disproportionately use tobacco products. However, little is known about cessation interventions tailored for people with disabilities. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of smoking cessation interventions for adults with disabilities.

METHODS

Six electronic databases (Cochrane, CINAHL Plus [EBSCOhost], Embase [Ovid], Medline [Ovid], PsycINFO [Ovid], and Web of Science) were searched to identify eligible interventions for people with disabilities (e.g., vision, hearing, mobility, communication, cognition, self-care) through July 2023. Two independent coders evaluated the records and extracted data from studies that met inclusion criteria. Qualitative synthesis was conducted on the included studies in 2023.

RESULTS

One randomized controlled trial and one nonrandomized study met the inclusion criteria. Both studies used mindfulness-based procedures to reduce cigarette use in adults with mild intellectual disability. The outcome was defined as self-reported cigarette use at follow-up, which ranged from 1 year to 3 years. Limited information was provided on how the interventions were tailored to meet the unique needs of people with disabilities in either study.

CONCLUSION

Two interventions conducted in adults with mild intellectual disability showed promising results using mindfulness-based procedures; however, the studies did not address barriers reported by people with disabilities, nor tailor the interventions to meet the needs of the target population. Research is needed to address tobacco use disparities among people with a range of disabilities. Current cessation interventions would be enhanced by integrating disability identifiers alongside other demographic information in future studies and reporting subgroup analyses in adults with disabilities.

Exploring real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging neurofeedback in adolescents with disruptive behavior disorder and callous unemotional traits

INTRODUCTION

Adolescents with increased callous unemotional traits (CU traits) in the context of disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) show a persistent pattern of antisocial behavior with shallow affect and a lack of empathy or remorse. The amygdala and insula as regions commonly associated with emotion processing, empathy and arousal are implicated in DBD with high CU traits. While behavioral therapies for DBD provide significant but small effects, individualized treatments targeting the implicated brain regions are missing.

METHODS

In this explorative randomized controlled trial we randomly assigned twenty-seven adolescents with DBD to individualized real-time functional magnetic resonance neurofeedback (rtfMRI-NF) or behavioral treatment as usual (TAU). Visual feedback of either amygdala or insula activity was provided during rtfMRI-NF by gauges and included a simple and concurrent video run plus a transfer run. A linear mixed model (LMM) was applied to determine improvement of self-regulation. Specificity was assessed by correlating individual self-regulation improvement with clinical outcomes.

RESULTS

The rtfMRI-NF (n = 11) and TAU (n = 10) completers showed comparable and significant clinical improvement indicating neither superiority nor inferiority of rtfMRI-NF. The exploratory LMM revealed successful learning of self-regulation along the course of training for participants who received feedback from the amygdala. A significant exploratory correlation between individual target region activity in the simple run and clinical improvement was found for one dimension of DBD.

CONCLUSIONS

This exploratory study demonstrated feasibility and suggests clinical efficacy of individualized rtfMRI-NF comparable to active TAU for adolescents with DBD and increased CU traits. Further studies are needed to confirm efficacy, specificity and to clarify underlying learning mechanisms.