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Hortensius R, Terburg D, Morgan B, Stein DJ, van Honk J, de Gelder B. The role of the basolateral amygdala in the perception of faces in natural contexts. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:rstb.2015.0376. [PMID: 27069053 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/16/2016] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The amygdala is a complex structure that plays its role in perception and threat-related behaviour by activity of its specific nuclei and their separate networks. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the role of the basolateral amygdala in face and context processing. Five individuals with focal basolateral amygdala damage and 12 matched controls viewed fearful or neutral faces in a threatening or neutral context. We tested the hypothesis that basolateral amygdala damage modifies the relation between face and threatening context, triggering threat-related activation in the dorsal stream. The findings supported this hypothesis. First, activation was increased in the right precentral gyrus for threatening versus neutral scenes in the basolateral amygdala damage group compared with the control group. Second, activity in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, and left anterior inferior parietal lobule was enhanced for neutral faces presented in a threatening versus neutral scene in the group with basolateral amygdala damage compared with controls. These findings provide the first evidence for the neural consequences of basolateral amygdala damage during the processing of complex emotional situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruud Hortensius
- Brain and Emotion Laboratory, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Oxfordlaan 55, 6229 EV Maastricht, The Netherlands Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - David Terburg
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Barak Morgan
- Global Risk Governance Program, Department of Public Law and Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town, University Avenue, Rondebosch 7700, Cape Town, South Africa DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, DVC Research Office, University of Witwatersrand, York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Dan J Stein
- Department of Psychiatry and Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit on Anxiety & Stress Disorders, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Jack van Honk
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine (IDM), University of Cape Town, Anzio Road, Observatory 7925, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Beatrice de Gelder
- Brain and Emotion Laboratory, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Oxfordlaan 55, 6229 EV Maastricht, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
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Shackman AJ, Tromp DPM, Stockbridge MD, Kaplan CM, Tillman RM, Fox AS. Dispositional negativity: An integrative psychological and neurobiological perspective. Psychol Bull 2016; 142:1275-1314. [PMID: 27732016 PMCID: PMC5118170 DOI: 10.1037/bul0000073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 109] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Dispositional negativity-the propensity to experience and express more frequent, intense, or enduring negative affect-is a fundamental dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality. Elevated levels of dispositional negativity can have profound consequences for health, wealth, and happiness, drawing the attention of clinicians, researchers, and policymakers. Here, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of the psychological and neurobiological processes linking stable individual differences in dispositional negativity to momentary emotional states. Self-report data suggest that 3 key pathways-increased stressor reactivity, tonic increases in negative affect, and increased stressor exposure-explain most of the heightened negative affect that characterizes individuals with a more negative disposition. Of these 3 pathways, tonically elevated, indiscriminate negative affect appears to be most central to daily life and most relevant to the development of psychopathology. New behavioral and biological data provide insights into the neural systems underlying these 3 pathways and motivate the hypothesis that seemingly "tonic" increases in negative affect may actually reflect increased reactivity to stressors that are remote, uncertain, or diffuse. Research focused on humans, monkeys, and rodents suggests that this indiscriminate negative affect reflects trait-like variation in the activity and connectivity of several key brain regions, including the central extended amygdala and parts of the prefrontal cortex. Collectively, these observations provide an integrative psychobiological framework for understanding the dynamic cascade of processes that bind emotional traits to emotional states and, ultimately, to emotional disorders and other kinds of adverse outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander J. Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
- Department of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
- Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
| | - Do P. M. Tromp
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 USA
| | - Melissa D. Stockbridge
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
| | - Claire M. Kaplan
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
| | - Rachael M. Tillman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
| | - Andrew S. Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 USA
- California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 USA
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de Voogd LD, Fernández G, Hermans EJ. Disentangling the roles of arousal and amygdala activation in emotional declarative memory. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:1471-80. [PMID: 27217115 PMCID: PMC5015804 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2015] [Revised: 02/26/2016] [Accepted: 04/18/2016] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
A large body of evidence in animals and humans implicates the amygdala in promoting memory for arousing experiences. Although the amygdala can trigger threat-related noradrenergic-sympathetic arousal, in humans amygdala activation and noradrenergic-sympathetic arousal do not always concur. This raises the question how these two processes play a role in enhancing emotional declarative memory. This study was designed to disentangle these processes in a combined subsequent-memory/fear-conditioning paradigm with neutral items belonging to two conceptual categories as conditioned stimuli. Functional MRI, skin conductance (index of sympathetic activity), and pupil dilation (indirect index of central noradrenergic activity) were acquired throughout procedures. Recognition memory for individual items was tested 24 h later. We found that pupil dilation and skin conductance responses were higher on CS+ (associated with a shock) compared with CS- trials, irrespective of later memory for those items. By contrast, amygdala activity was only higher for CS+ items that were later confidently remembered compared with CS+ items that were later forgotten. Thus, amygdala activity and not noradrenergic-sympathetic arousal, predicted enhanced declarative item memory. This dissociation is in line with animal models stating that the amygdala integrates arousal-related neuromodulatory changes to alter mnemonic processes elsewhere in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lycia D de Voogd
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Guillén Fernández
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Erno J Hermans
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Hortensius R, Terburg D, Morgan B, Stein DJ, van Honk J, de Gelder B. The dynamic consequences of amygdala damage on threat processing in Urbach-Wiethe Disease. A commentary on Pishnamazi et al. (2016). Cortex 2016; 88:192-197. [PMID: 27531670 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.07.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2016] [Revised: 06/14/2016] [Accepted: 07/13/2016] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Ruud Hortensius
- Brain and Emotion Laboratory, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - David Terburg
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa; Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Barak Morgan
- Global Risk Governance Program, Department of Public Law and Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, DVC Research Office, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Dan J Stein
- Department of Psychiatry and Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit on Anxiety & Stress Disorders, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Jack van Honk
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa; Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine (IDM), University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Beatrice de Gelder
- Brain and Emotion Laboratory, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, J-Block, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa.
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Koen N, Fourie J, Terburg D, Stoop R, Morgan B, Stein D, van Honk J. Translational neuroscience of basolateral amygdala lesions: Studies of urbach-wiethe disease. J Neurosci Res 2016; 94:504-12. [DOI: 10.1002/jnr.23731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2015] [Revised: 02/17/2016] [Accepted: 02/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- N. Koen
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health; University of Cape Town; Cape Town South Africa
- Medical Research Council Unit on Anxiety and Stress Disorders; Stellenbosch South Africa
| | - J. Fourie
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health; University of Cape Town; Cape Town South Africa
| | - D. Terburg
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health; University of Cape Town; Cape Town South Africa
- Department of Psychology; Utrecht University; Utrecht The Netherlands
| | - R. Stoop
- Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry; Lausanne University and University Hospital; Lausanne Switzerland
| | - B. Morgan
- Department of Public Law; University of Cape Town; Cape Town South Africa
- DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, DVC Research Office; University of Witwatersrand; Johannesburg South Africa
- Global Risk Governance Programme, Faculty of Law; University of Cape Town; Cape Town South Africa
| | - D.J. Stein
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health; University of Cape Town; Cape Town South Africa
- Medical Research Council Unit on Anxiety and Stress Disorders; Stellenbosch South Africa
| | - J. van Honk
- Department of Psychology; Utrecht University; Utrecht The Netherlands
- Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine and Department of Psychiatry; University of Cape Town; Cape Town South Africa
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Hrybouski S, Aghamohammadi-Sereshki A, Madan CR, Shafer AT, Baron CA, Seres P, Beaulieu C, Olsen F, Malykhin NV. Amygdala subnuclei response and connectivity during emotional processing. Neuroimage 2016; 133:98-110. [PMID: 26926791 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.02.056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2015] [Revised: 02/16/2016] [Accepted: 02/18/2016] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The involvement of the human amygdala in emotion-related processing has been studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for many years. However, despite the amygdala being comprised of several subnuclei, most studies investigated the role of the entire amygdala in processing of emotions. Here we combined a novel anatomical tracing protocol with event-related high-resolution fMRI acquisition to study the responsiveness of the amygdala subnuclei to negative emotional stimuli and to examine intra-amygdala functional connectivity. The greatest sensitivity to the negative emotional stimuli was observed in the centromedial amygdala, where the hemodynamic response amplitude elicited by the negative emotional stimuli was greater and peaked later than for neutral stimuli. Connectivity patterns converge with extant findings in animals, such that the centromedial amygdala was more connected with the nuclei of the basal amygdala than with the lateral amygdala. Current findings provide evidence of functional specialization within the human amygdala.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stanislau Hrybouski
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1, Canada
| | | | - Christopher R Madan
- Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada; Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA
| | - Andrea T Shafer
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1, Canada; Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
| | - Corey A Baron
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2V2, Canada
| | - Peter Seres
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2V2, Canada
| | - Christian Beaulieu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2V2, Canada
| | - Fraser Olsen
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1, Canada; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2V2, Canada
| | - Nikolai V Malykhin
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1, Canada; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2V2, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2B7, Canada.
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Shackman AJ, Stockbridge MD, Tillman RM, Kaplan CM, Tromp DPM, Fox AS, Gamer M. The neurobiology of dispositional negativity and attentional biases to threat: Implications for understanding anxiety disorders in adults and youth. J Exp Psychopathol 2016; 7:311-342. [PMID: 27917284 PMCID: PMC5130287 DOI: 10.5127/jep.054015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
When extreme, anxiety can become debilitating. Anxiety disorders, which often first emerge early in development, are common and challenging to treat, yet the neurocognitive mechanisms that confer increased risk have only recently begun to come into focus. Here we review recent work highlighting the importance of neural circuits centered on the amygdala. We begin by describing dispositional negativity, a core dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality and an important risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders and other kinds of stress-sensitive psychopathology. Converging lines of epidemiological, neurophysiological, and mechanistic evidence indicate that the amygdala supports stable individual differences in dispositional negativity across the lifespan and contributes to the etiology of anxiety disorders in adults and youth. Hyper-vigilance and attentional biases to threat are prominent features of the anxious phenotype and there is growing evidence that they contribute to the development of psychopathology. Anatomical studies show that the amygdala is a hub, poised to govern attention to threat via projections to sensory cortex and ascending neuromodulatory systems. Imaging and lesion studies demonstrate that the amygdala plays a key role in selecting and prioritizing the processing of threat-related cues. Collectively, these observations provide a neurobiologically-grounded framework for understanding the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in adults and youth and set the stage for developing improved intervention strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander J. Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
- Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
- Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
| | - Melissa D. Stockbridge
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
| | - Rachael M. Tillman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
| | - Claire M. Kaplan
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
| | - Do P. M. Tromp
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53719 USA
- HealthEmotions Research Institute, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53719 USA
- Lane Neuroimaging Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53719 USA
- Neuroscience Training Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53719 USA
| | - Andrew S. Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 USA
- California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 USA
| | - Matthias Gamer
- Department of Psychology, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
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Diamond DM, Zoladz PR. Dysfunctional or hyperfunctional? The amygdala in posttraumatic stress disorder is the bull in the evolutionary China shop. J Neurosci Res 2015; 94:437-44. [PMID: 26511328 DOI: 10.1002/jnr.23684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2015] [Revised: 09/26/2015] [Accepted: 10/11/2015] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Our motivation in writing this Review arose not only from the great value in contributing to this special issue of the Journal of Neuroscience Research but also from the desire to express our opinion that the description of the amygdala as "dysfunctional" in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) might not be appropriate. We acknowledge that excessive activation of the amygdala contributes to the cluster of PTSD symptoms, including hypervigilance, intrusive memories, and impaired sleep, that underlies the devastating mental and physical outcomes in trauma victims. The issue that we address is whether the symptoms of PTSD represent an impaired (dysfunctional) or sensitized (hyperfunctional) amygdala status. We propose that the amygdala in PTSD is hyperfunctional rather than dysfunctional in recognition of the fact that the individual has already survived one life-threatening attack and that another may be forthcoming. We therefore consider PTSD to be a state in which the amygdala is functioning optimally if the goal is to ensure a person's survival. The misery caused by a hyperfunctional amygdala in PTSD is the cost of inheriting an evolutionarily primitive mechanism that considers survival more important than the quality of one's life.
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Affiliation(s)
- David M Diamond
- Medical Research Service, Veterans Administration Hospital, Tampa, Florida.,Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.,Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.,Center for Preclinical and Clinical Research on PTSD, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
| | - Phillip R Zoladz
- Department of Psychology, Sociology, and Criminal Justice, Ohio Northern University, Ada, Ohio
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Singh MK, Kelley RG, Chang KD, Gotlib IH. Intrinsic Amygdala Functional Connectivity in Youth With Bipolar I Disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2015; 54:763-70. [PMID: 26299298 PMCID: PMC4548854 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2015.06.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2015] [Revised: 06/24/2015] [Accepted: 06/30/2015] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Bipolar disorder (BD) commonly begins during adolescence and may continue into adulthood. Studies in adults with BD suggest that disruptions in amygdalar neural circuitry explain the pathophysiology underlying the disorder. Importantly, however, amygdala subregion networks have not yet been examined in youth close to mania onset. The goal of this study was to compare resting state functional connectivity patterns in amygdala subregions in youth with bipolar I disorder with patterns in healthy controls. METHOD Centromedial, laterobasal, and superficial amygdala subdivisions were assessed during rest and examined in relation to clinical measures of mania in youth (14-20 years old) with bipolar I disorder who experienced only a single episode of mania (BD; n = 20) and age-matched healthy comparison youth without any personal or family history of DSM-IV Axis I disorders (HC; n = 23). RESULTS Relative to HC youth, youth with BD exhibited decreased connectivity between the laterobasal subdivision of the amygdala and the hippocampus and precentral gyrus, and increased connectivity between the laterobasal subdivision and the precuneus. Connectivity between the right laterobasal amygdala and right hippocampus was positively correlated with levels of anxiety in BD but not in HC youth, and connectivity between the right laterobasal amygdala and right precuneus was negatively correlated with insight about bipolar illness. CONCLUSION Youth with BD have abnormal amygdala resting state network connections to regions that are critical for emotional processing and self-awareness. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether these aberrant patterns in youth with BD can be altered with intervention and can influence the course of disorder.
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