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Decker AL, Meisler SL, Hubbard NA, Bauer CCC, Leonard J, Grotzinger H, Giebler MA, Torres YC, Imhof A, Romeo R, Gabrieli JDE. Striatal and Behavioral Responses to Reward Vary by Socioeconomic Status in Adolescents. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1633232023. [PMID: 38253532 PMCID: PMC10941242 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1633-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Disparities in socioeconomic status (SES) lead to unequal access to financial and social support. These disparities are believed to influence reward sensitivity, which in turn are hypothesized to shape how individuals respond to and pursue rewarding experiences. However, surprisingly little is known about how SES shapes reward sensitivity in adolescence. Here, we investigated how SES influenced adolescent responses to reward, both in behavior and the striatum-a brain region that is highly sensitive to reward. We examined responses to both immediate reward (tracked by phasic dopamine) and average reward rate fluctuations (tracked by tonic dopamine) as these distinct signals independently shape learning and motivation. Adolescents (n = 114; 12-14 years; 58 female) performed a gambling task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We manipulated trial-by-trial reward and loss outcomes, leading to fluctuations between periods of reward scarcity and abundance. We found that a higher reward rate hastened behavioral responses, and increased guess switching, consistent with the idea that reward abundance increases response vigor and exploration. Moreover, immediate reward reinforced previously rewarding decisions (win-stay, lose-switch) and slowed responses (postreward pausing), particularly when rewards were scarce. Notably, lower-SES adolescents slowed down less after rare rewards than higher-SES adolescents. In the brain, striatal activations covaried with the average reward rate across time and showed greater activations during rewarding blocks. However, these striatal effects were diminished in lower-SES adolescents. These findings show that the striatum tracks reward rate fluctuations, which shape decisions and motivation. Moreover, lower SES appears to attenuate reward-driven behavioral and brain responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra L Decker
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
| | - Steven L Meisler
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
| | - Nicholas A Hubbard
- Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588
| | - Clemens C C Bauer
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
| | - Julia Leonard
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511
| | - Hannah Grotzinger
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
| | | | - Yesi Camacho Torres
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
| | - Andrea Imhof
- Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403
| | - Rachel Romeo
- Departments of Human Development & Quantitative Methodology and Hearing & Speech Sciences, and Program in Neuroscience & Cognitive Science, University of Maryland College Park, Baltimore, Maryland 20742
| | - John D E Gabrieli
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
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2
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Zhang J, Raya J, Morfini F, Urban Z, Pagliaccio D, Yendiki A, Auerbach RP, Bauer CCC, Whitfield-Gabrieli S. Reducing default mode network connectivity with mindfulness-based fMRI neurofeedback: a pilot study among adolescents with affective disorder history. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:2540-2548. [PMID: 36991135 PMCID: PMC10611577 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02032-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2022] [Revised: 03/02/2023] [Accepted: 03/10/2023] [Indexed: 03/31/2023]
Abstract
Adolescents experience alarmingly high rates of major depressive disorder (MDD), however, gold-standard treatments are only effective for ~50% of youth. Accordingly, there is a critical need to develop novel interventions, particularly ones that target neural mechanisms believed to potentiate depressive symptoms. Directly addressing this gap, we developed mindfulness-based fMRI neurofeedback (mbNF) for adolescents that aims to reduce default mode network (DMN) hyperconnectivity, which has been implicated in the onset and maintenance of MDD. In this proof-of-concept study, adolescents (n = 9) with a lifetime history of depression and/or anxiety were administered clinical interviews and self-report questionnaires, and each participant's DMN and central executive network (CEN) were personalized using a resting state fMRI localizer. After the localizer scan, adolescents completed a brief mindfulness training followed by a mbNF session in the scanner wherein they were instructed to volitionally reduce DMN relative to CEN activation by practicing mindfulness meditation. Several promising findings emerged. First, mbNF successfully engaged the target brain state during neurofeedback; participants spent more time in the target state with DMN activation lower than CEN activation. Second, in each of the nine adolescents, mbNF led to significantly reduced within-DMN connectivity, which correlated with post-mbNF increases in state mindfulness. Last, a reduction of within-DMN connectivity mediated the association between better mbNF performance and increased state mindfulness. These findings demonstrate that personalized mbNF can effectively and non-invasively modulate the intrinsic networks associated with the emergence and persistence of depressive symptoms during adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiahe Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
| | - Jovicarole Raya
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Francesca Morfini
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Zoi Urban
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - David Pagliaccio
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA
- New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Anastasia Yendiki
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02129, USA
| | - Randy P Auerbach
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA
- New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, 10032, USA
- Division of Clinical Developmental Neuroscience, Sackler Institute, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Clemens C C Bauer
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02129, USA
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
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3
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Ho TC. Editorial: Toward Neurobiological-Based Treatments of Depression and Anxiety: A Potential Case for the Nucleus Accumbens. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2022; 61:136-138. [PMID: 34216777 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2021.06.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/23/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Depression and anxiety disorders together account for the majority of mental health disorders in childhood and adolescence, and are often comorbid.1 The frequent co-occurrence of these disorders has motivated clinicians and researchers to consider dimensional taxonomy models that focus on neurobiological substrates that explain transdiagnostic constructs of functioning (eg, reward processing abnormalities). Such an approach would redefine not only depression and anxiety disorders but could also revolutionize clinical care, as such biobehavioral targets, rather than a traditional primary diagnosis, could serve as the basis for treatment planning. In this issue of the Journal, Auerbach et al.2 examined whether and how a key structure involved in reward processing, the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), is altered in adolescents aged 14 to 17 years with depression and/or anxiety (including generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety, specific phobia, agoraphobia, and panic) disorders, and whether NAcc morphometry and function would improve prediction of 6-month symptomatology. As part of the Boston Adolescent Neuroimaging of Depression and Anxiety (BANDA) initiative,3 the researchers compared 129 adolescents with primary diagnoses of depression and/or anxiety and 64 psychiatrically healthy controls on gray matter volumes of the NAcc and on functional activation of the NAcc during a monetary incentive delay task using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols harmonized with the Human Connectome project (http://www.humanconnectomeproject.com/). Compared to healthy adolescents, depressed/anxious adolescents exhibited significantly smaller volumes of the NAcc and blunted NAcc responses to reward receipt. Among the 88 depressed/anxious adolescents and 57 healthy controls who provided symptom data 6 months later, the researchers also found that inclusion of NAcc volumes, but not reward-related responses of the NAcc on the task, significantly improved statistical prediction of subsequent depression symptoms.
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4
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Auerbach RP, Pagliaccio D, Hubbard NA, Frosch I, Kremens R, Cosby E, Jones R, Siless V, Lo N, Henin A, Hofmann SG, Gabrieli JDE, Yendiki A, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Pizzagalli DA. Reward-Related Neural Circuitry in Depressed and Anxious Adolescents: A Human Connectome Project. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2022; 61:308-320. [PMID: 33965516 PMCID: PMC8643367 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2021.04.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2020] [Revised: 04/17/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Although depression and anxiety often have distinct etiologies, they frequently co-occur in adolescence. Recent initiatives have underscored the importance of developing new ways of classifying mental illness based on underlying neural dimensions that cut across traditional diagnostic boundaries. Accordingly, the aim of the study was to clarify reward-related neural circuitry that may characterize depressed-anxious youth. METHOD The Boston Adolescent Neuroimaging of Depression and Anxiety Human Connectome Project tested group differences regarding subcortical volume and nucleus accumbens activation during an incentive processing task among 14- to 17-year-old adolescents presenting with a primary depressive and/or anxiety disorder (n = 129) or no lifetime history of mental disorders (n = 64). In addition, multimodal modeling examined predictors of depression and anxiety symptom change over a 6-month follow-up period. RESULTS Our findings highlighted considerable convergence. Relative to healthy youth, depressed-anxious adolescents exhibited reduced nucleus accumbens volume and activation following reward receipt. These findings remained when removing all medicated participants (∼59% of depressed-anxious youth). Subgroup analyses comparing anxious-only, depressed-anxious, and healthy youth also were largely consistent. Multimodal modeling showed that only structural alterations predicted depressive symptoms over time. CONCLUSION Multimodal findings highlight alterations within nucleus accumbens structure and function that characterize depressed-anxious adolescents. In the current hypothesis-driven analyses, however, only reduced nucleus accumbens volume predicted depressive symptoms over time. An important next step will be to clarify why structural alterations have an impact on reward-related processes and associated symptoms.
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5
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Tozzi L, Anene ET, Gotlib IH, Wintermark M, Kerr AB, Wu H, Seok D, Narr KL, Sheline YI, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Williams LM. Convergence, preliminary findings and future directions across the four human connectome projects investigating mood and anxiety disorders. Neuroimage 2021; 245:118694. [PMID: 34732328 PMCID: PMC8727513 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2021] [Revised: 10/11/2021] [Accepted: 10/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
In this paper we provide an overview of the rationale, methods, and preliminary results of the four Connectome Studies Related to Human Disease investigating mood and anxiety disorders. The first study, "Dimensional connectomics of anxious misery" (HCP-DAM), characterizes brain-symptom relations of a transdiagnostic sample of anxious misery disorders. The second study, "Human connectome Project for disordered emotional states" (HCP-DES), tests a hypothesis-driven model of brain circuit dysfunction in a sample of untreated young adults with symptoms of depression and anxiety. The third study, "Perturbation of the treatment resistant depression connectome by fast-acting therapies" (HCP-MDD), quantifies alterations of the structural and functional connectome as a result of three fast-acting interventions: electroconvulsive therapy, serial ketamine therapy, and total sleep deprivation. Finally, the fourth study, "Connectomes related to anxiety and depression in adolescents" (HCP-ADA), investigates developmental trajectories of subtypes of anxiety and depression in adolescence. The four projects use comparable and standardized Human Connectome Project magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols, including structural MRI, diffusion-weighted MRI, and both task and resting state functional MRI. All four projects also conducted comprehensive and convergent clinical and neuropsychological assessments, including (but not limited to) demographic information, clinical diagnoses, symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders, negative and positive affect, cognitive function, and exposure to early life stress. The first round of analyses conducted in the four projects offered novel methods to investigate relations between functional connectomes and self-reports in large datasets, identified new functional correlates of symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders, characterized the trajectory of connectome-symptom profiles over time, and quantified the impact of novel treatments on aberrant connectivity. Taken together, the data obtained and reported by the four Connectome Studies Related to Human Disease investigating mood and anxiety disorders describe a rich constellation of convergent biological, clinical, and behavioral phenotypes that span the peak ages for the onset of emotional disorders. These data are being prepared for open sharing with the scientific community following screens for quality by the Connectome Coordinating Facility (CCF). The CCF also plans to release data from all projects that have been pre-processed using identical state-of-the-art pipelines. The resultant dataset will give researchers the opportunity to pool complementary data across the four projects to study circuit dysfunctions that may underlie mood and anxiety disorders, to map cohesive relations among circuits and symptoms, and to probe how these relations change as a function of age and acute interventions. This large and combined dataset may also be ideal for using data-driven analytic approaches to inform neurobiological targets for future clinical trials and interventions focused on clinical or behavioral outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonardo Tozzi
- Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Esther T Anene
- Psychiatry, Neurology, Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA
| | | | | | - Adam B Kerr
- Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, Stanford University, CA, USA; Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, CA, USA
| | - Hua Wu
- Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, CA, USA
| | - Darsol Seok
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA
| | - Katherine L Narr
- Neurology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
| | - Yvette I Sheline
- Neurology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
| | | | - Leanne M Williams
- Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
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6
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Maffei C, Lee C, Planich M, Ramprasad M, Ravi N, Trainor D, Urban Z, Kim M, Jones RJ, Henin A, Hofmann SG, Pizzagalli DA, Auerbach RP, Gabrieli JDE, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Greve DN, Haber SN, Yendiki A. Using diffusion MRI data acquired with ultra-high gradient strength to improve tractography in routine-quality data. Neuroimage 2021; 245:118706. [PMID: 34780916 PMCID: PMC8835483 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2021] [Revised: 10/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The development of scanners with ultra-high gradient strength, spearheaded by the Human Connectome Project, has led to dramatic improvements in the spatial, angular, and diffusion resolution that is feasible for in vivo diffusion MRI acquisitions. The improved quality of the data can be exploited to achieve higher accuracy in the inference of both microstructural and macrostructural anatomy. However, such high-quality data can only be acquired on a handful of Connectom MRI scanners worldwide, while remaining prohibitive in clinical settings because of the constraints imposed by hardware and scanning time. In this study, we first update the classical protocols for tractography-based, manual annotation of major white-matter pathways, to adapt them to the much greater volume and variability of the streamlines that can be produced from today’s state-of-the-art diffusion MRI data. We then use these protocols to annotate 42 major pathways manually in data from a Connectom scanner. Finally, we show that, when we use these manually annotated pathways as training data for global probabilistic tractography with anatomical neighborhood priors, we can perform highly accurate, automated reconstruction of the same pathways in much lower-quality, more widely available diffusion MRI data. The outcomes of this work include both a new, comprehensive atlas of WM pathways from Connectom data, and an updated version of our tractography toolbox, TRActs Constrained by UnderLying Anatomy (TRACULA), which is trained on data from this atlas. Both the atlas and TRACULA are distributed publicly as part of FreeSurfer. We present the first comprehensive comparison of TRACULA to the more conventional, multi-region-of-interest approach to automated tractography, and the first demonstration of training TRACULA on high-quality, Connectom data to benefit studies that use more modest acquisition protocols.
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Affiliation(s)
- C Maffei
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
| | - C Lee
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - M Planich
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - M Ramprasad
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - N Ravi
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - D Trainor
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Z Urban
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - M Kim
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - R J Jones
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - A Henin
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - S G Hofmann
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Philipps University Marburg, Germany; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - D A Pizzagalli
- McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA
| | | | - J D E Gabrieli
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | - D N Greve
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - S N Haber
- McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA; Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - A Yendiki
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
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7
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Ruf SF, Navid Akbar M, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Erdogmus D. Comparing Autoregressive and Network Features for Classification of Depression and Anxiety. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2021; 2021:386-389. [PMID: 34891315 DOI: 10.1109/embc46164.2021.9630290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Autocorrelation in functional MRI (fMRI) time series has been studied for decades, mostly considered as noise in the time series which is removed via prewhitening with an autoregressive model. Recent results suggest that the coefficients of an autoregressive model t to fMRI data may provide an indicator of underlying brain activity, suggesting that prewhitening could be removing important diagnostic information. This paper explores the explanatory value of these autoregressive features extracted from fMRI by considering the use of these features in a classification task. As a point of comparison, functional network based features are extracted from the same data and used in the same classification task. We find that in most cases, network based features provide better classification accuracy. However, using principal component analysis to combine network based features and autoregressive features for classification based on a support vector machine provides improved classification accuracy compared to single features or network features, suggesting that when properly combined there may be additional information to be gained from autoregressive features.
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8
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Gee DG. Early Adversity and Development: Parsing Heterogeneity and Identifying Pathways of Risk and Resilience. Am J Psychiatry 2021; 178:998-1013. [PMID: 34734741 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.21090944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Adversity early in life is common and is a major risk factor for the onset of psychopathology. Delineating the neurodevelopmental pathways by which early adversity affects mental health is critical for early risk identification and targeted treatment approaches. A rapidly growing cross-species literature has facilitated advances in identifying the mechanisms linking adversity with psychopathology, specific dimensions of adversity and timing-related factors that differentially relate to outcomes, and protective factors that buffer against the effects of adversity. Yet, vast complexity and heterogeneity in early environments and neurodevelopmental trajectories contribute to the challenges of understanding risk and resilience in the context of early adversity. In this overview, the author highlights progress in four major areas-mechanisms, heterogeneity, developmental timing, and protective factors; synthesizes key challenges; and provides recommendations for future research that can facilitate progress in the field. Translation across species and ongoing refinement of conceptual models have strong potential to inform prevention and intervention strategies that can reduce the immense burden of psychopathology associated with early adversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dylan G Gee
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Conn
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9
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Zacharek SJ, Kribakaran S, Kitt ER, Gee DG. Leveraging big data to map neurodevelopmental trajectories in pediatric anxiety. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2021; 50:100974. [PMID: 34147988 PMCID: PMC8225701 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2021] [Revised: 05/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric condition among youth, with symptoms commonly emerging prior to or during adolescence. Delineating neurodevelopmental trajectories associated with anxiety disorders is important for understanding the pathophysiology of pediatric anxiety and for early risk identification. While a growing literature has yielded valuable insights into the nature of brain structure and function in pediatric anxiety, progress has been limited by inconsistent findings and challenges common to neuroimaging research. In this review, we first discuss these challenges and the promise of ‘big data’ to map neurodevelopmental trajectories in pediatric anxiety. Next, we review evidence of age-related differences in neural structure and function among anxious youth, with a focus on anxiety-relevant processes such as threat and safety learning. We then highlight large-scale cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that assess anxiety and are well positioned to inform our understanding of neurodevelopment in pediatric anxiety. Finally, we detail relevant challenges of ‘big data’ and propose future directions through which large publicly available datasets can advance knowledge of deviations from normative brain development in anxiety. Leveraging ‘big data’ will be essential for continued progress in understanding the neurobiology of pediatric anxiety, with implications for identifying markers of risk and novel treatment targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sadie J Zacharek
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States; Yale University, Department of Psychology, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States
| | - Sahana Kribakaran
- Yale University, Department of Psychology, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States
| | - Elizabeth R Kitt
- Yale University, Department of Psychology, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States
| | - Dylan G Gee
- Yale University, Department of Psychology, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States.
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10
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Auerbach RP, Pagliaccio D, Allison GO, Alqueza KL, Alonso MF. Neural Correlates Associated With Suicide and Nonsuicidal Self-injury in Youth. Biol Psychiatry 2021; 89:119-133. [PMID: 32782140 PMCID: PMC7726029 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2020] [Revised: 05/31/2020] [Accepted: 06/01/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
There is no definitive neural marker of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) or nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), and relative to adults, research in youth is more limited. This comprehensive review focuses on magnetic resonance imaging studies reporting structural and functional neural correlates of STBs and NSSI in youth to 1) elucidate shared and independent neural alternations, 2) clarify how developmental processes may interact with neural alterations to confer risk, and 3) provide recommendations based on convergence across studies. Forty-seven articles were reviewed (STBs = 27; NSSI = 20), and notably, 63% of STB articles and 45% of NSSI articles were published in the previous 3 years. Structural magnetic resonance imaging research suggests reduced volume in the ventral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices among youth reporting STBs, and there is reduced anterior cingulate cortex volume related to STBs and NSSI. With regard to functional alterations, blunted striatal activation may characterize STB and NSSI youth, and there is reduced frontolimbic task-based connectivity in suicide ideators and attempters. Resting-state functional connectivity findings highlight reduced positive connectivity between the default mode network and salience network in attempters and show that self-injurers exhibit frontolimbic alterations. Together, suicidal and nonsuicidal behaviors are related to top-down and bottom-up neural alterations, which may compromise approach, avoidance, and regulatory systems. Future longitudinal research with larger and well-characterized samples, especially those integrating ambulatory stress assessments, will be well positioned to identify novel targets that may improve early identification and treatment for youth with STBs and NSSI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Randy P. Auerbach
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA,New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA,Division of Clinical Developmental Neuroscience, Sackler Institute, New York, New York, USA, Corresponding author: 1051 Riverside Drive, Pardes 2407, New York, NY 10032;
| | - David Pagliaccio
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA,New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA
| | - Grace O. Allison
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA,New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA
| | - Kira L. Alqueza
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA,New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA
| | - Maria Fernanda Alonso
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA,New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA
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11
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Lee YJ, Guell X, Hubbard NA, Siless V, Frosch IR, Goncalves M, Lo N, Nair A, Ghosh SS, Hofmann SG, Auerbach RP, Pizzagalli DA, Yendiki A, Gabrieli JDE, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Anteraper SA. Functional Alterations in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity in Anxiety Disorders. THE CEREBELLUM 2020; 20:392-401. [PMID: 33210245 PMCID: PMC8213597 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-020-01213-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Adolescents with anxiety disorders exhibit excessive emotional and somatic arousal. Neuroimaging studies have shown abnormal cerebral cortical activation and connectivity in this patient population. The specific role of cerebellar output circuitry, specifically the dentate nuclei (DN), in adolescent anxiety disorders remains largely unexplored. Resting-state functional connectivity analyses have parcellated the DN, the major output nuclei of the cerebellum, into three functional territories (FTs) that include default-mode, salience-motor, and visual networks. The objective of this study was to understand whether FTs of the DN are implicated in adolescent anxiety disorders. Forty-one adolescents (mean age 15.19 ± 0.82, 26 females) with one or more anxiety disorders and 55 age- and gender-matched healthy controls completed resting-state fMRI scans and a self-report survey on anxiety symptoms. Seed-to-voxel functional connectivity analyses were performed using the FTs from DN parcellation. Brain connectivity metrics were then correlated with State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) measures within each group. Adolescents with an anxiety disorder showed significant hyperconnectivity between salience-motor DN FT and cerebral cortical salience-motor regions compared to controls. Salience-motor FT connectivity with cerebral cortical sensorimotor regions was significantly correlated with STAI-trait scores in HC (R2 = 0.41). Here, we report DN functional connectivity differences in adolescents diagnosed with anxiety, as well as in HC with variable degrees of anxiety traits. These observations highlight the relevance of DN as a potential clinical and sub-clinical marker of anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoon Ji Lee
- Department of Psychology, ISEC 672D, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | | | - Nicholas A Hubbard
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA.,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Viviana Siless
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | | | - Nicole Lo
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Atira Nair
- Department of Psychology, ISEC 672D, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Satrajit S Ghosh
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | | | | | - Anastasia Yendiki
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli
- Department of Psychology, ISEC 672D, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
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12
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Seok D, Smyk N, Jaskir M, Cook P, Elliott M, Girelli T, Scott JC, Balderston N, Beer J, Stock J, Makhoul W, Gur RC, Davatzikos C, Shinohara R, Sheline Y. Dimensional connectomics of anxious misery, a human connectome study related to human disease: Overview of protocol and data quality. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2020; 28:102489. [PMID: 33395980 PMCID: PMC7708855 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2020] [Revised: 10/09/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
We present a new imaging study of 200 adults experiencing depression and anxiety. Quantitative measures of image quality indicate comparable quality to the HCP-YA. In addition, a comprehensive set of assessments measured patients’ symptom profiles. Data will be publicly available through the NIMH Data Archive starting fall 2020.
Disparate diagnostic categories from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), including generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, share common behavioral and phenomenological dysfunctions. While high levels of comorbidity and common features across these disorders suggest shared mechanisms, past research in psychopathology has largely proceeded based on the syndromal taxonomy established by the DSM rather than on a biologically-informed framework of neural, cognitive and behavioral dysfunctions. In line with the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, we present a Human Connectome Study Related to Human Disease that is intentionally designed to generate and test novel, biologically-motivated dimensions of psychopathology. The Dimensional Connectomics of Anxious Misery study is collecting neuroimaging, cognitive and behavioral data from a heterogeneous population of adults with varying degrees of depression, anxiety and trauma, as well as a set of healthy comparators (to date, n = 97 and n = 24, respectively). This sample constitutes a dataset uniquely situated to elucidate relationships between brain circuitry and dysfunctions of the Negative Valence construct of the RDoC framework. We present a comprehensive overview of the eligibility criteria, clinical procedures and neuroimaging methods of our project. After describing our protocol, we present group-level activation maps from task fMRI data and independent components maps from resting state data. Finally, using quantitative measures of neuroimaging data quality, we demonstrate excellent data quality relative to a subset of the Human Connectome Project of Young Adults (n = 97), as well as comparable profiles of cortical thickness from T1-weighted imaging and generalized fractional anisotropy from diffusion weighted imaging. This manuscript presents results from the first 121 participants of our full target 250 participant dataset, timed with the release of this data to the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive in fall 2020, with the remaining half of the dataset to be released in 2021.
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Affiliation(s)
- Darsol Seok
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Nathan Smyk
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Marc Jaskir
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Philip Cook
- Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Mark Elliott
- Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Tommaso Girelli
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - J Cobb Scott
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Nicholas Balderston
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Joanne Beer
- Penn Statistics in Imaging and Visualization Center, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Janet Stock
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Walid Makhoul
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Ruben C Gur
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Christos Davatzikos
- Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Russell Shinohara
- Penn Statistics in Imaging and Visualization Center, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Yvette Sheline
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States.
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13
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Hubbard NA, Romeo RR, Grotzinger H, Giebler M, Imhof A, Bauer CCC, Gabrieli JDE. Reward-Sensitive Basal Ganglia Stabilize the Maintenance of Goal-Relevant Neural Patterns in Adolescents. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 32:1508-1524. [PMID: 32379000 PMCID: PMC8500599 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Maturation of basal ganglia (BG) and frontoparietal circuitry parallels developmental gains in working memory (WM). Neurobiological models posit that adult WM performance is enhanced by communication between reward-sensitive BG and frontoparietal regions, via increased stability in the maintenance of goal-relevant neural patterns. It is not known whether this reward-driven pattern stability mechanism may have a role in WM development. In 34 young adolescents (12.16-14.72 years old) undergoing fMRI, reward-sensitive BG regions were localized using an incentive processing task. WM-sensitive regions were localized using a delayed-response WM task. Functional connectivity analyses were used to examine the stability of goal-relevant functional connectivity patterns during WM delay periods between and within reward-sensitive BG and WM-sensitive frontoparietal regions. Analyses revealed that more stable goal-relevant connectivity patterns between reward-sensitive BG and WM-sensitive frontoparietal regions were associated with both greater adolescent age and WM ability. Computational lesion models also revealed that functional connections to WM-sensitive frontoparietal regions from reward-sensitive BG uniquely increased the stability of goal-relevant functional connectivity patterns within frontoparietal regions. Findings suggested (1) the extent to which goal-relevant communication patterns within reward-frontoparietal circuitry are maintained increases with adolescent development and WM ability and (2) communication from reward-sensitive BG to frontoparietal regions enhances the maintenance of goal-relevant neural patterns in adolescents' WM. The maturation of reward-driven stability of goal-relevant neural patterns may provide a putative mechanism for understanding the developmental enhancement of WM.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Andrea Imhof
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Oregon
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14
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Siless V, Hubbard NA, Jones R, Wang J, Lo N, Bauer CCC, Goncalves M, Frosch I, Norton D, Vergara G, Conroy K, De Souza FV, Rosso IM, Wickham AH, Cosby EA, Pinaire M, Hirshfeld-Becker D, Pizzagalli DA, Henin A, Hofmann SG, Auerbach RP, Ghosh S, Gabrieli J, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Yendiki A. Image acquisition and quality assurance in the Boston Adolescent Neuroimaging of Depression and Anxiety study. Neuroimage Clin 2020; 26:102242. [PMID: 32339824 PMCID: PMC7184183 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2019] [Revised: 02/19/2020] [Accepted: 03/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
The Connectomes Related to Human Diseases (CRHD) initiative was developed with the Human Connectome Project (HCP) to provide high-resolution, open-access, multi-modal MRI data to better understand the neural correlates of human disease. Here, we present an introduction to a CRHD project, the Boston Adolescent Neuroimaging of Depression and Anxiety (BANDA) study, which is collecting multimodal neuroimaging, clinical, and neuropsychological data from 225 adolescents (ages 14-17), 150 of whom are expected to have a diagnosis of depression and/or anxiety. Our transdiagnostic recruitment approach samples the full spectrum of depressed/anxious symptoms and their comorbidity, consistent with NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). We focused on an age range that is critical for brain development and for the onset of mental illness. This project sought to harmonize imaging sequences, hardware, and functional tasks with other HCP studies, although some changes were made to canonical HCP methods to accommodate our study population and questions. We present a thorough overview of our imaging sequences, hardware, and scanning protocol. We detail similarities and differences between this study and other HCP studies. We evaluate structural-, diffusion-, and functional-image-quality measures that may be influenced by clinical factors (e.g., disorder, symptomatology). Signal-to-noise and motion estimates from the first 140 adolescents suggest minimal influence of clinical factors on image quality. We anticipate enrollment of an additional 85 participants, most of whom are expected to have a diagnosis of anxiety and/or depression. Clinical and neuropsychological data from the first 140 participants are currently freely available through the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA).
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Affiliation(s)
- Viviana Siless
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Nicholas A Hubbard
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, United States
| | - Robert Jones
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Jonathan Wang
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Nicole Lo
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Clemens C C Bauer
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; Northeastern University, Department of Psychology, Boston, MA, United States
| | | | - Isabelle Frosch
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Daniel Norton
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | | | | | | | - Isabelle M Rosso
- McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Aude Henin
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | | | | | - Satrajit Ghosh
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - John Gabrieli
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; Northeastern University, Department of Psychology, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Anastasia Yendiki
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
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