Tuning of brain-autonomic coupling by prior threat exposure: Implications for internalizing problems in Mexican-origin adolescents

Conceptualizing the Influence of Social and Structural Determinants of Neurobiology and Mental Health: Why and How Biological Psychiatry Can Do Better at Addressing the Consequences of Inequity

Psychiatry and allied disciplines have recognized the potency of structural and social determinants of mental health, yet there has been scant attention given to the roles of neurobiology in the links between structural and social determinants and mental health. In this article, we make the case for why greater attention must be given to structural and social determinants of biological psychiatry by researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers. After defining these terms and theoretical frameworks for considering their relevance in biological psychiatry, we review empirical research with marginalized and minoritized racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, and economic communities that reveals the ways in which structural and social determinants affect neurobiological functioning with implications for mental health. We give particular emphasis to developmental science and developmentally informed research, because structural and social determinants influence neurobiological adaptation and maturation across the lifespan. We conclude with recommendations for advancing research, practice, and policy that connect biological psychiatry with structural and social determinants of health. Foremost among these is diversifying the ranks of biological psychiatry, from classrooms through laboratories, hospitals, and community health centers. Transforming and advancing the understanding of the structural and social determinants of neurobiology and mental health is most likely to come through transforming the discipline itself.

The association between peer-victimisation and structural and functional brain outcomes: A systematic review

Background

Peer adversity and aggression are common experiences in childhood and adolescence which lead to poor mental health outcomes. To date, there has been no review conducted on the neurobiological changes associated with relational peer-victimisation, bullying and cyberbullying.

Methods

This systematic review assessed structural and functional brain changes associated with peer-victimisation, bullying, and cyberbullying from 1 January 2000 to April 2021. A systematic search of Psychoinfo, Pubmed, and Scopus was performed independently by two reviewers using predefined criteria. Twenty-six studies met the selection criteria and were considered for review.

Results

The data collected shows altered brain activation of regions implicated in processing reward, social pain, and affect; and heightened sensitivity and more widespread activation of brain regions during acute social exclusion, most notably in the amygdala, left parahippocampal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus, associated with victimisation exposure. In addition, victimised youths also demonstrated greater risk-taking behaviours following acute social exclusion showing greater ventral striatum-inferior frontal gyrus coupling, activation in the bilateral amygdala, orbital frontal cortex (OFC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ), medial posterior parietal cortex (MPPC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), suggesting greater social monitoring, seeking of inclusion, and more effortful cognitive control. The studies included participants from a very broad developmental age range, mostly using cross-sectional measure of peer-victimisation exposure, at varying developmental stages.

Conclusions

This review highlights the need for more neuroimaging studies in cyberbullying, as well as longitudinal studies across more diverse samples for investigating gender, age, and developmental interactions with peer-victimising. This also brings to attention the importance of addressing bullying victimisation particularly in adolescence, given the evidence for social stress in heightening developmentally sensitive processes which are associated with depression, anxiety, and externalising symptoms.

Childhood adversity modulation of central autonomic network components during cognitive regulation of emotion in major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have lifelong effects on emotional behavior and are frequent in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The Central Autonomic Network (CAN), which modulates heart rate variability (HRV), comprises brain regions that mediate emotion regulation processes. However, it remains unclear the effect of ACEs on CAN dynamics and its relationship with HRV in these disorders. We studied the effects of ACEs on the brain and HRV simultaneously, during regulation of psychological stress in 19 BPD, 20 MDD and 20 healthy controls (HC). Participants underwent a cognitive reappraisal task during fMRI with simultaneous ECG acquisition. ACEs exposure was associated with increased activity of CAN and salience network components in patients with MDD compared to BPD during cognitive reappraisal. A brain-autonomic coupling was found in BPD relative to HC during emotion regulation, whereby greater activity of left anterior cingulate and medial superior frontal gyrus areas was coupled with increased HRV. Results suggest that ACEs exposure is associated with a distinct activation of the CAN and salience network regions governing responses to psychological stress in MDD compared to BPD. These alterations may constitute a distinctive neurobiological mechanism for abnormal emotion processing and regulation related to ACEs in MDD.

High vagal tone and rapid extinction learning as potential transdiagnostic protective factors following childhood violence exposure

Childhood exposure to violence is strongly associated with psychopathology. High resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is associated with lower levels of psychopathology in children exposed to violence. High RSA may help to protect against psychopathology by facilitating fear extinction learning, allowing more flexible autonomic responses to learned threat and safety cues. In this study, 165 youth (79 female, aged 9-17; 86 exposed to violence) completed assessments of violence exposure, RSA, and psychopathology, and a fear extinction learning task; 134 participants returned and completed psychopathology assessments 2 years later. Resting RSA moderated the longitudinal association of violence exposure with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and externalizing psychopathology, such that the association was weaker among youths with higher RSA. Higher skin conductance responses (SCR) during extinction learning to the threat cue (CS+) was associated with higher internalizing symptoms at follow-up and greater SCR to the safety cue (CS-) was associated with higher PTSD, internalizing, and externalizing symptoms, as well as the p-factor, controlling for baseline symptoms. Findings suggest that higher RSA may protect against emergence of psychopathology among children exposed to violence. Moreover, difficulty extinguishing learned threat responses and elevated autonomic responses to safety cues may be associated with risk for future psychopathology.

The Influence of Personality Traits on School Bullying: A Moderated Mediation Model

We recruited 1,631 middle and high school students to explore the relationship between personality traits and school bullying, and the moderated and mediating roles of self-concept and loneliness on this relationship. Results showed that (1) neuroticism had a significant positive predictive effect on being bullied, extroversion had a significant negative predictive effect on being bullied, and agreeableness had a significant negative predictive effect on bullying/being bullied; (2) loneliness played a mediating role between neuroticism and bullied behaviors, extroversion and bullying behaviors, and agreeableness and bullying/bullied behaviors; (3) self-concept played a moderating role on the mediation pathway of loneliness on neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and bullying behaviors. Therefore, to reduce the frequency of school bullying among adolescents, we should not only reduce their levels of loneliness but also improve their levels of self-concept.

Direct replication of task-dependent neural activation patterns during sadness introspection in two independent adolescent samples

Functional neuroimaging results need to replicate to inform sound models of human social cognition and its neural correlates. Introspection, the capacity to reflect on one's thoughts and feelings, is one process required for normative social cognition and emotional functioning. Engaging in introspection draws on a network of brain regions including medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), middle temporal gyri (MTG), and temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Maturation of these regions during adolescence mirrors the behavioral advances seen in adolescent social cognition, but the neural correlates of introspection in adolescence need to replicate to confirm their generalizability and role as a possible mechanism. The current study investigated whether reflecting upon one's own feelings of sadness would activate and replicate similar brain regions in two independent samples of adolescents. Participants included 156 adolescents (50% female) from the California Families Project and 119 adolescent girls from the Pittsburgh Girls Study of Emotion. All participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan while completing the same facial emotion‐processing task at age 16–17 years. Both samples showed similar whole‐brain activation patterns when engaged in sadness introspection and when judging a nonemotional facial feature. Whole‐brain activation was unrelated to ERQ scores in both samples. Neural responsivity to task manipulations replicated in regions recruited for socio‐emotional (mPFC, PCC, MTG, TPJ) and attention (dorsolateral PFC, precentral gyri, superior occipital gyrus, superior parietal lobule) processing. These findings demonstrate robust replication of neural engagement during sadness introspection in two independent adolescent samples.