Current emotion research in cultural neuroscience

Resting state functional connectivity in dependent cannabis users: The moderating role of cannabis attitudes

BACKGROUND

The global increase in lenient cannabis policy has been paralleled by reduced harm perception, which has been associated with cannabis use initiation and persistent use. However, it is unclear how cannabis attitudes might affect the brain processes underlying cannabis use.

METHODS

Resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) within and between the executive control network (ECN), salience network (SN), and default mode network (DMN) was assessed in 110 near-daily cannabis users with cannabis use disorder (CUD) and 79 controls from The Netherlands and Texas, USA. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing the perceived benefits and harms of cannabis use from their personal, friends-family's, and country-state's perspectives and reported on their cannabis use (gram/week), CUD severity, and cannabis-related problems.

RESULTS

RSFC within the dorsal SN was lower in cannabis users than controls, while no group differences in between-network RSFC were observed. Furthermore, heavier cannabis use was associated with lower dorsal SN RSFC in the cannabis group. Perceived benefits and harms of cannabis - from personal, friends-family's, and country-state's perspectives - moderated associations of cannabis use, CUD severity, and cannabis use-related problems with within-network RSFC of the SN, ECN, and DMN. Personal perceived benefits and country-state perceived harms moderated the association between CUD severity and RSFC between the ventral and dorsal DMN.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the importance of considering individual differences in the perceived harms and benefits of cannabis use as a factor in the associations between brain functioning and cannabis use, CUD severity, and cannabis use-related problems.

Working memory-related brain activity in cannabis use disorder: The role of cross-cultural differences in cannabis attitudes

Cannabis legislation and attitudes towards use are changing. Given that evidence from cultural neuroscience research suggests that culture influences the neurobiological mechanisms underlying behaviour, it is of great importance to understand how cannabis legislation and attitudes might affect the brain processes underlying cannabis use disorder. Brain activity of 100 dependent cannabis users and 84 controls was recorded during an N-back working memory (WM) task in participants from the Netherlands (NL; users = 60, controls = 52) and Texas, USA (TX; users = 40, controls = 32). Participants completed a cannabis culture questionnaire as a measure of perceived benefits (positive) and perceived harms (negative) of cannabis from their personal, friends-family's and country-state's perspectives. Amount of cannabis use (grams/week), DSM-5 CUD symptoms and cannabis use-related problems were assessed. Cannabis users self-reported more positive and less negative (personal and friends-family) cannabis attitudes than controls, with this effect being significantly larger in the TX cannabis users. No site difference in country-state attitudes was observed. TX cannabis users, compared with NL cannabis users, and those cannabis users perceiving more positive country-state attitudes showed a more positive association between grams/week and WM-related activity in the superior parietal lobe. NL cannabis users, compared with TX cannabis users, and those cannabis users with less positive personal attitudes showed a more positive association between grams/week and WM-load-related activity in the temporal pole. Both site and cultural attitudes moderated the association of quantity of cannabis use with WM- and WM-load-related activity. Importantly, differences in legislation did not align with perceived cannabis attitudes and appear to be differentially associated with cannabis use-related brain activity.

A Call for Greater Attention to Culture in the Study of Brain and Development

Despite growing research on neurobiological development, little attention has been paid to cultural and ethnic variation in neurodevelopmental processes. We present an overview of the current state of developmental cognitive neuroscience with respect to its attention to cultural issues. Analyses based on 80 publications represented in five recent meta-analyses related to adolescent developmental neuroscience show that 99% of the publications used samples in Western countries. Only 22% of studies provided a detailed description of participants' racial/ethnic background, and only 18% provided for socioeconomic status. Results reveal a trend in developmental cognitive neuroscience research: The body of research is derived not only mostly from Western samples but also from participants whose race/ethnicity is unknown. To achieve a holistic perspective on brain development in different cultural contexts, we propose and highlight an emerging interdisciplinary approach-developmental cultural neuroscience-the intersection of developmental psychology, cultural psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. Developmental cultural neuroscience aims to elucidate cultural similarities and differences in neural processing across the life span. We call attention to the importance of incorporating culture into the empirical investigation of neurodevelopment.

The neuroscience of sadness: A multidisciplinary synthesis and collaborative review

Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduced walking speed, and slumped posture. Ancient subcortical circuitry provides a neuroanatomical foundation, extending from dorsal periaqueductal grey to subgenual anterior cingulate, the latter of which is now a treatment target in disorders of sadness. Electrophysiological studies further emphasize a role for reduced left relative to right frontal asymmetry in sadness, underpinning interest in the transcranial stimulation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as an antidepressant target. Neuroimaging studies - including meta-analyses - indicate that sadness is associated with reduced cortical activation, which may contribute to reduced parasympathetic inhibitory control over medullary cardioacceleratory circuits. Reduced cardiac control may - in part - contribute to epidemiological reports of reduced life expectancy in affective disorders, effects equivalent to heavy smoking. We suggest that the field may be moving toward a theoretical consensus, in which different models relating to basic emotion theory and psychological constructionism may be considered as complementary, working at different levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy.

Conference proceedings of the 4th Masterclass Psychiatry: Transcultural Psychiatry - Diagnostics and Treatment, Luleå, Sweden, 22-23 February 2018 (Region Norrbotten in collaboration with the Maudsley Hospital and Tavistock Clinic London)

BACKGROUND

According to estimates from the European Commission, Europe has experienced the greatest mass movement of people since the Second World War. More than one million refugees and migrants have arrived in the European Union in the past few years. Mental health and primary care professionals are more likely than ever to meet patients from different cultures and backgrounds.

AIMS

To equip mental health and primary care professionals with transcultural skills to deal with patients from unfamiliar backgrounds.

METHOD

Lectures and case discussions to explore the latest advances in the diagnosis and treatment of serious mental health problems in a transcultural context.

RESULTS

Lectures covered transcultural aspects of mental health problems, treatment in different cultural and ethnic contexts, and assessment of risk factors for self-harm and harm in migrant populations.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinicians require a sound grounding in transcultural skills to confidently and empathically deal with patients from unfamiliar backgrounds.

Cultural neuroscience: ideas worth knowing

BACKGROUND

Neuroscience is now promising significant advances in medical practice, such that it can improve the art and science of personalized medicine. A new discipline of cultural neuroscience is now forming, and few clinicians, researchers or educators are aware of it.

AIMS

To set out a brief synopsis of cultural neuroscience.

METHODS

A narrative, nonsystematic, review of experts on cultural psychiatry and cultural neuroscience.

RESULTS

Cultural neuroscience proposes that culture and biology have co-evolved with mutually beneficial affordances inhuman abilities that promote positive selection that help people to flourish. Neuroscience can support and improve cultural interventions when applied in a pan-diagnostic manner to culturally specific groups, ethnic minorities, and migrants.

CONCLUSIONS

Cultural neuroscience is an exciting new discipline with the potential for clinical benefit. Cultural psychiatry can advance in this direction, and at the same time offer a critique of the culture of neuroscience.

Heritability of Hwabyung Symptoms in South Korean Adolescent and Young Adult Twins

The present study aimed to estimate heritability of Hwabyung (HB) symptoms in adolescent and young adult twins in South Korea. The sample included 1,601 twins consisting of 143 pairs of monozygotic male (MZM), 67 pairs of dizygotic male (DZM), 295 pairs of monozygotic female (MZF), 114 pairs of dizygotic female (DZF), and 117 pairs of opposite-sex dizygotic (OSDZ) twins and 129 twins with non-participating co-twins (mean age = 19.1 ± 3.1 years; range: 12-29 years). An HB symptom questionnaire was given to twins via a telephone interview. Consistent with the literature of HB, the mean level of HB was significantly higher in females than in males. Maximum likelihood twin correlations for HB were 0.31 (95% CI [0.16, 0.45]) for MZM, 0.19 (95% CI [-0.05, 0.41]) for DZM, 0.50 (95% CI [0.41, 0.58]) for MZF, 0.28 (95% CI [0.11, 0.44]) for DZF, and 0.23 (95% CI [0.05, 0.40]) for OSDZ twins. These patterns of twin correlations suggested the presence of additive genetic influences on HB. Model-fitting analysis showed that additive genetic and individual-specific environmental influences on HB were 44% (95% CI [37, 51]) and 56% (95% CI [49, 63]), respectively. Shared environmental influences were not significant. These parameter estimates were not significantly different between two sexes, and did not change significantly with age in the present sample, suggesting that genetic and environmental influences on HB in both sexes are stable across adolescence and young adulthood.

Neuropsychopharmacological aesthetics: A theoretical consideration of pharmacological approaches to causative brain study in aesthetics and art

Recent developments in neuroaesthetics have heightened the need for causative approaches to more deeply understand the mechanism underlying perception, emotion, and aesthetic experiences. This has recently been the topic for empirical work, employing several causative methods for changing brain activity, as well as comparative assessments of individuals with brain damage or disease. However, one area of study with high potential, and indeed a long history of often nonscientific use in the area of aesthetics and art, employing psychopharmacological chemicals as means of changing brain function, has not been systematically utilized. This chapter reviews the literature on this topic, analyzing neuroendocrinological (neurochemical) approaches and mechanisms that might be used to causatively study the aesthetic brain. We focus on four relevant neuromodulatory systems potentially related to aesthetic experience: the dopaminergic, serotonergic, cannabinoid, and the opioidergic system. We build a bridge to psychopharmacological methods and review drug-induced behavioral and neurobiological consequences. We conclude with a discussion of hypotheses and suggestions for future research.

Eating symptomatology and general psychopathology in patients with anorexia nervosa from China, UK and Spain: A cross-cultural study examining the role of social attitudes

Cultural studies exploring differences in the manifestation of anorexia nervosa (AN) have primarily focus on Western and non-Western cultures. However, no study so far has considered the role that social attitudes (i.e. Collectivist vs. Individualist cultural values) have in the clinical manifestations of eating disorders, including AN patients. With this in mind, the aim of this study is to compare eating and general psychopathology in a large sample of individuals diagnosed with AN from China, Spain, and United Kingdom (UK), in order to study the differences according to belonging to Western or non-Western country, or the country's Individualist Index (IDV). The total sample comprised on 544 adults with a diagnosis of AN recruited from People´s Republic of China (n = 72), UK (n = 117), and Spain (n = 355). Assessment measures included the Eating Disorders Inventory and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. Our results show significant differences in most of the eating and psychopathological indices between the three countries. Patients from Western societies (Spain and UK) share more similarities regarding psychopathological expression of AN than the non-Western country (China). While Western countries show higher levels of body dissatisfaction, somatization and overall psychopathology, Chinese patients tend to deny or minimize depression, anxiety and other psychopathological symptoms. Besides, the IDV shows cultural differences in the interpersonal sensitivity scale, being AN patients from UK (the more individualistic society) who presented with higher levels of interpersonal sensitivity (i.e. discomfort during interpersonal interactions and more negative expectations concerning interpersonal behavior). In conclusion, our findings suggest that psychopathological expression of AN is better explained by Western/Eastern influence than by individualist/collectivist values. Although the diagnosis for the eating disorder may be the same, differences in the psychopathology comorbid to the eating disorders may suggest the need for treatments to be modified according to the culture.