Pupillary and reaction time measures of sustained processing of negative information in depression.

BACKGROUND: Disruptions of emotional information processing (i.e., attention to, memory for, and interpretation of emotional information) have been implicated in the onset and maintenance of depression. The research presented here investigated cognitive and psychophysiological features of a particularly promising correlate of depression: sustained processing of negative information 4--5 sec after an emotional stimulus. METHODS: Pupil dilation data and reaction times were collected from 24 unmedicated depressed and 25 nondepressed adults in response to emotional processing tasks (lexical decision and valence identification) that employed idiosyncratically generated personally relevant and normed stimuli. Pupil dilation was used to index sustained cognitive processing devoted to stimuli. RESULTS: Consistent with predictions, depressed individuals were especially slow to name the emotionality of positive information, and displayed greater sustained processing (pupil dilation) than nondepressed individuals when their attention was directed toward emotional aspects of information. Contrary to predictions, depressed participants did not dilate more to negative than positive stimuli, compared to nondepressed participants. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest depressed individuals may not initially attend to emotional aspects of information but may continue to process them seconds after they have reacted to the information.     

Neural Correlates of Three Neurocognitive Intervention Strategies: A Preliminary Step Towards Personalized Treatment for Psychological Disorders

Brain-based behavioral interventions targeting specific neurocognitive mechanisms show initial promise in the treatment of emotional disorders, but personalization of such approaches will be facilitated if brain targets are empirically established. As a preliminary step, we conducted a proof-of-concept study to test whether particular emotion regulatory neural circuitry can be differentially targeted by specific neurocognitive tasks, and whether these tasks effectively inhibit amygdala activity. Eleven healthy individuals underwent an idiographic sadness and guilt induction. Brain response was measured via fMRI during 4 subsequent emotion regulation conditions: fixation, cognitive reappraisal (selected to target the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), working memory practice (selected to target the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), and visual distraction (Tetris; selected to target occipital cortex). In whole-brain comparisons to fixation, hypotheses were upheld. Reappraisal uniquely activated left venrolateral prefrontal cortex, working memory practice uniquely activated left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and Tetris uniquely activated bilateral occipitoparietal cortex, activations that were largely robust at the single-subject level. All tasks inhibited amygdala activity relative to fixation. Data support examining whether repeated exposure to these tasks in psychiatric patients affects neural abnormalities implicated in emotional disorders. Ideally, psychiatric treatment will be accelerated by matching specific treatments to patients with specific neural profiles.     

Unique and Shared Aspects of Affective Symptomatology: The Role of Parental Bonding in Depression and Anxiety Symptom Profiles

Prior research has found an association between parental bonding and depression and anxiety. Specifically, low levels of care and high levels of overprotection have been associated with increased risk for developing depression and anxiety. However little research has explored the relationship between factors of parental bonding and specific aspects of depression and anxiety. The present study investigated these relationships in a sample of undergraduate students (n = 680) who reported a range of affective symptomatology. Lower levels of maternal care were associated with negative beliefs about the self, negative interactions with others and fatigue; lower levels of maternal and paternal care were associated with generalized fear. Maternal overprotection was associated with physical symptoms of anxiety and a fear of dying, whereas paternal overprotection was a significant predictor of negative beliefs about the self and difficulty maintaining steadiness when anxious. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the role of parenting in the development of vulnerability to affective symptomatology.     

Transplantation of human basal cell carcinoma to C57/BALB/C bgJ/bgJ-nu/nu (beige-nude) mouse

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the transplantation of BCC to the C57/BALB/C bgJ/bgJ-nu/nu (beige-nude) mouse. This animal has two gene defects which are expressed as impairment of natural killer cells (NK cells) as well as the absence of a thymus. The results demonstrate that human BCC can be successfully transplanted to the C57 beige-nude mouse without the need for supplemental immunosuppression. It may be that the impairment of NK cell activity in the beige-nude mouse model plays a significant role in tumor transplantation.     

Advertising of contrast material: a developing problem

Problems exist when indications for the use of new contrast agents and new indications for the use of conventional contrast agents are considered in relation to advertisements. Ultimately, the consumer pays the cost of expensive FDA testing, often to prove what is already obvious. Other medically indicated uses of a contrast agent may remain unapproved because there is no financial incentive to seek approval, and needed modifications in already approved advertisements may not be sought for the same reason. A cooperative effort among manufacturers, radiologists, and the FDA is needed to improve the process.     

Measurement of histamine, complement components and immune complexes during patient reactions to iodinated contrast material.

Studies were performed on nine patients who had just suffered urticarial or bronchospastic reactions following injection of iodinated contrast material (ICM). The parameters studied were white cell histamine, serum complement components C'3 and C'4 and circulating immune complexes. The white cells of the nine patients demonstrated an average increase of 125% in intracellular histamine over the 3-4 week period following the ICM reaction. Control volunteers averaged only a 10% change. The data implies that there was a loss of white cell histamine during the ICM reaction with replenishment during the following 3-4 week period. Complement components C'3 and C'4 were normal. Circulating antigen-antibody complexes were sought via precipitin bands in agar gel using Clq. None could be isolated following seven ICM reactions. Thus these ICM reactions appeared to release histamine without detection of circulating immune complexes and with normal levels of two major complement components.     

Blink before and after you think: blinks occur prior to and following cognitive load indexed by pupillary responses

Pupil dilation and blinks provide complementary, mutually exclusive indices of information processing. Though each index is associated with cognitive load, the occurrence of a blink precludes the measurement of pupil diameter. These indices have generally been assessed in independent literatures. We examine the extent to which these measures are related on two cognitive tasks using a novel method that quantifies the proportion of trials on which blinks occur at each sample acquired during the trial. This measure allows cross-correlation of continuous pupil-dilation and blink waveforms. Results indicate that blinks occur during early sensory processing and following sustained information processing. Pupil dilation better reflects sustained information processing. Together these indices provide a rich picture of the time course of information processing, from early reactivity through sustained cognition, and after stimulus-related cognition ends.