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Schizophrenia is characterized by the misattribution of emotional significance to neutral faces, accompanied by overactivations of the limbic system. To understand the disorder's genetic and environmental contributors, investigating healthy first-degree relatives is crucial. However, inconsistent findings exist regarding their ability to recognize neutral faces, with limited research exploring the cerebral correlates of neutral face processing in this population. Thus, we here investigated brain responses to neutral face processing in healthy first-degree relatives through an image-based meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. We included unthresholded group-level T-maps from 5 studies comprising a total of 120 first-degree relatives and 150 healthy controls. In sensitivity analyses, we ran a combined image- and coordinate-based meta-analysis including 7 studies (157 first-degree relatives, 207 healthy controls) aiming at testing the robustness of the results in a larger sample of studies. Our findings revealed a pattern of decreased brain responses to neutral faces in relatives compared with healthy controls, particularly in limbic areas such as the bilateral amygdala, hippocampus, and insula. The same pattern was observed in sensitivity analyses. These results contrast with the overactivations observed in patients, potentially suggesting that this trait could serve as a protective factor in healthy relatives. However, further research is necessary to test this hypothesis., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Quantitative, empirical approaches to establishing the structure of psychopathology hold promise to improve on traditional psychiatric classification systems. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is a framework that summarizes the substantial and growing body of quantitative evidence on the structure of psychopathology. To achieve its aims, HiTOP must incorporate emerging research in a systematic, ongoing fashion. In this article, we describe the historical context and grounding of the principles and procedures for revising the HiTOP framework. Informed by strengths and shortcomings of previous classification systems, the proposed revisions protocol is a formalized system focused around three pillars: (a) prioritizing systematic evaluation of quantitative evidence by a set of transparent criteria and processes, (b) balancing stability with flexibility, and (c) promoting inclusion over gatekeeping in all aspects of the process. We detail how the revisions protocol will be applied in practice, including the scientific and administrative aspects of the process. Additionally, we describe areas of the HiTOP structure that will be a focus of early revisions and outline challenges for the revisions protocol moving forward. The proposed revisions protocol is designed to ensure that the HiTOP framework reflects the current state of scientific knowledge on the structure of psychopathology and fulfils its potential to advance clinical research and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Oppression, systemic bias, and racism have unfortunately long been part of the human experience. This paper is a review of basic elements of the Indian caste system, understanding its impact on the daily lives of different caste members, the role of colonialism in perpetuating the caste system, the Indian reservation system for mitigating disadvantages created by the caste system, and how categorization and labels can affect individual identity. This paper then discusses the global relevance of the caste system and its impact on mental health and psychological functioning. In India, the caste system is a comprehensive, systematized, and institutionalized form of oppression of members of the lower castes, particularly the Dalits. Formalized during the British colonial period, the caste system brings together two related Indian concepts of varna and jāti to create four social orders and multiple subunits. Sitting outside the traditional four orders are the Dalits, who experience social, economic, and religious discrimination due to an inherited status related to traditionally polluting occupations. Since the caste system extends beyond India to other South Asian countries, as well as to communities around the world that are home to the Indian diaspora, the inequities created by the caste system are a global issue. India's affirmative action system provides important insights to policy makers, as well as researchers in the social sciences for how to counteract the effects of systematized oppression. Collectively, this can aid in a better understanding of the effects of discrimination and oppression on identity, self-esteem, and mental health, and how we can develop more targeted policies and procedures in our own local contexts., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor SF declared a past co-authorship with the author VG., (Copyright © 2023 Goghari and Kusi.)

The organization of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) model provides unique opportunities to evaluate whether neural risk measures operate as indicators of broader latent liabilities (e.g., externalizing proneness) or narrower expressions (e.g., antisociality and alcohol abuse). Following this approach, the current study recruited a sample of 182 participants (54% female) who completed measures of externalizing psychopathology (also internalizing) and associated traits. Participants also completed three tasks (Flanker-No Threat, Flanker-Threat, and Go/No-Go tasks) with event-related potential (ERP) measurement. Three variants of two research domain criteria (RDoC)-based neurophysiological indicators-P3 and error-related negativity (ERN)-were extracted from these tasks and used to model two latent ERP factors. Scores on these two ERP factors independently predicted externalizing factor scores when accounting for their covariance with sex-suggesting distinct neural processes contributing to the broad externalizing factor. No predictive relation with the broad internalizing factor was found for either ERP factor. Analyses at the finer-grained level revealed no unique predictive relations of either ERP factor with any specific externalizing symptom variable when accounting for the broad externalizing factor, indicating that ERN and P3 index general liability for problems in this spectrum. Overall, this study provides new insights about neural processes in externalizing psychopathology at broader and narrower levels of the HiTOP hierarchy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Impaired emotion processing constitutes a key dimension of schizophrenia and a possible endophenotype of this illness. Empirical studies consistently report poorer emotion recognition performance in patients with schizophrenia as well as in individuals at enhanced risk of schizophrenia. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies also report consistent patterns of abnormal brain activation in response to emotional stimuli in patients, in particular, decreased amygdala activation. In contrast, brain-level abnormalities in at-risk individuals are more elusive. We address this gap using an image-based meta-analysis of the functional magnetic resonance imaging literature., Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies investigating brain responses to negative emotional stimuli and reporting a comparison between at-risk individuals and healthy control subjects were identified. Frequentist and Bayesian voxelwise meta-analyses were performed separately, by implementing a random-effect model with unthresholded group-level T-maps from individual studies as input., Results: In total, 17 studies with a cumulative total of 677 at-risk individuals and 805 healthy control subjects were included. Frequentist analyses did not reveal significant differences between at-risk individuals and healthy control subjects. Similar results were observed with Bayesian analyses, which provided strong evidence for the absence of meaningful brain activation differences across the entire brain. Region of interest analyses specifically focusing on the amygdala confirmed the lack of group differences in this region., Conclusions: These results suggest that brain activation patterns in response to emotional stimuli are unlikely to constitute a reliable endophenotype of schizophrenia. We suggest that future studies instead focus on impaired functional connectivity as an alternative and promising endophenotype., (Copyright © 2022 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Brain networks involved in language, attentional and response processes are detectable by fMRI during lexical decision (LD). Here, we investigated possible abnormalities in the functional networks involved in LD in patients with bipolar disorder (BD)., Methods: fMRI and behavioural data were compared between BD (n = 25) and control (n = 21), with groups matched for age and sex. The functional brain networks involved in LD were extracted by manipulating the "word-likeness" of LD stimuli and using a multidimensional analysis method., Results: Attentional, response and language processes were captured in separate function-specific brain networks (default mode network, response network, linguistic processing network, respectively) in the BD and control groups, replicating the results of our previous study in an independent group of healthy adults. Behaviourally, the BD group showed higher performance than the control group in the LD task. Activity in the default mode network (DMN) and the linguistic processing network (LPN) did not differ between the groups, but the BD group had higher activation than the control group in the response network (RESP)., Limitations: Due to the small sample, the study is underpowered, capable of only detecting large effects., Conclusions: The results suggest that BD may be associated with sustained activity in the RESP network, which might contribute to psychomotor dysfunction in BD. Future studies should investigate the possible link between altered RESP activation and psychomotor disturbances in BD, as well as the basis for altered RESP activity in BD., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Stress has a detrimental impact on memory, the hippocampus, and psychological health. Psychopathology research on stress has centered mainly on psychiatric diagnoses rather than symptom dimensions, and less attention has been given to the neurobiological factors through which stress might be translated into psychopathology. The present work investigates the transdiagnostic relationship of cumulative stress with episodic memory and the hippocampus (both structure and function) and explores the extent to which stress mediates the relationship between personality psychopathology and hippocampal size and activation. Cumulative lifetime stress was assessed in a sample of females recruited to vary in stress exposure and severity of personality psychopathology. Fifty-six participants completed subjective and objective tests of episodic memory, a T2-weighted high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the medial-temporal lobe, and functional MRI (fMRI) scanning during a learning and recognition memory task. Higher cumulative stress was significantly related to memory complaints (but not episodic memory performance), lower bilateral hippocampal volume, and greater encoding-related hippocampal activation during the presentation of novel stimuli. Furthermore, cumulative stress significantly mediated the relationship between personality psychopathology and both hippocampal volume and activation, whereas alternative mediation models were not supported. The findings suggest that structural and functional activation differences in the hippocampus observed in case-control studies of psychiatric diagnoses may share cumulative stress as a common factor, which may mediate broadly reported relationships between psychopathology and hippocampal structure and function., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The health sciences have a public calling to provide socially responsive health care for all of society, particularly those most in need. This call is reverberating in universities and has particular relevance for health science professions. Despite universities' public mission, admissions practices in the health sciences exhibit a fundamental tension between excellence and access, with excellence defined by rankings and research productivity, and access defined by broader public access both to universities themselves and to the knowledge created there. Health science programs' popularity among students intensifies the exclusivity of admissions processes, at the expense of access. This paper presents both a psychometric and social justice critique of existing admissions criteria and processes. A psychometric perspective demonstrates that admissions processes have inherent bias and fairness issues not limited to reliance on standardized test scores, but extending to measures such as interviews, grade point averages, personal statements, recommendation letters, and CVs. Evaluating admissions criteria using a social justice lens focuses attention on procedural, background, and stake fairness, as well as practices that tend to exclude underrepresented groups. Potential improvements to admissions include applying promising practices from holistic approaches, reducing applicants' financial burden, instituting admissions criteria that more broadly represent all groups, involving underrepresented groups in adjudicating candidate applications, implementing equitable educational strategies, and evaluating the degree to which programs' climate and theoretical underpinnings are conducive to recruiting from underrepresented groups. Finally, to fulfill our public call for social responsiveness, it is essential to frame admissions to health science programs in terms of serving the public good by training candidates from underrepresented groups and by positioning excellence as access., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

First-degree relatives of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (SZ-FDRs) show similar patterns of brain abnormalities and cognitive alterations to patients, albeit with smaller effect sizes. First-degree relatives of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD-FDRs) show divergent patterns; on average, intracranial volume is larger compared to controls, and findings on cognitive alterations in BD-FDRs are inconsistent. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of global and regional brain measures (cortical and subcortical), current IQ, and educational attainment in 5,795 individuals (1,103 SZ-FDRs, 867 BD-FDRs, 2,190 controls, 942 schizophrenia patients, 693 bipolar patients) from 36 schizophrenia and/or bipolar disorder family cohorts, with standardized methods. Compared to controls, SZ-FDRs showed a pattern of widespread thinner cortex, while BD-FDRs had widespread larger cortical surface area. IQ was lower in SZ-FDRs (d = -0.42, p = 3 × 10 -5 ), with weak evidence of IQ reductions among BD-FDRs (d = -0.23, p = .045). Both relative groups had similar educational attainment compared to controls. When adjusting for IQ or educational attainment, the group-effects on brain measures changed, albeit modestly. Changes were in the expected direction, with less pronounced brain abnormalities in SZ-FDRs and more pronounced effects in BD-FDRs. To conclude, SZ-FDRs and BD-FDRs show a differential pattern of structural brain abnormalities. In contrast, both had lower IQ scores and similar school achievements compared to controls. Given that brain differences between SZ-FDRs and BD-FDRs remain after adjusting for IQ or educational attainment, we suggest that differential brain developmental processes underlying predisposition for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are likely independent of general cognitive impairment., (© 2020 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

White matter pathology likely contributes to the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder (BD). Most studies of white matter in BD have used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), but the advent of more advanced multi-shell diffusion MRI imaging offers the possibility to investigate other aspects of white matter microstructure. Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) extends the DTI model and provides additional measures related to diffusion restriction. Here, we investigated white matter in BD by applying whole-brain voxel-based analysis (VBA) and a network-based connectivity approach using constrained spherical deconvolution tractography to assess differences in DKI and DTI metrics between BD (n = 25) and controls (n = 24). The VBA showed lower mean kurtosis in the corona radiata and posterior association fibers in BD. Regional differences in connectivity were indicated by lower mean kurtosis and kurtosis anisotropy in streamlines traversing the temporal and occipital lobes, and lower mean axial kurtosis in the right cerebellar, thalamo-subcortical pathways in BD. Significant differences were not seen in DTI metrics following FDR-correction. The DKI findings indicate altered connectivity across cortical, subcortical and cerebellar areas in BD. DKI is sensitive to different microstructural properties and is a useful complementary technique to DTI to more fully investigate white matter in BD., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Family studies can provide a wealth of information regarding risk factors in psychological disorders. No studies have compared the trauma experiences and coping strategies of problem gamblers with those of their first-degree relatives. Therefore, in this study, childhood trauma and coping strategies were investigated among participants with gambling disorder, their first-degree biological relatives, and community controls. Participants completed diagnostic interviews and symptom severity assessments. Participants also completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) which assesses history of abuse and neglect, and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) which assesses task, emotion, and avoidance oriented coping strategies. Analysis of variance showed that there was a significant effect for group, but not gender, on the CTQ. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant effect for group on coping style. Post-hoc tests showed that probands and relatives were less likely to use task-oriented coping compared to controls, but probands and relatives did not differ from each other on task-oriented coping. Mediation analysis showed that task-oriented coping did not mediate the relation between childhood trauma and gambling severity. By using a family study design, this study was able for the first time to delineate familial and disease-specific effects associated with childhood trauma and coping strategies in gambling disorder.

Introduction: In recent years, computerized cognitive training (CCT) programs have been developed commercially for widespread public consumption. Despite early enthusiasm, whether these programs enhance cognitive abilities in healthy adults is a contentious area of investigation. Given the mixed findings in the literature, researchers are beginning to investigate how beliefs and attitudes toward CCT impact motivation, expectations, and gains after cognitive training., Method: We collected survey data from 497 North American participants from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). This survey asked novel questions regarding respondents' beliefs about the effectiveness of CCT for improving different domains of cognition, mood, and daily life; beliefs about whether CCT programs are supported by research; and whether impressions of CCT have improved or worsened over time. Exploratory analyses are reported descriptively, while parametric tests were used to analyze a priori hypotheses., Results: Almost half of the surveyed participants had used CCT, and respondents with a self-reported psychological or neurological disorder were more likely to have used CCT platforms than participants without such conditions. Motivations for using CCT included curiosity; to improve or maintain cognition; to prevent cognitive decline; and/or for enjoyment or fun. Participants believed that CCT is somewhat effective for improving mood and cognition across a variety of domains. Greater age and fewer years of education predicted perceived effectiveness of CCT. Finally, participants largely reported unchanged opinions of CCT platforms over time., Conclusion: Our study suggests the need for future research regarding the general population's beliefs and attitudes toward CCT, along with knowledge translation for relevant stakeholders., (Copyright © 2020 Goghari, Krzyzanowski, Yoon, Dai and Toews.)

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is an empirical structural model of psychological symptoms formulated to improve the reliability and validity of clinical assessment. Neurobiology can inform assessments of early risk and intervention strategies, and the HiTOP model has greater potential to interface with neurobiological measures than traditional categorical diagnoses given its enhanced reliability. However, one complication is that observed biological correlates of clinical symptoms can reflect various factors, ranging from dispositional risk to consequences of psychopathology. In this paper, we argue that the HiTOP model provides an optimized framework for conducting research on the biological correlates of psychopathology from an ontogenetic perspective that distinguishes among indicators of liability, current symptoms, and consequences of illness. Through this approach, neurobiological research can contribute more effectively to identifying individuals at high dispositional risk, indexing treatment-related gains, and monitoring the consequences of mental illness, consistent with the aims of the HiTOP framework.
., (© 2019, AICHServier GroupCopyright © 2019 AICH Servier Group. All rights reserved.)

Background: A domain of cognition that has been found to be impaired in bipolar disorder across mood states is working memory. Working memory can be separated into two components, maintenance and manipulation. Bipolar patients also demonstrate structural brain abnormalities in prefrontal and parietal regions, which are regions associated with working memory processes. Despite the understanding that working memory consists of multiple separable cognitive processes, no study to date has differentiated maintenance and manipulation, and associated them with underlying structural brain regions in bipolar disorder., Methods: Twenty-six bipolar patients and 24 controls completed a visuospatial working memory task and structural neuroimaging. Prefrontal and parietal gray matter volume, surface area, and cortical thickness were obtained using FreeSurfer. The relationship between working memory performance, structural integrity, symptoms, and functioning were investigated., Results: Bipolar patients were less accurate on the working memory task compared to controls, without a greater deficit in the manipulation condition. Controls had thicker prefrontal and parietal cortices than bipolar patients. In bipolar patients, thicker prefrontal cortices had a small association with greater accuracy on the maintenance condition, as well as greater depression., Limitations: This study could have benefitted from a larger sample size., Conclusions: Bipolar patients demonstrated both poorer accuracy on the visuospatial working memory task compared to controls and thinner cortices in areas associated with working memory, namely the prefrontal and parietal cortices. This demonstrates an underlying relationship between brain and behavior in bipolar disorder., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) 5 studies on lexical decision (LD) 6 attempting to isolate the brain network underlying access to lexical representations can be confounded by attentional and response processes. However, manipulating the "wordlikeness" of the LD stimuli can facilitate functional interpretation of each emerging brain network, providing principles for separation of attentional demand from linguistic processing. This is because activation of difficult-to-access lexical representations (for obscure real words), and avoidance of interfering word properties (for wordlike non-words), are both generally attentionally demanding. Therefore, congruent patterns of activation would be predicted for general-attention-responsive networks, but opposing patterns for language-responsive networks. 59 healthy adults performed a LD task, and multidimensional functional connectivity analysis was used to extract three functional brain networks. A linguistic processing network (LPN) was separated from attention/response networks anatomically (LPN included Broca's and Wernicke's areas), but also temporally by showing reduced activation for the most attentionally demanding condition (i.e., wordlike non-words). This demonstrated that during LD in fMRI a network involved in linguistic processing can be disentangled from attention- and response-specific networks, using a combination of experimental design and multidimensional analysis methods., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All of the authors report no conflicts of interest associated with this manuscript. There has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.

Deficits in response inhibition have been observed in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; however, the neural origins of the abnormalities and their relevance to genetic liability for psychosis are unknown. We used a stop-signal task to examine motor inhibition and associated neural processes in schizophrenia patients (n = 57), bipolar disorder patients (n = 21), first-degree biological relatives of patients with schizophrenia (n = 34), and healthy controls (n = 56). Schizophrenia patients demonstrated motor control deficits reflected in longer stop-signal reaction times and elongated reaction times. With the possibility of needing to inhibit a button press, both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients showed diminished reductions of the P300 brain response and only the healthy controls demonstrated adjustments in response execution time, as measured by response-locked lateralized readiness potentials. Schizotypal traits in the biological relatives were associated with less P300 modulation consistent with the motor-related anomalies being associated with subtle schizophrenia-spectrum symptomatology in family members. The two patient groups had elongated response selection processes as manifest in the delayed onset of the stimulus-locked lateralized readiness potential. The bipolar disorder group was unique in showing significantly diminished neural responses to the stop-signal to inhibit a response. Antipsychotic medication dosage was related to worse motor inhibition, thus motor inhibition deficits in schizophrenia may be partially explained by the effect of pharmacological agents. Failed modulation of brain processes in relation to response inhibition probability and the lengthening of motor response selection appear to be transdiagnostic abnormalities spanning schizophrenia and bipolar disorder., (© 2019 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Individuals with schizophrenia exhibit deficits in facial emotion processing, which have been associated with abnormalities in visual gaze behavior and functional brain activation. However, the relationship between gaze behavior and brain activation in schizophrenia remains unexamined. Studies in healthy individuals and other clinical samples indicate a relationship between gaze behavior and functional activation in brain regions implicated in facial emotion processing deficits in schizophrenia (e.g., fusiform gyrus), prompting the question of whether a similar relationship exists in schizophrenia. This study examined whether manipulating visual scanpaths during facial emotion perception would modulate functional brain activation in a sample of 23 schizophrenia patients and 26 community controls. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) while viewing pictures of emotional faces. During the typical viewing condition, a fixation cue directed participants' gaze primarily to the eyes and mouth, whereas during the atypical viewing condition gaze was directed to peripheral features. Both viewing conditions elicited a robust response throughout face-processing regions. Typical viewing led to greater activation in visual association cortex including the right inferior occipital gyrus/occipital face area, whereas atypical viewing elicited greater activation in primary visual cortex and regions involved in attentional control. There were no between-groups activation differences in response to faces or interaction between group and gaze manipulation. The results indicate that gaze behavior modulates functional activation in early face-processing regions in individuals with and without schizophrenia, suggesting that abnormal gaze behavior in schizophrenia may contribute to activation abnormalities during facial emotion perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share genetic liability, and some structural brain abnormalities are common to both conditions. First-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia (FDRs-SZ) show similar brain abnormalities to patients, albeit with smaller effect sizes. Imaging findings in first-degree relatives of patients with bipolar disorder (FDRs-BD) have been inconsistent in the past, but recent studies report regionally greater volumes compared with control subjects., Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of global and subcortical brain measures of 6008 individuals (1228 FDRs-SZ, 852 FDRs-BD, 2246 control subjects, 1016 patients with schizophrenia, 666 patients with bipolar disorder) from 34 schizophrenia and/or bipolar disorder family cohorts with standardized methods. Analyses were repeated with a correction for intracranial volume (ICV) and for the presence of any psychopathology in the relatives and control subjects., Results: FDRs-BD had significantly larger ICV (d = +0.16, q < .05 corrected), whereas FDRs-SZ showed smaller thalamic volumes than control subjects (d = -0.12, q < .05 corrected). ICV explained the enlargements in the brain measures in FDRs-BD. In FDRs-SZ, after correction for ICV, total brain, cortical gray matter, cerebral white matter, cerebellar gray and white matter, and thalamus volumes were significantly smaller; the cortex was thinner (d < -0.09, q < .05 corrected); and third ventricle was larger (d = +0.15, q < .05 corrected). The findings were not explained by psychopathology in the relatives or control subjects., Conclusions: Despite shared genetic liability, FDRs-SZ and FDRs-BD show a differential pattern of structural brain abnormalities, specifically a divergent effect in ICV. This may imply that the neurodevelopmental trajectories leading to brain anomalies in schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are distinct., (Copyright © 2019 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders are common in both mood and psychotic disorders. However, limited comparative information exists regarding the long-term course of anxiety in schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. Prospective evaluation of the 20-year trajectory of self-reported anxiety and somatic-related anxiety in three major diagnostic groups, 43 schizoaffective patients, 47 bipolar patients, and 109 major depression patients was conducted. The patients were recruited at an index phase of hospitalization, and then reassessed longitudinally at six subsequent follow-ups over 20-years. The sample was well characterized with symptom, recovery and functioning data being available. This study found that in the earlier years of illness, self-reported anxiety was greater in schizoaffective and major depression patients than bipolar patients. The three groups were similar for anxiety symptoms during the 20-year course of their illness. Last, we found in all patients, self-reported anxiety in the early years predicted having a period of recovery and lower global functioning in the future. Our data provides unique information regarding the comparative course of anxiety in related mood and psychotic disorders. Both clinicians and researchers should focus on assessing, diagnosing, and treating anxiety in mood and psychotic disorders, as a means to improve outcomes and quality of life in these individuals., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Attempts to determine the cognitive benefits of adaptive working memory training in healthy adults has resulted in a polarized and stagnating field. Heterogeneous approaches and problematic methodological choices have contributed to the controversy. Structural neuroimaging has the potential to identify biological changes present after working memory training, which could go undetected by cognitive outcome tasks. In this study, 24 healthy community dwelling adults aged 18 - 40 years underwent structural magnetic resonance neuroimaging (MRI) before and after completing a 6-week n-back working memory training program. An active control group (n = 24) completed 6-weeks of processing speed training using the same computerized platform and neuroimaging protocol. Cortical surface area, thickness, and volume measurements were collected in a-priori regions of interest in the frontal and parietal lobes. Subcortical and total gray matter volumes were also measured. Group by time repeated measures Analyses of Variance (RM-ANOVAs) were conducted to identify changes in surface area, thickness, or volume measurements associated with training type over time. Null results were present across all neuroanatomical metrics after correction for multiple comparisons. Findings of this study, in concert with recently published investigations, support the idea that adaptive n-back working memory training is not an effective method for inducing neuroanatomical change. Further investigation into other forms of training may help advance the field., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The present study investigated self-reported impulsivity in gambling disorder (GD) and bipolar disorder (BD). Participants with GD (n = 31), BD (n = 19), and community controls (n = 68) completed diagnostic interviews and symptom severity and functioning assessments. Participants also completed the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale composed of five dimensions including urgency (i.e., acting rashly under conditions of negative or positive emotion), lack of perseverance (i.e., inability to maintain focus), lack of premeditation (i.e., inability to consider negative consequences), and sensation seeking (i.e., tendency to pursue novel and exciting activities). Multivariate analysis of variance showed overall significant differences among the diagnostic groups on the UPPS-P subscales. Follow-up analyses of variance showed that the groups differed on all subscales except sensation seeking. The gambling and bipolar groups had significantly higher levels of self-reported impulsivity on all subscales when compared to controls. In addition, the BD group showed higher levels of positive urgency when compared to the GD group. Positive and negative urgency showed the strongest association with GD and BD. Impaired emotion regulation mechanisms may underlie self-reported impulsivity in both disorders. Lack of premeditation and perseverance may be related to dysfunctional cognitive processes.

Response inhibition, one component of cognitive control, refers to the ability to inhibit automatic responses and has been found to be impaired in gambling disorder. Recent models of cognitive control distinguish between two mechanisms: reactive control, the ability to stop in response to a stop-stimulus, and proactive control, the ability to anticipate and prepare for a stop. Previous studies have primarily focused on reactive modes of control in gambling disorder. The aim of the current study was to assess both reactive and proactive modes of response inhibition in individuals with gambling disorder (n = 27) and community controls (n = 21) using a variant of the stop-signal task. Second, the relationship between trait impulsivity, and reactive and proactive control was examined. No group differences in reactive or proactive control were found. However, premeditation, one domain of trait impulsivity, was associated with worse proactive control in the gambling group. These results suggest that difficulties with response inhibition may not be a core deficit in all forms of gambling disorder. Future research should continue to develop and test tasks that involve cognitive control processes in different presentations of gambling disorder., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The idea that individualized, computer-based cognitive training improves cognitive functioning in non-trained domains is highly contested. An understudied area is whether cognitive training improves one's own perception of cognitive and day-to-day functioning. Furthermore, no studies have compared working memory training to programs that train higher-level processes themselves, namely logic and planning, in improving perception of cognitive abilities. We investigated self-reported changes in: (a) cognitive errors relevant to daily life; (b) expectations regarding training; and (c) impact of training on daily life, in healthy older adults who completed working memory training or logic and planning training. Ninety-seven healthy older adults completed 8-weeks of computerized cognitive training that targeted either working memory or logic and planning. Findings were compared to a no-training control group. Participants reported fewer cognitive failures relevant to daily life after training compared to the no-training control group, with a greater reduction in errors reported by the logic and planning training group compared to the working memory training group. Trainees' perception of training efficacy decreased over time. Nonetheless, approximately half of the participants in both training groups endorsed "some improvement" or more in self-perceived day-to-day functioning at post-testing. These results support the conclusion that individualized computerized cognitive training may enhance subjective perceptions of change and that higher level cognitive training may confer additional benefits. Findings suggest that cognitive training can enhance cognitive self-efficacy in healthy seniors.

Poor emotion recognition is a core deficit in schizophrenia and is associated with poor functional outcome. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) multivariate analysis methods were used to elucidate the neural underpinnings of face and emotion processing associated with both genetic liability and disease-specific effects. Schizophrenia patients, relatives, and controls completed a task that included 4 facial emotion discrimination conditions and an age discrimination condition during fMRI. Three functional networks were derived from the data: the first involved in visual attention and response generation, the second a default mode network (DMN), and a third involved in face and emotion processing. No differences in activation were found between groups for the visual attention and response generation network, suggesting that basic processes were intact. Both schizophrenia patients and relatives showed evidence for hyperdeactivation in the DMN compared to controls, with relatives being intermediate, suggesting a genetic liability effect. Both disease-specific and genetic liability effects were found for the face processing network, which included the amygdala. Patients exhibited lower coordinated network activity compared to controls and relatives across all facial discrimination conditions. Additionally, in relation to the other emotion discrimination conditions, a heightened coordinated response during fear and anger discrimination was observed in schizophrenia compared to other conditions, whereas relatives demonstrated heightened coordinated activity for anger discrimination only relative to other emotion conditions. With regards to brain functioning, this study found that schizophrenia is associated with abnormal processing of threat-related information, and that in part may be associated with the genetic risk for the disorder, suggesting that the facial and emotion processing network could be targeted for intervention., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

While behavioural trials of working memory (WM) training have received much attention in recent years, a lesser explored parallel approach is functional neuroimaging. A small literature has suggested a complex time course for functional activation pattern changes following WM training (i.e. not simply increasing or decreasing due to training); however, no study to date has examined such neuroplastic effects in both the training task (dual n-back) and the fluid intelligence transfer task to which the training is purported to transfer (Raven's Matrices). This study investigated neural correlates of WM training in healthy young adults randomized to six weeks of WM training, or an active control condition (processing speed training) with a pre- and post-training fMRI design. Results indicated significant reductions in activation for the WM trained group in key WM-task related areas for trained WM tasks after training compared to the processing speed active control group. The same pattern of training related decreases in activation for the WM trained group was not observed for the transfer task, which is consistent with null results for all cognitive outcomes of the present trial. The observed pattern of results suggests that repetitive practice with a complex task does indeed lead to neuroplastic processes that very likely represent the reduced demand for attentional control while sub-components of the task become more routinized with practice. We suggest that future research investigate neural correlates of WM training in populations for which WM itself is impaired and/or behavioural trials of WM training have returned more promising results., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Training of working memory as a method of increasing working memory capacity and fluid intelligence has received much attention in recent years. This burgeoning field remains highly controversial with empirically-backed disagreements at all levels of evidence, including individual studies, systematic reviews, and even meta-analyses. The current study investigated the effect of a randomized six week online working memory intervention on untrained cognitive abilities in a community-recruited sample of healthy young adults, in relation to both a processing speed training active control condition, as well as a no-contact control condition. Results of traditional null hypothesis significance testing, as well as Bayesian factor analyses, revealed support for the null hypothesis across all cognitive tests administered before and after training. Importantly, all three groups were similar at pre-training for a variety of individual variables purported to moderate transfer of training to fluid intelligence, including personality traits, motivation to train, and expectations of cognitive improvement from training. Because these results are consistent with experimental trials of equal or greater methodological rigor, we suggest that future research re-focus on: 1) other promising interventions known to increase memory performance in healthy young adults, and; 2) examining sub-populations or alternative populations in which working memory training may be efficacious.

Studies have demonstrated that personality traits differ in schizophrenia patients and family members compared to controls, suggesting familial risk. This study evaluated personality traits in a family study of schizophrenia, as well as the relationship between personality traits and symptoms and social functioning in schizophrenia patients. Thirty-two schizophrenia patients, 28 adult non-psychotic relatives, and 27 community controls completed the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ). Schizophrenia patients differed on many dimensions of the DAPP-BQ compared to controls and/or relatives: affective lability, anxiousness, callousness, conduct problems, cognitive dysregulation, identity problem, intimacy, insecure attachment, low affiliation, narcissism, oppositionality, restricted expression, self-harm, submissiveness, and suspiciousness. No differences were found between relatives and controls. Furthermore, in schizophrenia patients, associations were found between personality and particularly general symptoms, as well as social functioning. Personality traits can be conceptualized as an extended phenotype in schizophrenia patients., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Recent attention has focused on the benefits of cognitive training in healthy adults. Many commercial cognitive training programs are available given the attraction of not only bettering one's cognitive capacity, but also potentially preventing age-related declines, which is of particular interest to older adults. The issue of whether cognitive training can improve performance within cognitive domains not trained (i.e., far transfer) is controversial, with meta-analyses of cognitive training both supporting and falsifying this claim. More support is present for the near transfer (i.e., transfer in cognitive domain trained) of cognitive training; however, not in all studies. To date, no studies have compared working memory training to training higher-level processes themselves, namely logic and planning. We studied 97 healthy older adults above the age of 65. Healthy older adults completed either an 8-week web-based cognitive training program on working memory or logic and planning. An additional no-training control group completed two assessments 8-weeks apart. Participants were assessed on cognitive measures of near and far transfer, including working memory, planning, reasoning, processing speed, verbal fluency, cognitive flexibility, and creativity. Participants improved on the trained tasks from the first day to last day of training. Bayesian analyses demonstrated no near or far transfer effects after cognitive training. These results support the conclusion that performance-adaptive computerized cognitive training may not enhance cognition in healthy older adults. Our lack of findings could be due to a variety of reasons, including studying a cohort of healthy older adults that were performing near their cognitive ceiling, employing a training protocol that was not sufficient to produce a change, or that no true findings exist. Research suggests numerous study factors that can moderate the results. In addition, the role of psychological variables, such as expectations and motivation to train, are critical in understanding the effects of cognitive training.

Schizophrenia patients have impaired performance and abnormal brain activation during facial emotion recognition, which may represent a marker of genetic liability to schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear whether the impairment is specific to recognizing emotion from faces or is instead attributable to more generalized dysfunction. The current study aimed to distinguish between specific and generalized neural dysfunction underlying impaired facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia and examine associations with genetic liability. Twenty-eight schizophrenia patients, 27 nonpsychotic first-degree relatives, and 27 community controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while making judgments about either the emotion or age of emotional faces. Patients had performance deficits during the emotion and age discrimination conditions compared to relatives and controls, while relatives had intact performance. Patients had hypoactivation compared to controls across conditions, mainly in medial prefrontal cortex. Unlike controls, patients demonstrated a failure to recruit the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in social cognition and decision-making, and relatives had a pattern of recruitment intermediate between patients and controls. Compared to controls, relatives had greater deactivation of regions associated with the default mode network, and patients had similar findings during age discrimination. The common patterns of performance deficits and activation abnormalities during emotion and age discrimination in schizophrenia suggest that generalized cognitive impairment, notably in social cognition and decision-making, contributes to impaired facial emotion recognition. Similar functional activation patterns in relatives, despite intact performance, suggest that brain activation may represent a more sensitive marker of genetic liability than behaviour. Hyperdeactivation of default mode network regions in relatives may represent cognitive inefficiency, or compensatory mechanisms that help maintain intact performance., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The present study evaluated subjective and objective cognitive measures as predictors of fluid intelligence in healthy older adults. We hypothesized that objective cognitive measures would predict fluid intelligence to a greater degree than self-reported cognitive functioning. Ninety-three healthy older (>65 years old) community-dwelling adults participated. Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) were used to measure fluid intelligence, Digit Span Sequencing (DSS) was used to measure working memory, Trail Making Test (TMT) was used to measure cognitive flexibility, Design Fluency Test (DFT) was used to measure creativity, and Tower Test (TT) was used to measure planning. The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) was used to measure subjective perceptions of cognitive functioning. RAPM was correlated with DSS, TT, and DFT. When CFQ was the only predictor, the regression model predicting fluid intelligence was not significant. When DSS, TMT, DFT, and TT were included in the model, there was a significant change in the model and the final model was also significant, with DFT as the only significant predictor. The model accounted for approximately 20% of the variability in fluid intelligence. Our findings suggest that the most reliable means of assessing fluid intelligence is to assess it directly., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Hallucinations are a salient feature of both psychotic and mood disorders. Currently there is a call for more research on the phenomenology of different forms of hallucinations, in a broader array of disorders, to further both theoretical knowledge and clinical utility. We investigated auditory, visual, and olfactory hallucinations at index hospitalization and auditory and visual hallucinations prospectively for 20years in 150 young patients, namely 51 schizophrenia, 25 schizoaffective, 28 bipolar, and 79 unipolar depression. For the index hospitalization, the data showed schizophrenia and schizoaffective patients had a greater rate of auditory and visual hallucinations than bipolar and depression patients. However, over the longitudinal trajectory of their illness, a greater percentage of schizophrenia patients had auditory and visual hallucinations than schizoaffective patients, as well as bipolar and depression patients. Also, in contrast to the initial period, schizoaffective patients did not differentiate themselves over the follow-up period from bipolar patients. Bipolar and depression patients did not significantly differ at index hospitalization or at follow-up. We found visual hallucinations differentiated the groups to a greater degree over the 20year course than did auditory hallucinations. These findings suggest the longitudinal course is more important for differentiating schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, whereas the initial years may be more useful to differentiate schizoaffective disorder from bipolar disorder. Furthermore, we found that the early presence of auditory hallucinations was associated with a reduced likelihood for a future period of recovery. No olfactory hallucinations were present at the index hospitalization in any patients. Over the course of 20years, a minority of schizophrenia patients presented with olfactory hallucinations, and very few schizoaffective and bipolar patients presented with olfactory hallucinations. This study underscores the importance of the longitudinal course of symptoms to understand the relationship between related disorders and recovery., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: Enhancing cognitive ability is an attractive concept, particularly for middle-aged adults interested in maintaining cognitive functioning and preventing age-related declines. Computerized working memory training has been investigated as a safe method of cognitive enhancement in younger and older adults, although few studies have considered the potential impact of working memory training on middle-aged adults. This study investigated dual n-back working memory training in healthy adults aged 30-60. Fifty-seven adults completed measures of working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence before and after a 5-week web-based dual n-back or active control (processing speed) training program., Results: Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance failed to identify improvements across the three cognitive composites, working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence, after training. Follow-up Bayesian analyses supported null findings for training effects for each individual composite. Findings suggest that dual n-back working memory training may not benefit working memory or fluid intelligence in healthy adults. Further investigation is necessary to clarify if other forms of working memory training may be beneficial, and what factors impact training-related benefits, should they occur, in this population.

Little research has examined the association between disordered gambling and psychosis. In addition, clinicians treating schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders rarely screen for or treat comorbid gambling problems due to diagnostic overshadowing. Thus, the effects of disordered gambling on symptoms of schizophrenia and vice versa remain largely unexplored and unidentified in research and clinical practice. The goal of the present study was to explore qualitatively the reciprocal associations between schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and disordered gambling through content and functional analyses from the perspective of the affected individual. Eight participants who met DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and disordered gambling participated in a qualitative interview examining key antecedents associated with their gambling, as well as perceived functional consequences of gambling. Content analysis revealed unique patterns of responses specific to individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder that are not typically observed in individuals with disordered gambling alone. Specifically, gambling as filling a need for activity, and gambling as a means of connecting with society/world were the notable reasons for engaging in problematic gambling. Furthermore, some, but not all participants described a direct exacerbation of their psychosis by gambling and a greater involvement in gambling due to their symptoms of schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Schizophrenia is associated with deficits in face perception and emotion recognition. Despite consistent behavioural results, the neural mechanisms underlying these cognitive abilities have been difficult to isolate, in part due to differences in neuroimaging methods used between studies for identifying regions in the face processing system. Given this problem, we aimed to validate a recently developed fMRI-based dynamic functional localizer task for use in studies of psychiatric populations and specifically schizophrenia. Previously, this functional localizer successfully identified each of the core face processing regions (i.e. fusiform face area, occipital face area, superior temporal sulcus), and regions within an extended system (e.g. amygdala) in healthy individuals. In this study, we tested the functional localizer success rate in 27 schizophrenia patients and in 24 community controls. Overall, the core face processing regions were localized equally between both the schizophrenia and control group. Additionally, the amygdala, a candidate brain region from the extended system, was identified in nearly half the participants from both groups. These results indicate the effectiveness of a dynamic functional localizer at identifying regions of interest associated with face perception and emotion recognition in schizophrenia. The use of dynamic functional localizers may help standardize the investigation of the facial and emotion processing system in this and other clinical populations., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: In most domains of cognition, individuals with schizophrenia are generally found to be one standard deviation below the mean of the controls. As a result, examining the impact of cognitive remediation in individuals with schizophrenia has been a burgeoning area of research. However, the state of the literature remains unclear as to which domains of cognition should be targeted to produce the most widespread and durable benefits for individuals with schizophrenia. One suggestion is that targeting lower-level cognitive processes that are important for higher-level and more complex aspects of cognition may produce the most widespread benefits in cognition and everyday functioning. Relatively few studies have examined the effects of working memory or processing speed training in schizophrenia, as most studies examine broad-based remediation programs. Thus, a need exists for targeted working memory and processing speed training studies to better understand the mechanisms of cognitive enhancement in patients. This study aims to 1) investigate near-transfer gains (that is, the transfer of learning to related contexts) associated with working memory and processing speed training in schizophrenia patients; 2) investigate far-transfer gains (that is, the transfer of learning to new contexts) associated with working memory and processing speed training (that is, gains in other neurocognitive domains and social cognition); and 3) investigate real-world gains associated with training (that is, gains in daily functioning)., Methods/design: A double-blind randomized controlled trial with a three parallel group design will be conducted. A random sample of 81 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder will be recruited through outpatient clinics at Foothills Hospital and community support programs in Calgary, Alberta. Participants will be randomly assigned using a computer-generated program in a 1:1:1 ratio to a working memory-training group, a processing speed-training group, or a no-training control group. Training will be completed at home for 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week, for a total of 10 weeks. Neurocognitive, social cognitive, and daily functioning measures will be administered both pre- and post-training to detect training-related gains. The primary outcome measures will include working memory and processing speed (near-transfer measures), as well as fluid intelligence (far-transfer measure)., Trial Registration: Current controlled trials NCT02478827 (ClinicalTrials.gov, registered on 15 June 2015).

Violent video game playing has been associated with both positive and negative effects on cognition. We examined whether playing two or more hours of violent video games a day, compared to not playing video games, was associated with a different pattern of recognition of five facial emotions, while controlling for general perceptual and cognitive differences that might also occur. Undergraduate students were categorized as violent video game players (n = 83) or non-gamers (n = 69) and completed a facial recognition task, consisting of an emotion recognition condition and a control condition of gender recognition. Additionally, participants completed questionnaires assessing their video game and media consumption, aggression, and mood. Violent video game players recognized fearful faces both more accurately and quickly and disgusted faces less accurately than non-gamers. Desensitization to violence, constant exposure to fear and anxiety during game playing, and the habituation to unpleasant stimuli, are possible mechanisms that could explain these results. Future research should evaluate the effects of violent video game playing on emotion processing and social cognition more broadly., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Schizophrenia is associated with abnormalities in cortical thickness, including both thicker and thinner cortices than controls. Although less reliably than in patients, non-psychotic relatives of schizophrenia patients have also demonstrated both thicker and thinner cortices than controls, suggesting an effect of familial or genetic liability. We investigated cortical thickness in 25 schizophrenia patients, 26 adult non-psychotic first-degree biological relatives, and 23 community controls using the automated program FreeSurfer. Contrary to hypotheses, we found relatives of schizophrenia patients had greater cortical thickness in all lobes compared to patients and controls; however, this finding was not as widespread when compared to controls. In contrast, schizophrenia patients only demonstrated a thinner right fusiform region than controls and relatives. Our finding of greater thickness in adult biological relatives could represent a maladaptive abnormality or alternatively, a compensatory mechanism. Previous literature suggests that the nature of abnormalities in relatives can vary by the age of relatives and change across the developmental period. Abnormalities in patients may depend on lifestyle factors and on current and previous anti-psychotic medication use. Our results speak to the need to study various populations of patients and relatives across the lifespan to better understand different developmental periods and the impact of environmental factors. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: Deficits in facial emotion perception in schizophrenia may be a marker of disorder liability. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies investigating these deficits have been limited by task demands that may recruit other impaired cognitive processes in schizophrenia., Methods: We used a family study design along with a passive viewing task during fMRI to investigate brain activation abnormalities underlying facial emotion perception in schizophrenia and examine whether such abnormalities are associated with the genetic liability to the disorder. Twenty-eight schizophrenia patients, 27 nonpsychotic relatives, and 27 community controls passively viewed images of facial emotions during an fMRI scan., Results: Analyses revealed hypoactivation in face processing areas for both patients and relatives compared to controls, and hyperactivation in relatives compared to both patients and controls for frontal regions implicated in emotion processing., Conclusions: Results suggest that activation abnormalities during facial emotion perception are manifestations of the genetic liability to schizophrenia, and may be accompanied by compensatory mechanisms in relatives. Studying mechanisms in nonpsychotic relatives is a valuable way to examine effects of the unexpressed genetic liability to schizophrenia on the brain and behaviour., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies suggest abnormalities in the white matter microstructure of the fornix in schizophrenia patients. Research evaluating schizophrenia patient and relatives also suggests that the white matter microstructure of the fornix is heritable. However, previous studies have been hindered by limited DTI methodology. Therefore, the goal of this study was to assess whether fornix abnormalities were related to the genetic liability for schizophrenia using the novel methodological approach of assessing multiple metrics of along-tract measurements, in addition to whole-tract means. Twenty-five schizophrenia patients, 24 adult non-psychotic first-degree biological relatives, and 27 community controls underwent neuroimaging. No group differences were found for any of the DTI metrics using the classical whole-tract measures of the fornix. Along-tract analysis detected local increases in fractional anisotropy (FA) in the right fimbria of the fornix for relatives compared to patients and controls corrected for false discovery rate. No significant associations were found between symptoms, global functioning, or IQ and whole-tract FA means in schizophrenia patients or relatives. Increased FA in non-psychotic relatives could represent a compensatory mechanism to guard against psychosis or an abnormality associated with the genetic liability for the disorder. These findings underscore the importance of obtaining along-tract measurements, in addition to whole-tract measurements to fully understand white matter abnormalities in schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Cognitive deficits are consistently demonstrated in individuals with schizophrenia. Cognitive training involves structured exercises prescribed and undertaken with the intention of enhancing cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, and problem solving. Thus, cognitive training represents a potentially promising intervention for enhancing cognitive abilities in schizophrenia. However, cognitive training programs are numerous and heterogeneous, hence, the generalizability of training related outcomes can be challenging to assess. This article will provide a brief overview of current literature on cognitive training and explore how knowledge of working memory training in healthy populations can potentially be applied to enhance cognitive functioning of individuals with schizophrenia.

Background: Previous literature has indicated abnormalities in facial emotion recognition abilities, as well as deficits in basic visual processes in major depression. However, the literature is unclear on a number of important factors including whether or not these abnormalities represent deficient or enhanced emotion recognition abilities compared to control populations, and the degree to which basic visual deficits might impact this process., Methods: The present study investigated emotion recognition abilities for angry versus neutral facial expressions in a sample of undergraduate students with Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) scores indicative of moderate depression (i.e., ≥20), compared to matched low-BDI-II score (i.e., ≤2) controls via the Bubbles Facial Emotion Perception Task., Results: Results indicated unimpaired behavioural performance in discriminating angry from neutral expressions in the high depressive symptoms group relative to the minimal depressive symptoms group, despite evidence of an abnormal pattern of visual facial information usage., Limitations: The generalizability of the current findings is limited by the highly structured nature of the facial emotion recognition task used, as well as the use of an analog sample undergraduates scoring high in self-rated symptoms of depression rather than a clinical sample., Conclusions: Our findings suggest that basic visual processes are involved in emotion recognition abnormalities in depression, demonstrating consistency with the emotion recognition literature in other psychopathologies (e.g., schizophrenia, autism, social anxiety). Future research should seek to replicate these findings in clinical populations with major depression, and assess the association between aberrant face gaze behaviours and symptom severity and social functioning., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: The ability to accurately judge facial expressions is important in social interactions. Individuals with bipolar disorder have been found to be impaired in emotion recognition; however, the specifics of the impairment are unclear. This study investigated whether facial emotion recognition difficulties in bipolar disorder reflect general cognitive, or emotion-specific, impairments. Impairment in the recognition of particular emotions and the role of processing speed in facial emotion recognition were also investigated., Methods: Clinically stable bipolar patients (n = 17) and healthy controls (n = 50) judged five facial expressions in two presentation types, time-limited and self-paced. An age recognition condition was used as an experimental control., Results: Bipolar patients' overall facial recognition ability was unimpaired. However, patients' specific ability to judge happy expressions under time constraints was impaired., Conclusions: Findings suggest a deficit in happy emotion recognition impacted by processing speed. Given the limited sample size, further investigation with a larger patient sample is warranted.

The goal of this investigation was to clarify the nature of spatial working memory difficulties in individuals at ultra high risk (UHR) for psychosis. We evaluated spatial working memory and intelligence in 96 individuals at UHR for psychosis, 28 patients with first episode psychosis (FEP), and 23 healthy controls. Fourteen UHR individuals developed a psychotic disorder during follow-up. Compared to controls, the UHR group was impaired in both the short-term maintenance of material and in the effective use of strategy, but not more immediate memory. These impairments were not as severe as those in the FEP group, as the UHR group performed better than the FEP group. A similar pattern of results was found for the intelligence measures. Discriminant function analyses demonstrated short-term maintenance of material significantly differentiated the UHR and healthy control groups even when accounting for full scale intelligence quotient (IQ); whereas full scale IQ significantly differentiated the UHR and FEP groups and FEP and control groups. Notably, within the UHR group, impaired spatial working memory performance was associated with lower global functioning, but not full scale IQ. The subgroup of UHR individuals who later developed psychosis was not significantly more impaired on any aspect of working memory performance than the group of UHR individuals who did not develop psychosis. Given, the relationship between spatial working memory deficits and functional outcome, these results indicate that cognitive remediation could be useful in individuals at UHR for psychosis to potentially improve functioning., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Diffuse structural abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex have been reported in both schizophrenia patients and their nonpsychotic biological relatives. Additionally, working memory difficulties have long been documented in schizophrenia patients and have been associated with the genetic liability for the disorder. The present analysis investigated the relationship between prefrontal regional gray matter volumes and two facets of working memory in schizophrenia using a family study. Structural neuroimaging scans provided measurements of rostral middle, superior, and inferior prefrontal cortical gray matter volumes. Participants also completed a spatial working memory task that measured both short-term maintenance and manipulation of material in memory. Both schizophrenia patients and relatives had reduced superior and inferior frontal gray matter volumes. Schizophrenia patients demonstrated a spatial working memory deficit compared to both controls and relatives, with no greater impairment when required to manipulate material. Smaller prefrontal volumes in schizophrenia patients were associated with worse working memory performance. These relationships were absent in the nonpsychotic relatives and controls. Despite normative behavioral performance, nonpsychotic relatives demonstrated abnormalities in brain structure similar to those found in schizophrenia patients. Manipulation abilities were not more impaired than maintenance in schizophrenia patients. Consistent with other neuroimaging research, our results suggest that direct measures of the underlying biology may be more sensitive to the effects of the genetic liability for schizophrenia than behavioral measures., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Atypical antipsychotic medications generally maintain or increase gray matter amount and functioning. First-episode psychosis patients have lower gray matter volume in the middle frontal gyrus, as well as worse performance on spatial working memory tasks compared to controls. This study investigated the effects of short-term four- and eight-week atypical treatment on middle frontal thickness and spatial working memory in first-episode psychosis patients. Nineteen drug-naïve first-episode psychosis patients treated with risperidone or quetiapine and 26 controls completed structural magnetic resonance imaging, a spatial working memory task, and clinical assessment at three intervals (baseline, four weeks, and eight weeks; all patients and 23 controls completed all three assessments). Caudal and rostral middle frontal thicknesses were measured using the automated program Freesurfer. Positive, negative, and general symptoms of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) decreased significantly in patients, with most of the change occurring in the first four weeks of treatment. Patients demonstrated an increase in rostral middle frontal thickness over eight weeks of treatment compared to controls. There was a medium effect size relationship between reduction in negative symptoms at four and eight weeks, and a change in rostral middle frontal thickness over eight weeks. No changes were found in spatial working memory ability. Short-term atypical treatment with risperidone or quetiapine can increase prefrontal cortical thickness in psychosis. These findings are notable given the role of the rostral middle frontal region in cognition and the relationship between better cognitive functioning and better functional outcome in psychosis., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are typically separated in diagnostic systems. Behavioral, cognitive, and brain abnormalities associated with each disorder nonetheless overlap. We evaluated the diagnostic specificity of facial emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to determine whether select aspects of emotion recognition differed for the two disorders. The investigation used an experimental task that included the same facial images in an emotion recognition condition and an age recognition condition (to control for processes associated with general face recognition) in 27 schizophrenia patients, 16 bipolar I patients, and 30 controls. Schizophrenia and bipolar patients exhibited both shared and distinct aspects of facial emotion recognition deficits. Schizophrenia patients had deficits in recognizing angry facial expressions compared to healthy controls and bipolar patients. Compared to control participants, both schizophrenia and bipolar patients were more likely to mislabel facial expressions of anger as fear. Given that schizophrenia patients exhibited a deficit in emotion recognition for angry faces, which did not appear due to generalized perceptual and cognitive dysfunction, improving recognition of threat-related expression may be an important intervention target to improve social functioning in schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Deficits in facial emotion perception have been linked to poorer functional outcome in schizophrenia. However, the relationship between abnormal emotion perception and functional outcome remains poorly understood. To better understand the nature of facial emotion perception deficits in schizophrenia, we used the Bubbles Facial Emotion Perception Task to identify differences in usage of visual facial information in schizophrenia patients (n = 20) and controls (n = 20), when differentiating between angry and neutral facial expressions. As hypothesized, schizophrenia patients required more facial information than controls to accurately differentiate between angry and neutral facial expressions, and they relied on different facial features and spatial frequencies to differentiate these facial expressions. Specifically, schizophrenia patients underutilized the eye regions, overutilized the nose and mouth regions, and virtually ignored information presented at the lowest levels of spatial frequency. In addition, a post hoc one-tailed t test revealed a positive relationship of moderate strength between the degree of divergence from "normal" visual facial information usage in the eye region and lower overall social functioning. These findings provide direct support for aberrant patterns of visual facial information usage in schizophrenia in differentiating between socially salient emotional states., (© 2013 American Psychological Association)

Temporal lobe abnormalities and emotion recognition deficits are prominent features of schizophrenia and appear related to the diathesis of the disorder. This study investigated whether temporal lobe structural abnormalities were associated with facial emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia and related to genetic liability for the disorder. Twenty-seven schizophrenia patients, 23 biological family members, and 36 controls participated. Several temporal lobe regions (fusiform, superior temporal, middle temporal, amygdala, and hippocampus) previously associated with face recognition in normative samples and found to be abnormal in schizophrenia were evaluated using volumetric analyses. Participants completed a facial emotion recognition task and an age recognition control task under time-limited and self-paced conditions. Temporal lobe volumes were tested for associations with task performance. Group status explained 23% of the variance in temporal lobe volume. Left fusiform gray matter volume was decreased by 11% in patients and 7% in relatives compared with controls. Schizophrenia patients additionally exhibited smaller hippocampal and middle temporal volumes. Patients were unable to improve facial emotion recognition performance with unlimited time to make a judgment but were able to improve age recognition performance. Patients additionally showed a relationship between reduced temporal lobe gray matter and poor facial emotion recognition. For the middle temporal lobe region, the relationship between greater volume and better task performance was specific to facial emotion recognition and not age recognition. Because schizophrenia patients exhibited a specific deficit in emotion recognition not attributable to a generalized impairment in face perception, impaired emotion recognition may serve as a target for interventions.