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Introduction: Previous research indicates ethnic/race group differences in pain and neurodegenerative diseases. Accounting for socioenvironmental factors reduces ethnic/race group differences in clinical and experimental pain. In the current study sample, we previously reported that in individuals with knee pain, ethnic/race group differences were observed in bilateral temporal lobe thickness, areas of the brain associated with risk for Alzheimer's disease, and related dementias. The purpose of the study was to determine if socioenvironmental factors reduce or account for previously observed ethnic/race group differences and explore if a combined effect of socioenvironmental risk and chronic pain severity on temporal lobe cortices is evident. Methods: Consistent with the prior study, the sample was comprised of 147 adults (95 women, 52 men), 45–85 years of age, who self‐identified as non‐Hispanic Black (n = 72) and non‐Hispanic White (n = 75), with knee pain with/at risk for osteoarthritis. Measures included demographics, health history, pain questionnaires, cognitive screening, body mass index, individual‐ and community‐level socioenvironmental factors (education, income, household size, marital and insurance status, and area deprivation index), and brain imaging. We computed a summative socioenvironmental risk index. Results: Regression analyses showed that with the inclusion of socioenvironmental factors, the model was significant (p <.001), and sociodemographic (ethnic/race) group differences were not significant (p =.118). Additionally, findings revealed an additive stress load pattern indicating thinner temporal lobe cortices with greater socioenvironmental risk and chronic pain severity (p =.048). Implications: Although individual socioenvironmental factors were not independent predictors, when collectively combined in models, ethnic/race group differences in bilateral temporal lobe structures were not replicated. Further, combined socioenvironmental risk factors and higher chronic pain severity were associated with thinner bilateral temporal lobes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural neuroimaging studies of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have uncovered widespread neuroanatomical abnormalities, which may have a significant impact on brain function, connectivity, and on behavioral symptoms of autism. The findings of previous structural MRI studies have largely been distributed across several brain areas, with limited consistency. The current study examined neuroanatomical abnormalities by comparing surface-based measures of cortical morphology (CT: cortical thickness, CSA: cortical surface area, CV: cortical volume, and GI: gyrification index) in 55 high-functioning children and adults with ASD to 60 age-and-IQ-matched typically developing (TD) peers. A few brain areas, the fusiform gyrus (FG), middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), emerged to be primarily different in their morphology between the two groups. Compared to TD participants, ASD participants had significantly smaller CV in left MTG, reduced CSA in bilateral MTG and FG, reduced GI in left supramarginal gyrus, and significantly increased CT in the pars opercularis of the IFG. As a function of age, ASD participants had significant reductions in: CT in the pars opercularis, CSA of the left rostral middle frontal gyrus, and GI for left supramarginal gyrus. Thus, alterations in cortical morphology in ASD were seen primarily in regions that are considered part of the social brain. Overall, these findings point to: neuroanatomical alterations in social brain areas, developmental differences in neuroanatomy, and the need to study neuroanatomy at multiple levels in order to better characterize the cortical architecture of ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human beings constantly engage in attributing causal explanations to one’s own and to others’ actions, and theory-of-mind (ToM) is critical in making such inferences. Although children learn causal attribution early in development, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are known to have impairments in the development of intentional causality. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study investigated the neural correlates of physical and intentional causal attribution in people with ASDs. In the fMRI scanner, 15 adolescents and adults with ASDs and 15 age- and IQ-matched typically developing peers made causal judgments about comic strips presented randomly in an event-related design. All participants showed robust activation in bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus at the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) in response to intentional causality. Participants with ASDs showed lower activation in TPJ, right inferior frontal gyrus and left premotor cortex. Significantly weaker functional connectivity was also found in the ASD group between TPJ and motor areas during intentional causality. DTI data revealed significantly reduced fractional anisotropy in ASD participants in white matter underlying the temporal lobe. In addition to underscoring the role of TPJ in ToM, this study found an interaction between motor simulation and mentalizing systems in intentional causal attribution and its possible discord in autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of late life pain and disability, and non-Hispanic black (NHB) adults experience greater OA-related pain and disability than non-Hispanic whites (NHWs). Recent evidence implicates psychosocial stress, cognitive-attentional processes, and altered central pain processing as contributors to greater OA-related pain and disability among NHBs. To address these ethnic/race disparities, this clinical trial will test whether a mindfulness intervention (Breathing and Attention Training, BAT) combined with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) will enhance pain modulatory balance and pain-related brain function, reduce clinical pain, and attenuate ethnic differences therein, among NHBs and NHWs with knee OA. Participants will complete assessments of clinical pain, function, psychosocial measures, and quantitative sensory testing (QST), including mechanical temporal summation and conditioned pain modulation. Neuroimaging will be performed to examine pain-related brain structure and function. Then, participants will be randomized to one of four groups created by crossing two BAT conditions (Real vs. Sham) with two tDCS conditions (Real vs. Sham). Participants will then undergo five treatment sessions during which the assigned BAT and tDCS interventions will be delivered concurrently for 20 min over one week. After the fifth intervention session, participants will undergo assessments of clinical pain and function, QST and neuroimaging identical to the pretreatment measures, and monthly follow-up assessments of pain will be conducted for three months. This will be the first study to determine whether mindfulness and tDCS treatments will show additive or synergistic effects when combined, and whether treatment effects differ across ethnic/race groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]