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IntroductionEmerging literature suggests that childhood trauma may influence facial emotion perception (FEP), with the potential to negatively bias both emotion perception and reactions to emotion-related inputs. Negative emotion perception biases are associated with a range of psychiatric and behavioral problems, potentially due or as a result of difficult social interactions. Unfortunately, there is a poor understanding of whether observed negative biases are related to childhood trauma history, depression history, or processes common to (and potentially causative of) both experiences.MethodsThe present cross-sectional study examines the relation between FEP and neural activation during FEP with retrospectively reported childhood trauma in young adult participants with remitted major depressive disorder (rMDD, n = 41) and without psychiatric histories (healthy controls [HC], n = 34). Accuracy of emotion categorization and negative bias errors during FEP and brain activation were each measured during exposure to fearful, angry, happy, sad, and neutral faces. We examined participant behavioral and neural responses in relation to total reported severity of childhood abuse and neglect (assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, CTQ).ResultsResults corrected for multiple comparisons indicate that higher trauma scores were associated with greater likelihood of miscategorizing happy faces as angry. Activation in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) positively correlated with trauma scores when participants viewed faces that they correctly categorized as angry, fearful, sad, and happy.DiscussionIdentifying the neural mechanisms by which childhood trauma and MDD may change facial emotion perception could inform targeted prevention efforts for MDD or related interpersonal difficulties.

The Life Goals (LG) application is an evidence-based self-management tool intended to help individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) by aligning symptom coping strategies with personal goals. The program has traditionally been offered in-person or via the web, but has recently been translated into an individualized, customizable mobile intervention to improve access to care and reduce provider burden. The LG app previously showed acceptability with ease of use and satisfaction with user interface, but less success in encouraging self-management. To better understand patient needs, our team conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 individuals with BD who used the LG app for 6 months. These interviews also investigated participant interest in sharing LG app data with their provider through an online dashboard. Using affinity mapping, a collaborative, qualitative data analysis technique, our team identified emerging common themes in the interviews. Through this process, team members identified 494 pieces of salient information from interviews that were mapped and translated into three main findings: (1) many participants found Mood Monitoring and LG modules helpful/interesting and stated the app overall had positive impacts on their mental health, (2) some components of the app were too rudimentary or impersonal to be beneficial, and (3) feedback was mixed regarding future implementation of an LG provider dashboard, with some participants seeing potential positive impacts and others hesitating due to perceived efficacy and privacy concerns. These findings can help researchers improve app-based interventions for individuals with BD by increasing app usage and improving care overall.

Abstract Objective The increase in smartphone usage has enabled the possibility of more accessible ways to conduct neuropsychological evaluations. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of using smartphone typing dynamics with mood scores to supplement cognitive assessment through trail making tests. Methods Using a custom‐built keyboard, naturalistic keypress dynamics were unobtrusively recorded in individuals with bipolar disorder (n = 11) and nonbipolar controls (n = 8) on an Android smartphone. Keypresses were matched to digital trail making tests part B (dTMT‐B) administered daily in two periods and weekly mood assessments. Following comparison of dTMT‐Bs to the pencil‐and‐paper equivalent, longitudinal mixed‐effects models were used to analyze daily dTMT‐B performance as a function of typing and mood. Results Comparison of the first dTMT‐B to paper TMT‐B showed adequate reliability (intraclass correlations = 0.74). In our model, we observed that participants who typed slower took longer to complete dTMT‐B (b = 0.189, p < .001). This trend was also seen in individual fluctuations in typing speed and dTMT‐B performance (b = 0.032, p = .004). Moreover, participants who were more depressed completed the dTMT‐B slower than less depressed participants (b = 0.189, p < .001). A practice effect was observed for the dTMT‐Bs. Conclusion Typing speed in combination with depression scores has the potential to infer aspects of cognition (visual attention, processing speed, and task switching) in people's natural environment to complement formal in‐person neuropsychological assessments that commonly include the trail making test.

Abstract Objective Our aim was to study within-person variability in mood, cognition, energy, and impulsivity measured in an Ecological Momentary Assessment paradigm in bipolar disorder by using modern statistical techniques. Exploratory analyses tested the relationship between bipolar disorder symptoms and hours of sleep, and levels of pain, social and task-based stress. We report an analysis of data from a two-arm, parallel group study (bipolar disorder group N = 10 and healthy control group N = 10, with 70% completion rate of 14-day surveys). Surveys of bipolar disorder symptoms, social stressors and sleep hours were completed on a smartphone at unexpected times in an Ecological Momentary Assessment paradigm twice a day. Multi-level models adjusted for potential subject heterogeneity were adopted to test the difference between the bipolar disorder and health control groups. Results Within-person variability of mood, energy, speed of thoughts, impulsivity, pain and perception of skill of tasks was significantly higher in the bipolar disorder group compared to health controls. Elevated bipolar disorder symptom domains in the evening were associated with reduced sleep time that night. Stressors were associated with worsening of bipolar disorder symptoms. Detection of symptoms when an individual is experiencing difficulty allows personalized, focused interventions.

This essay analyzes the social media rebranding of the infamous Fyre Festival, a disastrous and fraudulent music concert that went viral in 2017. The posthumous life of the ill-fated festival illustrates the unique confluence of neoliberal crisis and the entrepreneurial logics of social media that enable failed entrepreneurs to exploit their own abject spectacles of fraud and unethical business practices into lucrative opportunities. By looking at how three individuals deeply involved in planning Fyre Fest monetized the media spectacle surrounding the festival's failure through unrelenting spin, ironic self-branding, and the commodification of kitsch, we show how the emerging character of a socially mediated failure industry that revels not only in failure but in the unprincipled nature of risk-taking in the current economy. We conclude by reflecting how the entrepreneurial discourses in the aftermath of the festival are indicative of evolving entrepreneurial logics that normalize the detached and ironic enjoyment of neoliberal spectacles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gendered criticism of Eve and general criticism of Eve and Adam are rooted in the idea of their moral failing when they disobey Yahweh. Two lenses bring a more ancient understanding of the text into focus. The first lens is reading the story in the context of the J source of the Pentateuch. The second lens is that of natural law as understood by Greco-Roman philosophers. These lenses provide new clarity, showing how Eve and Adam's decision to eat from the tree of knowledge violates a non-moral norm: they transgress the boundary between humanity and divinity. It is this ontological transgression to which Yahweh responds. Mortality, many labors, and many pregnancies reflect the natural consequences of this ontological violation, not an arbitrary punishment for a moral failing. This alternative understanding of Genesis 2–3 allows us to understand that Eve and Adam are neither cursed nor punished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the manufactured controversy over the independent Christian film The Reliant (2019), a film advertised as a pro-gun action-adventure. Despite receiving virtually no attention from the political left, the filmmakers’ engaged in a public relations campaign to spotlight the putative opposition to the film as evidence of a broader effort by secular progressives to persecute Christian ideas and values. In this essay, we argue that such manufactured controversies are a rhetorical strategy of contemporary Christian nationalists to construct progressive secularism as a mortal threat to the survival of Christianity. Analyzing the promotional materials and staged events surrounding this film, we illustrate how Christian nationalism increasingly relies on contrived public controversies and faux outrage against its products, policies, and discourses to craft a warped impression that Christians face violent enmity and persecution at every turn. We advance the concept of necropolitical Christianity to name how Christian nationalists mimic forms of state sovereignty premised on the right to kill or maim in the name of collective self-defense. We conclude that manufactured enmity conjures a violent Other who despises and persecutes conservative Christians to bolster the case for more radical measures to ensure the defense and survival of the Christian nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]