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The goal of the current study was to determine the extent to which atypical neural responsiveness during retaliation is associated with observed aggression in youth in residential care. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study involved 83 adolescents (56 male and 27 female; mean age, 16.18 years) in residential care performing a retaliation task. Of the 83 adolescents, 42 displayed aggressive behavior within the first 3 months of residential care, whereas 41 did not. During the retaliation task, participants were offered either fair or unfair divisions of $20 pots (allocation phase) and could either accept the offer or reject it, and, by spending $1, $2, or $3, punish the partner (retaliation phase). The study's main findings were that aggressive adolescent showed the following: reduced down-regulation of activity within regions involved in representing the expected value of choice options (left ventromedial prefrontal cortex and left posterior cingulate cortex) as a function of offer unfairness and retaliation level; and reduced recruitment of regions implicated in response control (right inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral anterior insular cortex) and associated fronto-parietal regions as a function of retaliation level. The aggressive adolescents were also significantly more likely to have been aggressive prior to residential care and showed a strong trend for increased retaliation on the task. We suggest that individuals with a greater propensity for aggression show reduced representation of the negative consequences of retaliation and associated reduced recruitment of regions potentially involved in over-ruling these negative consequences to engage in retaliation. We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure sex balance in the selection of non-human subjects. We actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our author group. The author list of this paper includes contributors from the location and/or community where the research was conducted who participated in the data collection, design, analysis, and/or interpretation of the work. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our reference list. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our reference list. We actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our author group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Romanized transliteration is widely used in internet communication and global commerce, yet we know little about its behavioural and neural processing. Here, we show that Romanized text imposes a significant neurocognitive load. Readers faced greater difficulty in identifying concrete words written in Romanized transliteration (Romanagari) compared to L1 and L2. Functional neuroimaging revealed that the neural cost of processing transliterations arose from significantly greater recruitment of language (left precentral gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule) and attention networks (left mid-cingulum). Additionally, transliterated text uniquely activated attention and control areas compared to both L1 (cerebellar vermis) and L2 (pre-supplementary motor area/pre-SMA). We attribute the neural effort of reading Romanized transliteration to (i) effortful phonological retrieval from unfamiliar orthographic forms and (ii) conflicting attentional demands imposed by mapping orthographic forms of one language to phonological-semantic representations in another. Finally, significant brain-behaviour correlation suggests that the left mid-cingulum modulates cognitive-linguistic conflict. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Widespread structural alterations have been shown to be implicated in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, there have been inconsistent findings in cortical volume (CV) differences. Most structural neuroimaging studies looking at GAD used region‐based approach with relatively small sample sizes, let alone be specific to adolescents with GAD. We believe this is the first study to look at CV measures using a network‐based approach in a larger sample of adolescents with GAD. The goal of the current study was to focus on three different brain networks (i.e., Limbic, Frontoparietal, and Default Mode Network [DMN]) in adolescents with GAD. Method: The study involved 81 adolescents with GAD and 112 typically developing (TD) comparison individuals matched on age (15.98 and 15.63 respective means), sex (42F/39M and 45F/67M), and IQ (101.90 and 103.94 respective means). Participants underwent structural MRI. Freesurfer was used to estimate CV (both network‐specific and region‐specific within networks) and region‐specific sub‐cortical volume measures. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA; with sex, age, IQ, and intracranial volume [ICV] as potential covariates) was used to estimate group differences. Results: We found significantly lower CV for the DMN in adolescents with GAD, compared with TD individuals. Adolescents with GAD also showed significantly lower hemispheric mean CV of the default‐mode regions (particularly the prefrontal and temporal regions) and the hippocampus, compared with TD individuals. Conclusion: The current findings suggest structural alterations in adolescents with GAD. These structural alterations will need to be addressed when implementing and developing treatments for patients with GAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While neuro-cognitive work examining aggression has examined patients with conditions at increased risk for aggression or individuals self-reporting past aggression, little work has attempted to identify neuro-cognitive markers associated with observed/recorded aggression. The goal of the current study was to determine the extent to which aggression by youth in the first three months of residential care was associated with atypical responsiveness to threat stimuli. This functional MRI study involved 98 (68 male; mean age = 15.96 [sd = 1.52]) adolescents in residential care performing a looming threat task involving images of threatening and neutral human faces or animals that appeared to be either loom or recede. Level of aggression was negatively associated with responding to looming stimuli (irrespective of whether these were threatening or neutral) within regions including bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, right superior/middle temporal gyrus and a region of right uncus proximal to the amygdala. These data indicate that aggression level is associated with a decrease in responsiveness to a basic threat cue-looming stimuli. Reduced threat responsiveness likely results in the individual being less able to represent the negative consequences that may result from engaging in aggression, thereby increasing the risk for aggressive episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does music penetrate cultural differences with its ability to evoke emotion? The ragas of Hindustani music are specific sequences of notes that elicit various emotions: happy, romantic, devotion, calm, angry, longing, tension and sad. They can be presented in two modes, alaap and gat, which differ in rhythm, but match in tonality. Participants from Indian and Non-Indian cultures (N = 144 and 112, respectively) rated twenty-four pieces of Hindustani ragas on eight dimensions of emotion, in a free response task. Of the 192 between-group comparisons, ratings differed in only 9% of the instances, showing universality across multiple musical emotions. Robust regression analyses and machine learning methods revealed tonality best explained emotion ratings for Indian participants whereas rhythm was the primary predictor in Non-Indian listeners. Our results provide compelling evidence for universality in emotions in the auditory domain in the realm of musical emotion, driven by distinct acoustic features that depend on listeners’ cultural backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]