Impaired Emotional Control Research Articles

Behavioral and brain functional characteristics of children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder and anxiety trait.

The current study aimed to explore the behavioral, daily-life executive functional, and brain functional connectivity patterns in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety. A total of 246 children with non-comorbid ADHD and 91 healthy controls (HCs) participated in the current study, among whom 175 subjects went through resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. The ADHD participants were divided into two subgroups: ADHD with a high level of anxiety (ADHD + ANX) and ADHD with a low level of anxiety (ADHD-ANX). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) were used to capture the behavioral and daily-life executive functional characteristics. Independent component analysis with dual regression models was applied to the fMRI data. All statistical models were estimated with age and sex as covariates. Compared with the ADHD-ANX group, the ADHD + ANX group showed more withdrawn, somatic, social, thought, attention, delinquent, and aggressive problems (all corrected p < 0.05). The ADHD + ANX group also displayed more impaired emotional control and working memory than the ADHD-ANX (all corrected p < 0.05). The ADHD-ANX group, but not the ADHD + ANX group, showed elevated functional connectivity within the default mode network compared with the HC group. The mean function connectivity within the default mode network significantly mediated the correlation between anxiety level and attention problems. In sum, anxiety in children with ADHD was associated with more social, emotional, and behavioral problems, more impaired daily-life executive function, and altered brain function. Our work provides important information on the heterogeneity of ADHD.

Cognitive and behavioral profiles of pediatric surgical candidates with frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy

BackgroundWe aimed to prospectively analyze memory and executive and social cognitive functioning in patients with drug-resistant frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with focal lesions and isolate the impact of intellectual ability on specific deficits. MethodsA neuropsychological evaluation was performed in 23 children with FLE, 22 children with TLE, and 36 healthy pediatric controls (HCs). Patients in the epilepsy groups had a range of lesions, including low-grade epilepsy-associated tumors (LEAT), focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) type II, and mesial temporal sclerosis (MS). ResultsThere were no significant differences between children with FLE and TLE regarding memory, executive, or social cognitive functioning. General Ability Index (GAI) was a predictor of memory, executive function, and social cognition scores and was influenced by age at onset, duration of epilepsy, and number of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) prescribed at the time of assessment. Working Memory Index scores of patients with TLE, which measure verbal mnesic processing, were significantly lower than those of HCs and patients with TLE. The greatest differences in both clinical groups compared to HCs were recorded in cognitive executive functions, and patients with FLE had lower scores in this domain. Regarding behavioral executive functions, patients with TLE presented impaired emotional control and impulse inhibition and patients with FLE exhibited decreased flexibility. ConclusionConsistent with previous research, our findings provide further detailed evidence of small differences in cognitive performance among children with FLE and TLE. These differences emerge on analysis of the factors with which deficits are associated.

A Preliminary Validation Study for the Korean version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (K-BAT)

Some issues on constructs of MBI-GS in the burnout study has been risen. Schaufeli’s team(2019) invented the new measure of Burnout Assessment Tool(BAT) as the second version of burnout inventory, which covers the problematic issues. The present study aimed to validate the BAT among the South Korean sample. The one among 23 items of BAT were excluded based on an exploratory factor analysis using 367 South Korean employees. A four-factor structure of K-BAT (i.e., exhaustion, mental distance, impaired cognitive control, impaired emotional control) was supported by a confirmatory factor analysis using a different 345 employees. Validity tests for a convergence and a discriminativeness were tested by applying the MTMM(Multi-Traits Multi-Methods) model, along with a correlation analysis with MBI. For external discriminative validity, engagement was used. A sequential test for a criterion validity both with demands of workload and role ambiguity and with outcomes of turnover intention and depression was conducted. A convergence, an external discriminative, and a criterion validity were supported respectively, whereas an internal discriminative validity with MBI not supported. Implications and the directions for a consequential study were discussed, with considering the present study as an initial study for validating K-BAT.

Increased Beta Activity Links to Impaired Emotional Control in ADHD Adults With High IQ

Objective: The present study investigated the neuropathology of everyday-life executive function (EF) deficits in adults with ADHD with high IQ. Method: Forty adults with ADHD with an IQ ≥ 120 and 40 controls were recruited. Ecological EFs were measured, and eyes-closed Electroencephalograph (EEG) signals were recorded during a resting-state condition; EEG power and correlations with impaired EFs were analyzed. Results: Compared with controls, the ADHD group showed higher scores on all clusters of EF. The ADHD group showed globally increased theta, globally decreased alpha, and increased central beta activity. In the ADHD group, central beta power was significantly related to emotional control ratings, while no such correlation was evident in the control group. Conclusion: The results suggest that resting-state beta activity might be involved in the neuropathology of emotional control in adults with ADHD with high IQ.

Heterozygous Disruption of Autism susceptibility candidate 2 Causes Impaired Emotional Control and Cognitive Memory

Mutations in the Autism susceptibility candidate 2 gene (AUTS2) have been associated with a broad range of psychiatric illnesses including autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disability and schizophrenia. We previously demonstrated that the cytoplasmic AUTS2 acts as an upstream factor for the Rho family small GTPase Rac1 and Cdc42 that regulate the cytoskeletal rearrangements in neural cells. Moreover, genetic ablation of the Auts2 gene in mice has resulted in defects in neuronal migration and neuritogenesis in the developing cerebral cortex caused by inactivation of Rac1-signaling pathway, suggesting that AUTS2 is required for neural development. In this study, we conducted a battery of behavioral analyses on Auts2 heterozygous mutant mice to examine the involvement of Auts2 in adult cognitive brain functions. Auts2-deficient mice displayed a decrease in exploratory behavior as well as lower anxiety-like behaviors in the absence of any motor dysfunction. Furthermore, the capability for novel object recognition and cued associative memory were impaired in Auts2 mutant mice. Social behavior and sensory motor gating functions were, however, normal in the mutant mice as assessed by the three-chamber test and prepulse inhibition test, respectively. Together, our findings indicate that AUTS2 is critical for the acquisition of neurocognitive function.

Losing Neutrality: The Neural Basis of Impaired Emotional Control without Sleep

Sleep deprivation has been shown recently to alter emotional processing possibly associated with reduced frontal regulation. Such impairments can ultimately fail adaptive attempts to regulate emotional processing (also known as cognitive control of emotion), although this hypothesis has not been examined directly. Therefore, we explored the influence of sleep deprivation on the human brain using two different cognitive-emotional tasks, recorded using fMRI and EEG. Both tasks involved irrelevant emotional and neutral distractors presented during a competing cognitive challenge, thus creating a continuous demand for regulating emotional processing. Results reveal that, although participants showed enhanced limbic and electrophysiological reactions to emotional distractors regardless of their sleep state, they were specifically unable to ignore neutral distracting information after sleep deprivation. As a consequence, sleep deprivation resulted in similar processing of neutral and negative distractors, thus disabling accurate emotional discrimination. As expected, these findings were further associated with a decrease in prefrontal connectivity patterns in both EEG and fMRI signals, reflecting a profound decline in cognitive control of emotion. Notably, such a decline was associated with lower REM sleep amounts, supporting a role for REM sleep in overnight emotional processing. Altogether, our findings suggest that losing sleep alters emotional reactivity by lowering the threshold for emotional activation, leading to a maladaptive loss of emotional neutrality. Significance statement: Sleep loss is known as a robust modulator of emotional reactivity, leading to increased anxiety and stress elicited by seemingly minor triggers. In this work, we aimed to portray the neural basis of these emotional impairments and their possible association with frontal regulation of emotional processing, also known as cognitive control of emotion. Using specifically suited EEG and fMRI tasks, we were able to show that sleep deprivation alters emotional reactivity by triggering enhanced processing of stimuli regarded previously as neutral. These changes were further accompanied by diminished frontal connectivity, reduced REM sleep, and poorer performance. Therefore, we suggest that sleep loss alters emotional reactivity by lowering the threshold for emotional activation, leading to a maladaptive loss of emotional neutrality.

Behavioural and neuroplastic properties of chronic lurasidone treatment in serotonin transporter knockout rats

Second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) are multi-target agents widely used for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that also hold potential for the treatment of impaired emotional control, thanks to their diverse receptor profiles as well as their potential in modulating neuroadaptive changes in key brain regions. The aim of this study was thus to establish the ability of lurasidone, a novel SGA characterized by a multi-receptor signature, to modulate behavioural and molecular defects associated with a genetic model of impaired emotional control, namely serotonin transporter knockout (SERT KO) rats. At behavioural level, we found that chronic lurasidone treatment significantly increased fear extinction in SERT KO rats, but not in wild-type control animals. Moreover, at molecular level, lurasidone was able to normalize the reduced expression of the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the prefrontal cortex of SERT KO rats, an effect that occurred through the regulation of specific neurotrophin transcripts (primarily exon VI). Furthermore, chronic lurasidone treatment was also able to restore the reduced expression of different GABAergic markers that is present in these animals. Our results show that lurasidone can improve emotional control in SERT KO rats, with a primary impact on the prefrontal cortex. The adaptive changes set in motion by repeated treatment with lurasidone may in fact contribute to the amelioration of functional capacities, closely associated with neuronal plasticity, which are deteriorated in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disease and major depression.

Greater Activation in Left Hemisphere Language‐Related Regions During Simple Judgment Tasks Among Substance‐Dependent Patients in Treatment for Alcoholism

Alcoholism is often associated with impaired emotional control. Alcoholics have also been found to have deficits in frontal lobe executive functions. Recent functional imaging studies have suggested that alcoholics show greater activation than nonalcoholics in circuits involving frontal lobes, as well as more posterior brain regions, when engaged in executive-type tasks. In this study, we compared brain activations of alcohol-dependent patients and healthy nonalcoholics while they performed 2 simple judgment tasks designed to activate frontal circuits involved in a basic form of decision making. Participants completed 1 judgment task that required an emotional judgment and 1 task that did not, which enabled us to study whether alcoholics had greater brain activation while performing executive tasks, and to determine if emotional tasks elicited even greater activation than nonemotional tasks. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging scans while alcoholic patients and nonalcoholic controls viewed pictures from the International Affective Picture System. In 3 separate runs, participants viewed the images without making a judgment, determined whether the images were indoor or outdoor scenes, or decided if they liked or disliked the images. There was little difference in brain activation between alcoholics and controls when no judgment was required. When participants made judgments about either the location or whether they liked or disliked an image, however, we observed significantly increased activation in frontal, limbic, and temporal regions in the patients relative to the controls. Increases were particularly robust in the frontal lobe and in areas of the brain associated with language. When we compared the emotional to the nonemotional judgment, the alcoholics, but not the controls, showed greater activation in the ventral mesial frontal cortex. Alcoholic patients appear to use brain language areas more than nonalcoholics while making judgments about the setting or liking of emotionally arousing visual images. This increased activation may reflect a compensatory recruitment of brain regions to perform simple decision-making tasks.

Reproductive Toxicity: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Vol. 114, No. 10 EnvironewsOpen AccessReproductive Toxicity: Too Much of a Good Thing? Valerie J. Brown Valerie J. Brown Search for more papers by this author Published:1 October 2006https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.114-a578aAboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Pregnant women are famously exhorted to faithfully take their daily prenatal vitamins, which often contain iron and other minerals. But new research suggests that a weekly iron supplement coinciding with the renewal of the small intestine’s mucosal lining cells (where nutrient absorption occurs) works better than a daily supplement and prevents problems resulting from too much iron at the wrong times.Maternal iron deficiency and anemia early in gestation can result in premature birth and low birth weight. These, in turn, can trigger further problems ranging from slow physical growth and motor development to impaired emotional control. In severe cases, both maternal and fetal survival can be threatened at or near birth. Thus, there exists a near-global public health policy of maternal iron supplementation during pregnancy.The new study appears in the July 2006 issue of Archives of Medical Research. A team including nutritionist and epidemiologist Esther Casanueva of the National Institute of Perinatology Isidro Espinosa de los Reyes (INPerIER) in Mexico City and colleagues elsewhere in Mexico City and California studied 116 women receiving prenatal care at INPerIER. All had come to INPerIER for prenatal care by gestational week 20.None of the women were anemic at that point, but 66% had low levels of ferritin (the principal form of stored iron), suggesting low iron nutritional status. Half took 60 mg of iron as ferrous sulfate with 200 μg of folic acid and 1 μg of vitamin B12 once a day; the others took double this dose once a week. The researchers checked the women’s levels of hemoglobin (which transports oxygen) and ferritin every four weeks through the end of pregnancy.More of the women taking the weekly dose were mildly anemic (with hemoglobin levels shown not to carry any risk for mothers and infants) compared with the women taking the daily dose. However, by weeks 28 to 36, women taking the daily supplement had a significantly higher prevalence of hemoconcentration, a condition defined as hemoglobin levels above 145 g/L. Ironically, both early gestational iron-deficiency anemia and hemoconcentration later in pregnancy increase the risk of premature birth and low birth weight. Thus, the researchers suggest that excess iron supplementation can cause the same problems it is supposed to correct.Animal studies suggest that excess iron can also trigger formation of free radicals in the intestinal mucosa and other tissues, and that both iron deficiency and iron overload can damage nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA. This kind of damage has been implicated in cancer induction.The intestinal mucosa is renewed every 5 to 6 days and will absorb as much iron as necessary to maintain iron balance; however, mature cells will stop absorbing iron entirely if they are flooded with it, even if there is an iron deficit. “Maintaining a high iron environment in the intestine by ingesting significantly more iron than needed every day overwhelms this safety system,” says coauthor Fernando E. Viteri. A more subtly calibrated iron supplementation during pregnancy may be as effective as current public health recommendations, and perhaps safer.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 114, No. 10 October 2006Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 October 2006Published in print1 October 2006 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Assessing distress in caregivers of people with a traumatic brain injury (TBI): a psychometric study of the Head Injury Behaviour Scale

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Head Injury Behaviour Scale (HIBS) using responses from 242 caregivers. The HIBS is a 20-item, scale describing common behavioural problems following traumatic brain injury (TBI), which are typical of dysexecutive syndrome. A principal components analysis was conducted on caregiver distress ratings for the 20 items comprising the HIBS and produced a two-factor solution with 10 items loading on each factor. Consequently, two sub-scales were derived and labelled Emotional Regulation and Behavioural Regulation. The sub-scales were found to have good internal-consistency reliability. It is suggested that the Emotional Regulation sub-scale assesses behaviours reflecting impaired emotional control, occurring during interactions with caregivers. The Behavioural Regulation sub-scale assesses problems typical of dysexecutive syndrome, but which carry less emotional valence for caregivers. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed and normative data provided for the two sub-scales.