Background Auditory verbal hallucinations (‘voices’) in clinical psychosis are associated with significant distress and disability, but the efficacy of CBT for voices is modest. Greater phenomenolog.....

To keep the mind young, dance the tango.

Abstract. Ketamine produces fast-acting antidepressant effects in treatment resistant depression (TRD). Prior studies have shown altered functional dynamics between brain networks in major depression. We thus sought to determine whether functional brain network dynamics are modulated by ketamine therapy in TRD. Participants with TRD (n=58, mean age=40.7 years, female=48.3%) completed resting-state fMRI scans and clinical assessments (mood and rumination) at baseline and 24 h after receiving four ketamine infusions (0.5mg/kg) over two weeks. Healthy controls (HC) (n=56, mean age=32.8 years, female=57.1%) received the same assessments at baseline and after two weeks in a subsample without treatment. A co-activation pattern (CAP) analysis identified recurring patterns of brain activity across all subjects using k-means clustering. Statistical analyses compared CAP metrics including the fraction of time (FT) spent in a brain state, and the transition probability (TP) from one state to another over time and associations with clinical improvement. Follow-up analyses compared HC and TRD at baseline. Six brain state clusters were identified, including patterns resembling the salience (SN), central executive (CEN), visual (VN), default mode (DMN), and somatomotor (SMN) networks. Following ketamine, TRD patients showed decreased FT for the VN (p=7.4E-04) and increased FT for the CEN state (p=1.9E-03). For TP metrics, SN-CEN increased (p=5.8E-04) and SN-VN decreased (p=3.6E-03). Decreased FT for the SN associated with improved rumination (p=1.9E-03). At baseline, lower FT for CEN (p=5.70E-04) and TP for SN-CEN (p=0.016) and higher TP for SN-VN (p=2.60E-03) distinguished TRD from HCs. CAP metrics remained stable over time in a subsample of HCs (n=18). These findings suggest ketamine modulates brain network dynamics between SN, CEN and VN in TRD, which may normalize dynamic patterns seen in TRD at baseline towards patterns seen in controls. Changes in SN state dynamics may correspond to improvements in ruminative symptoms following ketamine therapy.

When faced with many options to choose from, humans typically need to explore the utility of new choice options. People with an autism diagnosis or elevated autism traits are thought to avoid exploring such unknown options, but it remains unclear how autism affects exploration in decision spaces with many options. In a large online sample (N = 588), we investigated the impact of autism diagnosis or elevated autism traits on exploration behavior during value-based decision-making in vast decision spaces. We used a 121-armed bandit with spatially correlated choice options, and a dedicated computational model to disentangle generalization, uncertainty-guided exploration, and random exploration strategies. Our findings show that participants with a self-reported autism diagnosis were less likely to explore novel choice options and more likely to exploit known high-value options. Computational modeling suggests they engaged in less uncertainty-driven exploration but exhibited equal random exploration and generalization strategies. Interestingly, among non-diagnosed participants, people with elevated autism traits did not explore less. This study relies on self-reported autism diagnoses and trait measures collected online. This may limit the generalizability of the findings to clinically verified or more diverse autism populations. Our findings highlight important differences in exploration strategies between clinical and subclinical populations and emphasize the importance of cognitive modeling and using vast decision spaces to better understand autism.

At the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, we often hear questions like, “What research is done here?” or, “What is the research about?”. Our answer is that the […]

People synchronize their periodic behavioural and physiological rhythms with each other during social interaction. While this interpersonal synchronization has largely been associated with positive ef...

People often receive rewards for good performance, but what happens when rewards do not reflect ability? Two behavioral studies suggest that rewards can impact how we evaluate our own ability, above and beyond the impact of actual performance.

College is not just about transmitting knowledge—it’s also about learning and practicing the skills that connect us to one another.

Two EEG studies in healthy human adults suggest that choice history and stimulus probability-induced biases in somatosensory perception are reflected in distinct prestimulus beta power modulations across distinct cortical regions.

Associate/Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Director of Psychosis Program Hiring Department: Department of Psychiatry Location: 1601 W. Taylor St.,...

Adolescents’ choices are influenced by others. A social risky choice experiment and Bayesian modelling reveal that age differences in internal uncertainty, being unsure how to choose, relate to differences in susceptibility to social influence.

PDF | On Jan 1, 1991, Nico H. Frijda and others published The duration of affective phenomena or emotions, sentiments and passions | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

Numerous studies in humans have demonstrated a strong link between heart and brain function at different timescales. We conceptualize this functional …