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C Schilling,
S Kühn,
T Paus,
A Romanowski,
T Banaschewski,
A Barbot,
G J Barker,
R Brühl,
C Büchel,
P J Conrod, [......],
F Nees,
M Rietschel,
T W Robbins,
M N Smolka, A Ströhle,
N Kathmann,
H Garavan,
A Heinz,
G Schumann,
J Gallinat
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ABSTRACT: Impulsiveness is a pivotal personality trait representing a core domain in all major personality inventories. Recently, impulsiveness has been identified as an important modulator of cognitive processing, particularly in tasks that require the processing of large amounts of information. Although brain imaging studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex to be a common underlying representation of impulsiveness and related cognitive functioning, to date a fine-grain and detailed morphometric analysis has not been carried out. On the basis of ahigh-resolution magnetic resonance scans acquired in 1620 healthy adolescents (IMAGEN), the individual cortical thickness (CT) was estimated. Correlations between Cloninger's impulsiveness and CT were studied in an entire cortex analysis. The cluster identified was tested for associations with performance in perceptual reasoning tasks of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC IV). We observed a significant inverse correlation between trait impulsiveness and CT of the left superior frontal cortex (SFC; Monte Carlo Simulation P<0.01). CT within this cluster correlated with perceptual reasoning scores (Bonferroni corrected) of the WISC IV. On the basis of a large sample of adolescents, we identified an extended area in the SFC as a correlate of impulsiveness, which appears to be in line with the trait character of this prominent personality facet. The association of SFC thickness with perceptual reasoning argues for a common neurobiological basis of personality and specific cognitive domains comprising attention, spatial reasoning and response selection. The results may facilitate the understanding of the role of impulsiveness in several psychiatric disorders associated with prefrontal dysfunctions and cognitive deficits.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 5 June 2012; doi:10.1038/mp.2012.56.
Molecular psychiatry 06/2012; · 15.05 Impact Factor
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S Schneider,
S Brassen,
U Bromberg,
T Banaschewski,
P Conrod,
H Flor,
J Gallinat,
Hugh Garavan,
A Heinz,
J-L Martinot,
F Nees,
M Rietschel,
M N Smolka, A Ströhle,
M Struve,
G Schumann,
C Büchel
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ABSTRACT: Considerable animal and human research has been dedicated to the effects of parenting on structural brain development, focusing on hippocampal and prefrontal areas. Conversely, although functional imaging studies suggest that the neural reward circuitry is involved in parental affection, little is known about mothers' interpersonal qualities in relation to their children's brain structure and function. Moreover, gender differences concerning the effect of maternal qualities have rarely been investigated systematically. In 63 adolescents, we assessed structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging as well as interpersonal affiliation in their mothers. This allowed us to associate maternal affiliation with gray matter density and neural responses during different phases of the well-established Monetary Incentive Delay task. Maternal affiliation was positively associated with hippocampal and orbitofrontal gray matter density. Moreover, in the feedback of reward hit as compared with reward miss, an association with caudate activation was found. Although no significant gender effects were observed in these associations, during reward feedback as compared with baseline, maternal affiliation was significantly associated with ventral striatal and caudate activation only in females. Our findings demonstrate that maternal interpersonal affiliation is related to alterations in both the brain structure and reward-related activation in healthy adolescents. Importantly, the pattern is in line with typical findings in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, suggesting that a lack of maternal affiliation might have a role in the genesis of mental disorders.
Translational psychiatry. 01/2012; 2:e182.
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S Schneider,
J Peters,
U Bromberg,
S Brassen,
M M Menz,
S F Miedl,
E Loth,
T Banaschewski,
A Barbot,
G Barker, [......],
J-B Poline,
M Rietschel,
L Reed,
M N Smolka,
R Spanagel,
C Speiser, A Ströhle,
M Struve,
G Schumann,
C Büchel
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ABSTRACT: Previous studies have observed a sex-dependent lateralization of amygdala activation related to emotional memory. Specifically, it was shown that the activity of the right amygdala correlates significantly stronger with memory for images judged as arousing in men than in women, and that there is a significantly stronger relationship in women than in men between activity of the left amygdala and memory for arousing images. Using a large sample of 235 male adolescents and 235 females matched for age and handedness, we investigated the sex-specific lateralization of amygdala activation during an emotional face perception fMRI task. Performing a formal sex by hemisphere analysis, we observed in males a significantly stronger right amygdala activation as compared to females. Our results indicate that adolescents display a sex-dependent lateralization of amygdala activation that is also present in basic processes of emotional perception. This finding suggests a sex-dependent development of human emotion processing and may further implicate possible etiological pathways for mental disorders most frequent in adolescent males (i.e., conduct disorder).
NeuroImage 02/2011; 56(3):1847-53. · 5.89 Impact Factor
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S Kühn,
A Romanowski,
C Schilling,
R Lorenz,
C Mörsen,
N Seiferth,
T Banaschewski,
A Barbot,
G J Barker,
C Büchel, [......],
K Mann,
J-L Martinot,
T Paus,
M Rietschel,
M N Smolka, A Ströhle,
B Walaszek,
G Schumann,
A Heinz,
J Gallinat
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ABSTRACT: Video game playing is a frequent recreational activity. Previous studies have reported an involvement of dopamine-related ventral striatum. However, structural brain correlates of video game playing have not been investigated. On magnetic resonance imaging scans of 154 14-year-olds, we computed voxel-based morphometry to explore differences between frequent and infrequent video game players. Moreover, we assessed the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task during functional magnetic resonance imaging and the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT). We found higher left striatal grey matter volume when comparing frequent against infrequent video game players that was negatively correlated with deliberation time in CGT. Within the same region, we found an activity difference in MID task: frequent compared with infrequent video game players showed enhanced activity during feedback of loss compared with no loss. This activity was likewise negatively correlated with deliberation time. The association of video game playing with higher left ventral striatum volume could reflect altered reward processing and represent adaptive neural plasticity.
Translational psychiatry. 01/2011; 1:e53.
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G Schumann,
E Loth,
T Banaschewski,
A Barbot,
G Barker,
C Büchel,
P J Conrod,
J W Dalley,
H Flor,
J Gallinat, [......],
J-B Poline,
T W Robbins,
M Rietschel,
L Reed,
M Smolka,
R Spanagel,
C Speiser,
D N Stephens, A Ströhle,
M Struve
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ABSTRACT: A fundamental function of the brain is to evaluate the emotional and motivational significance of stimuli and to adapt behaviour accordingly. The IMAGEN study is the first multicentre genetic-neuroimaging study aimed at identifying the genetic and neurobiological basis of individual variability in impulsivity, reinforcer sensitivity and emotional reactivity, and determining their predictive value for the development of frequent psychiatric disorders. Comprehensive behavioural and neuropsychological characterization, functional and structural neuroimaging and genome-wide association analyses of 2000 14-year-old adolescents are combined with functional genetics in animal and human models. Results will be validated in 1000 adolescents from the Canadian Saguenay Youth Study. The sample will be followed up longitudinally at the age of 16 years to investigate the predictive value of genetics and intermediate phenotypes for the development of frequent psychiatric disorders. This review describes the strategies the IMAGEN consortium used to meet the challenges posed by large-scale multicentre imaging-genomics investigations. We provide detailed methods and Standard Operating Procedures that we hope will be helpful for the design of future studies. These include standardization of the clinical, psychometric and neuroimaging-acquisition protocols, development of a central database for efficient analyses of large multimodal data sets and new analytic approaches to large-scale genetic neuroimaging analyses.
Molecular psychiatry 12/2010; 15(12):1128-39. · 15.05 Impact Factor
