Carly A Lasagna

University of Michigan | U-M · Department of Psychology

Background: Social cognitive deficits are prominent across several dimensions of psychopathology that compose a variety of psychiatric diagnoses. The hierarchical structure of the dimensions of psychopathology appears related to general cognitive ability (GCA). Yet, the exact relations among social cognition, GCA, and psychopathology dimensions rem...

Interoception refers to the processing, integration, and interpretation of bodily signals by the brain. Interoception is key to not only basic survival, but also many cognitive processes, especially motivational and affective functioning. There is emerging evidence suggesting altered interoception in schizophrenia, but few studies have explored the...

Gaze perception is a basic building block of social cognition, which is impaired in schizophrenia and contributes to functional outcomes. However, few studies have investigated its neural underpinnings and relation to broader social cognitive abilities. We address this gap. We recruited 77 schizophrenia patients and 71 controls, who completed measu...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with excessive pleasure-seeking risk-taking behaviors that often characterize its clinical presentation. However, the mechanisms of risk-taking behavior are not well-understood in BD. Recent data suggest prior substance use disorder (SUD) in BD may represent certain trait-level vulnerabilities for risky behavior....

Objectives: Impaired social cognition in bipolar disorder (BD) is related to functional outcomes. A critical determinant of social cognition is the ability to discriminate the eye gaze direction of others, and its alteration may play a role in functional impairment in BD. However, the neural mechanisms underlying gaze processing in BD are unclear....

Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with excessive pleasure-seeking risk-taking behaviors that often characterize its clinical presentation. However, the mechanisms of risk-taking behavior are not well-understood in BD. Recent data suggest prior substance use disorder (SUD) in BD may represent certain trait-level vulnerabilities for risky behavior....

Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a powerful form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation capable of suppressing cortical excitability for up to 50 min. A growing number of studies have applied cTBS to the visual cortex in human subjects to investigate the neural dynamics of visual processing, but few have specifically examined i...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with a range of social cognitive deficits. This study investigated the functioning of the mentalizing brain system in BD probed by an eye gaze perception task during fMRI. Compared with healthy controls (n = 21), BD participants (n = 14) showed reduced preferential activation for self-directed gaze discrimination...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with a range of social cognitive deficits. This study investigated the functioning of the mentalizing brain system in BD probed by an eye gaze perception task during fMRI. Compared with healthy controls ( n = 21), BD participants ( n = 14) showed reduced preferential activation for self-directed gaze discriminati...

Background: Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a powerful form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation capable of suppressing cortical excitability for up to 50 minutes. A growing number of studies have applied cTBS to the visual cortex in human subjects to investigate the neural dynamics of visual processing, but few studies have...

Background Abnormal gaze discrimination in schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with impairment in social functioning, but the neural mechanisms remain unclear. Evidence suggests that local neural oscillations and inter-areal communication through neural synchronization are critical physiological mechanisms supporting basic and complex cognitive proces...

Social dysfunction is an intractable problem in a wide spectrum of psychiatric illnesses, undermining patients' capacities for employment, independent living, and maintaining meaningful relationships. Identifying common markers of social impairment across disorders and understanding their mechanisms are prerequisites to developing targeted neurobio...

Eye contact perception—the ability to accurately and efficiently discriminate others’ gaze directions—is critical to understanding others and functioning in a complex social world. Previous research shows that it is affected in multiple neuropsychiatric disorders accompanied by social dysfunction, and understanding the cognitive processes giving ri...

Research published in major developmental journals from 2007-2014 was coded and analyzed. Trends related to study and sample characteristics were identified. Implications of findings are discussed in terms of progress and areas in need of improvement.