Rachael GraziopleneYale University | YU · Department of Psychology
Rachael Grazioplene
PhD
About
34
Publications
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Introduction
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October 2008 - August 2010
Publications
Publications (34)
Early research on the neural correlates of human intelligence was almost exclusively focused on gray matter properties. The advent of diffusion-weighted imaging led to an exponential growth of white matter brain imaging studies. However, this line of research has yielded mixed observations, especially about the relations between general intelligenc...
The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology consortium aims to develop a comprehensive self-report measure to assess psychopathology dimensionally. The current research describes the initial conceptualization, development, and item selection for the thought disorder spectrum. This spectrum is defined primarily by the positive and disorganized trai...
The prodromal phase of psychosis represents an opportunity to understand how psychosis develops, and research in this area has the potential to generate strategies for treatment and prevention. This chapter reviews findings from clinical high risk (CHR) and general population sampling research related to prediction of psychosis, discussing what has...
Background
Positive symptoms of schizophrenia and its extended phenotype—schizotypy—are characterized by the inclusion of novel, erroneous mental contents. These positive symptoms occur across those with a variety of diagnoses, including schizophrenia, personality disorders, and depression and bipolar with psychotic features. One promising transdia...
Positive symptoms of schizophrenia and its extended phenotype—often termed Psychoticism or positive schizotypy—are characterized by the inclusion of novel, erroneous mental contents. One promising framework for explaining positive symptoms involves “apophenia,” conceptualized here as a disposition toward false positive errors. Apophenia and positiv...
Background
Childhood aggression has been linked to white matter abnormalities, but research has been inconsistent in both regions of alterations and directionality of the associations. We examined white matter microstructure correlates of aggression using a novel diffusion imaging analysis technique, fixel-based analysis, which leverages connectivi...
Psychosis proneness has been linked to heightened Openness to Experience and to cognitive deficits. Openness and psychotic disorders are associated with the default and frontoparietal networks, and the latter network is also robustly associated with intelligence. We tested the hypothesis that functional connectivity of the default and frontoparieta...
Psychosis proneness appears to fall on a continuum with Openness to Experience, and both traits are associated with individual differences in the default and frontoparietal networks. The latter of these networks is also robustly associated with intelligence. We tested the hypothesis that functional connectivity of the default and frontoparietal net...
The five‐factor model consists of cognitive‐affective‐behavioral trait dimensions (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness) that are central to models of psychopathology. In adults, individual differences in three of the Big Five traits, neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness, have been linked t...
Background: Psychosis proneness has been linked to heightened Openness to Experience, as well as cognitive deficits. Openness and psychotic disorders are associated with individual differences in the default and frontoparietal control networks, and the latter is also robustly associated with intelligence. We tested the hypothesis that functional co...
Positive symptoms of schizophrenia and its extended phenotype—psychoticism—are characterized by the inclusion of novel, erroneous mental contents. One promising framework for explaining positive symptoms involves “apophenia,” conceptualized here as a disposition toward false positive errors. Apophenia and positive symptoms have shown relations to O...
Perceiving and identifying with the mental states of others is a critical component of social cognition. Social neuroscience research has identified two complementary networks (mirror and mentalizing) that contribute to the mental act of perspective-taking. Functional activation within each region has been associated with trait empathy and prosocia...
The latent structure of schizotypy and psychosis-spectrum symptoms remains poorly understood. Furthermore, molecular genetic substrates are poorly defined, largely due to the substantial resources required to collect rich phenotypic data across diverse populations. Sample sizes of phenotypic studies are often insufficient for advanced structural eq...
MRtrix3 Fiber Density Results in MNI space.
FSL FA Results in MNI space.
MRtrix3 FA Results in MNI space.
Reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) is a well-established correlate of schizophrenia, but it remains unclear whether these tensor-based differences are the result of axon damage and/or organizational changes and whether the changes are progressive in the adult course of illness. Diffusion MRI data were collected in 81 schizophrenia patients (54 firs...
Background: The presence of altered white matter microstructure in disorders involving psychosis is well established, but the nature and developmental course of these changes are not well understood (Peters & Karlsgodt, 2015). It is not clear whether the presence of attenuated frontal white matter anisotropy at any phase of illness indexes a pathop...
The link between diagnoses of psychotic disorders and attenuated white matter connectivity is well established, but little is known about the degree to which similar white matter differences predict traits linked to psychosis-proneness in the general population. Moreover, intelligence is too rarely considered as a covariate in neural endophenotype...
Objective
The Big Five personality dimension Openness/Intellect is the trait most closely associated with creativity and creative achievement. Little is known, however, regarding the discriminant validity of its two aspects— Openness to Experience (reflecting cognitive engagement with sensory and perceptual information) and Intellect (reflecting co...
The externalizing spectrum encompasses a range of maladaptive behaviors, including substance-use problems, impulsivity, and aggression. Although previous literature has linked externalizing behaviors with prefrontal and amygdala abnormalities, recent studies suggest insula functionality is implicated. This study investigated the relation between in...
This study examined the association between size of the caudate nuclei and intelligence. Based on the central role of the caudate in learning, as well as neuroimaging studies linking greater caudate volume to better attentional function, verbal ability, and dopamine receptor availability, we hypothesized the existence of a positive association betw...
Individuals high in the personality trait Openness to Experience appear to engage spontaneously (during wake) in processes of elaborative encoding similar to those Llewellyn identifies in both dreaming and the ancient art of memory (AAOM). Links between Openness and dreaming support the hypothesis that dreaming is part of a larger process of cognit...
A novel theory of Openness/Intellect is proposed, which integrates intelligence and positive schizotypy (or apophenia, false detection of patterns or causal connections) within the Big Five. Openness/Intellect comprises a simplex of subtraits arrayed along a single scaling dimension. Openness traits fall in one half of the simplex, bounded by apoph...
Background:
The differential susceptibility hypothesis states that some genetic variants that confer risk in adverse environments are beneficial in normal or nurturing environments. The cholinergic system is promising as a source of susceptibility genes because of its involvement in learning and neural plasticity. The cholinergic receptor gene CHR...
Many studies of creative cognition with a neuroimaging component now exist; what do they say about where and how creativity arises in the brain? We reviewed 45 brain-imaging studies of creative cognition. We found little clear evidence of overlap in their results. Nearly as many different tests were used as there were studies; this test diversity m...
Within systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients can be divided into groups with and without central nervous system involvement, the latter being subcategorized as neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE). While a number of research groups have investigated NPSLE, there remains a lack of consistent application of this diagnostic crit...
That creativity and psychopathology are somehow linked remains a popular but controversial idea in neuroscience research. Brain regions implicated in both psychosis-proneness and creative cognition include frontal projection zones and association fibers. In normal subjects, we have previously demonstrated that a composite measure of divergent think...
Projects
Projects (3)
This project will seek to determine the functional and structural brain correlates of apophenia, across the spectrum of typical personality and psychopathology. Specifically, we are interested in the roles of the Default and Frontoparietal Control Networks, as well as their interaction. We will also work to develop tasks to tap into apophenia as a latent construct representing overall tendency to recognize meaningful patterns in the absence of meaningful signal.
This project seeks to determine the personality and neural correlates of individual differences in the tendency toward affiliating with others. This includes the roles of the opioid system/striatum and the default network, as well as Big 5 traits such as Agreeableness and Extraversion. We are also interested in the implications for psychopathology-related dimensions such as antagonism (i.e., grandiosity, manipulativeness, and callousness) and detachment (i.e., intimacy avoidance, social withdrawal, and anhedonia).
Using diffusion MRI techniques to investigate the nature of white matter alterations cross-sectionally in schizophrenia patients
