Amanda E. Guyer

Adolescence is a sensitive period during which socioeconomic conditions can shape brain development and mental health. To further clarify such pathways, the present study examined how trajectories of different poverty indices across adolescence relate to brain structure and depressive symptomatology. In a sample of 206 Mexican‐origin youth, latent growth curve modeling was used to assess parent‐reported income‐to‐needs and economic hardship measured from ages 10 to 16 as predictors of self‐reported depressive symptomatology at age 18. Youths also reported on perceived economic hardship at 14 and 16 years. Amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex volumes assessed using structural magnetic resonance imaging at age 17 were examined as mediators within the models. Lower average income‐to‐needs across adolescence was associated with larger amygdala and hippocampal volumes, whereas youth‐reported economic hardship predicted smaller anterior cingulate cortex volumes. Youth‐reported economic hardship, but neither parent‐reported economic hardship nor brain volumes, significantly predicted depression symptoms. Parent‐reported economic hardship across adolescence was unrelated to both brain volume and depression symptoms. Results highlight that objective poverty and adolescents' own perceptions of hardship may each relate to neurodevelopment, and that youth‐reported hardship may be more proximally linked to depressive symptomatology in late adolescence than parent‐reported hardship or brain volume.

Background: Aberrant thalamic structure has been documented in youth with bipolar disorder (BD) and linked with cannabis use, which commonly co‐occurs with BD. However, the timeline of when these associations evolve remains unclear. This study aimed to longitudinally compare thalamic volume among youth with and without first episode mania who do or do not use cannabis and other substances. Methods: Demographic and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from youth (13–18 years old) with BD ( n = 22) were compared to similarly aged healthy youth ( n = 23) at baseline and 12‐month follow‐up. Clinical group status, including BD and substance misuse and dependence, was evaluated using semistructured interviews. Multivariate analyses accounting for total brain volume and baseline age were conducted to evaluate baseline and longitudinal group differences in thalamic volume. Results: At 12 months, BD youth had significantly smaller left thalamus volumes compared to healthy youth ( p = 0.009). Lifetime cannabis use was associated with smaller left thalamus volumes for all youth ( p < 0.001) and for youth with BD compared to healthy controls ( p < 0.001) across time. Among BD youth, co‐occurring lifetime substance use was associated with significant volumetric reductions in the left thalamus from baseline to follow‐up ( p = 0.004), but not among healthy youth ( p = 0.517). No significant group differences or changes were observed in the right thalamus. Conclusions: BD is associated with smaller left thalamic volume after the first manic episode. Cannabis use may compound thalamic volume reductions in youth with BD. Investigations with larger sample sizes are needed to replicate these findings and examine clinical correlates of cannabis use alongside long‐term thalamic trajectories.

Few studies have examined prospective or neurobiological predictors of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) in Latino youth. We hypothesized that autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity at baseline and in response to social exclusion would distinguish Mexican-origin adolescents with versus without histories of suicidality, and would predict subsequent suicidality. Skin conductance responses and respiratory sinus arrhythmia, indicators of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, respectively, were recorded at baseline and during Cyberball exclusion trials, in 229 Mexican-origin youths ( M = 17.16 years, 110 females). STB was assessed 11 times across ages 10 to 20 years; 62 youths had histories of STB prior to the physiological measures, and 61 youths reported STB in the following 2.5 years. Cyberball elicited parasympathetic withdrawal without sympathetic activation, compared to baseline. Adolescents with histories of STB, compared to those without, had lower sympathetic activity during baseline and social exclusion. Lower basal sympathetic activity paired with greater uncoupled sympathetic activation during Cyberball predicted prospective STB. These findings support bioecological theories of stress vulnerability that suggest acute autonomic activity may serve as a biomarker for suicidality risk and extend prior work by identifying pathophysiology that could be the target of interventions to reduce risk in Mexican-origin youth.

Background: Adolescence, particularly for girls, is a period of heightened risk for depressive symptoms and increased interpersonal stress. Although depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems are known to co‐occur, prior work has predominantly examined between‐person associations, leaving within‐person processes unclear. This study addressed this gap by testing longitudinal within‐person associations between depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems in adolescent girls over 4 years, evaluating whether links were reciprocal or unidirectional. Methods: Participants included 543 adolescent girls from the Pittsburgh Girls Study. Across four waves (mean ages = 16.5–19.3 years), girls self‐reported depressive symptoms and eight types of interpersonal problems: domineering, vindictive, cold, socially avoidant, nonassertive, exploitable, overly nurturant, and intrusive. For each interpersonal problem, we fit both constrained and unconstrained random intercept cross‐lagged panel models and selected the constrained model unless it demonstrated a significantly poorer fit than the unconstrained model, prioritizing parsimony. Results: The selected models demonstrated good fit for all eight interpersonal problems. Within‐person increases in depressive symptoms predicted subsequent within‐person increases in overly nurturant and socially avoidant problems, whereas these interpersonal problems did not predict subsequent within‐person increases in depressive symptoms. By contrast, depressive symptoms and domineering problems reciprocally predicted one another over time. Conclusions: This study clarifies how depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems influence one another over time within individuals in adolescent girls. Findings highlight domineering problems as a potential intervention target for breaking cycles of mutual reinforcement with depressive symptoms. Moreover, addressing depressive symptoms may yield social benefits by reducing subsequent overly nurturant and socially avoidant problems.

Introduction: Maternal and child undernutrition are linked to atypical brain development in children. Provision of pre- and post-natal small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) has been shown to positively impact children’s growth and development. It is unknown, however, whether SQ-LNS affects child brain morphology. Methods: The present study used data from the International Lipid-based Nutrient Supplements randomized controlled trial in Ghana. Participants were 231 children ( M _age = 10.6 years; 49.4% female) exposed to maternal iron and folic acid supplements prenatally ( n = 113, control group) or maternal SQ-LNS prenatally until 6 mo postpartum and child SQ-LNS from age 6 to 18 months ( n = 118, SQ-LNS group). Children underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain anatomy. Primary outcomes were total gray matter volume, cortical gray matter thickness, and cortical gray matter volume assessed with whole-brain analyses. Secondary outcomes were thickness and volume of a priori specified cortical and subcortical regions assessed with region-of-interest (ROI) analyses. Basic and full covariate models were tested and corrected for multiple comparisons. Results: Whole-brain analyses revealed no significant differences between groups in total gray matter volume or cortical gray matter thickness or volume. Cortical ROI analyses showed the SQ-LNS versus control group had greater right caudal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) thickness [mean (95%CI): 2.78 (2.73, 2.84) vs. 2.72 (2.67, 2.77); effect size = 0.21] and reduced left rostral ACC volume [2575.1 (2477.3, 2672.8) vs. 2678.74 (2568.7, 2788.8); effect size = 0.18]. Subcortical ROI analyses showed the SQ-LNS versus control group had greater volume of the left pallidus [1794.45 (1759.10, 1829.80) vs. 1726.13 (1685.05, 1767.21); effect size = 0.33] and right nucleus accumbens [751.54 (729.83, 773.24) vs. 705.73 (684.21, 727.24); effect size = 0.39]. Significant group differences did not hold after correction for multiple comparisons. Discussion: In this cohort, pre- and post-natal SQ-LNS supplementation did not significantly alter total or cortical gray matter thickness and volume at 10 years, though secondary ROI analyses indicated subtle, non-robust differences in selected regions.

Cognitive control of emotion is important for social-emotional functioning. Yet, we know little about the development of implicit cognitive control of emot

Background: Adolescence, particularly for girls, is a period of heightened risk for depressive symptoms and increased interpersonal stress. Although depressive symptoms and problematic interpersonal behaviors are known to co-occur, prior work has predominantly examined between-person associations, leaving within-person processes unclear. This study addressed this gap by testing longitudinal within-person associations between depressive symptoms and problematic interpersonal behaviors in adolescent girls over four years, evaluating whether links were reciprocal or unidirectional. Methods: Participants included 543 adolescent girls from the Pittsburgh Girls Study. At ages 16, 17, 18, and 19, girls self-reported depressive symptoms and eight types of problematic interpersonal behaviors: domineering, vindictive, cold, socially avoidant, non-assertive, exploitable, overly nurturant, and intrusive. For each interpersonal behavior, we fit both constrained and unconstrained random-intercept cross-lagged panel models and selected the constrained model unless it demonstrated a significantly poorer fit than the unconstrained model, prioritizing parsimony. Results: The selected models demonstrated good fit for all eight interpersonal behaviors. Within-person increases in depressive symptoms predicted subsequent within-person increases in overly nurturant and socially avoidant behaviors, whereas these behaviors did not predict subsequent within-person increases in depressive symptoms. By contrast, depressive symptoms and domineering behaviors reciprocally predicted one another over time. Conclusions: This study clarifies how depressive symptoms and interpersonal behaviors influence one another over time within individuals in adolescent girls. Findings highlight domineering behaviors as a potential intervention target for breaking cycles of mutual reinforcement with depressive symptoms. Moreover, addressing depressive symptoms may yield social benefits by reducing subsequent overly nurturant and socially avoidant behaviors.

High infant behavioral inhibition (BI) increases risk for social difficulties and anxiety, suggesting long-term consequences for adult socioemotional development. Infant BI and social anxiety also affect error processing. Whether this association extends to social contexts remains unclear. In this prospective, 30-year longitudinal study, we investigated the long-term association between infant BI and self-reported social anxiety, and the association that infant BI and social anxiety show with adult brain and behavioral measures of social error processing. To examine the role of social observation in error processing, participants performed a social flanker task during magnetic resonance imaging. We expected pregenual anterior cingulate activity to be associated with social error processing in participants who scored high on social anxiety and infant temperament. The final sample included data from 24 participants (50% male, mean age 29.50 years). Infant BI was not related to self-reported adult social anxiety scores. We found an interaction effect of temperament and social anxiety on activity in the middle cingulate cortex, temporal and precentral gyrus. Also, we found a main effect of social vs. alone condition on activity in middle cingulate cortex. For all regions, activity was stronger during the processing of correct vs. error trials in the social condition. Contrary to our hypotheses, the findings were in white matter, as the observed activity disappeared after applying a grey matter mask. These preliminary results might suggest that the brain devotes more performance monitoring processing to facilitate better performance during social observation. While preliminary, these findings raise the possibility that early temperamental traits may shape neural sensitivity to social performance contexts in adulthood, particularly in the presence of social anxiety. Future research integrating clinical, self-report, behavioral, and neuroimaging data will be essential for building a more comprehensive understanding of social error processing across development.

Depression and alcohol use are highly comorbid, and often emerge during adolescence. Depressive symptoms may precede alcohol use, via the self-medication pathway, or alcohol use may precede depressive symptoms, via the alcohol induced disruption pathway. Yet little is known about other risks for developing comorbidity via either path. The present study hypothesized that poor cognitive and physiological emotion regulation (ER) are risk factors implicated in the development of comorbid depression and alcohol use during late adolescence. Participants were 229 (113 girls) Mexican-origin youth who reported on depressive symptoms and alcohol use at ages 17 (Time 1) and 19 years (Time 2). At age 17, cognitive reappraisal (CR), an adaptive ER strategy, and baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a physiological index of ER capacity, were assessed. CR, RSA and gender were examined as predictors and moderators of the developing comorbidity of alcohol use and depression in cross-lagged panel models. Lower use of CR was concurrently associated with more depressive symptoms at age 17 and predicted greater depression at age 19. Age 17 alcohol use predicted age 19 depressive symptoms for boys. Lower RSA at age 17 also predicted more depressive symptoms at age 19 for boys. Neither CR nor RSA moderated the predicted relations between depression and alcohol use. Findings supported the alcohol induced disruption model of comorbidity for boys, and showed that poor cognitive and physiological ER increased risk for exacerbating depressive symptoms in late adolescence.