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    Multimodal neuroimaging markers of transdiagnostic symptom domains in youth: The role of emotion regulation

    May 07, 2025

    YCSC Grand Rounds May 6, 2025
    Karim Ibrahim, PsyD,
    Assistant Professor in the Child Study Center

    ID
    13105

    Transcript

    • 00:00My lab as a PGA,
    • 00:03in twenty fourteen.
    • 00:05Since that time,
    • 00:07Kareem completed his doctorate in
    • 00:09psychology
    • 00:10and a t thirty two
    • 00:12post doctoral training in translational
    • 00:14neuroscience.
    • 00:17He is a recipient of
    • 00:18the Clinical and Translational
    • 00:20Science Award
    • 00:22and a K23
    • 00:23Career Development Award from NIMH.
    • 00:27In twenty twenty two, he
    • 00:29received a Rising
    • 00:31star award
    • 00:32from the Society of Biological
    • 00:34Psychiatry.
    • 00:37So what are the secret
    • 00:37of his success?
    • 00:39Kareem, can I tell them?
    • 00:44You have to learn the
    • 00:45most technical method of fMRI
    • 00:48data analysis and apply it
    • 00:50to the largest dataset in
    • 00:51the world
    • 00:53to test mechanistic hypothesis
    • 00:55about transdiagnostic
    • 00:56developmental psychopathology.
    • 00:59So Karim will tell us
    • 01:00what he learned.
    • 01:08Hey. Thank you, Dennis, for
    • 01:09those kind words and, generous
    • 01:10introduction.
    • 01:11It's,
    • 01:12great to be here today
    • 01:13and tell you about, my
    • 01:15research program, which, as Dennis
    • 01:17mentioned, is really focused on
    • 01:18understanding emotion regulation
    • 01:20impairments in child mental health,
    • 01:22and what might go awry
    • 01:23in these networks that play
    • 01:25such a critical role in,
    • 01:26the top down regulation of
    • 01:28emotion to lead to increased
    • 01:29risk for,
    • 01:31child mental health,
    • 01:32disorders.
    • 01:35This is just,
    • 01:36my disclosures,
    • 01:38grants that are supporting some
    • 01:39of the work I'll be
    • 01:40discussing today.
    • 01:42So in terms of the
    • 01:44flow for today's talk, I'd
    • 01:46like to start with an
    • 01:46overview of what exactly motion
    • 01:48regulation is,
    • 01:50and focus on some of
    • 01:51the work that's been really
    • 01:52foundational for my lab's work
    • 01:54and,
    • 01:55really centering on one particular
    • 01:57circuit that's been,
    • 01:59consistently implicated in child mental
    • 02:01health or this frontal limbic
    • 02:03circuit.
    • 02:04I'd I'd like to share
    • 02:05with you some work regarding,
    • 02:07MyLab's
    • 02:09focus on understanding the functional
    • 02:11connectome,
    • 02:12and wrap up with some
    • 02:13of our ongoing studies and,
    • 02:14new work and also spotlighting
    • 02:16some, potential areas for collaboration.
    • 02:20So we're going to be
    • 02:21talking about a lot of
    • 02:22neuroscience today where my brain
    • 02:24ties specifically for this as
    • 02:25you can see. So,
    • 02:27let's just jump right in.
    • 02:29When we think about emotion
    • 02:31regulation,
    • 02:32there's actually,
    • 02:33no consistent
    • 02:34definition of emotion regulation, surprisingly.
    • 02:38And if we think about,
    • 02:40the work that my lab
    • 02:41focuses on, it's really thinking
    • 02:43about, emotion regulation as the
    • 02:45top down control of emotion.
    • 02:47So recruitment of, related cognitive
    • 02:50control networks,
    • 02:51to modulate emotion generativity.
    • 02:55And, there's different ways of
    • 02:57categorizing emotion regulation.
    • 02:59One,
    • 03:00way of understanding emotion regulation
    • 03:02is,
    • 03:03thinking about adaptive strategies.
    • 03:06And here we might think
    • 03:07about cognitive reappraisal,
    • 03:09problem solving, and,
    • 03:11yoga and other,
    • 03:14strategies. So cognitive reappraisal is,
    • 03:17one approach that we will
    • 03:18be focusing on today, especially.
    • 03:21Another way of,
    • 03:23thinking about this is if
    • 03:24there's maladaptive,
    • 03:25there's also maladaptive ways of,
    • 03:28that can be conceptualized with
    • 03:30emotion regulation.
    • 03:31So two common strategies that
    • 03:33fall under this,
    • 03:34construct are suppression and rumination.
    • 03:37And interesting,
    • 03:39actually, suppression could be considered
    • 03:40a maladaptive or an adaptive
    • 03:42response in terms of inhibiting,
    • 03:44one's emotional,
    • 03:46ex expression.
    • 03:49The for me, the most
    • 03:50interesting thing about emotion regulation
    • 03:52is,
    • 03:54how this construct is really
    • 03:56a commonality
    • 03:57across several child mental health
    • 03:58conditions.
    • 04:00When I was a postdoc,
    • 04:01this was an area that
    • 04:02I spent,
    • 04:03quite some time,
    • 04:05thinking about and really thinking
    • 04:06about the commonalities that we
    • 04:08were observing,
    • 04:09in our different neuroimaging work.
    • 04:11And and I I observed
    • 04:13these same networks and circuits
    • 04:15coming up across,
    • 04:16different conditions in my own
    • 04:17clinical work.
    • 04:19I I also observed a
    • 04:20lot of, commonalities with emotion
    • 04:23dysregulation,
    • 04:25across child mental health conditions.
    • 04:27These are just a few
    • 04:28to,
    • 04:29to spotlight. And today, we
    • 04:30will be focusing on, disruptive
    • 04:32behavior disorders and autism spectrum,
    • 04:34but this is, in no
    • 04:35way an exhaustive list.
    • 04:39And when we think about
    • 04:40emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic,
    • 04:42construct,
    • 04:43generally, studies have shown decreased
    • 04:45use of adaptive strategies,
    • 04:47such as, reappraisal,
    • 04:49and increased use of maladaptive
    • 04:52strategies such as, rumination or,
    • 04:55or suppression as I mentioned
    • 04:56earlier.
    • 04:58If we, think about this
    • 05:00on a neural level,
    • 05:02there's been several meta analyses
    • 05:04that have, really sought to
    • 05:06understand what are the main,
    • 05:08nodes or regions or networks
    • 05:09involved in emotion regulation. I
    • 05:11just wanna spotlight a few
    • 05:12here. Again, this is not,
    • 05:14an exhaustive list, but just,
    • 05:16to spotlight a few hubs
    • 05:18that, are known to play
    • 05:19a critical role in, modulating
    • 05:21emotions.
    • 05:22And this really, spans the
    • 05:24lateral prefrontal cortex,
    • 05:26medial,
    • 05:27prefrontal cortex as well,
    • 05:29and temporoparietal,
    • 05:31cortex. And, so I've broken
    • 05:33this down by, subregions as
    • 05:35well, because the the ventral
    • 05:37and dorsal,
    • 05:38prefrontal cortex are are really
    • 05:40large functional areas that can
    • 05:42be subdivided into many,
    • 05:44subregions.
    • 05:45But if we take a
    • 05:46step back and think about
    • 05:47these regions,
    • 05:48and how they work together
    • 05:49in concert and,
    • 05:51to form networks,
    • 05:52we can think about emotion
    • 05:54regulation recruiting several cognitive control
    • 05:56networks. So this includes,
    • 05:58networks such as frontoparietal,
    • 06:00frontal limbic,
    • 06:01default mode, tension, and salience.
    • 06:05So the the,
    • 06:06message I really want to
    • 06:07emphasize here is emotion regulation,
    • 06:10recruit several large scale networks
    • 06:12that have overlapping functions,
    • 06:14and nodes as well.
    • 06:17The process of emotion regulation
    • 06:19is,
    • 06:21something that continues to develop
    • 06:22this dynamic. It it, develops
    • 06:25throughout, young childhood, throughout even
    • 06:27late adolescence.
    • 06:29And,
    • 06:30these, skills in executive functioning,
    • 06:33cognitive control more broadly really
    • 06:34come online and and really
    • 06:36start fine tuning around the
    • 06:37age of ten,
    • 06:39and mid adolescence and onward.
    • 06:41So this is really a
    • 06:42process that,
    • 06:44behaviorally,
    • 06:46is fine tuning across development
    • 06:47alongside,
    • 06:49development of these functional networks.
    • 06:51And this is actually just
    • 06:52one aspect of,
    • 06:55of, the brain's architecture when
    • 06:56you think about it because
    • 06:57there's functional networks and then
    • 06:58you have maturation taking place
    • 07:00in this, structural,
    • 07:02aspects of the brain as
    • 07:04well. So there's a lot
    • 07:04happening during, this development.
    • 07:07In general, we,
    • 07:09expect to see,
    • 07:12a fine tune,
    • 07:13synchrony across regions involved in
    • 07:15emotion control,
    • 07:17and in dampening, motion generative
    • 07:19regions.
    • 07:23The frontal limbic circuit,
    • 07:25typically is, might be thought
    • 07:26to involve amygdala to prefrontal,
    • 07:29cortex.
    • 07:30And,
    • 07:31this is a circuit that's
    • 07:33been consistently
    • 07:34implicated in
    • 07:35several child mental health disorders,
    • 07:37not just disruptive behavior disorders.
    • 07:41But my work here is
    • 07:42really focused on,
    • 07:44initially and this has really
    • 07:45been the foundation of a
    • 07:46lot of my work early
    • 07:47on in,
    • 07:49focusing on disruptive behavior disorders,
    • 07:51which, really has been an
    • 07:52ideal,
    • 07:54model disorder to to think
    • 07:55of it because there's decades
    • 07:57of, fMRI research that's focused
    • 07:59on this area.
    • 08:01And disruptive,
    • 08:03mood and behavior disorders are
    • 08:05typically characterized by, impairments and
    • 08:07emotion regulation.
    • 08:10When we think about disruptive
    • 08:11behaviors, this can,
    • 08:13include different classes of symptoms
    • 08:15such as maladaptive,
    • 08:17aggression, noncompliance,
    • 08:18irritability, or anger.
    • 08:21There's different ways to,
    • 08:23categorize this as well, and
    • 08:24my lab's work actually takes,
    • 08:27a dual approach. And we
    • 08:28think about this also as
    • 08:29a DSM five diagnostic classification,
    • 08:32that includes disruptive behavior disorders,
    • 08:35that can be unpacked to
    • 08:36oppositional defiant disorder and conduct
    • 08:38disorder,
    • 08:39as well as a transdiagnostic
    • 08:41construct.
    • 08:42What I mean by this
    • 08:43is, thinking about disruptive behavior
    • 08:46problems,
    • 08:48in terms of cutting across
    • 08:49several diagnostic categories,
    • 08:52and and, occurring across a
    • 08:54continuum in the population.
    • 08:58In our own work, we
    • 08:59found,
    • 09:00impairments in
    • 09:03emotion regulation capacity linked to
    • 09:06disruptive behavior problems. And,
    • 09:08this is work actually from
    • 09:10a student, summer student in
    • 09:12my lab who continues to
    • 09:13collaborate, Olivia, Chocha, who,
    • 09:15really focused on this for
    • 09:17her summer internship.
    • 09:19And this was,
    • 09:21you know, very, you know,
    • 09:23interesting to see this to
    • 09:24this,
    • 09:25direct relation ship between,
    • 09:28on the x axis increasing
    • 09:29emotion regulation impairment and on
    • 09:31the y axis increasing,
    • 09:33externalizing behavior problems. So this
    • 09:35is, really what we have
    • 09:38hypothesized. This is in a
    • 09:39relatively small sample, but I
    • 09:41wanna emphasize even at a
    • 09:43sample this small, we still
    • 09:44see these, these moderate effects.
    • 09:49Now if we think about
    • 09:50on a neural level, what,
    • 09:52what transdiagnostic
    • 09:53markers might be implicated in
    • 09:55disruptive behavior? And this was
    • 09:56really one of the first
    • 09:57questions that has driven a
    • 09:58lot of my work,
    • 10:00started during postdoc and has
    • 10:01continued actually,
    • 10:03today in in in leveraging
    • 10:04different,
    • 10:06neuroimaging approaches to understand these
    • 10:08networks.
    • 10:09And one of the first
    • 10:10questions,
    • 10:11that we really sought, to
    • 10:13to to address was understanding,
    • 10:16if there's transdiagnostic,
    • 10:18markers in this frontal limbic
    • 10:20circuit that's associated with, maladaptive
    • 10:23aggression in children.
    • 10:24And,
    • 10:25and and here, this was
    • 10:26a transdiagnostic sample of one
    • 10:28hundred,
    • 10:29thirty three children, a large
    • 10:31portion of which had elevated
    • 10:32aggressive behavior.
    • 10:34And and we use the
    • 10:36CBCL aggression, and and this
    • 10:37will be a theme actually
    • 10:38throughout today. So So CBCL,
    • 10:40or child behavior checklist is
    • 10:41really one of the most
    • 10:42widely used measure of, transdiagnostic
    • 10:45symptoms.
    • 10:47And the majority of participants,
    • 10:49were diagnosed with oppositional defiant
    • 10:51disorder,
    • 10:53and they completed a task
    • 10:54of implicit emotion regulation.
    • 10:57So I should mention it
    • 10:58with emotion regulation. And, another
    • 11:00way to categorize emotion regulation
    • 11:02is thinking about explicit and
    • 11:04implicit emotion regulation.
    • 11:07Now with explicit emotion regulation,
    • 11:09this is typically what you
    • 11:10might think of with reappraisal.
    • 11:12There's, there's an instruction,
    • 11:14participants are typically taught to
    • 11:16down regulate emotions,
    • 11:17and there's some type of
    • 11:18effort, cautious effort that's involved
    • 11:21in this process.
    • 11:22When we think about implicit
    • 11:24regulation,
    • 11:25this is thought to occur,
    • 11:28automatically without,
    • 11:30cautious effort or instruction.
    • 11:32So one common example
    • 11:34or task of,
    • 11:36engaging implicit regulation is,
    • 11:39showing a series of emotionally
    • 11:40expressive faces.
    • 11:43And here, we,
    • 11:45we we found that in,
    • 11:47children with elevated aggression,
    • 11:50severity,
    • 11:51showed reduced connectivity between the
    • 11:52amygdala and this region of
    • 11:54the lateral prefrontal cortex,
    • 11:56or dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex.
    • 11:58I'll just abbreviate for DLPFC,
    • 12:01but,
    • 12:02this this region was,
    • 12:04really,
    • 12:05interesting,
    • 12:06when we
    • 12:08observe these findings, and and
    • 12:09this is also a region
    • 12:10that's known as a hub
    • 12:11of emotion regulation. So I
    • 12:13think what this is showing
    • 12:14us is,
    • 12:16children with elevated,
    • 12:18disruptive behavior severity are showing,
    • 12:21disruptions in this,
    • 12:23front Olympic
    • 12:25circuit that's that's really placed
    • 12:27a critical role in modulating
    • 12:30emotion generativity or overreactivity.
    • 12:35We also know that, social
    • 12:36impairments are very common,
    • 12:38as well across disruptive behavior
    • 12:40problems.
    • 12:41This might,
    • 12:43this might include difficulties with
    • 12:44interpreting social cues, which often
    • 12:44itself can be a trigger
    • 12:44for,
    • 12:49an anger response or frustration.
    • 12:53One example might be hostile
    • 12:54attribution bias where children might
    • 12:56interpret
    • 12:57a social cue as, as
    • 12:59aggressive and and respond,
    • 13:01with an anger response.
    • 13:03And so here we wanted
    • 13:04to ask, we,
    • 13:06we know that social impairments
    • 13:08are common to, disruptive behavior
    • 13:10problems, in in youth, and
    • 13:11we wanna understand,
    • 13:13is is there,
    • 13:15could the same circuit also
    • 13:16play a role in,
    • 13:18both aggression and social impairment?
    • 13:21And to answer this, one
    • 13:22of the best ways to,
    • 13:25that that we
    • 13:26we we address is was
    • 13:28really,
    • 13:29in a sample of children
    • 13:31with autism. And we had
    • 13:32two subgroups here. We had
    • 13:33a sample of children with,
    • 13:35autism and elevated aggressive behavior
    • 13:37and autism with,
    • 13:39low levels of, aggression, which
    • 13:41is is termed here ASD
    • 13:43alone.
    • 13:44And there was one region
    • 13:45that,
    • 13:46really came to the top
    • 13:47and was,
    • 13:49in terms of, differentiating
    • 13:51children with, autism with and
    • 13:53without aggression. And this was,
    • 13:55connectivity. This is showing connectivity
    • 13:57between the amygdala and this
    • 13:59region of the lateral PFC
    • 14:00called the ventral lateral prefrontal
    • 14:02cortex.
    • 14:03Now this was interesting because
    • 14:05this region,
    • 14:06for the first time, we
    • 14:07found associations where children with
    • 14:09autism and aggression showed reduced
    • 14:11connectivity in this, circuit relative
    • 14:14to children with autism,
    • 14:16without aggression. And it's interesting
    • 14:18that,
    • 14:19within a sample that's,
    • 14:21in enriched for this social,
    • 14:24impairment phenotype, we still find
    • 14:26this, distinction in these circuits.
    • 14:30This is just another way
    • 14:31of plotting these findings,
    • 14:33and where where we have,
    • 14:37aggressive behavior on the x
    • 14:39axis and connectivity strength on
    • 14:41the y axis.
    • 14:45So everything I've discussed so
    • 14:46far has really focused on,
    • 14:49understanding,
    • 14:50one particular circuit and and,
    • 14:52the approach that we can
    • 14:54use to understand a particular
    • 14:55circuit is what we might
    • 14:56call seed based connectivity. So
    • 14:58we can, take the time
    • 15:00course of one region such
    • 15:01as amygdala and test,
    • 15:03its correlation to all other
    • 15:04voxels across the brain. This
    • 15:05is what we call c
    • 15:07based connectivity
    • 15:08or,
    • 15:09c to voxel.
    • 15:11Now another approach is,
    • 15:14a bit more extensive in
    • 15:15the way that,
    • 15:16you can take,
    • 15:19connections from every single,
    • 15:21region of the brain. And,
    • 15:22of course, there's many different
    • 15:23ways to parcelate the brain.
    • 15:24This can be a separate,
    • 15:26discussion in itself. There's many
    • 15:28different atlases out there
    • 15:29and different ways of functionally,
    • 15:32or structurally parceulating the brain.
    • 15:34And
    • 15:35and here, what you can
    • 15:37do is,
    • 15:39take each of these regions
    • 15:40and correlate them to each
    • 15:41other, and this is what
    • 15:43we have when when we
    • 15:43think about the connectome. So
    • 15:45you you you get, very
    • 15:47rich information about the brain,
    • 15:48about this interconnectedness of the
    • 15:50brain as well.
    • 15:52It's interesting to think about
    • 15:53when we
    • 15:54think about the connectome and
    • 15:56and, I guess, where we've
    • 15:57come in in neuroscience,
    • 15:59just thinking and,
    • 16:01thinking about the use of
    • 16:03the term human connectome,
    • 16:05where we see there is
    • 16:06a surge, or an increasing
    • 16:08surge in,
    • 16:09use of this term around
    • 16:10twenty ten,
    • 16:12which is which is where
    • 16:13the human connectome project was
    • 16:15launched. So,
    • 16:17and I have other approaches
    • 16:18here just for reference. So
    • 16:19there's, amygdala connectivity and seed
    • 16:22based connectivity,
    • 16:23and I just placed these
    • 16:24here for reference. But,
    • 16:26you you know, hopefully, you
    • 16:27you can,
    • 16:29really get a sense for,
    • 16:31how much on the frontier
    • 16:32this is and understanding the
    • 16:34connectome, especially with the launch
    • 16:35of the human connectome project
    • 16:37at that time.
    • 16:40So as I mentioned before,
    • 16:42with the connectome, you get,
    • 16:44really a vast amount of,
    • 16:46of,
    • 16:47data about the brain.
    • 16:49And, so just to,
    • 16:51spotlight a few terms that,
    • 16:54things that might be important
    • 16:55to emphasize here,
    • 16:57Nodes indicate
    • 16:59are indicated by these spheres,
    • 17:00and we can think about
    • 17:01these as as nodes or
    • 17:02regions.
    • 17:04And, these lines are indicative
    • 17:06of what we call edges
    • 17:07or connections,
    • 17:09between these nodes.
    • 17:10And,
    • 17:11now you you might see
    • 17:12you're gonna see these rendered
    • 17:13brains and these, different spheres.
    • 17:16Another thing to keep in
    • 17:17mind is generally in connectomics,
    • 17:18the,
    • 17:19radius of the spear denotes
    • 17:20the extent of connections. So
    • 17:22spears that are larger have
    • 17:24more of an extensive,
    • 17:26set of connections or edges.
    • 17:29And when we think about
    • 17:30how we can,
    • 17:31analyze,
    • 17:32the connectome or data from
    • 17:33the human connectome,
    • 17:35and today, I'm focusing on
    • 17:36the functional connectome. So I
    • 17:38should make that distinction here
    • 17:39that there's structural and functional
    • 17:41connectome.
    • 17:42Here we'll be focusing on,
    • 17:44the functional connectome.
    • 17:47You can take this,
    • 17:49data from the connectome, or
    • 17:50we can,
    • 17:52combine this with a machine
    • 17:53learning approach. And the exciting
    • 17:55thing about this is now
    • 17:56we can start predicting clinical
    • 17:57phenotypes or behaviors based on,
    • 18:00brain connectivity patterns.
    • 18:02We can plot this to,
    • 18:04to assess performance for predicted
    • 18:06and observed.
    • 18:07We can take a step
    • 18:08back and and,
    • 18:10go from the node region
    • 18:11to a large scale networks
    • 18:12and start understanding,
    • 18:16the within and between network,
    • 18:17connectivity,
    • 18:19of these,
    • 18:20of these patterns.
    • 18:23So one one,
    • 18:25one area that,
    • 18:27really launched us into this,
    • 18:29area of connectomas was, taking
    • 18:32this method and applying it,
    • 18:34to predict aggression in, in
    • 18:36a clinical sample of,
    • 18:38children,
    • 18:39with disruptive behavior disorders.
    • 18:41So for this study, we
    • 18:42had a hundred twenty nine,
    • 18:44children with wide age range,
    • 18:46up to, adolescents,
    • 18:48and again using the same
    • 18:49implicit,
    • 18:50emotion,
    • 18:52processing task. And here our
    • 18:54question was, can we take,
    • 18:55the functional connectome and can
    • 18:57during task, and can we
    • 18:58predict,
    • 19:00our clinical phenotype of interest?
    • 19:02In this case, it was
    • 19:02aggression severity.
    • 19:05And the answer to that
    • 19:05was yes. We found that,
    • 19:07just based on,
    • 19:09brain connectivity patterns, we can
    • 19:11predict,
    • 19:11aggression severity with,
    • 19:14a relatively,
    • 19:15moderate effect size.
    • 19:17And,
    • 19:19if we start looking at,
    • 19:21types of, nodes or regions
    • 19:23that, may have played, a
    • 19:25role in this predictive,
    • 19:26model, we we again find
    • 19:28this region of dorsolateral prefrontal
    • 19:30cortex or DLPFC,
    • 19:32but also VLPFC or ventral
    • 19:34lateral prefrontal cortex.
    • 19:36So it it's interesting that
    • 19:38on the top panel, we're
    • 19:39looking at,
    • 19:40hyperconnectivity,
    • 19:41so overconnectivity
    • 19:43across regions that predicted aggression.
    • 19:45On the bottom panel, we're
    • 19:46looking at under connectivity that
    • 19:48predicted aggression severity.
    • 19:50So this model was largely
    • 19:52driven by, over connectivity of,
    • 19:55these lateral prefrontal nodes, but
    • 19:56we did,
    • 19:58we did see some prediction
    • 19:59in, these temporal parietal regions
    • 20:01as well, for the negative
    • 20:03networks.
    • 20:04So this is not for
    • 20:06interpretation, but I I like
    • 20:07showing this slide because it
    • 20:09I I think it really
    • 20:10emphasizes the interconnectedness
    • 20:12of the human connectome.
    • 20:14I would not ask someone
    • 20:16to interpret this slide, but
    • 20:17but you can see is
    • 20:19definitely, as you look to
    • 20:20the right of this slide,
    • 20:22you can see that these
    • 20:23extent of connections as we
    • 20:25increase the threshold needed
    • 20:27to be included,
    • 20:28you can see that these
    • 20:29prefrontal edges continue to survive
    • 20:32at a very relatively high
    • 20:33threshold. So,
    • 20:35here, I I really just
    • 20:36wanna emphasize that the human
    • 20:37connectome is so vast and
    • 20:39interconnected.
    • 20:41I think we're really just
    • 20:42starting to understand,
    • 20:45much about a very,
    • 20:46almost a Pandora's box.
    • 20:49When we think about networks
    • 20:50that play a role in
    • 20:51predicting aggression,
    • 20:54we really see this interconnected,
    • 20:57network here, these features that
    • 20:59are spanning several large scale
    • 21:00networks
    • 21:02across cognitive control, sensory motor,
    • 21:04and emotion generative,
    • 21:06networks.
    • 21:11The next thing we did
    • 21:11is, well, we we asked
    • 21:13if we can take this
    • 21:13model and can we predict
    • 21:15aggression in
    • 21:16children with, co occurring,
    • 21:19conditions that typically are comorbid
    • 21:21with,
    • 21:22disruptive behavior disorders. And we
    • 21:23found even focusing on this,
    • 21:26DLPFC
    • 21:27network or node,
    • 21:28we could still predict aggression
    • 21:30in children with elevated internalizing
    • 21:32symptoms,
    • 21:33ADHD,
    • 21:35elevated social impairment transdiagnostically
    • 21:37as well as in a
    • 21:39a relative a very small
    • 21:40group of children with autism.
    • 21:41So there's something very,
    • 21:44this, DLPFC,
    • 21:46node and edges connected to
    • 21:47it,
    • 21:49is really,
    • 21:51emerge as a highly predictive
    • 21:52feature in predicting aggression severity.
    • 21:58So one of the the
    • 21:59great aspects of these large
    • 22:00data sets and consortia is
    • 22:02they they provide a wealth
    • 22:03of data that would be
    • 22:05very difficult to collect across
    • 22:06one's career as a neuroimager.
    • 22:10One,
    • 22:12one benefit of this is
    • 22:13to,
    • 22:14test replication of findings or
    • 22:16generalization of findings,
    • 22:18and and and,
    • 22:19and pulling different,
    • 22:21neuroimaging
    • 22:22data across sites.
    • 22:24And one study that,
    • 22:26my lab, does a lot
    • 22:28of work with is, the
    • 22:29ABCD study.
    • 22:31And this is a study
    • 22:32across twenty one sites,
    • 22:34in the US.
    • 22:35Children were between the ages
    • 22:36of nine to ten in
    • 22:37the initial release,
    • 22:39and we're we're expecting really
    • 22:41six point o,
    • 22:43any day now, I think.
    • 22:45So,
    • 22:47so this is a a
    • 22:47great dataset,
    • 22:49to work with for our,
    • 22:51from my lab and our
    • 22:52research because there's really a
    • 22:54vast,
    • 22:55detailed clinical phenotyping of children.
    • 22:58Even though children are are
    • 23:00it's more of a community
    • 23:01based sample.
    • 23:02The the measures are quite
    • 23:04extensive,
    • 23:05and the neuroimaging measures,
    • 23:07are really, tapping into,
    • 23:10constructs related to regulation, reward
    • 23:12processing, and,
    • 23:14and cognitive control more broadly.
    • 23:16So this was really ideal
    • 23:17for us.
    • 23:18And we took two tasks
    • 23:20that are related to, this
    • 23:21implicit face processing task that
    • 23:23we worked with,
    • 23:25and the stop signal task
    • 23:26in ABCD is a task
    • 23:27of inhibition.
    • 23:29And we found that we
    • 23:29could replicate these findings,
    • 23:31using this task fMRI from
    • 23:33ABCD,
    • 23:34using this task of inhibition
    • 23:36where we found a similar
    • 23:37pattern,
    • 23:39of lateral prefrontal nodes,
    • 23:41and core, cognitive control networks
    • 23:43predicting aggression.
    • 23:45Then we we can also
    • 23:46replicate these findings using the,
    • 23:48emotional and back task, which
    • 23:50is using actually a similar,
    • 23:52NIMSTIM,
    • 23:54set as we have in
    • 23:55our implicit task. But we
    • 23:56can also replicate these findings
    • 23:58and find a similar pattern
    • 23:59as well with lateral PFC
    • 24:01emerging.
    • 24:03So this was very interesting
    • 24:05because I I think one
    • 24:07thing to place this into
    • 24:09context is,
    • 24:11traditional
    • 24:12models of aggression have really
    • 24:14focused on this triadic model
    • 24:15and thinking about,
    • 24:17over reactivity of emotion generative
    • 24:19circuits,
    • 24:20underactivity
    • 24:21within prefrontal circuits that are,
    • 24:23involved in cognitive control or
    • 24:25emotion control
    • 24:27and disruptions and connectivity among
    • 24:29the two.
    • 24:31And here, what we've based
    • 24:32on our findings and and
    • 24:34also current,
    • 24:36and also recent work from
    • 24:37other groups is really started
    • 24:39to suggest more of a
    • 24:40a broader network dysfunction. And
    • 24:42this is really,
    • 24:44you know, I I think
    • 24:45something that, we've observed in
    • 24:46our work that,
    • 24:48in predicting aggression and, again,
    • 24:50this is not necessarily unique
    • 24:52to,
    • 24:53maladaptive aggression or disruptive behavior
    • 24:55problems, but,
    • 24:56this is something that,
    • 24:58in in our opinion,
    • 25:00most likely involves a broader
    • 25:02network dysfunction spanning large scale
    • 25:04networks involving cognitive control, social
    • 25:06functioning, and emotion generation.
    • 25:09This is not an exhaustive
    • 25:10list, but this is just,
    • 25:13as as a theoretical basis
    • 25:14to to think about,
    • 25:16these larger scale networks and,
    • 25:19really the the complexity of
    • 25:20these interactions,
    • 25:22in predicting this phenotype.
    • 25:30So for the,
    • 25:32for the second half and
    • 25:33the the,
    • 25:34this segment of the talk,
    • 25:35I'd like to focus on
    • 25:36some ongoing
    • 25:37studies and some, some work
    • 25:39that my lab has been
    • 25:40focusing on
    • 25:41and and, thinking about where
    • 25:43where to take, all of
    • 25:44this next.
    • 25:48Everything that I've mentioned so
    • 25:49far has really focused on
    • 25:51understanding static connectivity,
    • 25:53And that's where we can
    • 25:54take,
    • 25:55the bold time course across
    • 25:57a scan or a run,
    • 25:58and we can average the,
    • 25:59brain,
    • 26:02activation across
    • 26:03this time course.
    • 26:05And we can refer to
    • 26:06this as static connectivity.
    • 26:09But this might not necessarily
    • 26:10be the entire picture. When
    • 26:12you think about,
    • 26:13a scan, sometimes the assumption
    • 26:14is a participant is going
    • 26:16to, remain in a particular
    • 26:18brain state when they're viewing,
    • 26:19faces or or completing a
    • 26:21task.
    • 26:22But the reality is we
    • 26:24don't really know that, and
    • 26:25participants can actually,
    • 26:28jump in and out of
    • 26:29different,
    • 26:30brain states throughout a scan.
    • 26:31So the assumption that, there's
    • 26:34one relatively
    • 26:35stable brain state occurring throughout
    • 26:37our
    • 26:39our task or our run.
    • 26:39It it might not be
    • 26:41the give us the full
    • 26:42picture. And, if you go
    • 26:44back to, what I mentioned
    • 26:45before from the connectome, we
    • 26:46can derive so much rich
    • 26:48information from this and analyze
    • 26:49it in different ways and
    • 26:51understand different aspects of the
    • 26:52brain.
    • 26:55So with, dynamic functional connectivity,
    • 26:57the the exciting thing here
    • 26:58is, we can take these
    • 27:00functional,
    • 27:01brain networks,
    • 27:03and we can think about
    • 27:04them as
    • 27:06being derived and we can
    • 27:08derive,
    • 27:09specific latent brain states
    • 27:11through these,
    • 27:13from these functional networks. And
    • 27:14the exciting thing with this
    • 27:16approach is that we can
    • 27:17start to understand,
    • 27:19not just about the,
    • 27:21disruptions within cognitive control networks
    • 27:23or other networks,
    • 27:25that's associated with the phenotype
    • 27:27of interest, but the the
    • 27:29more of a nuanced detail,
    • 27:32in in this connectivity patterns
    • 27:34as well. So here we're
    • 27:35we're starting to understand,
    • 27:37the transient properties of connectivity,
    • 27:39the this,
    • 27:40time varying,
    • 27:42changes in connectivity moment to
    • 27:43moment in the brain, which
    • 27:44really is extraordinary,
    • 27:46for me.
    • 27:49And if we think about
    • 27:50static connectivity, you have,
    • 27:53the this is the the
    • 27:54the arrows are showing you
    • 27:55have a scan or a
    • 27:56run length,
    • 27:57and,
    • 27:59the the, circles are, nodes
    • 28:01or brain regions. And,
    • 28:04across a scan, you might
    • 28:05have a situation where, nodes
    • 28:07a and b is correlated
    • 28:08for some portion of the
    • 28:09scan. And then in the
    • 28:10middle panel, nodes b and
    • 28:12c are correlated. And in
    • 28:13the,
    • 28:15the last panel, nodes a
    • 28:16and c are correlated. And
    • 28:17if that strength of correlation
    • 28:19is strong enough,
    • 28:20we can call that a
    • 28:21network such as default mode
    • 28:22or frontoparietal.
    • 28:27Okay. There's animation to go
    • 28:28with it. Okay.
    • 28:31But another way of, thinking
    • 28:33about this, if we,
    • 28:35take the same data, but
    • 28:36now we think about this
    • 28:38in terms of brain states,
    • 28:39the correlation between nodes a
    • 28:41and b, we might derive
    • 28:43this as one state.
    • 28:45The correlation between nodes b
    • 28:47and c, this would be
    • 28:48another state,
    • 28:50and correlation with a and
    • 28:51c would be a third
    • 28:53state.
    • 28:54And
    • 28:55so in this case, we
    • 28:56can take these brain states,
    • 28:57these metrics of brain states
    • 28:59and dynamics.
    • 29:00We can map it onto
    • 29:01behavior and symptom dimensions as
    • 29:03well,
    • 29:07just in case you didn't
    • 29:08see it the first time.
    • 29:09Okay. So
    • 29:10what are some of the
    • 29:11metrics we can derive? So
    • 29:12time and state is a
    • 29:13is a very common and
    • 29:15useful metric to have. How
    • 29:16long is a participant in
    • 29:17a particular brain state? And,
    • 29:19of course, there can be
    • 29:20several brain states.
    • 29:22We might refer to this
    • 29:23as occupancy time,
    • 29:26or the amount of time
    • 29:27a participant is in a
    • 29:28state before transitioning to another
    • 29:30state. And this nuanced term
    • 29:31we call, dwell time or
    • 29:33sojourn,
    • 29:34time.
    • 29:35The second,
    • 29:36metric that we can derive
    • 29:38is related to the state
    • 29:39transition probability. So what is
    • 29:41the probability that a participant
    • 29:43will switch in and out
    • 29:45of, states,
    • 29:47multiple times? And, of course,
    • 29:50there could be multiple transitions,
    • 29:51and participants can stay in
    • 29:53these states,
    • 29:54for varying time lengths.
    • 29:57This is just a different
    • 29:58way of depicting what I've
    • 29:59shown you with,
    • 30:00with the brain animation.
    • 30:03But you can see the
    • 30:04time course and, the different
    • 30:06lengths of time that a
    • 30:07participant might be in a
    • 30:07particular state, and this and
    • 30:07these states can be reoccurring
    • 30:07at different time points.
    • 30:10States can be reoccurring at
    • 30:11different time points. So this
    • 30:13is really fascinating way for
    • 30:14me to think about the
    • 30:15brain.
    • 30:16There's different ways to derive
    • 30:18these metrics. You can do
    • 30:19a sliding window approach,
    • 30:21and you can also use,
    • 30:23different computational methods such as
    • 30:25hidden semi mark off modeling
    • 30:27also to derive these states.
    • 30:31So here we we wanted
    • 30:32to understand more about,
    • 30:34what exactly is driving some
    • 30:36of these disruptions in these,
    • 30:37connectivity,
    • 30:39and connectivity across these, cognitive
    • 30:41controlled networks. So we went
    • 30:43to the ABCD dataset.
    • 30:45And and here we we,
    • 30:47really work with a smaller,
    • 30:49sample of children, from this
    • 30:50dataset just because of the
    • 30:52high computational demand and and
    • 30:54cost of,
    • 30:56not actual cost, but computational
    • 30:58cost of this,
    • 31:01approach. And, so the children
    • 31:03were in the first wave
    • 31:04of ABCD, so they were
    • 31:05nine to ten. We had
    • 31:07a relatively,
    • 31:09well gender balanced sample.
    • 31:11And here we're we're taking
    • 31:13the similar measures from CBCL.
    • 31:16And here we we also
    • 31:17work with wrestling state fMRI
    • 31:19data.
    • 31:20We derive these
    • 31:22networks using a data driven
    • 31:24approach called, ICA or independent
    • 31:26components analysis,
    • 31:28which we then mapped onto,
    • 31:30the yoparcylation.
    • 31:32And,
    • 31:34and and this is actually
    • 31:35the,
    • 31:36the independent components.
    • 31:38So we have thirty three
    • 31:39independent components, which mapped onto,
    • 31:41ten of these large scale
    • 31:42networks.
    • 31:43Now I I placed this
    • 31:44slide here,
    • 31:47just to really spotlight the
    • 31:49the fact that
    • 31:51even at rest, we can
    • 31:52still identify and derive these,
    • 31:56large scale networks. We can
    • 31:57derive a,
    • 31:59visual network, sensory motor attention,
    • 32:01etcetera.
    • 32:02For me, that's a fascinating
    • 32:03thing about the brain. Children
    • 32:05are laying in a scanner.
    • 32:05They're looking at a blank
    • 32:07screen.
    • 32:09You can decompose these signals,
    • 32:11using ICA, and you can
    • 32:13still find these networks. And
    • 32:15it's really a truly remarkable
    • 32:17facet about the brain that
    • 32:18even at rest, you're no
    • 32:19one's engaging these circuits necessarily
    • 32:21through a task. We can
    • 32:23still find these networks.
    • 32:26And when we take this,
    • 32:29we we derive twelve brain
    • 32:30states based on prior literature,
    • 32:32and this was in collaboration
    • 32:34with my colleague, Heather Chapelle
    • 32:35at Wake Forest University.
    • 32:37And the twelve state solution
    • 32:38has been used in prior
    • 32:39work, and,
    • 32:41and we we wanted to
    • 32:42keep this consistent.
    • 32:44And what we found here
    • 32:45was across these twelve, brain
    • 32:47states that were derived, there
    • 32:48was one state that was
    • 32:50specific to,
    • 32:53disruptive behavior problems. And this
    • 32:54was after accounting for, internalizing
    • 32:57an ADHD comorbidity,
    • 32:59and that was
    • 33:00state twelve. And
    • 33:02state twelve showed that,
    • 33:04and this is the the
    • 33:05plot on the,
    • 33:07the plot on the right
    • 33:08is showing with increasing disruptive
    • 33:10behavior severity, children are,
    • 33:12showed greater occupancy time in
    • 33:13state twelve.
    • 33:15So, stated differently,
    • 33:18children with, elevated disruptive behavior
    • 33:20severity were basically getting stuck
    • 33:22in this state. They were
    • 33:23spending longer periods of time
    • 33:25in this state. They weren't
    • 33:25transitioning in and out of
    • 33:27the state, as you would
    • 33:28expect.
    • 33:29And, well, what what's character
    • 33:31what's
    • 33:32special about state twelve?
    • 33:34And we can we,
    • 33:36to answer this, we compared
    • 33:38state twelve to every single
    • 33:39other state.
    • 33:41And,
    • 33:43basically, the red color on
    • 33:45this color bar denotes,
    • 33:46weaker positive connectivity. So state
    • 33:48twelve
    • 33:49is a state that we
    • 33:50can conclude from this has
    • 33:52glow is globally disconnected, but
    • 33:54how it's disconnected, it's, shows,
    • 33:57an overall pattern of hypo
    • 33:59connectivity. So participants are spending
    • 34:01longer in these underconnected states
    • 34:04or state twelve.
    • 34:06So,
    • 34:08this this was great.
    • 34:10And our next question was,
    • 34:12can we do this again?
    • 34:13You always need a sequel.
    • 34:14Right? So,
    • 34:16so we we actually,
    • 34:18took participants with four runs
    • 34:20of resting states. So we
    • 34:21had two runs, which we
    • 34:23we used here as a
    • 34:24discovery sample.
    • 34:25We had a held out
    • 34:26two runs,
    • 34:28which we ask, and we
    • 34:29replicate findings in these held
    • 34:30out two runs for every
    • 34:31participant, and we reran the
    • 34:33entire analysis again.
    • 34:35And,
    • 34:36and we found the the
    • 34:38highly similar pattern
    • 34:40where, this time it was
    • 34:41for two states,
    • 34:43that that that mapped on
    • 34:44to disruptive behavior problem, but
    • 34:45it it was the, really
    • 34:46the similar
    • 34:48association.
    • 34:50Longer time spent in these
    • 34:52two states
    • 34:53mapped onto greater disruptive behavior
    • 34:55severity. So children getting stuck
    • 34:57in certain states,
    • 34:58is potentially linked to,
    • 35:01increased severity of disruptive behavior
    • 35:07problems. So I I wanna
    • 35:09make a jump from dynamic
    • 35:11networks, which,
    • 35:12is really an exciting area.
    • 35:14And and,
    • 35:15I guess, how does
    • 35:17this this is really something
    • 35:18that adds, for me, nuance
    • 35:20into understanding these,
    • 35:22impairments in cognitive control networks
    • 35:24and understanding that,
    • 35:26these,
    • 35:29alter connectivity patterns might be
    • 35:31further
    • 35:32characterized
    • 35:32by,
    • 35:34alterations in the time varying
    • 35:36properties of state switching in
    • 35:39participants.
    • 35:40And it might be that
    • 35:41one one way to interpret
    • 35:42this in addition is, if
    • 35:44children are spending longer states
    • 35:46in longer time in states
    • 35:47characterized by under connectivity or
    • 35:49disconnectivity,
    • 35:52then,
    • 35:53that could also reflect,
    • 35:54reduced cognitive,
    • 35:56flexibility or cognitive shifting across
    • 35:58states, which is really,
    • 36:01really a critical part to
    • 36:02maintaining this cognitive flexibility that's
    • 36:04also,
    • 36:06linked to successful emotion regulation.
    • 36:09And,
    • 36:10so so this is one
    • 36:12interpretation that,
    • 36:14getting stuck in these certain,
    • 36:16brain states might reflect reduced
    • 36:18cognitive flexibility
    • 36:19and time spent in other
    • 36:20states that could,
    • 36:22support,
    • 36:23successful emotion regulation.
    • 36:26So my lab,
    • 36:28is a human neuroscience lab,
    • 36:29and we,
    • 36:32we we we have thought
    • 36:33a lot about head motion
    • 36:35in,
    • 36:36in children. And,
    • 36:39and do completing an MRI
    • 36:41scan or fMRI scan is
    • 36:42really not an easy thing
    • 36:44for a child, most children
    • 36:45or adults.
    • 36:46It's,
    • 36:48it's a very tightly enclosed,
    • 36:50space as many of you
    • 36:51may know. And,
    • 36:52but at some point,
    • 36:54you know, a a lot
    • 36:55of my work
    • 36:57with fMRI, we really started
    • 36:58asking,
    • 36:59well, who are whose data
    • 37:01are we analyzing? And you
    • 37:03have to you have to
    • 37:04also appreciate that,
    • 37:06the
    • 37:07imaging data needs to have
    • 37:08some type of,
    • 37:10minimum quality control standards. So
    • 37:13we wanted to understand more
    • 37:15about,
    • 37:16head motion and,
    • 37:18whose data we're really analyzing
    • 37:20when we who what data
    • 37:21really makes it to this
    • 37:22final stage, of analysis.
    • 37:26And and this study was
    • 37:27led by, several graduate students
    • 37:29in my lab,
    • 37:30Kavari, Zach, and, and Eleni
    • 37:33who really did amazing work
    • 37:34on this. This was an
    • 37:35adventure project
    • 37:37that two years later is
    • 37:39is now impressed,
    • 37:40and and everyone,
    • 37:42you know, has has really
    • 37:43put so much into this.
    • 37:45And here we wanted to
    • 37:46ask our transdiagnostic
    • 37:48symptom domains linked to head
    • 37:50motion in children. This is
    • 37:51such a fundamental aspect
    • 37:53of our work in in,
    • 37:55developmental cognitive neuroscience. We took
    • 37:58everything
    • 37:59that ABCD study had to
    • 38:00offer. We took functional, every
    • 38:02single functional,
    • 38:04mean motion and and,
    • 38:06pass fail quality control data
    • 38:08from every single
    • 38:09functional scan, resting state task,
    • 38:11diffusion,
    • 38:13everything. E. Right? T one,
    • 38:15t two weighted. And,
    • 38:17and here we wanted to
    • 38:18ask,
    • 38:19does
    • 38:20does,
    • 38:22elevated symptom severity,
    • 38:24how does that impact
    • 38:26quality control pass and and
    • 38:28motion during a scan?
    • 38:30While other studies have looked
    • 38:32at this,
    • 38:33no this this was really
    • 38:35the the first study to
    • 38:36leverage this this size of
    • 38:37of a dataset and and
    • 38:39look at we we really
    • 38:40wanted to take this in
    • 38:41very nuanced,
    • 38:42details and and our understanding.
    • 38:45The the
    • 38:47the bottom line from,
    • 38:48some of our main findings
    • 38:49here were higher severity of
    • 38:51attention and disruptive behavior problems
    • 38:53were linked with,
    • 38:55increased head motion during scanning
    • 38:56and increased likelihood of failing,
    • 39:00quality control checks.
    • 39:02But the the inverse for
    • 39:03internalizing problem severity. So children
    • 39:05who had elevated internalizing problems
    • 39:07actually did better during scanning
    • 39:08and had,
    • 39:10lower motion and were more
    • 39:11likely to pass
    • 39:13quality control. And the plots
    • 39:15here are just, for resting
    • 39:16state just, for illustration of
    • 39:18of some of these effects.
    • 39:21And
    • 39:22these are the the full
    • 39:23extent of of the plots.
    • 39:25But, it it just to
    • 39:26give the the spotlight that
    • 39:27we we really we looked
    • 39:28across, modalities, and, there were
    • 39:31some differences across each modality,
    • 39:33but broadly,
    • 39:34the the take home messages
    • 39:35that I I presented here
    • 39:36were,
    • 39:37some of the main salient
    • 39:39points.
    • 39:40Why is this important?
    • 39:42One is we know that
    • 39:43motion can impact functional connectivity.
    • 39:45There have been studies on
    • 39:46this,
    • 39:47that it can impact the
    • 39:48the strength of connectivity.
    • 39:51We know that motion can
    • 39:52impact test retest reliability
    • 39:54across networks that really are
    • 39:56of interest for our group
    • 39:58and many other groups, especially
    • 39:59cognitive control.
    • 40:02There's also genetic,
    • 40:04heritable feature to motion, which
    • 40:05is very interesting, and this
    • 40:06comes from twin studies.
    • 40:09Now the the
    • 40:10really,
    • 40:12I guess, the priority point
    • 40:14here,
    • 40:15for for my group is
    • 40:16really thinking about we we
    • 40:17do a lot of we
    • 40:18we work with clinical populations,
    • 40:21and we know that there's
    • 40:22differences that in terms of
    • 40:23clinical populations tend to move
    • 40:25more than unaffected control populations.
    • 40:28The problem with this is,
    • 40:30there's the it's the idea
    • 40:32and the, research has has
    • 40:34shown that when
    • 40:35we start selecting clinical subgroups
    • 40:37with low motion, these clinical
    • 40:39subgroups start to lose this
    • 40:40heterogeneity
    • 40:41that we want in our
    • 40:42clinical samples. They tend to,
    • 40:44be more phenotypically
    • 40:45similar to controls, in terms
    • 40:48of clinical severity.
    • 40:50Younger children move more than
    • 40:52older children, but, interestingly, there's
    • 40:54actually inverse u,
    • 40:56u shape association with motion.
    • 40:57So younger children
    • 40:59and,
    • 41:00and into later adulthood,
    • 41:02these these two subgroups actually
    • 41:03show similar,
    • 41:05motion effects.
    • 41:06Males tend to move more
    • 41:07than females, and we found
    • 41:09that also in in in
    • 41:10our research,
    • 41:11on this motion study.
    • 41:14And and there's some things
    • 41:15that can be done to
    • 41:16really make a scan easier.
    • 41:17So,
    • 41:18breaks helps, splitting up a
    • 41:19session helps. So we found
    • 41:20actually in a b c
    • 41:21d, splitting,
    • 41:23scan sessions,
    • 41:25increased likelihood of success,
    • 41:27and real time motion correction
    • 41:29during resting state does does
    • 41:31work. So I think a,
    • 41:32b, c, d,
    • 41:34PIs would be would be
    • 41:35thrilled to know that, so
    • 41:36we we confirmed that.
    • 41:38So there's there's real time
    • 41:39algorithms that you can use
    • 41:40during your scan to correct
    • 41:42for head motion.
    • 41:46Okay.
    • 41:49And I I guess thinking
    • 41:51about and we so I
    • 41:52I mentioned that my lab
    • 41:53does a lot of work
    • 41:53with a, b, c, d
    • 41:54study.
    • 41:55And another question we turn
    • 41:56to a, b, c, d
    • 41:57study to understand more about
    • 41:58is is this link with
    • 42:00emotion regulation. We understand transdiagnostic
    • 42:02symptoms,
    • 42:05can are are typically associated
    • 42:06with impairments in regulation. This
    • 42:06is,
    • 42:12Zach and and Eleni in
    • 42:13my lab.
    • 42:14And this was really a
    • 42:15fundamental question that that we
    • 42:17addressed using the
    • 42:19the entirety of the ABCD
    • 42:21dataset and,
    • 42:23really,
    • 42:25understanding the distinct,
    • 42:26and shared relationships
    • 42:28with,
    • 42:29emotion regulation difficulties that's associated
    • 42:32with, increased severity across each
    • 42:34symptom domain.
    • 42:36And,
    • 42:37and and Zach and the
    • 42:38lady went on to unpack
    • 42:39this further in terms of
    • 42:41specific domains of
    • 42:43regulation, and we found that
    • 42:45increased levels of suppression, which
    • 42:47I mentioned earlier, we can
    • 42:48consider maladaptive
    • 42:51strategy
    • 42:52was linked to increased severity
    • 42:54across,
    • 42:54each of these,
    • 42:56symptom domains.
    • 42:57But we did not find
    • 42:58an effect for reappraisal.
    • 43:00So ABCD has been extremely
    • 43:02valuable to take some of
    • 43:03our hypotheses and test this
    • 43:04in these large datasets,
    • 43:06and and provide the statistical
    • 43:08power that, would be sometimes
    • 43:10very difficult,
    • 43:11and take
    • 43:12years to collect.
    • 43:14And I wanna wrap up
    • 43:16with,
    • 43:17work from really our flagship
    • 43:19study in my lab. So,
    • 43:22we call it the BRAIN
    • 43:23study. It it stands for
    • 43:24something here.
    • 43:26I to save time, I'm
    • 43:27gonna skip that, so just
    • 43:28go with the acronym. But
    • 43:29the BRAIN study,
    • 43:32the BRAIN study is is
    • 43:33really bringing together,
    • 43:35a a lot of the
    • 43:36the themes that I've covered
    • 43:37in today's talk. So here
    • 43:38we have a school age
    • 43:39population of children,
    • 43:41with varying levels of disruptive
    • 43:43behavior with and without autism
    • 43:45so we can tease apart,
    • 43:47and understand more of this
    • 43:48nuance detail with,
    • 43:51networks that are unique to
    • 43:52disruptive behavior, unique to social
    • 43:54impairment, and that are overlapping
    • 43:56across the two.
    • 43:58We conduct multimodal imaging, functional
    • 44:00and structural MRI,
    • 44:02as well as the deep,
    • 44:03clinical phenotyping as well.
    • 44:06And our main task here
    • 44:08is really a task of
    • 44:09reappraisal that was developed here.
    • 44:12And,
    • 44:15and and and what we're
    • 44:16this is actually a very
    • 44:17common, task that's often used
    • 44:19in in, neuroimaging research where,
    • 44:22there's different conditions, and we're
    • 44:24teaching children how to explicitly
    • 44:25regulate emotion across different,
    • 44:28conditions. So they're looking at
    • 44:30disgust inducing images. They're asked
    • 44:31to,
    • 44:33look at neutral images, and
    • 44:34then they're they're asked to
    • 44:35look at the disgust inducing
    • 44:37images
    • 44:38and down regulate their emotions
    • 44:39by pretending it's fake. And
    • 44:41this type of strategy we
    • 44:43call distancing.
    • 44:45And,
    • 44:46this is actually a very
    • 44:47common approach with fMRI,
    • 44:50studies using this specific reappraisal,
    • 44:54strategy of distancing.
    • 44:56So in this,
    • 44:57you know, preliminary sample, we
    • 44:59have twenty five children twenty
    • 45:01seven children, excuse me, nine
    • 45:02to twelve years of age.
    • 45:05This is not a gender
    • 45:06balanced sample. And and, and
    • 45:08our recent
    • 45:10recruitment actually is is focused
    • 45:12on,
    • 45:14on balancing this this gender
    • 45:15imbalance in our sample.
    • 45:17But I wanna share with
    • 45:18you in in the next
    • 45:19few minutes some of our
    • 45:20preliminary data. I wanna spotlight,
    • 45:22our our labs, PGA, Gladys,
    • 45:24who,
    • 45:26puts in an enormous effort
    • 45:27to,
    • 45:29recruit recruit children,
    • 45:31con conduct the scans,
    • 45:33and
    • 45:34and and at regular,
    • 45:35time points and follow ups.
    • 45:38And and given what I
    • 45:38mentioned about considerations for head
    • 45:40motion,
    • 45:42Gladys has really led the
    • 45:43way in thinking about this
    • 45:44and,
    • 45:45thinking about how to bring
    • 45:46these skills to our in
    • 45:48house data collection to make
    • 45:49these experiences fun and, accessible
    • 45:52for children.
    • 45:54And,
    • 45:55this is just to share
    • 45:56some,
    • 45:57some of our early data
    • 45:58on this. But, so during
    • 46:00the task, what we can
    • 46:00see is children are looking
    • 46:01at neutral,
    • 46:03images. The the y axis
    • 46:05throughout these next couple slides
    • 46:06will be the affect rating,
    • 46:07and it's on a Likert
    • 46:08scale of one to five.
    • 46:09But there's a significant difference
    • 46:11even in this relatively this
    • 46:13small sample,
    • 46:14that we see an elevated
    • 46:16affect,
    • 46:17rating for look gross and
    • 46:18a and a and a
    • 46:19decrease,
    • 46:20during the down regulate condition.
    • 46:21So,
    • 46:23this is really just showing
    • 46:24that, we teach children how
    • 46:26to reappraise,
    • 46:27and this is in scanner
    • 46:28data that's collected during the
    • 46:30task that children,
    • 46:33are most likely reappraising
    • 46:35it in the scanner. And
    • 46:36we do have a post
    • 46:37scan,
    • 46:38questionnaire also.
    • 46:39Another way to think about
    • 46:40this data is we can
    • 46:41derive scores for emotion reactivity,
    • 46:44and emotion regulation success. And
    • 46:46if we look at this
    • 46:47in
    • 46:48a different way, we we
    • 46:50can still see that children,
    • 46:52in in this initial sample,
    • 46:54this preliminary sample are, seem
    • 46:56to be regulating and using
    • 46:58reappraisal,
    • 47:00to down regulate.
    • 47:02So this work has been,
    • 47:05you know, really,
    • 47:07led by undergraduate student in
    • 47:09my lab, Goen Li. This
    • 47:10was part of her, senior
    • 47:11thesis. What what a senior
    • 47:13thesis was a lot it
    • 47:14was a lot of data,
    • 47:16that she analyzed in a
    • 47:17very short amount of time.
    • 47:18So,
    • 47:21and one thing we can
    • 47:22do is we can take
    • 47:23this metric of regulation success,
    • 47:27and we can test if
    • 47:27this is associated with externalizing
    • 47:29or disruptive behavior problems. And
    • 47:31we see here
    • 47:32actually and and, it's scaled
    • 47:34differently here so that way
    • 47:35larger numbers is better regulation
    • 47:38success just for interpretation.
    • 47:40Children who are better able
    • 47:41to regulate during this task,
    • 47:44show,
    • 47:45lower levels of destructive behavior
    • 47:47problems.
    • 47:49And this is,
    • 47:51interesting because it's even just
    • 47:53in a small sample like
    • 47:54this, we're still we're we're
    • 47:55seeing some of these effects.
    • 47:58Alice Dyer was, an undergraduate
    • 48:00student in my lab who
    • 48:01just graduated,
    • 48:02one semester ago.
    • 48:04And, this was Alice's thesis
    • 48:06project, and and Alice looked
    • 48:08at functional connectivity correlates of,
    • 48:11regulation during this task and
    • 48:13how this is linked to
    • 48:14disruptive behavior. And,
    • 48:16and here, Alice found that,
    • 48:18we see reduced connectivity,
    • 48:21between the amygdala and the
    • 48:22lateral prefrontal cortex during regulation,
    • 48:25that's associated with, externalizing
    • 48:28behavior. So,
    • 48:29stated differently, children with,
    • 48:32increasing level of disruptive behavior
    • 48:34problems showed reduced connectivity in
    • 48:36this cognitive control circuit,
    • 48:38during explicit regulation.
    • 48:42So this study,
    • 48:43for me is, you know,
    • 48:46exciting because well, for many
    • 48:48reasons, but one, because
    • 48:51the everything up until now
    • 48:52I presented has been implicit
    • 48:53emotion regulation.
    • 48:55Here, we're we're testing an
    • 48:56explicit task of regulation to
    • 48:58really,
    • 48:59to engage these networks involved
    • 49:01in regulation and understand,
    • 49:04this explicit link between,
    • 49:07top down control of emotion
    • 49:08and disruptive behavior problems in
    • 49:10children.
    • 49:13And this is of course,
    • 49:15we we,
    • 49:16are also,
    • 49:18looking to understand this, in
    • 49:20terms of resting state in
    • 49:21a, b, c, d and,
    • 49:23in our ongoing studies. This
    • 49:24is led by Eleni,
    • 49:26and the ABCD study has,
    • 49:28Eleni has taken time one
    • 49:30and time two points,
    • 49:31for children in the a,
    • 49:32b, c, d. And here
    • 49:33we wanna understand about this
    • 49:34longitudinal
    • 49:35trajectories
    • 49:36of,
    • 49:37of symptom change and how
    • 49:38this maps onto the connectome.
    • 49:40So can we take the
    • 49:41connectome? Can we predict
    • 49:42change in severity,
    • 49:44in behavior?
    • 49:46And,
    • 49:47and and this is,
    • 49:50really excellent work, and it's
    • 49:51showing that,
    • 49:53so this is baseline. This
    • 49:54is,
    • 49:55some work from Eleni's, analysis
    • 49:58showing,
    • 49:59we can take baseline connectomes
    • 50:01and predict,
    • 50:03destructive behavior severity, and we
    • 50:04can see a pattern of
    • 50:05frontal parietal and other cognitive
    • 50:07control networks,
    • 50:08that are emerging as highly
    • 50:10predictive.
    • 50:12In terms of symptom change,
    • 50:14we can still predict change
    • 50:16in symptoms. So taking the
    • 50:18baseline connectivity in participants, we
    • 50:20can predict,
    • 50:21children who are getting worse
    • 50:23in terms of symptom severity
    • 50:25across time.
    • 50:26And even though we still
    • 50:28see a pattern of cognitive
    • 50:29control and and also sensory
    • 50:31motor networks,
    • 50:32it's interesting that the pattern,
    • 50:34the the key nodes are
    • 50:36a bit shifted, so we
    • 50:37can still predict. And it
    • 50:38might be that different networks
    • 50:39or subsets of nodes,
    • 50:42are predictive of,
    • 50:43cross sectional versus longitudinal trajectory.
    • 50:46So this is something that
    • 50:46we wanna understand,
    • 50:48in in greater detail in
    • 50:50MyLab's work.
    • 50:53And
    • 50:55and another area we've been,
    • 50:57exploring, and this is also
    • 50:59in collaboration with, my colleagues
    • 51:01at at Haskins,
    • 51:03Naveen, Ken, Vince, and and
    • 51:05Gladys has and,
    • 51:08I think Aslan,
    • 51:09and Gladys has been, leading
    • 51:11a lot of this effort
    • 51:12with NEARS, but we wanna
    • 51:13understand, can we take these
    • 51:15markers from fMRI? Can we
    • 51:16cross validate them in an
    • 51:18approach that's cost efficient and
    • 51:19has high translational potential to
    • 51:21clinics?
    • 51:23And,
    • 51:24when we first started, I
    • 51:25thought I thought participants were
    • 51:27gonna love it.
    • 51:29And they did not so
    • 51:30the biggest complaint is the
    • 51:32the pressure on the forehead.
    • 51:33And I was shocked because
    • 51:35the first two,
    • 51:36NEAR scans,
    • 51:38I and we have participants
    • 51:39who did back to back
    • 51:40back fMRI and NIRS. And
    • 51:41when I asked
    • 51:43our participants,
    • 51:44so what did you think
    • 51:45of NIRS? And they said,
    • 51:46I still prefer,
    • 51:47fMRI.
    • 51:48So,
    • 51:49but they do have an
    • 51:50iPad that they're playing games
    • 51:51with. So it's,
    • 51:53but but, again, this is,
    • 51:55really, I think, just a
    • 51:56minor discomfort from, from the
    • 51:58cap, but it's something to
    • 51:59consider.
    • 52:01Another area, and this is
    • 52:02in in collaboration with with
    • 52:03Kieran, is thinking about,
    • 52:05combining what we know from,
    • 52:07the functional connectome and epigenomics
    • 52:10and understanding are there specific
    • 52:12epigenetic markers that are linked
    • 52:13with stress and emotion regulation
    • 52:15that can help,
    • 52:17help us understand more about
    • 52:18these,
    • 52:19these impacts of,
    • 52:23across different levels of analysis.
    • 52:25And this is a pipeline
    • 52:26and workflow that we're developing
    • 52:28in collaboration and thinking about,
    • 52:30different types of biospecimen collection.
    • 52:33So, to wrap up in
    • 52:35terms of clinical implications, where
    • 52:36is this all going? So
    • 52:37in there's many different
    • 52:39aspects of thinking about,
    • 52:42what are the implications in
    • 52:43terms of,
    • 52:46developing brain based biomarkers and
    • 52:48and neural markers to inform
    • 52:50treatment.
    • 52:50For my lab's work, it's
    • 52:52I I see this as
    • 52:53two areas that are very
    • 52:54relevant for what we do.
    • 52:55One is informing treatment decisions.
    • 52:57And this is also based
    • 52:58on some of, my own
    • 53:00clinical work. And can we
    • 53:01take some of that guesswork
    • 53:02out of these clinical decisions?
    • 53:03Can we help,
    • 53:05inform this decision of of,
    • 53:07children who might do,
    • 53:11respond best to a cognitive
    • 53:12behavioral intervention, psychotropic medication, or
    • 53:14a combination of the two.
    • 53:17The second area that I
    • 53:19see as a potential,
    • 53:20relevance here is target engagement.
    • 53:22Can we, can we use
    • 53:23these validated neural markers to,
    • 53:28to understand is the treatment,
    • 53:30engaging and enhancing the, circuitry
    • 53:32of interest?
    • 53:33And if it's not, this
    • 53:34could also,
    • 53:35give clinicians,
    • 53:37several points along this treatment
    • 53:39timeline where they can shift
    • 53:41treatment or modify the treatment.
    • 53:43This is just to show
    • 53:44some of my work on,
    • 53:46look,
    • 53:47understanding the neural changes to
    • 53:49treatment. But the idea here
    • 53:51is,
    • 53:52can we understand more about
    • 53:53and take the guesswork out
    • 53:55of who's going to respond
    • 53:56best to a particular treatment?
    • 53:59So I'll I'll end with
    • 54:01this slide, and this is,
    • 54:03you know, just thinking about
    • 54:04how to really personalize our
    • 54:06treatment approach. Is how can
    • 54:07we take this information from,
    • 54:09from the scanner, from neuroscience,
    • 54:11and, and and, and and
    • 54:13inform clinical decisions. This is
    • 54:15really an important part of
    • 54:16what we do. This was
    • 54:18a participant who,
    • 54:20developed her own way of,
    • 54:23of communicating emotion regulation and
    • 54:26feelings charts, thermometers.
    • 54:28Those were really of, no
    • 54:30interest to her. So she
    • 54:32came up with her own
    • 54:33way of,
    • 54:34thinking about emotion regulation,
    • 54:36as characters from a band.
    • 54:38I won't say who the
    • 54:39band is, but I put
    • 54:39a hint on the slide
    • 54:40because I found this to
    • 54:41be a very difficult question,
    • 54:43for people. So I put
    • 54:45a hint.
    • 54:46And, these different,
    • 54:48characters reflect her different emotional
    • 54:50states. Ichimoda was, her state
    • 54:53for negative affect, and she
    • 54:54needed help with regulating.
    • 54:56And the the idea here
    • 54:57is can we use neuroscience
    • 54:58to,
    • 54:59help children along this path
    • 55:01of learning to regulate,
    • 55:02and and reaching their potential?
    • 55:06The band is My Chemical
    • 55:08Romance.
    • 55:09So and they're making a
    • 55:10comeback from what I hear.
    • 55:12So look out for them.
    • 55:14Okay. So these are I
    • 55:16wanted I wanna thank all
    • 55:17of the students and trainees
    • 55:18in my lab. They're they're
    • 55:19the heroes. They drive everything
    • 55:21that we do. They bring
    • 55:22all this energy, exceptional ideas.
    • 55:24Thank you to to all
    • 55:25of you. And,
    • 55:27and mentors, collaborators,
    • 55:31thank you. So,
    • 55:33happy to take any questions.
    • 55:44Mhmm.
    • 55:55Mike, they have a question
    • 55:57at least. There's another one?
    • 55:58Yes. First of all, thank
    • 55:59you so much for this
    • 56:00really
    • 56:01spectacular work. It's a lot
    • 56:03of work. So congratulations. Thank
    • 56:05you.
    • 56:06On the clinical implications that
    • 56:07you said at the end,
    • 56:08I was wondering
    • 56:10very early in one of
    • 56:11your early slides, you put
    • 56:12the breakdown of the diagnosis
    • 56:14of kids,
    • 56:15and that seems like so
    • 56:16retro. Right? Mhmm. ODD, whatever
    • 56:18that means.
    • 56:19So I'm wondering whether through
    • 56:21your science on these approaches
    • 56:23and perhaps with our doc
    • 56:26Mhmm. She didn't mention. So
    • 56:27I I wonder where it
    • 56:27fits here. Right. Whether that
    • 56:29could be a clinical implication
    • 56:30moving from an ODD, whatever
    • 56:31that means Mhmm. To a
    • 56:33p value or a z
    • 56:34value or something. Can you
    • 56:35comment on that? Yes. Thank
    • 56:36you for the question.
    • 56:39So I, RDoc was,
    • 56:42I guess, implicit in in
    • 56:43I I I right? So
    • 56:45we,
    • 56:45when I mentioned transdiagnostic,
    • 56:47I think one thing is
    • 56:48we,
    • 56:49we we do use a
    • 56:51lot of these principles from
    • 56:52RDoc and thinking about these
    • 56:55networks that are transdiagnostic.
    • 56:58And
    • 56:58it's interesting that sometimes,
    • 57:01studies have suggested that these,
    • 57:05categorical approach such as a
    • 57:07DSM five has not really
    • 57:09necessarily led to any type
    • 57:11of,
    • 57:12validated biomarkers. And and, the
    • 57:15translational
    • 57:16approach might add, more of
    • 57:18a nuance, might help advance,
    • 57:20this might map more closely
    • 57:22onto, I I guess, real
    • 57:24world heterogeneity. So we we
    • 57:27do, actually, we we do,
    • 57:30conceptualize a lot of what
    • 57:32we do transdiagnostically, and we
    • 57:34we don't necessarily base inclusion
    • 57:36on
    • 57:37diagnosis cutoffs. We do collect
    • 57:39diagnostic information for our our
    • 57:41analysis, but, we we really
    • 57:43base it on,
    • 57:45severity of of symptoms and
    • 57:47we do try to capture,
    • 57:49this heterogeneity.
    • 57:51And really who
    • 57:52who is interested in if
    • 57:53children wanna complete a scan,
    • 57:55we will do our best,
    • 57:57to acclimate them to this
    • 57:58environment and and help make
    • 57:59this a success for them.
    • 58:01But we have been using
    • 58:02other approaches such as, CCA
    • 58:04to take,
    • 58:06to map these symptom dimensions
    • 58:07onto,
    • 58:08neural markers, which we think
    • 58:10might be more of a,
    • 58:12potential approach for,
    • 58:15elucidating transdiagnostic
    • 58:16markers. And and other groups
    • 58:17have used this type of
    • 58:19canonical correlation approaches as well
    • 58:21and other computational approaches.
    • 58:23Thank you. I believe we
    • 58:25have a question. Yes. Doctor.
    • 58:27Brennan, if you'd like to
    • 58:28unmute.
    • 58:30Yes. Thank you for a
    • 58:32great,
    • 58:33presentation. This was very interesting.
    • 58:36My question is,
    • 58:38to we can actually hear
    • 58:39you first seen. Sorry. Can
    • 58:41you hear me?
    • 58:44Can you hear me?
    • 58:47Okay.
    • 58:51Can you hear me?
    • 58:54I'm probably not.
    • 58:57I don't know why because
    • 58:59I'm unmuted.
    • 59:05Christine, can you try again?
    • 59:06Okay. I'll try again. There
    • 59:08we go. Great. Thanks. Okay.
    • 59:09Alright.
    • 59:10Thank you for a great
    • 59:11presentation.
    • 59:13This was very interesting.
    • 59:15My question is,
    • 59:16do you have any information
    • 59:20on which
    • 59:22social environments
    • 59:23how social environments
    • 59:25might contribute to the development
    • 59:28of differential
    • 59:29functional brain connectivity?
    • 59:39Yes.
    • 59:40Yes. Can you hear me
    • 59:42okay
    • 59:43on Zoom? Yes. Yes. I
    • 59:44can. Okay. Okay. Great.
    • 59:46Yeah. So,
    • 59:48one one area I I
    • 59:49didn't have time to go
    • 59:50into was,
    • 59:52you know, we we really
    • 59:53collect I was mentioning,
    • 59:55really, a quite extensive,
    • 59:58characterization
    • 59:59of measures from participants. And,
    • 01:00:01in addition to emotion regulation
    • 01:00:03and symptoms,
    • 01:00:04we also wanna understand,
    • 01:00:07children's,
    • 01:00:08environment and exposure to childhood
    • 01:00:10adversities as well,
    • 01:00:12and protective
    • 01:00:13factors for that matter.
    • 01:00:15And,
    • 01:00:16I think this goes back
    • 01:00:17to,
    • 01:00:19actually Zach and and,
    • 01:00:21Eleni's project looking at emotion
    • 01:00:23regulation a, b, c, d
    • 01:00:25where they found,
    • 01:00:27some very interesting findings,
    • 01:00:29linking,
    • 01:00:30children's exposure to family conflict,
    • 01:00:34and,
    • 01:00:34exposure to negative life events,
    • 01:00:37as,
    • 01:00:38linked to,
    • 01:00:40increased
    • 01:00:41impairment and emotion regulation and
    • 01:00:43increased severity across,
    • 01:00:46symptom domains. And within those
    • 01:00:48two,
    • 01:00:50areas of childhood adversities, it
    • 01:00:52was really family conflict,
    • 01:00:55that,
    • 01:00:56well, it was family conflict
    • 01:00:57and, exposure to negative life
    • 01:00:59events that were two that
    • 01:01:00we focused on, and this
    • 01:01:02has also been, looked at
    • 01:01:04in in prior work. So
    • 01:01:05I would say,
    • 01:01:07exposure to childhood adversities is
    • 01:01:09something that,
    • 01:01:11many groups are looking at,
    • 01:01:12including our groups, to understand
    • 01:01:14this link and more nuance
    • 01:01:16with, disruptive behavior problems as
    • 01:01:18well as other symptoms as
    • 01:01:20well.
    • 01:01:22Thank you.