Evidence suggests that threatening stimuli induce attentional biases compared to neutral stimuli, leading to subsequent storage in working memory. The current study examined how threatening versus neutral word distracters influence attention, and how this affects the unnecessary storage of these task-irrelevant stimuli in working memory. We measured the N2pc and contralateral delay activity (CDA), two […]
Author Archives: Christine L. Larson
Neural Substrates of Human Fear Generalization: A 7T-fMRI Investigation
Fear generalization – the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening due to perceptual similarity to a learned threat – is an adaptive process. Overgeneralization, however, is maladaptive and has been implicated in a number of anxiety disorders. Neuroimaging research has indicated several regions sensitive to effects of generalization, including regions involved in fear excitation […]
Perceived discrimination predicts future PTSD symptoms in trauma-exposed racial and ethnic minority adults.
In the United States, Black residents exposed to a traumatic event are at an increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and experiencing more severe symptoms compared to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Although previous work has suggested a link between racial discrimination and PTSD symptoms, no studies have assessed this association in a sample […]
The effects of emotional working memory training on worry symptoms and error-related negativity of individuals with high trait anxiety: a randomized controlled study.
Background: Trait anxiety is characterized by impaired gating of threat from working memory (WM), allowing unnecessary maintenance of anxious cognitions. Improving filtering efficiency of threatening information through computerized WM training might reduce intrusive, worrisome thoughts. Methods: We randomized high-trait anxious individuals to 9 sessions of high-potency n-back (n = 19) or low-potency 1-back (n = […]
Cortical volume abnormalities in posttraumatic stress disorder: An ENIGMA-Psychiatric Genomics Consortium PTSD workgroup mega-analysis
Studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) report volume abnormalities in multiple regions of the cerebral cortex. However, findings for many regions, particularly regions outside commonly studied emotion-related prefrontal, insular, and limbic regions, are inconsistent and tentative. Also, few studies address the possibility that PTSD abnormalities may be confounded by comorbid depression. A mega-analysis investigating all […]
Endocannabinoids and prospective risk for depression in trauma-injury survivors
Biological mechanisms associated with response to trauma may impact risk for depression. One such mechanism is endocannabinoid signaling (eCB), a neuromodulatory system comprised of the CB1 subtype of cannabinoid receptors (CB1R), encoded by the CNR1 gene, and two primary endogenous ligands: 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) and N-arachidonylethanolamine (AEA), hydrolyzed by monoacylglycerol lipase (gene name MGLL) and fatty […]
I told you it was safe: Associations between intolerance of uncertainty and different types of uncertainty during instructed threat of shock.
Background and objectives: Self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) is the tendency to find uncertainty aversive. There is a lack of empirical research on how IU modulates anticipatory responding during threatening contexts with different parameters of uncertainty. Methods: Exploratory secondary analyses were conducted on an existing data set (n = 45) to examine whether IU is […]
Resting state functional connectivity in the default mode network: Relationships between cannabis use, gender, and cognition in adolescents and young adults
Introduction: Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States, and nearly 1 in 4 young adults are current cannabis users. Chronic cannabis use is associated with changes in resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in the default mode network (DMN) in adolescents and young adults; results are somewhat inconsistent across studies, potentially […]
Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with stable deficits in neurocognitive functioning
Background: In trauma-exposed adults, the relationship between an individual’s socioeconomic position (SEP) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been well demonstrated. One potential mechanism by which the stress associated with lower SEPs may impact trauma outcomes is by changes in neurocognition. In both healthy and clinical samples, area-level factors also appear to be independently related […]
Stability of hippocampal subfield volumes after trauma and relationship to development of PTSD symptoms
Background: The hippocampus plays a central role in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) pathogenesis, and the majority of neuroimaging research on PTSD has studied the hippocampus in its entirety. Although extensive literature demonstrates changes in hippocampal volume are associated with PTSD, fewer studies have probed the relationship between symptoms and the hippocampus’ functionally and structurally distinct […]
