Brain Circuitries Involved in Semantic Interference by Demands of Emotional and Non-Emotional Distractors

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have indicated that the processes leading to the resolution of emotional and non-emotional interference conflicts are unrelated, involving separate networks. It is also known that conflict resolution itself suggests a considerable overlap of the networks. Our study is an attempt to examine how these findings may be related. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study neural responses of 24 healthy subjects to emotional and non-emotional conflict paradigms involving the presentation of congruent and incongruent word-face pairs based on semantic incompatibility between targets and distractors. In the emotional task, the behavioral interference conflict was greater (compared to the non-emotional task) and was paralleled by involvement of the extrastriate visual and posterodorsal medial frontal cortices. In both tasks, we also observed a common network including the dorsal anterior cingulate, the supplemental motor area, the anterior insula and the inferior prefrontal cortex, indicating that these brain structures are markers of experienced conflict. However, the emotional task involved conflict-triggered networks to a considerably higher degree. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings indicate that responses to emotional and non-emotional distractors involve the same systems, which are capable of flexible adjustments based on conflict demands. The function of systems related to conflict resolution is likely to be adjusted on the basis of an evaluation process that primarily involves the extrastriate visual cortex, with target playing a significant role

Baby blues, premenstrual syndrome and postpartum affective disorders: intersection of risk factors and reciprocal influences

Background The aetiology and consequences of ‘baby blues’ (lower mood following childbirth) are yet to be sufficiently investigated with respect to an individual's clinical history. Aims The primary aim of the study was to assess the symptoms of baby blues and the relevant risk factors, their associations with clinical history and premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and their possible contribution to the early recognition of postpartum depression (PPD). Method Beginning shortly after childbirth, 369 mothers were followed up for 12 weeks. Information related to their clinical history, PMS, depression, stress and mother–child attachment was collected. At 12 weeks, mothers were classified as non-depressed, or with either PPD or adjustment disorder. Results A correlation was found between the severity of baby blues and PMS (r = 0.397, P < 0.001), with both conditions increasing the possibility of adjustment disorder and PPD (baby blues: OR = 6.72, 95% CI 3.69–12.25; PMS: OR = 3.29, 95% CI 2.01–5.39). Baby blues and PMS independently predicted whether a mother would develop adjustment disorder or PPD after childbirth (χ2(64) = 198.16, P < 0.001). Among the non-depressed participants, baby blues were found to be associated with primiparity (P = 0.012), family psychiatric history (P = 0.001), PMS (P < 0.001) and childhood trauma (P = 0.017). Conclusions Baby blues are linked to a number of risk factors and a history of PMS, with both conditions adding to the risk of PPD. The neuroendocrine effects on mood need be understood in the context of individual risk factors. The assessment of both baby blues and PMS symptoms within the first postpartum days may contribute to an early identification of PPD

Restless Legs Syndrome During Pregnancy and 12 Weeks Postpartum and Its Links to Cardiovascular Diseases, Stressful Life Events, and Psychiatric History

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is highly prevalent among pregnant women. In the present study, a neurological&ndash;obstetrical sample of 561 postpartum women was retrospectively screened for RLS symptoms during pregnancy and in the first 12 weeks postpartum. The first screening took place within 1 to 6 days of delivery (T0) and the second 12 weeks after childbirth (T1). The pregnancy-related RLS prevalence rate was found to be 21% (n = 119), with the women suffering from RLS being more often affected by psychiatric history and having been more exposed to stressful life events. They were also found to have experienced baby blues more frequently shortly after childbirth. However, RLS in pregnancy did not appear to have any effect on the development of postpartum depression. Additionally, a positive trend was observed toward an association between pregnancy-related RLS and gestational diabetes and hypertension. Of the 119 women, 23 (19.3%) remained affected by RLS 12 weeks postpartum. Body mass index (BMI), weight gain, parity, childbearing history, or chronic stress exposure in pregnancy as measured by hair cortisol were not found to be linked to RLS. In summary, a comprehensive understanding of the interaction of clinical, environmental, and anamnestic factors can help shed valuable light on this pregnancy-related condition

Conflict Adaptation in Emotional Task Underlies the Amplification of Target

A primary function of cognitive control is to adjust the cognitive system according to situational demands. The so-called “conflict adaptation effect” elicited in laboratory experiments is supposed to reflect the above function. Neuroimaging studies suggest that adaptation of nonemotional conflict is mediated by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex through a top-down enhancement of task-relevant (target), relative to task-irrelevant (distractor), stimulus representation in the sensory cortices. The adaptation of emotional conflict, on the other hand, is suggested to be related to the rostral anterior cingulate inhibiting the processing of emotional distractors through a top-down modulation of amygdala responsivity. In the present study, we manipulated, on a trial-by-trial basis, the levels of semantic interference conflict triggered by the incompatibility between emotional faces (targets) and emotional words (distractors) in a modified version of the emotional Stroop task. Similar to previous observations involving nonemotional interference effects, the behavioral adaptation of emotional conflict was found to be paralleled by a stronger recruitment of the fusiform face area. Additional areas related to the conflict adaptation effect were the bilateral insula, the bilateral frontal operculum (fO), the right amygdala, the left precentral and postcentral gyri, and the parietal cortex. These findings suggest that augmentation of cortical responses to task-relevant information in emotional conflict may be related to conflict adaptation processes in a way that has been observed in nonemotional conflict, challenging the view that brain circuitries underlying the conflict adaptation effect depend only on the nature of conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved