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Altered Connectivity in Resting State Networks in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder [Meeting Abstract]
Taylor, Stephan F.; Stern, Emily R.; Fitzgerald, Kate D.; Abelson, James L.; Welsh, Robert C.
ISI:000277064200670
ISSN: 0006-3223
CID: 3054932
Probing Frontal Circuitry During Performance Monitoring and Decision-Making in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder [Meeting Abstract]
Stern, Emily R.
ISI:000277064200336
ISSN: 0006-3223
CID: 3054922
The development of performance-monitoring function in the posterior medial frontal cortex
Fitzgerald, Kate Dimond; Perkins, Suzanne C; Angstadt, Mike; Johnson, Timothy; Stern, Emily R; Welsh, Robert C; Taylor, Stephan F
BACKGROUND: Despite its critical role in performance-monitoring, the development of posterior medial prefrontal cortex (pMFC) in goal-directed behaviors remains poorly understood. Performance monitoring depends on distinct, but related functions that may differentially activate the pMFC, such as monitoring response conflict and detecting errors. Developmental differences in conflict- and error-related activations, coupled with age-related changes in behavioral performance, may confound attempts to map the maturation of pMFC functions. To characterize the development of pMFC-based performance monitoring functions, we segregated interference and error-processing, while statistically controlling for performance. METHODS: Twenty-one adults and 23 youth performed an event-related version of the Multi-Source Interference Task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Linear modeling of interference and error contrast estimates derived from the pMFC were regressed on age, while covarying for performance. RESULTS: Interference- and error-processing were associated with robust activation of the pMFC in both youth and adults. Among youth, interference- and error-related activation of the pMFC increased with age, independent of performance. Greater accuracy associated with greater pMFC activity during error commission in both groups. DISCUSSION: Increasing pMFC response to interference and errors occurs with age, likely contributing to the improvement of performance monitoring capacity during development.
PMCID:2846421
PMID: 19913101
ISSN: 1095-9572
CID: 2759602
Topographic analysis of individual activation patterns in medial frontal cortex in schizophrenia
Stern, Emily R; Welsh, Robert C; Fitzgerald, Kate D; Taylor, Stephan F
Individual variability in the location of neural activations poses a unique problem for neuroimaging studies employing group averaging techniques to investigate the neural bases of cognitive and emotional functions. This may be especially challenging for studies examining patient groups, which often have limited sample sizes and increased intersubject variability. In particular, medial frontal cortex (MFC) dysfunction is thought to underlie performance monitoring dysfunction among patients with schizophrenia, yet previous studies using group averaging to compare schizophrenic patients to controls have yielded conflicting results. To examine individual activations in MFC associated with two aspects of performance monitoring, interference and error processing, functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired while 17 patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls (HCs) performed an event-related version of the multisource interference task. Comparisons of averaged data revealed few differences between the groups. By contrast, topographic analysis of individual activations for errors showed that control subjects exhibited activations spanning across both posterior and anterior regions of MFC while patients primarily activated posterior MFC, possibly reflecting an impaired emotional response to errors in schizophrenia. This discrepancy between topographic and group-averaged results may be due to the significant dispersion among individual activations, particularly in HCs, highlighting the importance of considering intersubject variability when interpreting the medial frontal response to error commission.
PMCID:2700203
PMID: 18819107
ISSN: 1097-0193
CID: 2759612
Neural Correlates of Uncertainty during Decision Making in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [Meeting Abstract]
Stern, Emily R.; Gonzalez, Richard; Welsh, Robert C.; Taylor, Stephan F.
ISI:000265144200404
ISSN: 0006-3223
CID: 3054912
Effects of incentive value on hyperactive error responses in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder [Meeting Abstract]
Stern, Emily R.; Liu, Yanni; Gehring, William J.; Lister, James J.; Fitzgerald, Kate D.; Martis, Brian; Himle, Joseph A.; Abelson, James L.; Taylor, Stephan F.
ISI:000254163700569
ISSN: 0006-3223
CID: 3054902
Inhibitory deficits in Tourette's syndrome
Stern, Emily R; Blair, Clancy; Peterson, Bradley S
A developmental approach to the study of psychopathology can broaden understanding of a wide variety of complex psychological disorders. This article reviews research on Tourette's syndrome (TS), a developmental disorder characterized by unwanted motor and vocal tics. Over the past decade, knowledge of the neurobiology and pathophysiology of TS has progressed rapidly. The application of brain imaging techniques, primarily magnetic resonance imaging, to the study of Tourette's has increased knowledge of structural and functional deficits in brain areas associated with behavioral and psychological disturbances in the disorder. By reviewing some of this work, we will describe one way in which knowledge of brain function in TS has both informed and been informed by a developmental science approach. In particular, we will consider the extent to which the cognitive and emotional development of persons with TS may be affected by specific neurobiological characteristics of the disorder.
PMCID:2367163
PMID: 18085554
ISSN: 1098-2302
CID: 1829342
Preparatory neural activity predicts performance on a conflict task
Stern, Emily R; Wager, Tor D; Egner, Tobias; Hirsch, Joy; Mangels, Jennifer A
Advance preparation has been shown to improve the efficiency of conflict resolution. Yet, with little empirical work directly linking preparatory neural activity to the performance benefits of advance cueing, it is not clear whether this relationship results from preparatory activation of task-specific networks, or from activity associated with general alerting processes. Here, fMRI data were acquired during a spatial Stroop task in which advance cues either informed subjects of the upcoming relevant feature of conflict stimuli (spatial or semantic) or were neutral. Informative cues decreased reaction time (RT) relative to neutral cues, and cues indicating that spatial information would be task-relevant elicited greater activity than neutral cues in multiple areas, including right anterior prefrontal and bilateral parietal cortex. Additionally, preparatory activation in bilateral parietal cortex and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex predicted faster RT when subjects responded to spatial location. No regions were found to be specific to semantic cues at conventional thresholds, and lowering the threshold further revealed little overlap between activity associated with spatial and semantic cueing effects, thereby demonstrating a single dissociation between activations related to preparing a spatial versus semantic task-set. This relationship between preparatory activation of spatial processing networks and efficient conflict resolution suggests that advance information can benefit performance by leading to domain-specific biasing of task-relevant information.
PMCID:2288660
PMID: 17889835
ISSN: 1872-6240
CID: 2759622
Neural systems for error monitoring: recent findings and theoretical perspectives
Taylor, Stephan F; Stern, Emily R; Gehring, William J
Complex behavior requires a flexible system that maintains task performance in the context of specific goals, evaluating behavioral progress, adjusting behavior as needed, and adapting to changing contingencies. Generically referred to as performance monitoring, a key component concerns the identification and correction of differences between an intended and an executed response (i.e., an error). Brain mapping experiments have now identified the temporal and spatial components of a putative error-processing system in the large-scale networks of the human brain. Most of this work has focused on the medial frontal cortex and an associated electrophysiological component known as the error-related negativity (or error negativity). Although the precise role, or roles, of this region still remain unknown, investigations of error processing have identified a cluster of modules in the medial frontal cortex involved in monitoring/maintaining ongoing behavior and motivating task sets. Other regions include bilateral anterior insula/inferior operculum and lateral prefrontal cortex. Recent work has begun to uncover how individual differences might affect the modules recruited for a task, in addition to the identification of associations between pathological states and aberrant error signals, leading to insights about possible mechanisms of neuropsychiatric illness.
PMID: 17404376
ISSN: 1073-8584
CID: 2759632
An electrophysiological investigation of preparatory attentional control in a spatial Stroop task
Stern, Emily R; Mangels, Jennifer A
Top-down attentional control is required when subjects must attend to one of multiple conflicting stimulus features, such as in the Stroop task. Performance may be improved when such control is implemented in advance of stimulus presentation, yet few studies have examined this issue. Our investigation employed a spatial Stroop task with a manual response, allowing us to focus on the effects of preparatory attention on verbal processing when it is the less automatic attribute. A letter cue (P or W) presented for 2200 msec instructed subjects to respond on the basis of the position or meaning of a word (up, down, left, right) placed in an incongruent position relative to center. Event-related potentials recorded during pre- and poststimulus periods were analyzed as a function of reaction time to the target stimulus (fast vs. slow) in order to differentiate neural activity associated with more or less successful implementation of control. During the prestimulus period, fast responses to subsequent targets were associated with enhanced slow-wave activity over right frontal and bilateral central-parietal regions. During the poststimulus period, fast word trials were uniquely associated with an enhanced inferior temporal negativity (ITN) from 200 to 600 msec. More importantly, a correlation between frontal prestimulus activity and the poststimulus ITN suggested that frontal preparatory activity played a role in facilitating conceptual processing of the verbal stimulus when it arrived, providing an important link between preparatory attention and mechanisms that improve performance in the face of conflict.
PMID: 16839306
ISSN: 0898-929x
CID: 2759642