Faculty Bibliography

This study examined the effect of an interference task on the consolidation of duration in long-term memory. In a temporal generalization task, the participants performed a learning phase with a reference duration that either was, or was not, followed 30 min later by a 15-min interference task. They were then given a memory test, 24 h later. Using different participant groups, several reference durations were examined, from several hundred milliseconds (600 ms) to several seconds (2.5, 4, and 8 s). The results showed that the scalar timing property (i.e., precision proportional to judged duration) was preserved despite the interference task given during the memory consolidation process. However, the interference task increased the variability of time judgment and tended to produce a lengthening effect in all reference duration conditions. The modeling of individual data with parameters derived from scalar expectancy theory suggests that disrupting the memory consolidation of learned reference durations introduces noise in their representation in memory, with time being specifically distorted toward a lengthened duration.

The senses of taste and smell developed early in evolution and are of high ecological and clinical relevance in humans. Chemosensory systems function, in large part, as hazard avoidance systems, thereby ensuring survival. Moreover, they play a critical role in nutrition and in determining the flavor of foods and beverages. Their dysfunction has been shown to be a key element of early stages of a number of diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Advanced neuroimaging methods provide a unique means for understanding, in vivo, neural and psychological processing of smell, taste, and flavor, and how diseases can impact such processing. This chapter provides, from a neuroimaging perspective, a comprehensive overview of the anatomy and physiology involved in the odor and taste processing in the central nervous system. Some methodological challenges associated with chemosensory neuroimaging research are discussed. Multisensory integration, the mechanisms that enable holistic sensory experiences, is emphasized.

Our aim was to investigate whether four treatment features (i.e., the inclusion of parental involvement, goal-setting strategies, maintenance/relapse prevention sessions, the addition of booster sessions) were associated with posttreatment and follow-up effect size of youth cognitive behavioral therapies (yCBTs) for anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder in age groups spanning young children to adolescents. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis of 106 yCBTs tested in 76 randomized clinical trials from the PracticeWise Database to examine average effects of yCBTs posttreatment and at a later follow-up assessment. We coded the use of parental involvement, goal setting, booster sessions, and maintenance/relapse prevention in each yCBT and conducted random-effects meta-regression analyses to investigate whether these treatment features were associated with yCBT effects at posttreatment as well as at follow-up. Overall, yCBTs produced large pre- to posttreatment effects (d = 1.05), 95% confidence interval [0.94, 1.15], and larger pre- to follow-up effects (d = 1.29), 95% confidence interval [1.18, 1.40]. Metaregression results indicated that parental involvement was significantly associated with larger pre- to posttreatment effect sizes as well as pre- to follow-up effect sizes. Booster sessions, goal setting, and maintenance/relapse prevention were not significantly related to effect sizes at posttreatment or follow-up. Parental involvement may be helpful for maximizing long-term effectiveness of yCBT. Future studies should investigate for whom and under what conditions inclusion of yCBT treatment features is related to the durability of treatment gains.

The delay aversion hypothesis argues that the tendency for impulsive choice (preference for smaller sooner over larger later rewards) is motivated by the escape of negative affective states associated with delay. This model predicts that individuals with ADHD find the imposition of delay before an outcome or event especially aversive and its escape reinforcing. Consistent with this, fMRI studies show that ADHD is associated with amygdala hyper-sensitivity to cues of delay. However, evidence that delay escape is reinforcing is lacking. Here we extend fMRI research by using electrophysiological methods to study the reinforcing properties of delay-escape in ADHD. Thirty controls and 25 adolescents with ADHD aged 10-15 years performed the Escape Delay Incentive (EDI) task- in which pre-target cues indicated three conditions: i) CERTAIN DELAY: delay would follow a response irrespective of response speed ii) CONDITIONAL DELAY: delay would only follow if the response was too slow and iii) NO DELAY: delay would follow the response whatever the speed. We focused on the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV), a cue-evoked marker of motivated response preparation, across two time windows (CNV1 and CNV2). We took measures of parent, teacher and self-rated ADHD symptoms, task performance (RT) and self-rated delay aversion. We isolated CNV components and compared these between ADHD and controls. Adolescents with ADHD displayed a larger CNV2 to the CONDITIONAL DELAY than the CERTAIN DELAY cues compared to controls. However, this effect was not mirrored at the performance level and was unrelated to self-reported delay aversion. Our study provides the first ERP evidence that delay escape differentially reinforcers neural activation of attention preparation in ADHD cases. Future studies should examine the impact of varying cognitive load on task EDI performance.