Faculty Bibliography

The present study investigates the effect of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) val66met polymorphism on change in olfactory function in a large scale, longitudinal population-based sample (n = 836). The subjects were tested on a 13 item force-choice odor identification test on two test occasions over a 5-year-interval. Sex, education, health-related factors, and semantic ability were controlled for in the statistical analyses. Results showed an interaction effect of age and BDNF val66met on olfactory change, such that the magnitude of olfactory decline in the older age cohort (70-90 years old at baseline) was larger for the val homozygote carriers than for the met carriers. The older met carriers did not display larger age-related decline in olfactory function compared to the younger group. The BDNF val66met polymorphism did not affect the rate of decline in the younger age cohort (45-65 years). The findings are discussed in the light of the proposed roles of BDNF in neural development and maintenance.

This study examined how restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBs) developed over time in a sample of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). One hundred ninety-two children referred for a diagnosis of autism at age 2, and 22 children with nonspectrum development disorders were evaluated with a battery of cognitive and diagnostic measures at age 2 and subsequently at ages 3, 5, and 9. Factor analysis of the RRB items on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised revealed two RRB factors at each wave of data collection, one comprising 'repetitive sensorimotor' (RSM) behaviors and the other 'insistence on sameness' (IS) behaviors. For children with ASD, RSM scores remained relatively high over time, indicating consistent severity, whereas IS scores started low and increased over time, indicating worsening. Having a higher nonverbal intelligence (NVIQ) at age 2 was associated with milder concurrent RSM behaviors and with improvement in these behaviors over time. There was no relationship between NVIQ at age 2 and IS behaviors. However, milder social/communicative impairment, at age 2 was associated with more severe concurrent IS behaviors. Trajectory analysis revealed considerable heterogeneity in patterns of change over time for both kinds of behaviors. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for our understanding of RRBs in ASD and other disorders, making prognoses about how RRBs will develop in children with ASD as they get older, and using RRBs to identify ASD phenotypes in genetic studies

This article presents theory and rationale for game-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (GB-CBT), an integrative group modality for treating elementary school-aged children who have been sexually abused. GB-CBT incorporates evidence-based elements from cognitive-behavioral therapy, play therapy, and group therapy. The model's curriculum contains topics that have been demonstrated to be effective for treating child sexual abuse, including communication skills, emotional expression skills, psycho-education about child abuse, exposure and processing of sexual abuse, and self-protection and coping skills. Treatment is delivered in a fun and engaging manner utilizing developmentally appropriate games (DAGs) as the primary therapeutic technique. GB-CBT was designed to address behavioral problems and symptoms typically associated with child sexual abuse and aims to enhance children's knowledge of abuse and self-protection skills

The present study investigated the time course of attentional bias for angry and happy faces in 50 primary school children (9 to 12 years). That is, the study examined the degree to which an anxiety-related attentional bias was moderated by the duration of threat exposure. Using a visual-probe task, children were shown angry and happy faces paired with neutral ones over two exposure durations: 500 and 1250 ms. Results revealed that higher levels of anxiety were associated with an attentional bias towards angry faces across the 500 ms and 1250 ms exposure durations. There were no effects of children's anxiety or stimulus exposure duration on attentional bias for happy faces. Results are discussed in relation to threat-monitoring versus vigilance-avoidance patterns of attentional bias, and developmental considerations, including comparison with findings from studies of anxiety-related attentional biases in adults.

Norepinephrine (NE) is thought to play a key role in fear and anxiety, but its role in amygdala-dependent Pavlovian fear conditioning, a major model for understanding the neural basis of fear, is poorly understood. The lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) is a critical brain region for fear learning and regulating the effects of stress on memory. To understand better the cellular mechanisms of NE and its adrenergic receptors in the LA, we used antibodies directed against dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DbetaH), the synthetic enzyme for NE, or against two different isoforms of the beta-adrenergic receptors (betaARs), one that predominately recognizes neurons (betaAR 248) and the other astrocytes (betaAR 404), to characterize the microenvironments of DbetaH and betaAR. By electron microscopy, most DbetaH terminals did not make synapses, but when they did, they formed both asymmetric and symmetric synapses. By light microscopy, betaARs were present in both neurons and astrocytes. Confocal microscopy revealed that both excitatory and inhibitory neurons express betaAR248. By electron microscopy, betaAR 248 was present in neuronal cell bodies, dendritic shafts and spines, and some axon terminals and astrocytes. When in dendrites and spines, betaAR 248 was frequently concentrated along plasma membranes and at post-synaptic densities of asymmetric (excitatory) synapses. betaAR 404 was expressed predominately in astrocytic cell bodies and processes. These astrocytic processes were frequently interposed between unlabeled terminals or ensheathed asymmetric synapses. Our findings provide a morphological basis for understanding ways in which NE may modulate transmission by acting via synaptic or non-synaptic mechanisms in the LA

Beta-adrenergic receptors (betaARs) have long been associated with fear disorders and with learning and memory. However, the contribution of these receptors to Pavlovian fear conditioning, a leading behavioral model for studying fear learning and memory, is still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of betaAR activation in the acquisition, consolidation and expression of fear conditioning. We focused on manipulations of betaARs in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) because of the well-established contribution of this area to fear conditioning. Specifically, we tested the effects of intra-LA microinfusions of the betaAR antagonist, propranolol, on learning and memory for auditory Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats. Pre-training propranolol infusions disrupted the initial acquisition, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM) for fear conditioning, but infusions immediately after training had no effect. Further, infusion of propranolol prior to testing fear responses did not affect fear memory expression. These findings indicate that amygdala betaARs are important for the acquisition but not the consolidation of fear conditioning.