Faculty Bibliography

Background: Parenting practices predict early childhood physical aggression. Preventive interventions that alter parenting practices and aggression during early childhood provide the opportunity to test causal models of early childhood psychopathology. Although there have been several informative preventive intervention studies that test mediation models in older children, no such studies have been conducted with younger children at high risk for psychopathology. Method: Within the context of a randomized controlled trial, we examined whether changes in parenting practices mediate the effects of a family intervention on observed physical aggression among African American and Latino younger siblings of adjudicated youths. Results: Improved parenting practices partially mediated the intervention effect on physical aggression. Improvements in harsh parenting, responsive parenting, and stimulating parenting explained a significant amount of the intervention effect on child physical aggression observed in the context of parent-child interactions. Parenting practices accounted for 38% of the intervention effect on physical aggression. Conclusions: There was support for the hypothesized model of the prevention of physical aggression during early childhood. Intervention benefits on parenting practices partially accounted for intervention effects on physical aggression in young high-risk children

This article summarizes current research related to autism spectrum disorders. Current epidemiological trends, theories about aetiology, and relevant issues in assessment and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders are discussed

In this review we are concerned specifically with the putative role of the default-mode network (DMN) in the pathophysiology of mental disorders. First, we define the DMN concept with regard to its neuro-anatomy, its functional organisation through low frequency neuronal oscillations, its relation to other recently discovered low frequency resting state networks, and the cognitive functions it is thought to serve. Second, we introduce methodological and analytical issues and challenges. Third, we describe putative mechanisms proposed to link DMN abnormalities and mental disorders. These include interference by network activity during task performance, altered patterns of antagonism between task specific and non-specific elements, altered connectively and integrity of the DMN, and altered psychological functions served by the network DMN. Fourth, we review the empirical literature systematically. We relate DMN dysfunction to dementia, schizophrenia, epilepsy, anxiety and depression, autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drawing out common and unique elements of the disorders. Finally, we provide an integrative overview and highlight important challenges and tasks for future research

Chronic treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) alleviates both anxiety symptoms and associated physiologic disturbances in anxious patients. However, limited research considers the degree to which chronic SSRI treatment influences anxiety in healthy individuals. This study examined the effect of 2-week citalopram treatment on two threat responses: short- and long-duration-potentiated startle. Prior work suggests that these two responses provide neurally and functionally distinct models of fear and anxiety, respectively, in rodents. Healthy volunteers (n=53) received either placebo or citalopram (20 mg per day) for 2 weeks under double-blind conditions. They were each tested twice, before and after treatment. Participants were exposed to three conditions, including one in which predictable aversive shocks were signaled by a cue, a second in which unpredictable shocks were anticipated, and a third in which no shocks were administered. Aversive states were indexed by acoustic startle. Phasic fear-potentiated startle to the threat cue, as well as sustained startle potentiation to the experimental context in the predictable and unpredictable conditions, were investigated. Citalopram affected neither baseline startle nor short-duration fear-potentiated startle to discrete threat cues. However, citalopram reduced long-duration startle potentiation in the predictable conditions. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that short- and long-duration aversive states are mediated by distinct neural systems. They suggest that citalopram alleviates symptoms of anticipatory anxiety, not fear, by acting on mechanisms underlying long-duration aversive states.