High-fructose diet in adolescence may exacerbate depressive-like behavior

What do you think of this article? "Animal study shows that diet alters important pathways associated with brain's response to stress The consumption of a diet high in fructose throughout adolescence can worsen depressive- and anxiety-like behavior and alter how the brain responds to stress, according to new animal research scheduled for presentation at Neuroscience 2014, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. "Our results offer new insights into the ways in which diet can alter brain health and may lead to important implications for adolescent nutrition and development," said lead author Constance Harrell of Emory University in Atlanta. Harrell is presenting her work Saturday, Nov. 15, Halls A-C, 3-4 pm and participating in an "Unhealthy diet, unhealthy mind"-themed press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 12:30 pm. Harrell is a graduate student working with Gretchen Neigh, PhD, assistant professor of physiology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Fructose, a sugar found naturally in fruits and vegetables but also added to many processed foods and beverages, can promote negative cardiovascular effects. It also stimulates neural pathways that affect how the brain responds to stress, which can have important behavioral effects, including the worsening of symptoms related to depression and anxiety. Such effects are of particular concern during the teen years, which is a critical time for the development of the brain's stress response. To determine whether fructose consumption has the potential to create long-term changes in metabolism and behavior during adolescence, Harrell and her colleagues gave both adolescent and adult rats either a standard or a high-fructose diet. After 10 weeks, the adolescent but not adult rats on the high-fructose diet had a different stress hormone response to an acute stressor, which was consistent with their depressed-like behavior. A genetic pathway in the brain that plays a key role in regulating the way the brain responds to stress was also altered. These findings indicate that consuming a diet high in fructose throughout adolescence may exacerbate depressive behaviors and affect the way the body and the brain respond to stress." ### For more mental health topics and Continuing education in 3 easy steps, please visit Online MFT Continuing Education

Aging and gene expression -- possible links to autism and schizophrenia in offspring

Advanced paternal age has been associated with greater risk for psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism. With an increase in paternal age, there is a greater frequency of certain types of mutations that contribute to these disorders in offspring. Mutations are changes in the genetic code. Recent research, however, looks beyond the genetic code to "epigenetic effects", which do not involve changes in the genes themselves, but rather in how they are expressed to determine one's characteristics. Such epigenetic changes in sperm, related to ageing, have been linked with psychiatric disorders in offspring. Maria Milekic, PhD, reported today, at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting in Hollywood Florida, that old mice have an epigenetic change ‒ a loss of DNA methylation at the locations where the genetic code starts being transcribed. DNA methylation is a biochemical process that plays an important regulatory role in development and disease. The work was done by a research team in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. Offspring of old fathers showed the same deficit in DNA methylation, and they differed in their behavior from the offspring of the young fathers. They showed less exploratory activity and differed in the startle response and in habituation. Two groups, with 10 breeder mice per group, were tested. The breeders were either old (12 month) or young (3 month) males, each bred with two young (3 month) female mice. Then the behavior of the offspring was tested when they were 3 months old. DNA methylation also was tested in the young and old fathers' sperm, and brains of the offspring were tested for DNA methylation as well as gene expression. "We were interested in understanding the mechanism of the paternal age effect", said Dr. Milekic."The risk for schizophrenia increases 2-fold when a father is over 45 years of age, and the risk for autism increases 2-5-fold. It seemed unlikely that mutation alone could account for this. We therefore speculated that DNA methylation could provide an alternative mechanism." Not only did the offspring of the old fathers differ from their counterparts with young fathers in DNA methylation, they also showed significant differences in the expression of genes that have been implicated in autism spectrum disorders and that are known to regulate the development and function of the brain. These findings point to possible factors that can lead to autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia, and ultimately may lead to more effective therapeutic interventions. With respect to studies in the immediate future, Dr. Milekic said,"We are trying to evaluate changes in different brain regions. Our studies before did not compare brain regions. Most of the genes that have altered expression are in the cerebellum. We are interested in how DNA methylation in the cerebellum is affected by paternal age." Social Worker CEUs ### The work was supported by grants from NIMH and the Simon Foundation to Jay Gingrich, MD, PhD, and a NARSAD Young Investigator Awa rd from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation to Dr. Milekic.

Brain connectivity study reveals striking differences between men and women

Penn Medicine brain imaging study helps explain different cognitive strengths in men and women PHILADELPHIA—A new brain connectivity study from Penn Medicine published today in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences found striking differences in the neural wiring of men and women that's lending credence to some commonly-held beliefs about their behavior. In one of the largest studies looking at the "connectomes" of the sexes, Ragini Verma, PhD, an associate professor in the department of Radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues found greater neural connectivity from front to back and within one hemisphere in males, suggesting their brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action. In contrast, in females, the wiring goes between the left and right hemispheres, suggesting that they facilitate communication between the analytical and intuition. "These maps show us a stark difference--and complementarity--in the architecture of the human brain that helps provide a potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks, and women at others," said Verma. For instance, on average, men are more likely better at learning and performing a single task at hand, like cycling or navigating directions, whereas women have superior memory and social cognition skills, making them more equipped for multitasking and creating solutions that work for a group. They have a mentalistic approach, so to speak. Past studies have shown sex differences in the brain, but the neural wiring connecting regions across the whole brain that have been tied to such cognitive skills has never been fully shown in a large population. In the study, Verma and colleagues, including co-authors Ruben C. Gur, PhD, a professor of psychology in the department of Psychiatry, and Raquel E. Gur, MD, PhD, professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Radiology, investigated the gender-specific differences in brain connectivity during the course of development in 949 individuals (521 females and 428 males) aged 8 to 22 years using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). DTI is water-based imaging technique that can trace and highlight the fiber pathways connecting the different regions of the brain, laying the foundation for a structural connectome or network of the whole brain. This sample of youths was studied as part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, a National Institute of Mental Health-funded collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania Brain Behavior Laboratory and the Center for Applied Genomics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The brain is a roadmap of neural pathways linking many networks that help us process information and react accordingly, with behavior controlled by several of these sub-networks working in conjunction. In the study, the researchers found that females displayed greater connectivity in the supratentorial region, which contains the cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, between the left and right hemispheres. Males, on the other hand, displayed greater connectivity within each hemisphere. By contrast, the opposite prevailed in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that plays a major role in motor control, where males displayed greater inter-hemispheric connectivity and females displayed greater intra-hemispheric connectivity. These connections likely give men an efficient system for coordinated action, where the cerebellum, which involves perception, and the front of the brain, which involves action, are bridged together, according to the authors. The female connections likely facilitate integration of the analytic and sequential processing modes of the left hemisphere with the spatial, intuitive information processing modes of the right side. The authors observed only a few gender differences in the connectivity in children younger than 13 years, but the differences were more pronounced in adolescents aged 14 to 17 years and young adults older than 17. The findings were also consistent with a Penn behavior study, of which this imaging study was a subset of, that demonstrated pronounced sexual differences. Females outperformed males on attention, word and face memory, and social cognition tests. Males performed better on spatial processing and sensorimotor speed. Those differences were most pronounced in the 12 to 14 age range. "It's quite striking how complementary the brains of women and men really are," said Dr. Ruben Gur. "Detailed connectome maps of the brain will not only help us better understand the differences between how men and women think, but it will also give us more insight into the roots of neuropsychiatric disorders, which are often sex related." Next steps are to quantify how an individual's neural connections are different from the population; identify which neural connections are gender specific and common in both; and to see if findings from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies fall in line with the connectome data Professional Counselor Continuing Education ### Co-authors of the study include Madhura Ingalhalikar, Alex Smith, Drew Parker, Theodore D. Satterthwaite, Mark A. Elliott, Kosha Ruparel, and Hakon Hakonarson of the Section of Biomedical Image Analysis and the Center for Biomedical Image Computing and Analytics. This study was funded by in part by the National Institutes of Mental Health: MH089983, MH089924, MH079938, and MH092862.

Brain scans might predict future criminal behavior

Low anterior cingulate activity linked to repeat offenses ALBUQUERQUE, NM and DURHAM, NC--A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison. The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity. You can view the paper by clicking here: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1219302110. The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain activity in this region. "These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr. Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity." The study looked at 96 adult male criminal offenders aged 20-52 who volunteered to participate in research studies. This study population was followed over a period of up to four years after inmates were released from prison. "These results point the way toward a promising method of neuroprediction with great practical potential in the legal system," said Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, who collaborated on the study. "Much more work needs to be done, but this line of research could help to make our criminal justice system more effective." The study used the Mind Research Network's Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) System to collect neuroimaging data as the inmate volunteers completed a series of mental tests. "People who reoffended were much more likely to have lower activity in the anterior cingulate cortices than those who had higher functioning ACCs," Kiehl said. "This means we can see on an MRI a part of the brain that might not be working correctly -- giving us a look into who is more likely to demonstrate impulsive and anti-social behavior that leads to re-arrest." The anterior cingulate cortex of the brain is "associated with error processing, conflict monitoring, response selection, and avoidance learning," according to the paper. People who have this area of the brain damaged have been "shown to produce changes in disinhibition, apathy, and aggressiveness. Indeed, ACC-damaged patients have been classed in the 'acquired psychopathic personality' genre." Kiehl says he is working on developing treatments that increase activity within the ACC to attempt to treat the high-risk offenders. ### The four-year study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and pilot funds by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. The study was conducted in collaboration with the New Mexico Corrections Department. ABOUT THE MIND RESEARCH NETWORK The Mind Research Network (MRN), headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., is committed to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and other brain disorders. MRN is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization consisting of an interdisciplinary association of scientists located at universities, national laboratories and research centers around the world and is focused on imaging technology and its emergence as an integral element of neuroscience investigation. The Mind Research Network is a part of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute family of companies Professional Counselor Continuing Education Learn more at http://www.mrn.org

Switching Off a Specific Brain Region Can Alter Ingrained Habits in Rats

Ingrained habits in rats can be quickly broken—and reestablished—by targeting and switching off a specific site in the brain’s prefrontal cortex using a technique known as optogenetics, according to an NIMH-funded study published November 13, 2012, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Background Studies have established that the prefrontal region of the brain is associated with habit formation and expression. It is also linked to emotion regulation and to regions in the brain that are associated with behavioral flexibility, which counteracts habit. Kyle Smith Ph.D., Ann Graybiel Ph.D., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and colleagues, trained rats to run a T-shaped maze. At the decision point, the rats were cued to turn to either one side, where chocolate milk awaited them as a reward, or to the other side, where the reward was sugar water. Eventually, running the maze and responding to each cue correctly became a habit, and the rats continued to do so even after the rewards were removed. The researchers then returned the rewards but paired the chocolate milk with exposure to lithium chloride, which causes nausea. Once the rats realized the milk made them ill, they declined to drink it. However, they continued to run the maze and turn toward the chocolate milk side of the maze when cued, indicating that running in that direction when prompted had become a nearly automatic behavior. Results of the Study To determine whether the habit could be broken, the researchers then applied a technique known as optogenetics—in which a laser light is delivered to brain cells through optical fibers—to see if they could manipulate a specific region of the rats’ prefrontal cortex known as the infralimbic (IL) cortex. When the laser was turned on and the IL cortex was disrupted, the rats nearly instantaneously stopped running habitually toward the chocolate milk reward. Instead, they appeared to act more thoughtfully, running toward the other side, where the untainted sugar water awaited. Once the rats were broken of the habit of running automatically to the chocolate milk side, they began to develop a habit of always running to the other side, even when they were cued to run toward the chocolate milk, and even after the untainted chocolate milk was returned. But when the IL region was again disrupted optogenetically, the rats returned to their original habit of running to the chocolate milk side when cued to do so. Significance Control of a small part of the prefrontal cortex can change whether or not habits are expressed. An old habit can be blocked abruptly, and a new habit can override it. But if the new habit is then blocked, the old habit returns, thus lending credence to the notion that old habits die hard Social Worker Continuing Education In addition, the fact that habitual behavior can be altered if IL activity is disturbed suggests that the circuitry in this region of the brain is coordinating on some level with other brain regions that directly access circuits involved in behavioral flexibility, as well as addictive behaviors. What’s Next Although the optogenetic technique is too invasive to use in humans, it does have implications for potentially disrupting destructive habits. Targeting this specific region of the brain could lead to better ways of controlling addiction disorders or mental disorders in which habitual behaviors are out of balance, such as obsessive compulsive disorder. Reference Smith K, Virkud A, Deisseroth K, Graybiel A. Reversible online control of habitual behavior by optogenetic perturbation of media prefrontal cortex. PNAS. Nov 13, 2012. 109(46):18932-18937.

School-wide interventions improve student behavior

An analysis of a school behavior strategy—known as School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS)—found that these types of programs significantly reduced children's aggressive behaviors and office discipline referrals, as well as improved problems with concentration and emotional regulation. The study, conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is the first randomized control trial to examine the impact of SWPBIS programs over multiple school years. The results were published October 15 in the journal Pediatrics as an eFirst publication.SWPBIS is a prevention strategy that aims to alter student behavior by setting universal, positively stated expectations for student behavior that are implemented across the entire school. Policies and decisions related to student behaviors are based on data analysis. SWPBIS programs are used in more than 16,000 schools in the U.S."These findings are very exciting, given the wide use of SWPBIS across the country. These results are among the first to document significant impacts of the program on children's problem behaviors, as well as positive behaviors, across multiple years as a result of SWPBIS," said Catherine P. Bradshaw, PhD, MEd, lead author of the study and associate professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health.The randomized trial included a representative sample of 12,344 elementary school children from 37 schools. Approximately half of the students received free or reduced-priced meals, and nearly 13 percent received special education services. The researchers analyzed teachers' ratings of students' behavior and concentration problems, social-emotional functioning, pro-social behavior, office discipline referrals, and suspension over 4 school years.Overall, the study found significant improvement in children's behavior problems, concentration problems, social-emotional functioning, and pro-social behavior in schools using SWPBIS. Children in SWPBIS schools also were 33 percent less likely to receive an office discipline referral than those in the comparison schools. The effects tended to be strongest among children who were first exposed to SWPBIS in kindergarten."A unique feature of the model is the overall structure that is formed in schools to support sustainable services for students across a range of behavioral needs LCSW Continuing Education Using this framework, school staff can identify students at greatest need of services and efficiently target programs and resources to them," said Bradshaw.###The author of "Effects of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports on Child Behavior Problems" include Catherine Bradshaw, PhD, MEd; Tracy E. Waasdorp, PhD, MEd; and Philip J. Leaf, PhD.

Daily or Severe Tantrums May Point to Mental Health Issues

Most young children lose their temper sometimes, but daily tantrums or tantrums with severe behaviors, such as aggressive or destructive tantrums, are unusual and could signal a larger problem, according to an NIMH-funded study published online August 3, 2012, in a special issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Background Distinguishing “normal” misbehaviors of early childhood from clinically worrisome problems can be challenging for pediatricians, parents, and others who work with young children. To address this issue, Lauren Wakschlag, Ph.D., of Northwestern University, Margaret Briggs-Gowan, Ph.D., of University of Connecticut Health Center, and their colleagues examined temper loss among preschoolers as a spectrum of behaviors ranging from mild or normal to “problem indicators” that may be signs of a greater, underlying mental health issue. For this study, the researchers developed the Multidimensional Assessment of Preschool Disruptive Behavior (MAP-DB) questionnaire. Rather than merely asking whether a child had tantrums or not, the MAP-DB assesses the frequency, quality, and severity of behaviors related to temper tantrums and the extent of a child’s anger management skills over the past month. Parents of almost 1,500 preschoolers, ages 3-5, took part in the study. Results of the Study The researchers found that more than 80 percent of preschoolers had one or more tantrums in the past month. However, less than 10 percent had tantrums every day. Also, normal temper loss behaviors showed similar patterns and could be reliably distinguished from problem indicators. For example, over a one month period, tantrums typically occurred: when preschoolers were frustrated, angry, or upset (61 percent) during daily routines, such as bedtime, mealtime, or getting dressed (58 percent) with their parents (56 percent). In contrast, it was less typical for preschoolers to have a tantrum: with an adult who was not their parent, such as a babysitter or teacher (36 percent) during which they broke or destroyed things (28 percent) “out of the blue,” or for which parents could not discern a reason (26 percent) that lasted an unusually long time (26 percent) during which they hit, bit, or kicked someone else (24 percent). Significance The findings provide early evidence that studying behaviors as a spectrum may provide new insights into how mental disorders develop and better target early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. “Our goal was to provide a standard method that would take the guesswork out of ‘when to worry’ about young children’s behavior and to provide a more developmentally sensitive way of characterizing the emergence of mental health problems, moving away from traditional approaches emphasizing extreme clinical distinctions to a dimensional approach that charts a progression from normal to abnormal,” said Wakschlag. What’s Next Further research is needed to confirm and evaluate the effectiveness of the MAP-DB questionnaire in identifying the point at which very young children would benefit from more specialized mental health screening and treatment. Changes in behavior as the child ages and whether problematic behaviors in early childhood lead to greater mental health issues later in life are also important areas for future study MHC Continuing Education Reference Wakschlag et al. Defining the developmental parameters of temper loss in early childhood: Implications for developmental psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. In press. Related Funding: R01MH082830, R01MH090301