Browsing by Author "Valadez, Emilio A."
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Item Associations between cortical thickness and anxious/depressive symptoms differ by the quality of early care(Development and Psychopathology, 2021-10-22) Korom, Marta; Tottenham, Nim; Valadez, Emilio A.; Dozier, MaryA variety of childhood experiences can lead to anxious/depressed (A/D) symptoms. The aim of the present study was to explore the brain morphological (cortical thickness and surface area) correlates of A/D symptoms and the extent to which these phenotypes vary depending on the quality of the parenting context in which children develop. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were acquired on 45 children with Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement due to risk of not receiving adequate care (high-risk group) and 25 children without CPS involvement (low-risk group) (rangeage = 8.08–12.14; M age = 10.05) to assess cortical thickness (CT) and cortical surface area (SA). A/D symptoms were measured using the Child Behavioral Checklist. The association between A/D symptoms and CT, but not SA, differed by risk status such that high-risk children showed decreasing CT as A/D scores increased, whereas low-risk children showed increasing CT as A/D scores increased. This interaction was specific to CT in prefrontal, frontal, temporal, and parietal cortical regions. The groups had marginally different A/D scores, in the direction of higher risk being associated with lower A/D scores. Results suggest that CT correlates of A/D symptoms are differentially shaped by the quality of early caregiving experiences and should be distinguished between high- and low-risk children.Item Electrophysiological indicators of feedback processing related to obsessive-compulsive symptoms(University of Delaware, 2019) Valadez, Emilio A.Cognitive control involves the utilization of both internal and external cues to help monitor one’s own behavior in order to achieve a particular goal or outcome. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) is a negative-gong event-related potential that is sensitive to processing of rewards versus nonrewards. The electrophysiological study of brain activity related to the processing of reward and punishment has become the subject of some controversy during the last decade. Whereas it has been argued that the FRN is simply an artifact of the absence of a reward-related positivity (RewP), others have shown that a negative-going component that is specific to nonrewards (i.e., the nonreward negativity) also contributes to the FRN. However, although the RewP has been shown to have adequate psychometric properties and is associated with depression, little is known about the nonreward negativity. Additionally, the nature of feedback processing deficits related to obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms remains poorly understood. The overarching goals of the present studies were 1) to explore the psychometric properties of the FRN’s constituent components, a critical step given that in order for an indicator to be considered a disease biomarker it must have good validity and reliability, and 2) to leverage that greater understanding to clarify the nature of cognitive control deficits associated with OC symptoms. Study 1 revealed that both the RewP and nonreward negativity had good internal consistency and good test-retest reliability across a 1-month period. In Study 2, although the nonreward negativity did not emerge, results indicated that the RewP may be related not only to depression symptoms but also to OC symptoms. Results also indicated that the number of possible reward/nonreward outcomes did not influence the emergence of FRN-related components. Lastly, Study 3 revealed that whereas the FRN in a mock-gambling context is largely dominated by the RewP, the FRN in a reinforcement learning context is largely dominated by the nonreward negativity, which was associated with reward responsiveness. Overall, results supported the notion that abnormal processing of negative feedback is associated with internalizing symptoms, broadly, rather than with specific facets of internalization (e.g., depression, OC symptoms).Item Preliminary examination of the effects of an early parenting intervention on amygdala-orbitofrontal cortex resting-state functional connectivity among high-risk children: A randomized clinical trial(Development and Psychopathology, 2024-01-22) Korom, Marta; Valadez, Emilio A.; Tottenham, Nim; Dozier, Mary; Spielberg, Jeffrey M.We examined the long-term causal effects of an evidence-based parenting program delivered in infancy on children’s emotion regulation and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) during middle childhood. Families were referred to the study by Child Protective Services (CPS) as part of a diversion from a foster care program. A low-risk group of families was also recruited. CPS-involved families were randomly assigned to receive the target (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up, ABC) or a control intervention (Developmental Education for Families, DEF) before infants turned 2. Both interventions were home-based, manualized, and 10-sessions long. During middle childhood, children underwent a 6-min resting-state functional MRI scan. Amygdala seed-based rs-fc analysis was completed with intervention group as the group-level predictor of interest. Fifty-seven children (NABC = 21; NDEF = 17; NCOMP = 19; Mage = 10.02 years, range = 8.08–12.14) were scanned successfully. The DEF group evidenced negative left amygdala↔OFC connectivity, whereas connectivity was near zero in the ABC and comparison groups (ABCvsDEF: Cohen’s d = 1.17). ABC may enhance high-risk children’s regulatory neurobiology outcomes ∼8 years after the intervention was completed.