This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1,400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of “big data” (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA’s activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive and psychosocial factors.

W La Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, vol 55, no 12, décembre 2010 784Objectives: About 50% of men with antisocial personality disorder (APD) present a comorbid anxiety disorder. Historically, it was thought that anxiety limited criminal activity and the development of APD, but recent evidence suggests that heightened responsiveness to threat may lead to persistent violent behaviour. Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of APD comorbid with anxiety disorders among offenders and the association of these comorbid disorders with violent offending.Method: A random sample of 495 male penitentiary inmates completed an interview using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. After excluding men with psychotic disorders, 279 with APD were retained. All authorized access to their criminal records.Results: Two-thirds of the prisoners with APD presented a lifetime anxiety disorder. Among them, one-half had the onset of their anxiety disorder before they were aged 16 years. Among the offenders with APD, those with, compared with those without, anxiety disorders presented significantly more symptoms of APD, were more likely to have begun their criminal careers before they were aged 15 years, to have diagnoses of alcohol and (or) drug abuse and (or) dependence, and to have experienced suicidal ideas and attempts. While there were no differences in the mean number of convictions for violent offences between APD prisoners with and without anxiety disorders, more of those with anxiety disorders had been convicted of serious crimes involving interpersonal violence. Conclusions:Among men with APD, a substantial subgroup present life-long anxiety disorders. This pattern of comorbidity may reflect a distinct mechanism underlying violent behaviour and signalling the need for specific treatments.Can J Psychiatry. 2010;55(12):784-791. Clinical Implications· Among male offenders with APD, two-thirds presented lifetime anxiety disorders. · Among 50% of male offenders with APD and anxiety disorders, the anxiety disorders had onset before they were aged 16 years. · APD plus anxiety disorders may constitute a subtype with distinctive treatment needs and etiology. Limitations· Interrater reliability estimates for diagnoses could not be read from old computer tapes. · The syndrome of psychopathy was not assessed. · The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Third Edition, Revised, not DSM-IV, criteria for diagnoses were used.

Theoretical and empirical accounts suggest that adolescence is associated with heightened reward learning and impulsivity. Experimental tasks and computational models that can dissociate reward learning from the tendency to initiate actions impulsively (action initiation bias) are thus critical to characterise the mechanisms that drive developmental differences. However, existing work has rarely quantified both learning ability and action initiation, or it has tested small samples. Here, using computational modelling of a learning task collected from a large sample (N=742, 9-18 years, 11 countries), we tested differences in reward and punishment learning and action initiation from childhood to adolescence. Computational modelling revealed that whilst punishment learning rates increased with age, reward learning remained stable. In parallel, action initiation biases decreased with age. Results were similar when considering pubertal stage instead of chronological age. We conclude that heightened reward responsivity in adolescence can reflect differences in action initiation rather than enhanced reward learning.

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