Neurological correlates of reward responding in adolescents with and without externalizing behavior disorders.

Abstract

Opposing theories of striatal hyper- and hypodopaminergic functioning have been suggested in the pathophysiology of externalizing behavior disorders. To test these competing theories, the authors used functional MRI to evaluate neural activity during a simple reward task in 12- to 16-year-old boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or conduct disorder (n = 19) and in controls with no psychiatric condition (n = 11). The task proceeded in blocks during which participants received either (a) monetary incentives for correct responses or (b) no rewards for correct responses. Controls exhibited striatal activation only during reward, shifting to anterior cingulate activation during nonreward. In contrast, externalizing adolescents exhibited striatal activation during both reward and nonreward. Externalizing psychopathology appears to be characterized by deficits in processing the omission of predicted reward, which may render behaviors that are acquired through environmental contingencies difficult to extinguish when those contingencies change.

Heart rate variability as a transdiagnostic biomarker of psychopathology

“…Fowles (1980Fowles ( , 1988 papers in particular created an upsurge of interest in psychopathology research among psychophysiologists, who used his extension of Gray's model to (1) Fung et al, 2005), adults with psychopathy (e.g., Arnett & Newman, 2000), and individuals with schizophrenia (e.g., Fowles, 1992); (2) test psychopharmacology-physiology relations during anxiety-provoking tasks (e.g., Landon, Sher, & Shah, 1993); and (3) formulate revised theoretical perspectives on the biological bases of both internalizing (e.g., Shankman, Klein, Tenke, & Bruder, 2007) and externalizing behavior (e.g., Beauchaine et al, 2007;Quay, 1993). Fowles' formulation continues to inform work by psychophysiologists who use electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic neuroimaging (fMRI) to probe central nervous system reward processing in both internalizing (e.g., Foti & Hajcak, 2009) and externalizing (e.g., Gatzke-Kopp et al, 2009) disorders. This work is central to the RDoC mission.…”

Mesocorticolimbic dopamine functioning in primary psychopathy: A source of within-group heterogeneity

“…Furthermore, adolescents with externalizing behaviors and psychopathic traits have been found to display increased dorsal striatal blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses to reward-predictive cues that persist on trials when reward is unexpectedly omitted (Finger et al, 2008;Gatzke-Kopp et al, 2009). Similarly, a significant and substantial negative correlation between ventral striatal deactivation to monetary loss (punishment) (r = -0.61) was reported exclusively in psychopathic inmates suggesting response perseverance despite repeated punishments or errors (Pujara et al, 2014).…”

Physiological Markers of Emotion and Behavior Dysregulation in Externalizing Psychopathology

“…We and others have argued that those with impulse control disorders engage in excessive reward-seeking behaviors in part to upregulate a persistently underactive mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system, which is experienced psychologically as a chronically aversive and irritable mood state (e.g., De Witte, Pinto, Ansseau, & Verbanck, 2003; Laakso et al, 2003). In addition, deficiencies in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity, which are observed among impulsive individuals during extinction, also appear to contribute to perseverative responding for reward (e.g., Gatzke-Kopp et al, 2009). …”