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Paranoid Thinking as a Function of Minority Group Status and Intersectionality: An International Examination of the Role of Negative Beliefs –

https://psychiatry.dev/wp-content/uploads/speaker/post-12345.mp3?cb=1679354264.mp3 Playback speed: 0.8x 1x 1.3x 1.6x 2x Download: Paranoid Thinking as a Function of Minority Group Status and Intersectionality: An International Examination of the Role of Negative Beliefs – J L Kingston et al. Schizophrenia Bulletin. 2023. Paranoia is higher in minority group individuals, especially those reporting intersecting aspects of difference. High negative and low positive self and other beliefs, and low social rank, are predictive of paranoia overtime; however, data are typically from majority group participants. This study examined whether social defeat or healthy cultural mistrust best characterizes paranoia in minority groups. Using cross-sectional, survey design, with a large (n = 2510) international sample, moderation analyses (PROCESS) examined whether self and other beliefs, and perceived social rank, operate similarly or differently in minority vs majority group participants. Specifically, we tested whether beliefs moderated the influence of minority group, and intersecting aspects of difference, on paranoia. Paranoia was consistently higher in participants from minority vs majority groups and level of paranoid thinking was significantly higher at each level of the intersectionality index. Negative self/other beliefs were associated with elevated paranoia in all participants. However, in support of the notion of healthy cultural mistrust, low social rank, and low positive self/other beliefs were significantly associated with paranoia in majority group participants but unrelated to paranoia in respective minority group members. Although mixed, our findings signal the need to consider healthy cultural mistrust when examining paranoia in minority groups and bring into question whether “paranoia” accurately describes the experiences of marginalized individuals, at least at low levels of severity. Further research on paranoia in minority groups is crucial to developing culturally appropriate ways of understanding people’s experiences in the context of victimization, discrimination, and difference. minority group; negative beliefs; paranoia; positive beliefs; social rank. Source link U of T EZproxy link

Self-reported Gesture Interpretation and Performance Deficits in Individuals at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis –

https://psychiatry.dev/wp-content/uploads/speaker/post-12341.mp3?cb=1679332315.mp3 Playback speed: 0.8x 1x 1.3x 1.6x 2x Download: Self-reported Gesture Interpretation and Performance Deficits in Individuals at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis – Erica L Karp et al. Schizophrenia Bulletin. 2023. Deficits in performing and interpreting communicative nonverbal behaviors, such as gesture, have been linked to varied psychopathology and dysfunction. Some evidence suggests that individuals at risk for psychosis have deficits in gesture interpretation and performance; however, individuals with internalizing disorders (eg, depression) may have similar deficits. No previous studies have examined whether gesture deficits in performance and interpretation are specific to those at risk for psychosis. Additionally, the underlying mechanisms (eg, cognition) and consequences (eg, functioning) of these deficits are poorly understood. This study examined self-reported gesture interpretation (SRGI) and performance (SRGP) in those at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR; N = 88), those with internalizing disorders (INT; N = 51), and healthy controls (HC; N = 53). Participants completed questionnaires, clinical interviews, and neurocognitive tasks. Results indicated that the CHR group was characterized by significantly lower SRGI scores than the HC or INT groups (d = 0.41); there were no differences among groups in SRGP. Within CHR participants, greater deficits in SRGP were associated with lower verbal learning and memory (r = -.33), but not general intelligence or processing speed. Furthermore, gesture deficits were associated with higher cross-sectional risk for conversion to a full psychotic disorder in the CHR group. Overall, these findings suggest that specific subdomains of gesture may reflect unique vulnerability for psychosis, self-report may be a viable assessment tool in understanding these phenomena, and gesture dysfunction may signal risk for transition to psychosis. CHR; cognition; gesture; prodrome; working memory. Source link U of T EZproxy link

Evolutionarily conserved regulators of tau identify targets for new therapies – PubMed

https://psychiatry.dev/wp-content/uploads/speaker/post-12337.mp3?cb=1679327338.mp3 Playback speed: 0.8x 1x 1.3x 1.6x 2x Download: Evolutionarily conserved regulators of tau identify targets for new therapies – PubMed Jiyoen Kim et al. Neuron. 2023. Tauopathies are neurodegenerative diseases that involve the pathological accumulation of tau proteins; in this family are Alzheimer disease, corticobasal degeneration, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, among others. Hypothesizing that reducing this accumulation could mitigate pathogenesis, we performed a cross-species genetic screen targeting 6,600 potentially druggable genes in human cells and Drosophila. We found and validated 83 hits in cells and further validated 11 hits in the mouse brain. Three of these hits (USP7, RNF130, and RNF149) converge on the C terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein (CHIP) to regulate tau levels, highlighting the role of CHIP in maintaining tau proteostasis in the brain. Knockdown of each of these three genes in adult tauopathy mice reduced tau levels and rescued the disease phenotypes. This study thus identifies several points of intervention to reduce tau levels and demonstrates that reduction of tau levels via regulation of this pathway is a viable therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer disease and other tauopathies. RNF130; RNF149; USP7; genetic screens; modifier; neurodegeneration; tau levels; ubiquitination. Source link

Dorsomedial prefrontal hypoexcitability underlies lost empathy in frontotemporal dementia – PubMed

https://psychiatry.dev/wp-content/uploads/speaker/post-12333.mp3?cb=1679323671.mp3 Playback speed: 0.8x 1x 1.3x 1.6x 2x Download: Dorsomedial prefrontal hypoexcitability underlies lost empathy in frontotemporal dementia – PubMed Hannah L Phillips et al. Neuron. 2023. Empathic function is essential for the well-being of social species. Empathy loss is associated with various brain disorders and represents arguably the most distressing feature of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a leading form of presenile dementia. The neural mechanisms are unknown. We established an FTD mouse model deficient in empathy and observed that aged somatic transgenic mice expressing GGGGCC repeat expansions in C9orf72, a common genetic cause of FTD, exhibited blunted affect sharing and failed to console distressed conspecifics by affiliative contact. Distress-induced consoling behavior activated the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), which developed profound pyramidal neuron hypoexcitability in aged mutant mice. Optogenetic dmPFC inhibition attenuated affect sharing and other-directed consolation in wild-type mice, whereas chemogenetically enhancing dmPFC excitability rescued empathy deficits in mutant mice, even at advanced ages when substantial cortical atrophy had occurred. These results establish cortical hypoexcitability as a pathophysiological basis of empathy loss in FTD and suggest a therapeutic strategy. C9orf72; affiliative behavior; behavioral variant FTD; consolation; dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; empathy; frontotemporal dementia; hypoexcitability; observational fear. Source link

Neurodegeneration cell per cell – PubMed

https://psychiatry.dev/wp-content/uploads/speaker/post-12329.mp3?cb=1679320021.mp3 Playback speed: 0.8x 1x 1.3x 1.6x 2x Download: Neurodegeneration cell per cell – PubMed Review Sriram Balusu et al. Neuron. 2023. The clinical definition of neurodegenerative diseases is based on symptoms that reflect terminal damage of specific brain regions. This is misleading as it tells little about the initial disease processes. Circuitry failures that underlie the clinical symptomatology are themselves preceded by clinically mostly silent, slowly progressing multicellular processes that trigger or are triggered by the accumulation of abnormally folded proteins such as Aβ, Tau, TDP-43, and α-synuclein, among others. Methodological advances in single-cell omics, combined with complex genetics and novel ways to model complex cellular interactions using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, make it possible to analyze the early cellular phase of neurodegenerative disorders. This will revolutionize the way we study those diseases and will translate into novel diagnostics and cell-specific therapeutic targets, stopping these disorders in their early track before they cause difficult-to-reverse damage to the brain. Alzheimer’s disease; Parkinson’s disease; neurodegeneration; single-cell sequencing. Source link