Our research leverages healthy neurodevelopment to understand risk and resilience for psychopathology to identify early risk and promote healthy neurodevelopment.
Developmental Projects
Adolescence is a critical developmental period across many domains (e.g., social, cognitive, hormonal, neural), and it is also a critical period of risk for psychopathology as it is estimated that up to 40% of first onsets of disorders occur in this period. Although many models of risk for psychopathology suggest that features of normative adolescent neurodevelopment modulate risk or resilience for psychopathology, yet few studies directly examine this possibility. Our lab has a program of research that covers the early lifespan, examining critical developmental alterations in early development (prenatal, early childhood, early school age) and adolescence to understand how early alterations in development may impact risk and resilience for psychopathology as youth transition through adolescence.
Selected Related Publications
Damme, K. S. F., Ristanovic, I., & Mittal, V. A. (2024). Reduced hippocampal volume unmasks distinct impacts of cumulative adverse childhood events (ACEs) on psychotic-like experiences in late childhood and early adolescence. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 169, 107149.
Damme, K. S. F., Norton, E. S., Briggs-Gowan, M. J., Wakschlag, L. S., & Mittal, V. A. (2022). Developmental patterning of irritability enhances prediction of psychopathology in preadolescence: Improving RDoC with developmental science. Journal of psychopathology and clinical science, 131(6), 556-566.
Damme, K. S. F., Vargas, T., Calhoun, V., Turner, J., & Mittal, V. A. (2020). Global and specific cortical volume asymmetries in individuals with psychosis risk syndrome and schizophrenia: A mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal perspective. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 46(3), 713-721.
Damme, K. S. F., Gupta, T., Nusslock, R., Bernard, J. A., Orr, J. M., & Mittal, V. A. (2019). Cortical morphometry in the psychosis risk period: a comprehensive perspective of surface features. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 4(5), 434-443.
Estrogen and Mechanisms of Psychotic-like Experiences in the Transition to Adolescence
Project:
Psychosis onset is delayed in women when estrogen levels come online, and when estrogen levels drop (in menopause or post-partum), women experience an increased risk of psychosis. However, little work has examined how estrogen may be protective against psychosis risk. This study examines how estrogen may influence brain development to decrease the risk for psychosis.
Sample:
Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (Status: No collection needed; Ready for Analyses)
Research Aims:
Aim 1. Examine intersections between changes in estrogen, PLEs, and the hippocampus.
Aim 2. Determine if the association between deficits in hippocampal-dependent cognitive deficits and PLEs is moderated by estrogen.
Aim 3. To explore whether estrogen shows specificity to PLE severity and predicts the longitudinal course of PLEs.
Related Publications
Damme, K.S.F. & Bernard, J.A. (in prep) Estrogen’s Influence on Risk and Resilience in Psychosis: A Lifespan Perspective and Review.
Damme, K.S.F., Hernandez, J., & Mittal, V.A. (2024). The impact of menarche on hippocampal mechanisms of severity of psychotic-like experiences in the ABCD Study. Psychoneuroendocrinology.
Damme, K. S. F., Ristanovic, I., Vargas, T., & Mittal, V. A. (2020). Timing of menarche and abnormal hippocampal connectivity in youth at clinical-high risk for psychosis. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 117, 104672.
Affective Projects
Individual differences in affective processes may have implications for an individual’s function across several domains, such as learning and decision-making. These individual differences in affect and affect regulation may be a critical marker of risk for psychopathology. Early affective temperament is a highly predictive marker of future development across many functional domains; the development of behavioral and executive control over childhood and adolescence interact to guide future behavior, cognition, and risk for psychopathology. Though there are no exclusively affective projects currently happening in the lab, there are interesting projects looking at the prediction of affective disorders (depression) from motor behaviors (See Motor Systems Research).
Selected Related Publications
Damme, K. S. F., Alloy, L. B., Kelley, N. J., Carroll, A., Young, C. B., Chein, J., … & Nusslock, R. (2022). Bipolar spectrum disorders are associated with increased gray matter volume in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. JCPP advances, 2(1), e12068.
Damme, K. S. F., Gupta, T., Haase, C. M., & Mittal, V. A. (2022). Responses to positive affect and unique resting-state connectivity in individuals at clinical high-risk for psychosis. NeuroImage: Clinical, 33, 102946.
Damme, K. S. F., Young, C. B., & Nusslock, R. (2017). Elevated nucleus accumbens structural connectivity associated with proneness to hypomania: a reward hypersensitivity perspective. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12(6), 928-936.
Motor Systems Research
Motor functional networks develop early and have the least amount of interindividual variability, emphasizing the importance of their early and reliable establishment during development. The motor network is also well-mapped from non-human animal to human models; as a result, variations in this system can be linked to related systems, circuits, or neurotransmitters to provide insights into early and current alterations in brain circuits. Critically, motor abnormalities are associated with psychopathology and may be useful in the early detection of depression and psychosis.
Research Aims:
Aim 1: Can different features of motor slowing/precision deficits track the risk for depression and psychosis?
Aim 2: Can different early and late motor learning deficits track risk for depression and psychosis?
Motor Slowing Deficits in Psychosis and Depression
Project:
Finger tapping has been used in neurological testing for neuropsychological measures of timing and motor deficits. Timing, speed, and pacing of finger-tapping tasks may provide insight into diagnoses (APS vs MDD) and acute symptom state (current vs remitted).
Sample:
Individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis/attenuated psychosis syndrome (APS); Individuals with active or remitted Major Depression Disorder (MDD)
Related Publications
Damme, K. S. F., Park, J. S., Walther, S., Vargas, T., Shankman, S. A., & Mittal, V. A. (2022). Depression and Psychosis Risk Shared Vulnerability for Motor Signs Across Development, Symptom Dimensions, and Familial Risk. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 48(4), 752–762.
Damme, K. S. F., Park, J. S., Vargas, T., Walther, S., Shankman, S. A., & Mittal, V. A. (2022). Motor abnormalities, depression risk, and clinical course in adolescence. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, 2(1), 61–69.
Damme, K. S. F., Schiffman, J., Ellman, L. M., & Mittal, V. A. (2021). Sensorimotor and Activity Psychosis-Risk (SMAP-R) Scale: An Exploration of Scale Structure with Replication and Validation. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 47(2), 332–343.
Damme, K. S.F., Osborne, K. J., Gold, J. M., & Mittal, V. A. (2020). Detecting motor slowing in clinical high risk for psychosis in a computerized finger tapping model. European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 270, 393-397.
Motor Precision Deficits in Psychosis and Depression
Project:
Serial Interception Sequence Learning (SISL) is a game-like implicit motor learning task that has been designed to parse features of learning, motor slowing, and motor precision. This design allows us to probe the unique relationships between motor learning, slowing, and precision in relation to emerging psychopathology. From prior work in the area, depression appears to be more related to depression risk, and precision/coordination appears to be more related to psychosis.
Additionally, psychosis appears to be related to a late learning motor consolidation deficit.
Samples:
Individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis/attenuated psychosis syndrome (APS); healthy individuals with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and/or depression symptoms
Related Publications
Han, Y., Damme, K. S. F., C., Han, Z., Reber, P. J., & Mittal, V. A. (in prep). Motor precision deficits symptoms of depression.
Damme, K. S. F., Han, Y. C., Han, Z., Reber, P. J., & Mittal, V. A. (2024). Motor precision deficits in clinical high risk for psychosis. European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 274(6), 1427–1435.
Memory Domain Research
Our lab explores working memory, including learning, working memory, motor memory, and decision-making. Though these cognitive processes are not often the focus of research in psychopathology, deficits in these areas are relatively a feature of many disorders and are devastating to the daily functioning of individuals with psychopathology. Critically, executive control develops over the early lifespan, is impacted by risk factors for psychopathology, and can be impacted by interventions, including exercise. See above for a current motor memory task.
Related Publications
Damme, K. S. F., Vargas, T., & Bauer, J. A., (in prep). The accumulating impact of fine particulate exposure on hippocampal volume and working memory: Insights from Prenatal and Adolescent Exposures.
Damme, K. S. F., Gupta, T., Ristanovic, I., Kimhy, D., Bryan, A. D., & Mittal, V. A. (2022). Exercise intervention in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis: benefits to fitness, symptoms, hippocampal volumes, and functional connectivity. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 48(6), 1394-1405.
Park, J. S.,* Damme, K. S. F., Kuhney, F. S., & Mittal, V. A. (2022). Anxiety symptoms, rule learning, and cognitive flexibility in non-clinical psychosis. Scientific reports, 12(1), 5649.
Damme, K. S. F., Kelley, N. J., Quinn, M. E., Glazer, J. E., Chat, I. K. Y., Young, K. S., … & Craske, M. G. (2019). Emotional content impacts how executive function ability relates to willingness to wait and to work for a reward. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 19, 637-652.
