Anna Alkozei

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• Negelspach, D., Alkozei, A., Huskey, A., & Killgore, W. D. (2025). Effects of Locus Coeruleus Activation on n-Back Performance and Frontoparietal Activity. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 37(1), 97-109.
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  Previous studies have linked working memory capacity to restricted hemodynamic responses within critical nodes of the frontoparietal network. Emerging evidence suggests a potential role of the locus coeruleus (LC) in modulating activation of key regions essential for working memory function. This study investigated this hypothesis by examining changes in BOLD signal within the LC and cortex during a parametrically designed verbal working memory task (n-back). fMRI revealed load-dependent task activation, with maximum activation of presumed LC neurons positively correlating with working memory capacity. Furthermore, increased hemodynamic responses in the superior parietal lobes and dorsolateral pFC corresponded with the magnitude of LC activation near working memory capacity limits. An exploratory functional connectivity analysis suggests improvements in working memory performance rely on negative functional connectivity between the LC and cortical regions not primarily involved in task completion. On the basis of previous evidence, this association may represent inhibitory input from cortical regions, enabling phasic bursts of activity from LC neurons, thereby facilitating enhanced cortical activation. This result may also indicate noradrenergic suppression of cortical regions that are not crucial for task completion, leading to enhanced network efficiency. These findings suggest a mechanism by which the LC may improve verbal working memory performance by facilitating enhanced activation in regions critical for visual working memory capacity and active maintenance, potentially enhancing network efficiency.
• Durham, M. R., Smith, R., Cloonan, S., Hildebrand, L. L., Woods-Lubert, R., Skalamera, J., Berryhill, S. M., Weihs, K. L., Lane, R. D., Allen, J. J., Dailey, N. S., Alkozei, A., Vanuk, J. R., & Killgore, W. D. (2023). Development and validation of an online emotional intelligence training program. Frontiers in psychology, 14, 1221817.
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  Emotional intelligence (EI) is associated with a range of positive health, wellbeing, and behavioral outcomes. The present article describes the development and validation of an online training program for increasing EI abilities in adults. The training program was based on theoretical models of emotional functioning and empirical literature on successful approaches for training socioemotional skills and resilience.
• Smith, R., Persich, M. R., Chuning, A. E., Cloonan, S., Woods-Lubert, R., Skalamera, J., Berryhill, S. M., Weihs, K. L., Lane, R. D., Allen, J. J., Dailey, N. S., Alkozei, A., Vanuk, J. R., & Killgore, W. D. (2023). Improvements in mindfulness, interoceptive and emotional awareness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal emotion management following completion of an online emotional skills training program. Emotion (Washington, D.C.).
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  Socioemotional skills, such as the ability to recognize, understand, and regulate the emotions of self and others, are associated with both physical and emotional health. The present study tested the effectiveness of a recently validated online training program for increasing these emotional skills in adults. In this study, 448 participants (323 female) were randomly assigned to complete this training program or a placebo control program. Among those who completed the training program or placebo ( = 326), the training program led to improved scores post-training on measures of interoceptive and emotional awareness, mindfulness, emotion recognition, and emotion regulation strategies (e.g., reduced emotion suppression and greater impulse control) relative to placebo. In a smaller group of participants who also completed a 6-month follow-up visit ( = 94), sustained improvements were observed on several measures in those who completed the training program, while the placebo group instead showed decreased performance. This suggested a potentially protective effect against emotional challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic occurring during this time. These results suggest that this online training program shows promise in improving emotional skills relevant to adaptive social and emotional functioning, and that it might be useful as an intervention within at-risk populations and those with emotional disorders associated with reduced application of these skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
• Killgore, W. D., Alkozei, A., Vanuk, J. R., Reign, D., Grandner, M. A., & Dailey, N. S. (2022). Blue light exposure increases functional connectivity between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and multiple cortical regions. Neuroreport, 33(5), 236-241.
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  Blue light is a powerful environmental stimulus that can produce significant phase shifts in the circadian rhythm of melatonin and sleep propensity as well as acute effects on alertness of neurobehavioral performance. Here, we undertook an expansion and reanalysis of our previously published findings to examine the effect of acute blue light exposure on the strength of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between a previously identified region of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and 106 cortical and subcortical regions.
• Alkozei, A., Dailey, N. S., Bajaj, S., Vanuk, J. R., Raikes, A. C., & Killgore, W. D. (2021). Exposure to Blue Wavelength Light Is Associated With Increases in Bidirectional Amygdala-DLPFC Connectivity at Rest. Frontiers in neurology, 12, 625443.
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  Blue wavelength light has been used successfully as a treatment method for certain mood disorders, but, the underlying mechanisms behind the mood enhancing effects of light remain poorly understood. We investigated the effects of a single dose of 30 min of blue wavelength light ( = 17) vs. amber wavelength light ( = 12) exposure in a sample of healthy adults on subsequent resting-state functional and directed connectivity, and associations with changes in state affect. Individuals who received blue vs. amber wavelength light showed greater positive connectivity between the right amygdala and a region within the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In addition, using granger causality, the findings showed that individuals who received blue wavelength light displayed greater bidirectional information flow between these two regions relative to amber light. Furthermore, the strength of amygdala-DLPFC functional connectivity was associated with greater decreases in negative mood for the blue, but not the amber light condition. Blue light exposure may positively influence mood by modulating greater information flow between the amygdala and the DLPFC, which may result in greater engagement of cognitive control strategies that are needed to perceive and regulate arousal and mood.
• Raikes, A. C., Dailey, N. S., Forbeck, B., Alkozei, A., & Killgore, W. D. (2021). Daily Morning Blue Light Therapy for Post-mTBI Sleep Disruption: Effects on Brain Structure and Function. Frontiers in neurology, 12, 625431.
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  Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) are associated with novel or worsened sleep disruption. Several studies indicate that daily morning blue light therapy (BLT) is effective for reducing post-mTBI daytime sleepiness and fatigue. Studies demonstrating changes in brain structure and function following BLT are limited. The present study's purpose is to identify the effect of daily morning BLT on brain structure and functional connectivity and the association between these changes and self-reported change in post-mTBI daytime sleepiness. A total of 62 individuals recovering from a mTBI were recruited from two US cities to participate in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Eligible individuals were randomly assigned to undergo 6 weeks of 30 min daily morning blue or placebo amber light therapy (ALT). Prior to and following treatment all individuals completed a comprehensive battery that included the Epworth Sleepiness Scale as a measure of self-reported daytime sleepiness. All individuals underwent a multimodal neuroimaging battery that included anatomical and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Atlas-based regional change in gray matter volume (GMV) and region-to-region functional connectivity from baseline to post-treatment were the primary endpoints for this study. After adjusting for pre-treatment GMV, individuals receiving BLT had greater GMV than those receiving amber light in 15 regions of interest, including the right thalamus and bilateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices. Improved daytime sleepiness was associated with greater GMV in 74 ROIs, covering many of the same general regions. Likewise, BLT was associated with increased functional connectivity between the thalamus and both prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices. Improved daytime sleepiness was associated with increased functional connectivity between attention and cognitive control networks as well as decreased connectivity between visual, motor, and attention networks (all FDR corrected < 0.05). Following daily morning BLT, moderate to large increases in both gray matter volume and functional connectivity were observed in areas and networks previously associated with both sleep regulation and daytime cognitive function, alertness, and attention. Additionally, these findings were associated with improvements in self-reported daytime sleepiness. Further work is needed to identify the personal characteristics that may selectively identify individuals recovering from a mTBI for whom BLT may be optimally beneficial.
• Killgore, W. D., Dailey, N. S., Raikes, A. C., Vanuk, J. R., Taylor, E., & Alkozei, A. (2020). Blue light exposure enhances neural efficiency of the task positive network during a cognitive interference task. Neuroscience letters, 735, 135242.
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  Exposure to light, particularly blue-wavelength light, has been shown to acutely increase brain activation, alertness, and some elementary aspects of cognitive performance such as working memory and emotional anticipation. Whether blue light exposure can have effects on brain activation and performance during more complex cognitive control tasks up to 30 min after light cessation is unknown. In a sample of 32 healthy adults, we examined the effects of a 30 min exposure to either blue (n = 16) or amber control (n = 16) light on subsequent brain activation and performance during the Multi-Source Interference Task (MSIT) measured a half-hour after light exposure. Performance on the MSIT did not differ between the blue and amber conditions. However, brain activation within the task positive network (TPN) to the interference condition was significantly lower in the blue relative to the amber condition, while no group differences were observed for suppression of the default mode network (DMN). These findings suggest that, compared to control, a single exposure to blue light was associated with enhanced neural efficiency, as demonstrated by reduced TPN activation to achieve the same level of performance. Blue light may be an effective method for optimizing neurocognitive performance under some conditions.
• Raikes, A. C., Dailey, N. S., Shane, B. R., Forbeck, B., Alkozei, A., & Killgore, W. D. (2020). Daily Morning Blue Light Therapy Improves Daytime Sleepiness, Sleep Quality, and Quality of Life Following a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation, 35(5), E405-E421.
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  Identify the treatment effects of 6 weeks of daily 30-minute sessions of morning blue light therapy compared with placebo amber light therapy in the treatment of sleep disruption following mild traumatic brain injury.
• Alkozei, A., Smith, R., Demers, L. A., Weber, M., Berryhill, S. M., & Killgore, W. D. (2019). Increases in Emotional Intelligence After an Online Training Program Are Associated With Better Decision-Making on the Iowa Gambling Task. Psychological reports, 122(3), 853-879.
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  Higher levels of emotional intelligence have been associated with better inter and intrapersonal functioning. In the present study, 59 healthy men and women were randomized into either a three-week online training program targeted to improve emotional intelligence ( = 29), or a placebo control training program targeted to improve awareness of nonemotional aspects of the environment ( = 30). Compared to placebo, participants in the emotional intelligence training group showed increased performance on the total emotional intelligence score of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, a performance measure of emotional intelligence, as well as subscales of perceiving emotions and facilitating thought. Moreover, after emotional intelligence training, but not after placebo training, individuals displayed the ability to arrive at optimal performance faster (i.e., they showed a faster learning rate) during an emotion-guided decision-making task (i.e., the Iowa Gambling Task). More specifically, although both groups showed similar performance at the start of the Iowa Gambling Task from pre- to posttraining, the participants in the emotional intelligence training group learned to choose more advantageous than disadvantageous decks than those in the placebo training group by the time they reached the "hunch" period of the task (i.e., the point in the task when implicit task learning is thought to have occurred). Greater total improvements in performance on the Iowa Gambling Task from pre- to posttraining in the emotional intelligence training group were also positively correlated with pre- to posttraining changes in Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores, in particular with changes in the ability to perceive emotions. The present study provides preliminary evidence that emotional intelligence can be trained with the help of an online training program targeted at adults; it also suggests that changes in emotional intelligence, as a result of such a program, can lead to improved emotion-guided decision-making.
• Alkozei, A., Smith, R., Kotzin, M. D., Waugaman, D. L., & Killgore, W. (2019). The Association Between Trait Gratitude and Self-Reported Sleep Quality Is Mediated by Depressive Mood State. BEHAVIORAL SLEEP MEDICINE, 17(1), 41-48.
• Smith, R., Alkozei, A., & Killgore, W. D. (2019). Parameters as Trait Indicators: Exploring a Complementary Neurocomputational Approach to Conceptualizing and Measuring Trait Differences in Emotional Intelligence. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 848.
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  Current assessments of trait emotional intelligence (EI) rely on self-report inventories. While this approach has seen considerable success, a complementary approach allowing objective assessment of EI-relevant traits would provide some potential advantages. Among others, one potential advantage is that it would aid in emerging efforts to assess the brain basis of trait EI, where self-reported competency levels do not always match real-world behavior. In this paper, we review recent experimental paradigms in computational cognitive neuroscience (CCN), which allow behavioral estimates of individual differences in range of parameter values within computational models of neurocognitive processes. Based on this review, we illustrate how several of these parameters appear to correspond well to EI-relevant traits (i.e., differences in mood stability, stress vulnerability, self-control, and flexibility, among others). In contrast, although estimated objectively, these parameters do not correspond well to the optimal performance abilities assessed within competing "ability models" of EI. We suggest that adapting this approach from CCN-by treating parameter value estimates as objective trait EI measures-could (1) provide novel research directions, (2) aid in characterizing the neural basis of trait EI, and (3) offer a promising complementary assessment method.
• Smith, R., Quinlan, D., Schwartz, G. E., Sanova, A., Alkozei, A., & Lane, R. D. (2019). Developmental Contributions to Emotional Awareness. Journal of personality assessment, 101(2), 150-158.
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  The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) has received considerable support as a reliable and valid measure of individual differences in emotional awareness (EA) since the original report involving 40 participants (Lane, Quinlan, Schwartz, Walker, & Zeitlin, 1990 ). However, the hypothesized developmental nature of EA (conceptualized as a cognitive skill) has thus far only been examined in that 1 early study. Here we report multiple regression analyses on the entire sample of 94 participants who completed the LEAS as part of that original study, as well as the same developmental and affective measures used in the original report. We first observed that different developmental measures, including the Object Relations Inventory and the Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development, accounted for unique portions of the variance in LEAS scores. We also observed that higher LEAS scores were associated with greater within-category variance in the self-reported positive and guilt- and shame-related emotions people reported experiencing on a typical day. Based on these findings, we introduce a 3-dimensional cognitive-developmental framework that LEAS scores plausibly track, including (a) the transition from focusing on external/physical to internal/psychological characteristics, (b) greater conceptual complexity, and (c) self-other differentiation. We then discuss the implications of this framework for understanding the nature of EA and for future research.
• Smith, R., Weihs, K. L., Alkozei, A., Killgore, W. D., & Lane, R. D. (2019). An Embodied Neurocomputational Framework for Organically Integrating Biopsychosocial Processes: An Application to the Role of Social Support in Health and Disease. Psychosomatic medicine, 81(2), 125-145.
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  Two distinct perspectives-typically referred to as the biopsychosocial and biomedical models-currently guide clinical practice. Although the role of psychosocial factors in contributing to physical and mental health outcomes is widely recognized, the biomedical model remains dominant. This is due in part to (a) the largely nonmechanistic focus of biopsychosocial research and (b) the lack of specificity it currently offers in guiding clinicians to focus on social, psychological, and/or biological factors in individual cases. In this article, our objective is to provide an evidence-based and theoretically sophisticated mechanistic model capable of organically integrating biopsychosocial processes.
• Vanuk, J. R., Alkozei, A., Raikes, A. C., Allen, J. J., & Killgore, W. D. (2019). Ability-Based Emotional Intelligence Is Associated With Greater Cardiac Vagal Control and Reactivity. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 13, 181.
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  Several distinct models of emotional intelligence (EI) have been developed over the past two decades. The ability model conceptualizes EI as a narrow set of interconnected, objectively measured, cognitive-emotional abilities, including the ability to perceive, manage, facilitate, and understand the emotions of the self and others. By contrast, trait or mixed models focus on subjective ratings of emotional/social competencies. Theoretically, EI is associated with neurobiological processes involved in emotional regulation and reactivity. The neurovisceral integration (NVI) model proposes a positive relationship between cardiac vagal control (CVC) and cognitive-emotional abilities similar to those encompassed by EI. The current study examined the association between CVC and EI. Because ability EI is directly tied to actual performance on emotional tasks, we hypothesized that individuals with higher ability-based EI scores would show greater levels of CVC at rest, and in response to a stressful task. Because mixed-models of EI are not linked directly to observable emotional behavior, we predicted no association with CVC. Consistent with expectations, individuals with higher levels of ability EI, but not mixed EI, had higher levels of CVC. We also found that individuals with greater levels of CVC who demonstrated reactivity to a stress induction had significantly higher EI compared to individuals that did not respond to the stress induction. Our findings support the theoretically expected overlap between constructs within the NVI model and ability EI model, however, the observed effect size was small, and the associations between EI and CVC should not be taken to indicate a causal connection. Results suggest that variance in the ability to understand emotional processes in oneself and to reason about one's visceral experience may facilitate better CVC. Future work manipulating either CVC or EI may prove informative in teasing apart the causal role driving their observed relationship.
• Vanuk, J. R., Alkozei, A., Raikes, A. C., Allen, J., & Killgore, W. (2019). Ability-Based Emotional Intelligence Is Associated With Greater Cardiac Vagal Control and Reactivity. FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE, 13.
• Alkozei, A. (2018).

  Developmental Contributions to Emotional Awareness

  . Journal of Personality Assessment, 101(2), 150-158. doi:10.1080/00223891.2017.1411917
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  The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) has received considerable support as a reliable and valid measure of individual differences in emotional awareness (EA) since the original report involving 40 participants (Lane, Quinlan, Schwartz, Walker, & Zeitlin, 1990 ). However, the hypothesized developmental nature of EA (conceptualized as a cognitive skill) has thus far only been examined in that 1 early study. Here we report multiple regression analyses on the entire sample of 94 participants who completed the LEAS as part of that original study, as well as the same developmental and affective measures used in the original report. We first observed that different developmental measures, including the Object Relations Inventory and the Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development, accounted for unique portions of the variance in LEAS scores. We also observed that higher LEAS scores were associated with greater within-category variance in the self-reported positive and guilt- and shame-related emotions people reported experiencing on a typical day. Based on these findings, we introduce a 3-dimensional cognitive-developmental framework that LEAS scores plausibly track, including (a) the transition from focusing on external/physical to internal/psychological characteristics, (b) greater conceptual complexity, and (c) self-other differentiation. We then discuss the implications of this framework for understanding the nature of EA and for future research.
• Alkozei, A., Haack, M., Skalamera, J., Smith, R., Satterfield, B. C., Raikes, A. C., & Killgore, W. D. (2018). Chronic sleep restriction affects the association between implicit bias and explicit social decision making. Sleep health, 4(5), 456-462.
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  Previous work suggests that sleep restriction (SR) reduces cognitive control and may increase negative implicit biases. Here we investigated whether SR might influence decision making on a social-evaluative task where individuals had to make judgments of threat based on facial photographs. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of changes in negative implicit biases as a result of sleep restriction on this decision-making task.
• Alkozei, A., Smith, R., & Killgore, W. (2018). Gratitude and Subjective Wellbeing: A Proposal of Two Causal Frameworks. JOURNAL OF HAPPINESS STUDIES, 19(5), 1519-1542.
• Bajaj, S., Raikes, A., Smith, R., Dailey, N. S., Alkozei, A., Vanuk, J. R., & Killgore, W. D. (2018). The Relationship Between General Intelligence and Cortical Structure in Healthy Individuals. Neuroscience, 388, 36-44.
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  Considerable work in recent years has examined the relationship between cortical thickness (CT) and general intelligence (IQ) in healthy individuals. It is not known whether specific IQ variables (i.e., perceptual reasoning [PIQ], verbal comprehension IQ [VIQ], and full-scale IQ [FSIQ]) are associated with multiple cortical measures (i.e., CT, cortical volume (CV), cortical surface area (CSA) and cortical gyrification (CG)) within the same individuals. Here we examined the association between these neuroimaging metrics and IQ in 56 healthy adults. At a cluster-forming threshold (CFT) of p 
• Dailey, N. S., Smith, R., Bajaj, S., Alkozei, A., Gottschlich, M. K., Raikes, A. C., Satterfield, B. C., & Killgore, W. D. (2018). Elevated Aggression and Reduced White Matter Integrity in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A DTI Study. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 12, 118.
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  Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) remains the most commonly reported head injury in the United States, and is associated with a wide range of post-concussive symptoms including physical, cognitive and affective impairments. Elevated aggression has been documented in mTBI; however, the neural mechanisms associated with aggression at the chronic stage of recovery remain poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated the association between white matter integrity and aggression in mTBI using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Twenty-six age-matched adults participated in the study, including 16 healthy controls (HCs) and 10 individuals in the chronic stage of recovery (either 6-months or 12 months post-mTBI). Psychological measures of aggression included the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). Axonal pathways implicated in affective processing were studied, including the corpus callosum, anterior thalamic radiation, cingulum and uncinate fasciculus, and measures of white matter integrity included fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD). We found that adults with mTBI in the chronic stage of recovery had higher levels aggression. Individuals with mTBI also had greater RD in the corpus callosum compared to HCs, indicating reduced fiber integrity. Furthermore, we observed a significant association between reduced white matter integrity in the corpus callosum and greater aggression. Our findings provide additional evidence for underlying neuroanatomical mechanisms of aggression, although future research will be necessary to characterize the specific relationship between aggression and the white matter pathways we identified.
• Killgore, W. D., Kent, H. C., Knight, S. A., & Alkozei, A. (2018). Changes in morning salivary melatonin correlate with prefrontal responses during working memory performance. Neuroreport, 29(6), 488-494.
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  Humans demonstrate a circadian rhythm of melatonin production that closely tracks the daily light/dark cycle, with profound increases in circulating levels during the night-time and nearly nonexistent levels during daylight hours. Although melatonin is known to play a role in preparing the brain and body for sleep, its effects on cognition and brain function are not well understood. We hypothesized that declines in morning melatonin would be associated with increased functional activation within cortical regions involved in alertness, attention, and executive function. We measured the change in salivary melatonin from mid-morning to late-morning in 26 healthy young adults who were also exposed to a 30-min period of blue or amber light followed by functional MRI during a working memory task (N-back). Brain activation was regressed on the change in melatonin scores from the mid-morning to late-morning saliva samples and the role of light exposure was also assessed. Although overall melatonin levels did not change significantly over the morning at the group level, individual declines in salivary melatonin were associated with significant increases in activation within the left dorsomedial and right inferior lateral prefrontal cortex during the 2-back condition (P
• Pearcey, S., Alkozei, A., Chakrabarti, B., Dodd, H., Murayama, K., Stuijfzand, S., & Creswell, C. (2018). Do clinically anxious children cluster according to their expression of factors that maintain child anxiety?. Journal of affective disorders, 229, 469-476.
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  Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for childhood anxiety disorders, yet a significant proportion of children do not benefit from it. CBT for child anxiety disorders typically includes a range of strategies that may not all be applicable for all affected children. This study explored whether there are distinct subgroups of children with anxiety disorders who are characterized by their responses to measures of the key mechanisms that are targeted in CBT (i.e. interpretation bias, perceived control, avoidance, physiological arousal, and social communication).
• Raikes, A. C., Bajaj, S., Dailey, N. S., Smith, R. S., Alkozei, A., Satterfield, B. C., & Killgore, W. D. (2018). Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) Correlates of Self-Reported Sleep Quality and Depression Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Frontiers in neurology, 9, 468.
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  Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) are a significant social, sport, and military health issue. In spite of advances in the clinical management of these injuries, the underlying pathophysiology is not well-understood. There is a critical need to advance objective biomarkers, allowing the identification and tracking of the long-term evolution of changes resulting from mTBI. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) allows for the assessment of white-matter properties in the brain and shows promise as a suitable biomarker of mTBI pathophysiology. 34 individuals within a year of an mTBI (age: 24.4 ± 7.4) and 18 individuals with no history of mTBI (age: 23.2 ± 3.4) participated in this study. Participants completed self-report measures related to functional outcomes, psychological health, post-injury symptoms, and sleep, and underwent a neuroimaging session that included DWI. Whole-brain white matter was skeletonized using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and compared between groups as well as correlated within-group with the self-report measures. There were no statistically significant anatomical differences between the two groups. After controlling for time since injury, fractional anisotropy (FA) demonstrated a negative correlation with sleep quality scores (higher FA was associated with better sleep quality) and increasing depressive symptoms in the mTBI participants. Conversely, mean (MD) and radial diffusivity (RD) demonstrated positive correlations with sleep quality scores (higher RD was associated with worse sleep quality) and increasing depressive symptoms. These correlations were observed bilaterally in the internal capsule (anterior and posterior limbs), corona radiata (anterior and superior), fornix, and superior fronto-occipital fasciculi. The results of this study indicate that the clinical presentation of mTBI, particularly with respect to depression and sleep, is associated with reduced white-matter integrity in multiple areas of the brain, even after controlling for time since injury. These areas are generally associated not only with sleep and emotion regulation but also cognition. Consequently, the onset of depression and sleep dysfunction as well as cognitive impairments following mTBI may be closely related to each other and to white-matter integrity throughout the brain.
• Smith, R., Bajaj, S., Dailey, N. S., Alkozei, A., Smith, C., Sanova, A., Lane, R. D., & Killgore, W. D. (2018). Greater cortical thickness within the limbic visceromotor network predicts higher levels of trait emotional awareness. Consciousness and cognition, 57, 54-61.
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  Previous studies of trait emotional awareness (EA) have not yet examined whether differences in cortical structure might account for differences in EA. Based on previous research on the relationship between EA and both emotion conceptualization and visceromotor control processes, we tested two hypotheses in a sample of 26 healthy participants: that higher EA would be predicted by greater cortical thickness within (1) regions of the default mode network (DMN; linked with conceptualization processes), and/or (2) regions of the limbic network (linked with affect generation and visceromotor control processes). A non-significant correlation was found between EA and cortical thickness in the DMN. In contrast, a significant positive correlation was observed between EA and cortical thickness within the limbic network. These findings suggest that the structural integrity of cortical regions involved in the generation of affective bodily reactions may play a more important role in explaining differences in EA than previously thought.
• Smith, R., Killgore, W. D., Alkozei, A., & Lane, R. D. (2018). A neuro-cognitive process model of emotional intelligence. Biological psychology, 139, 131-151.
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  The construct of emotional intelligence (EI) broadly reflects the idea that individuals differ in their disposition/ability to adaptively generate, recognize, understand, and regulate the emotions of self and others. However, while the neural processes underlying such differences have begun to receive investigation, no brain-based model of EI has yet been proposed to help guide the design and interpretation of neuroimaging research in this area. In this article, we propose a neural model of EI to fill this need. This model incorporates recent insights from emotion theory, computational neuroscience, and large-scale network models of brain function. It also highlights several domain general processes - including those underlying conceptualization, automatic attention, habit formation, and cognitive control - that offer plausible targets for improving EI with training. Our model offers considerable promise in advancing understanding of intelligent emotional functioning and in guiding future neuroscience research on EI.
• Smith, R., Lane, R. D., Alkozei, A., Bao, J., Smith, C., Sanova, A., Nettles, M., & Killgore, W. D. (2018). The role of medial prefrontal cortex in the working memory maintenance of one's own emotional responses. Scientific reports, 8(1), 3460.
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  The role of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) in maintaining emotional information within working memory (WM) remains insufficiently investigated - with some studies suggesting this process activates MPFC and others suggesting its activity is suppressed. To reconcile these different results, we asked 26 healthy participants to complete a WM task involving the maintenance of emotional content (EWM), visual content (VWM), or no content ("rest") after exposure to emotion-provoking images. We also assessed individual differences in emotional awareness (EA). We observed that dorsal MPFC was more active during EWM than VWM; further, relative to the rest condition, both of these WM conditions involved suppression of ventral MPFC. We also observed that the dorsal anterior cingulate subregion of dorsal MPFC was positively associated with EA. We discuss how these results may be able to reconcile the findings of previous EWM studies, and extend understanding of the relationship between MPFC, EA, and WM.
• Smith, R., Lane, R. D., Sanova, A., Alkozei, A., Smith, C., & Killgore, W. D. (2018). Common and Unique Neural Systems Underlying the Working Memory Maintenance of Emotional vs. Bodily Reactions to Affective Stimuli: The Moderating Role of Trait Emotional Awareness. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 370.
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  Many leading theories suggest that the neural processes underlying the experience of one's own emotional reactions partially overlap with those underlying bodily perception (i.e., interoception, somatosensation, and proprioception). However, the goal-directed maintenance of one's own emotions in working memory (EWM) has not yet been compared to WM maintenance of one's own bodily reactions (BWM). In this study, we contrasted WM maintenance of emotional vs. bodily reactions to affective stimuli in 26 healthy individuals while they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. Specifically, we examined the a priori hypothesis that individual differences in trait emotional awareness (tEA) would lead to greater differences between these two WM conditions within medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). We observed that MPFC activation during EWM (relative to BWM) was positively associated with tEA. Whole-brain analyses otherwise suggested considerable similarity in the neural activation patterns associated with EWM and BWM. In conjunction with previous literature, our findings not only support a central role of body state representation/maintenance in EWM, but also suggest greater engagement of MPFC-mediated conceptualization processes during EWM in those with higher tEA.
• Smith, R., Sanova, A., Alkozei, A., Lane, R. D., & Killgore, W. D. (2018). Higher levels of trait emotional awareness are associated with more efficient global information integration throughout the brain: a graph-theoretic analysis of resting state functional connectivity. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 13(7), 665-675.
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  Previous studies have suggested that trait differences in emotional awareness (tEA) are clinically relevant, and associated with differences in neural structure/function. While multiple leading theories suggest that conscious awareness requires widespread information integration across the brain, no study has yet tested the hypothesis that higher tEA corresponds to more efficient brain-wide information exchange. Twenty-six healthy volunteers (13 females) underwent a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, and completed the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; a measure of tEA) and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI-II; a measure of general intelligence quotient [IQ]). Using a whole-brain (functionally defined) region of interest (ROI) atlas, we computed several graph theory metrics to assess the efficiency of brain-wide information exchange. After statistically controlling for differences in age, gender and IQ, we first observed a significant relationship between higher LEAS scores and greater average degree (i.e. overall whole-brain network density). When controlling for average degree, we found that higher LEAS scores were also associated with shorter average path lengths across the collective network of all included ROIs. These results jointly suggest that individuals with higher tEA display more efficient global information exchange throughout the brain. This is consistent with the idea that conscious awareness requires global accessibility of represented information.
• Alkozei, A. (2017).

  Chronic sleep restriction differentially affects implicit biases toward food among men and women: preliminary evidence

  . Journal of Sleep Research, 27(4), e12629. doi:10.1111/jsr.12629
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  Chronic sleep restriction and obesity are two major public health concerns. This study investigated how chronic sleep restriction changes implicit attitudes towards low- and high-calorie foods. In a randomized, counterbalanced cross-over design, 17 participants (eight females, nine males) underwent two laboratory testing sessions where they were either sleep-restricted for 3 weeks (i.e. underwent three weekly cycles of 5 nights of 4 h of sleep followed by 2 nights of 8 h of sleep opportunity) or received 3 weeks of control sleep (i.e. 8 h of sleep opportunity per night for 3 weeks). There was evidence for a significant sleep condition x sex interaction (F(1, 20) = 4.60, P = 0.04). After chronic sleep restriction, men showed a trend towards a significant decrease in their implicit attitudes favouring low-calorie foods (P = 0.08), whereas women did not show a significant change (P = 0.16). Men may be at increased risk of weight gain when sleep-deprived due to a reduced bias towards low-calorie foods.
• Bajaj, S., Alkozei, A., Dailey, N. S., & Killgore, W. D. (2017). Brain Aging: Uncovering Cortical Characteristics of Healthy Aging in Young Adults. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 9, 412.
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  Despite extensive research in the field of aging neuroscience, it still remains unclear whether age related cortical changes can be detected in different functional networks of younger adults and whether these networks respond identically to healthy aging. We collected high-resolution brain anatomical data from 56 young healthy adults (mean age = 30.8 ± 8.1 years, 29 males). We performed whole brain parcellation into seven functional networks, including visual, somatomotor, dorsal attention, ventral attention, limbic, frontoparietal and default mode networks. We estimated intracranial volume (ICV) and averaged cortical thickness (CT), cortical surface area (CSA) and cortical volume (CV) over each hemisphere as well as for each network. Averaged cortical measures over each hemisphere, especially CT and CV, were significantly lower in older individuals compared to younger ones (one-way ANOVA, < 0.05, ). There were negative correlations between age and averaged CT and CV over each hemisphere ( < 0.05, ) as well as between age and ICV ( = 0.05). Network level analysis showed that age was negatively correlated with CT for all functional networks ( < 0.05, ), apart from the limbic network. While age was unrelated to CSA, it was negatively correlated with CV across several functional networks ( < 0.05, ). We also showed positive associations between CV and CT and between CV and CSA for all networks ( < 0.05, ). We interpret the lack of association between age and CT of the limbic network as evidence that the limbic system may be particularly resistant to age-related declines during this period of life, whereas the significant age-related declines in averaged CT over each hemisphere as well as in all other six networks suggests that CT may serve as a reliable biomarker to capture the effect of normal aging. Due to the simultaneous dependence of CV on CT and CSA, CV was unable to identify such effects of normal aging consistently for the other six networks, but there were negative associations observed between age and averaged CV over each hemisphere as well as between age and ICV. Our findings suggest that the identification of early cortical changes within various functional networks during normal aging might be useful for predicting the effect of aging on the efficiency of functional performance even during early adulthood.
• Smith, R., Alkozei, A., Bao, J., Smith, C., Lane, R. D., & Killgore, W. (2017). Resting state functional connectivity correlates of emotional awareness. NEUROIMAGE, 159, 99-106.
• Alkozei, A., McMahon, E., & Lahav, A. (2014). Stress levels and depressive symptoms in NICU mothers in the early postpartum period. JOURNAL OF MATERNAL-FETAL & NEONATAL MEDICINE, 27(17), 1738-1743.