Establishing appropriate action–outcome associations can allow animals and humans to control behavior and the environment in a goal-directed manner. Deficits in instrumental learning in psychosis have been widely reported in past studies, but the results remain elusive.

To explore the consistent neural representations of instrumental learning in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in individuals with psychosis, a total of 18 studies (458 individuals with psychosis and 454 controls) were included in our coordinate-based meta-analysis.

Patients with psychosis presented increased activation in the left middle occipital gyrus, insula, and lingual and postcentral gyri; decreased activation in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) networks, including the dorsal striatum, insula, thalamus, middle cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral, orbital, and medial prefrontal cortices (DLPFC, OFC, and mPFC), cerebellum, and associated sensory areas, during instrumental learning. Moreover, mPFC hypoactivation was negatively associated with the percentage of first-generation antipsychotic users, and insula hyperactivation was negatively associated with the percentage of medicated individuals.

Our study revealed that the CSTC circuit could facilitate action-based reward learning in psychosis and may help explain the neuropathological mechanisms underlying these deficits in this disorder.

Emotional processing difficulties represent the core psychopathology of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), yet the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear.

To investigate neural alterations associated with emotion reactivity and regulation in individuals with NSSI and examine whether emotional valence is related to these neural patterns.

During functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, unmedicated young adults with NSSI (n = 29) and matched controls (n = 25) completed an emotion regulation task in which they viewed pictures of different emotional categories with instructions to either attend to or regulate their emotions.

Individuals with NSSI showed increased neural activation in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG), right parahippocampal gyrus and right supramarginal gyrus during negative emotion reactivity and increased activation in the right middle temporal gyrus and left STG during positive emotion reactivity. Conversely, those with NSSI exhibited reduced activation in the left supplementary motor area, left inferior frontal gyrus, right putamen, right thalamus and right STG during negative emotion regulation and reduced activation in the left ventral striatum during positive emotion regulation. Notably, both hyperactivation of the STG during negative emotion reactivity and hypoactivation of the supplementary motor area during negative emotion regulation were associated with emotion dysregulation in individuals with NSSI.

We observed distinct neural patterns of emotional processing among individuals with NSSI, characterised by hyperactivation during emotion reactivity and hypoactivation during emotion regulation. Our findings provide a neurophysiological basis for therapeutic interventions that facilitate adaptive emotional processing in individuals with NSSI.

Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that interpersonal synchronization of brain activity can be measured between people sharing similar emotional, narrative, or attentional states. There is evidence that odors can modulate the activity of brain regions involved in memory, emotion and social cognition, suggesting a link between shared olfactory experiences and synchronized brain activity in social contexts.

We used fMRI to investigate the effects of a positively-valenced odor on inter-subject correlation (ISC) of brain activity in healthy volunteers watching movies. While being inside an MRI scanner, participants (N = 20) watched short movie clips to induce either positive (happiness, tenderness) or negative (sadness, fear) emotions. Two movie clips were presented for each emotional category. Participants were scanned in two separate randomized sessions, once while watching the movie clips in the presence of an odor, and once without.

When all emotional categories were combined, the odor condition showed significantly higher ISC compared to the control condition in bilateral superior temporal gyri (STG), right middle temporal gyrus, left calcarine, and lingual gyrus. When splitting the movies according to valence, odor-induced increases in ISC were stronger for the negative movies. For the negative movies, ISC in the supramarginal gyrus and STG was larger in the second compared to first movie clips, indicating a time-by odor interaction.

These findings show that odor increases ISC and that its effects depend on emotional valence. Our results further emphasize the critical role of the STG in odor-based social communication.

Previous research has highlighted abnormalities in the pulvinar region of the brain among individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Nevertheless, given the pulvinar’s complex structure, comprising four distinct subnuclei (PuA, PuI, PuL, and PuM), inconsistencies persist regarding both structural and connectivity alterations within this region.

3D T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) were used on a cohort consisting of 41 healthy controls and 51 individuals with OCD in order to compare pulvinar connectivity and gray matter volume. Our aim was to compare both connectivity patterns and gray matter volume (GMV) within the PuA, PuI, PuL, and PuM subnuclei between the two groups. First, we examined resting-state connectivity differences in these subnuclei, followed by an analysis of GMV discrepancies to elucidate the potential neuropathological role of the pulvinar in OCD.

Our findings revealed significant connectivity differences in the left PuL, the right PuA, and the left PuA between OCD patients and healthy controls (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the left PuA exhibited both connectivity differences and increased GMV in the OCD group after applying multiple comparison corrections (p = 0.002).

Our study identified functional connectivity alterations within specific subnuclei, including the left and right PuA, and the left PuL, alongside GMV changes in the left PuA. These observations suggest that these distinct regions of the pulvinar may contribute to the pathophysiology of OCD through differences in both functional connectivity and GMV compared to healthy controls.

Stress leads to neurobiological changes, and failure to regulate these can contribute to chronic psychiatric issues. Despite considerable research, the relationship between neural alterations in acute stress and coping with chronic stress is unclear. This longitudinal study examined whole-brain network dynamics following induced acute stress and their role in predicting chronic stress vulnerability.

Sixty military pre-deployment soldiers underwent a lab-induced stress task where subjective stress and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were acquired repeatedly (before stress, after stress, and at recovery, 90 min later). Baseline depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms were assessed, and again a year later during military deployment. We used the Leading Eigenvector Dynamic Analysis framework to characterize changes in whole-brain dynamics over time. Time spent in each state was compared across acute stress conditions and correlated with psychological outcomes.

Findings reveal significant changes at the network level from acute stress to recovery, where the frontoparietal and subcortical states decreased in dominance in favor of the default mode network, sensorimotor, and visual states. A significant normalization of the frontoparietal state activity was related to successful psychological recovery. Immediately after induced stress, a significant increase in the lifetimes of the frontoparietal state was associated with higher depression symptoms (r = 0.49, p < .02) and this association was also observed a year later following combat exposure (r = 0.49, p < .009).

This study revealed how acute stress-related neural alterations predict chronic stress vulnerability. Successful recovery from acute stress involves reducing cognitive–emotional states and enhancing self-awareness and sensory–perceptual states. Elevated frontoparietal activity is suggested as a neural marker of vulnerability to chronic stress.

Compulsive cleaning is a characteristic symptom of a particular subtype of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and is often accompanied by intense disgust. While overgeneralization of threat is a key factor in the development of obsessive–compulsive symptoms, previous studies have primarily focused on fear generalization and have rarely examined disgust generalization. A systematic determination of the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying disgust generalization in individuals with contamination concern is crucial for enhancing our understanding of OCD.

In this study, we recruited 27 individuals with high contamination concerns and 30 individuals with low contamination concerns. Both groups performed a disgust generalization task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The results revealed that individuals with high contamination concern had higher disgust expectancy scores for the generalization stimulus GS4 (the stimulus most similar to CS+) and exhibited higher levels of activation in the left insula and left putamen. Moreover, the activation of the left insula and putamen were positively correlated with a questionnaire core of the ratings of disgust and also positively correlated with the expectancy rating of CS+ during the generalization stage.

Hyperactivation of the insula and putamen during disgust generalization neutrally mediates the higher degree of disgust generalization in subclinical OCD individuals. This study indicates that altered disgust generalization plays an important role in individuals with high contamination concerns and provides evidence of the neural mechanisms involved. These insights may serve as a basis for further exploration of the pathogenesis of OCD in the future.

Because pediatric anxiety disorders precede the onset of many other problems, successful prediction of response to the first-line treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), could have a major impact. This study evaluates whether structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging can predict post-CBT anxiety symptoms.

Two datasets were studied: (A) one consisted of n = 54 subjects with an anxiety diagnosis, who received 12 weeks of CBT, and (B) one consisted of n = 15 subjects treated for 8 weeks. Connectome predictive modeling (CPM) was used to predict treatment response, as assessed with the PARS. The main analysis included network edges positively correlated with treatment outcome and age, sex, and baseline anxiety severity as predictors. Results from alternative models and analyses are also presented. Model assessments utilized 1000 bootstraps, resulting in a 95% CI for R2, r, and mean absolute error (MAE).

The main model showed a MAE of approximately 3.5 (95% CI: [3.1–3.8]) points, an R2 of 0.08 [−0.14–0.26], and an r of 0.38 [0.24–0.511]. When testing this model in the left-out sample (B), the results were similar, with an MAE of 3.4 [2.8–4.7], R2−0.65 [−2.29–0.16], and r of 0.4 [0.24–0.54]. The anatomical metrics showed a similar pattern, where models rendered overall low R2.

The analysis showed that models based on earlier promising results failed to predict clinical outcomes. Despite the small sample size, this study does not support the extensive use of CPM to predict outcomes in pediatric anxiety.

Depression has been linked to disruptions in resting-state networks (RSNs). However, inconsistent findings on RSN disruptions, with variations in reported connectivity within and between RSNs, complicate the understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying depression.

A systematic literature search of PubMed and Web of Science identified studies that employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore RSN changes in depression. Studies using seed-based functional connectivity analysis or independent component analysis were included, and coordinate-based meta-analyses were performed to evaluate alterations in RSN connectivity both within and between networks.

A total of 58 studies were included, comprising 2321 patients with depression and 2197 healthy controls. The meta-analysis revealed significant alterations in RSN connectivity, both within and between networks, in patients with depression compared with healthy controls. Specifically, within-network changes included both increased and decreased connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) and increased connectivity in the frontoparietal network (FPN). Between-network findings showed increased DMN–FPN and limbic network (LN)–DMN connectivity, decreased DMN–somatomotor network and LN–FPN connectivity, and varied ventral attention network (VAN)–dorsal attentional network (DAN) connectivity. Additionally, a positive correlation was found between illness duration and increased connectivity between the VAN and DAN.

These findings not only provide a comprehensive characterization of RSN disruptions in depression but also enhance our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying depression.