The long-lasting global pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed our daily life in many ways and put heavy burden on our mental health. Having a predictive model of negative emotions during COVID-19 is of great importance for identifying potential risky population. To establish a neural predictive model achieving both good interpretability and predictivity, we have utilized a large-scale (n = 542) longitudinal dataset, alongside two independent samples for external validation. We built a predictive model based on psychologically meaningful resting state neural activities. The whole-brain resting-state neural activity and social-psychological profile of the subjects were obtained from Sept. to Dec. 2019 (Time 1). Their negative emotions were tracked and re-assessed twice, on Feb 22 (Time 2) and Apr 24 (Time 3), 2020, respectively. We first applied canonical correlation analysis on both the neural profiles and psychological profiles collected on Time 1, this step selects only the psychological meaningful neural patterns for later model construction. We then trained the neural predictive model using those identified features on data obtained on Time 2. It achieved a good prediction performance (r = 0.44, p = 8.13 × 10 -27 ). The two most important neural predictors are associated with self-control and social interaction. This study established an effective neural prediction model of negative emotions, achieving good interpretability and predictivity. It will be useful for identifying potential risky population of emotional disorders related to COVID-19.

Neuroticism is a personality trait that reflects emotional instability and is related to negative emotions, such as sensitivity to negative information and negative appraisal. Existing studies on the neural basis of the neuroticism personality trait have focused on explicit emotion processing and neglected to acknowledge the potentially important role of implicit emotion processing, especially using an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) task with a Chinese sample. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to investigate differences in brain activation in an implicit negative emotion processing fMRI task between individuals with high and low neuroticism scores within a Chinese sample. To this end, the revised NEO-PI-R (Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory) was used to identify 82 high-neuroticism participants and 82 low-neuroticism participants, who were then scanned during an implicit negative emotion processing fMRI task. Compared to the participants with low neuroticism scores, those with high neuroticism scores showed significantly decreased brain activation in the mPFC (medial prefrontal cortex), which plays a pivotal role in implicit emotion processing; these data might suggest that individuals with high neuroticism have deficits in implicit negative emotion processing, which may be related to their emotional instability, emotional regulation and attention-related spontaneous activity.

BackgroundFew studies explored response inhibition in autistic-like traits people, using task fMRI. In this study, we examine the functional connectivity of the brain using a stop-signal task based on fMRI among young adults with autistic-like traits and investigated their ability to achieve inhibition control.Methods29 of Chinese individuals measured with AQ. Then applied stop signal task to explore the difference in brain functional connectivity in individuals with autistic-like traits.ResultsThe results showed autistic-like traits people the longer the SSRT, the worse the inhibition ability. And we used networks obtained from groupICA analysis at the functional connectivity analysis level, the SN had a negative connection with left SMG; the DAN had a negative connection with left LG; the FPN had a positive connection with left PCG; the LN had a positive connection with vermis 4 5 and negative connection with left ITG. Furthermore, the SMG, LG, PCG, and temporal gyrus were also obtained in ROI-to-ROI analysis.LimitationsOur sample size smaller, still need to multicenter, large sample confirmed this conclusion. We want to use more task paradigms to explore inhibition control in autistic-like traits people.ConclusionsWe found that autistic-like traits people had atypical functional connectivity within brain networks in the SN, DAN, FPN, and LN, and had atypical brain areas centered on the SMG, LG, PCG, and temporal gyrus. And also highlight the importance of considering executive control function of whole-brain functional connections to better characterize brain connectivity in young adults with autistic-like traits.

Background: Few previous studies explored negative emotion processing in autistic-like traits people using task-based fMRI. In this study, we applied task fMRI to determine the relationship between negative emotion processing and social skill within autistic-like traits people. aimed to find which brain areas specificity play a key role in emotional processing. Methods: 106 of Chinese individuals measured with AQ. Then applied emotion regulation task to explore the difference in brain activation and functional connectivity in individuals with autistic traits. Results: The results showed increased activation in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG). The mediation analysis showed the right MTG mediates the relationship between autistic-like traits and negative emotion. Generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) analysis also suggested that the right MTG shows significant functional connectivity with the left parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) and left precuneus cortex. Limitations: Our sample are university students, there may have a bias in the sample compared to sub-average and have no differences between the gender, we will broaden the sample size and take the gender into account. We use two conditions as our focused theme, we want to use a more specific task to explore negative emotion in autistic-like traits people. Conclusions: The results showed that the right MTG was an important brain region in individuals with autistic-like traits, and our study provides a wider discussion about autism brain activation and functional connectivity patterns and the use the MTG as a hallmark in individuals with autistic-like traits.

Individuals with autistic traits are those who present in the normal population with characteristics of social, communication, personality, and cognitive impairments but do not meet the clinical threshold for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Most studies have focused on the abnormalities in ASD patients rather than on individuals with autistic traits. In this study, we focused on the behaviors of a large sample (N = 401) of Chinese individuals with different levels of autistic traits, measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient, and applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to determine their association to differences in brain structure. The results mainly showed that the correlation between gray matter volume (GMV) and gray matter density of the brain and the Autism Spectrum Quotient was significant in these regions: the right middle frontal gyrus, which are involved in social processing and social reasoning; the left parahippocampal gyrus, which is involved in socioemotional behaviors and unconscious relational memory encoding; and the right superior parietal lobule, which are involved in cognitive control and the ability to show attention to detail. These findings reveal that people with autistic traits in the normal population have atypical development in GMV and gray matter density, which may affect their social functioning and communication ability.

Creativity is considered the ability to generate new ideas or behaviors, an ability that have diverse expressions in different human groups, such as painters and non-painters. Art major students require more creative activities than non-art students do. In this study, we plan to explore the figural creativity abilities of art major students and whether these students exhibited higher figural creativity scores and why their brain structure of gray matter are lower which may benefit from their professional training relative to non-art majors. Therefore, in this study, we use voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify different behavioral and brain mechanisms between art major students and non-art major students by using the figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. Our results showed that the TTCT-figural (TTCT-F) scores of art majors were higher than those of non-art majors. The TTCT-F score of art major students and practicing and study time have positive correlations which means art major’s figural creativity score benefit from there art professional training in some degree. Subsequently, the interaction analysis revealed that the TTCT-figural scores of art majors and non-majors exhibited significant correlations with the gray matter volumes (GMV) of the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the left medial frontal gyrus (MFG). While the simple slope analysis showed that art majors, compared with non-art majors, exhibited a marginal significantly positive association with the left ACC and MFG, non-art majors exhibited a significantly negative association with the left ACC and MFG. Overall, our study revealed that people who major in artistic work are more likely to possess enhanced figural creative skills relative to non-artistic people. These results indicated that professional artistic programs or training may increase creativity skills via reorganized intercortical connections.