Background Adolescence, particularly for girls, is a period of heightened risk for depressive symptoms and increased interpersonal stress. Although depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems are...

Adolescent depression predicts later interpersonal difficulties, with reciprocal links to domineering behaviour, highlighting early intervention targets.

Depression has been associated with a reduced ability to update negative beliefs, possibly driven by difficulties integrating new positive information…

YouTube video by Politechnika Wrocławska

Sleep problems from late adolescence to adulthood have increased in the past 10 years and can be linked to complex factors.

A core strength of computational psychiatry is its focus on theory-driven research, in which cognitive processes are precisely quantified using computational models that formalize specific theoretical mechanisms. However, the data used in these studies often come from traditional laboratory-based cognitive tasks, which have unclear ecological validity. In this review we propose that the same theoretical frameworks and computational models can be applied to real-world data such as experience sampling, passive data, and digital-behavior data (e.g., online activity such as on social media). In turn, modeling real-world data can benefit from a theory-driven computational approach to move from purely predictive to explanatory power. We illustrate these points using emerging studies and discuss the challenges and opportunities of using real-world data in computational psychiatry.

Metacognition improves significantly over childhood, but the mechanisms underlying this development are poorly understood. We first review recent research demonstrating that disagreement prompts competent responses by young children across several metacognitive domains (confidence monitoring, information search, and source monitoring). We then propose a mechanistic model of how disagreement facilitates metacognition. We localize one main source of children’s metacognitive limitations in their still-developing capacities to reason about alternative possibilities, which manifest in an overly narrow focus on one hypothesis. Disagreement increases the child’s likelihood of representing alternative hypotheses, thereby promoting improved metacognitive reasoning. The broader proposal is that, through repeated experiences of disagreement, children become better at representing alternative possibilities even when reasoning on their own, leading to metacognitive development.

There has been considerable interest in estimating causal cross-lagged effects in two-variable, multi-wave designs. However, there does not currently exist a strategy for ruling out unmeasured time...

Allow me to (re)introduce myself

It may make for a compelling drama, but young men’s minds are more complex, says one neuroscientist

YouTube video by OHBM Australia

Using longitudinal genealogical data on mentor–mentee relations and their publications, the authors find that mentees trained in larger groups tend to exhibit superior academic performance compared with those from smaller groups, provided they remain in academia post graduation.

by Alejandro de la Vega

Experts weigh in on the most vexing issues and changes — and how to deal with them.

A computational account of how schemas are learned through experience is lacking. In this Perspective, Bein and Niv synthesize schema theory and reinforcement learning research to derive computational...

Instructors

Different types of early-life adversity (ELA) have been associated with children’s brain structure and function. However, understanding the disparate influence of distinct adversity exposures on the developing brain remains a major challenge.