Browsing by Author "Antezana, Ligia"

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    A Preliminary Psychometric Analysis of the Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) Among Autistic Adolescents and Adults: Factor Structure, Reliability, and Validity.
    (Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2022-03) McVey, Alana J; Schiltz, Hillary K; Coffman, Marika; Antezana, Ligia; Magnus, Brooke
    Emotion dysregulation is common among autistic people, yet few measures have received psychometric evaluation in this population. We examined the factor structure, reliability, and validity of a commonly-used measure of emotion dysregulation, the Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), in a sample of 156 autistic adolescents and adults. Data were drawn from the NIH National Database for Autism Research (NDAR) and an author's existing dataset. Results demonstrated that the factor structure generally conformed to the original 6-factor model, with modifications. Reliability analyses revealed good-to-excellent internal consistencies. Validity analyses indicated that the DERS was positively associated with measures of anxiety, depression, and alexithymia. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for the utility of the DERS in a small autistic sample, with minor modifications.
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    Effects of nonsocial and circumscribed interest images on neural mechanisms of emotion regulation in autistic adults.
    (Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 2022-01) Antezana, Ligia; Coffman, Marika C; DiCriscio, Antoinette Sabatino; Richey, John A

    Introduction

    Emotion dysregulation is commonly reported among autistic individuals. Prior work investigating the neurofunctional mechanisms of emotion regulation (ER) in autistic adults has illustrated alterations in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) activity, as well as concurrent atypical patterns of activation in subcortical regions related to affect during cognitive reappraisal of social images. Whereas most research examining ER in autism has focused on regulation of negative emotions, the effects of regulating positive emotions has been generally understudied. This is surprising given the relevance of positive motivational states to understanding circumscribed interests (CI) in autism.

    Methods

    Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to use fMRI with simultaneous eye-tracking and pupillometry to investigate the neural mechanisms of ER during passive viewing and cognitive reappraisal of a standardized set of nonsocial images and personalized (self-selected) CI images.

    Results

    The autistic group demonstrated comparatively reduced modulation of posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) activation during cognitive reappraisal of CI images compared to viewing of CI, although no eye-tracking/pupillometry differences emerged between-groups. Further, the autistic group demonstrated increased PCC connectivity with left lateral occipital and right supramarginal areas when engaging in cognitive reappraisal vs. viewing CI.

    Discussion

    In autistic adults, CI may be differentially modulated via PCC. Considering the documented role of the PCC as a core hub of the default mode network, we further postulate that ER of CI could potentially be related to self-referential cognition.
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    Neural Mechanisms of Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism: Distinct Roles for Anterior Cingulate and dlPFC.
    (Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53, 2022-04-27) Richey, John A; Gracanin, Denis; LaConte, Stephen; Lisinski, Jonathan; Kim, Inyoung; Coffman, Marika; Antezana, Ligia; Carlton, Corinne N; Garcia, Katelyn M; White, Susan W

    Objective

    The present study sought to measure and internally validate neural markers of facial emotion recognition (FER) in adolescents and young adults with ASD to inform targeted intervention.

    Method

    We utilized fMRI to measure patterns of brain activity among individuals with ASD (N = 21) and matched controls (CON; N = 20) 2 s prior to judgments about the identity of six distinct facial emotions (happy, sad, angry, surprised, fearful, disgust).

    Results

    Predictive modeling of fMRI data (support vector classification; SVC) identified mechanistic roles for brain regions that forecasted correct and incorrect identification of facial emotion as well as sources of errors over these decisions. BOLD signal activation in bilateral insula, anterior cingulate (ACC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) preceded accurate FER in both controls and ASD. Predictive modeling utilizing SVC confirmed the utility of ACC in forecasting correct decisions in controls but not ASD, and further indicated that a region within the right dlPFC was the source of a type 1 error signal in ASD (i.e. neural marker reflecting an impending correct judgment followed by an incorrect behavioral response) approximately two seconds prior to emotion judgments during fMRI.

    Conclusions

    ACC forecasted correct decisions only among control participants. Right dlPFC was the source of a false-positive signal immediately prior to an error about the nature of a facial emotion in adolescents and young adults with ASD, potentially consistent with prior work indicating that dlPFC may play a role in attention to and regulation of emotional experience.