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1. Binge‐eating disorder with and without lifetime anorexia nervosa: A comparison of sociodemographic and clinical features

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23858  

   Pawar, Pratiksha S. ; Thornton, Laura M. ; Flatt, Rachael E. ; Sanzari, Christina M. ; Carrino, Emily A. ; Tregarthen, Jenna P. ; Argue, Stuart ; Bulik, Cynthia M. ; Watson, Hunna J. ( November 2022 , International Journal of Eating Disorders)

   To compare individuals who have experienced binge‐eating disorder (BED) and anorexia nervosa (AN) (BED AN+) to those who have experienced BED and not AN (BED AN–).

   Participants (N = 898) met criteria for lifetime BED and reported current binge eating. Approximately 14% had a lifetime diagnosis of AN. Analyses compared BED AN+ and BED AN– on sociodemographic variables and clinical history.

   The presence of lifetimeANwas associated with more severe eating disorder symptoms, including earlier onset, more frequent, more chronic, and more types of eating disorder behaviors over the lifetime, as well as a higher lifetime prevalence of bulimia nervosa (BN). Participants with lifetimeANreported being more likely to have received treatments forBEDorBN, had significantly lower minimum, current, and maximumBMIs, had more severe general anxiety, and were significantly more likely to be younger and female. In the full sample, the lifetime prevalence of unhealthy weight control behaviors was high and treatment utilization was low, despite an average 15‐year history since symptom onset. Gastrointestinal disorders and comorbid anxiety, depression, and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms were prevalent.

   Individuals fared poorly on a wide array of domains, yet those with lifetimeANfared considerably more poorly. All patients withBEDshould be screened for mental health and gastrointestinal comorbidities and offered referral and treatment options.

   Individuals experiencing binge‐eating disorder have severe symptomology, but those who have experienced binge‐eating disorder and anorexia nervosa fare even more poorly. Our study emphasizes that patients with binge‐eating disorder would benefit from being screened for mental health and gastrointestinal comorbidities, and clinicians should consider history of unhealthy weight control behaviors to inform treatment and relapse prevention.

    

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2. Relations between catechol‐O‐methyltransferase Val158Met genotype and inhibitory control development in childhood

   https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21901  

   Bowers, Maureen E. ; Buzzell, George A. ; Salo, Virginia ; Troller‐Renfree, Sonya V. ; Hodgkinson, Colin A. ; Goldman, David ; Gorodetsky, Elena ; Martin McDermott, Jennifer ; Henderson, Heather A. ; Fox, Nathan A. ( August 2019 , Developmental Psychobiology)

   The Val158Met rs4680 single‐nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at the catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) gene, primarily involved in dopamine breakdown within prefrontal cortex, has shown relations with inhibitory control (IC) in both adults and children. However, little is known about howCOMTgenotype relates to developmental trajectories of IC throughout childhood. Here, our study explored the effects of theCOMTgenotype (Val/Val, Val/Met, and Met/Met) on IC trajectories between the ages of 5 and 10 years. Children (n = 222) completed a Go/Nogo task at ages 5, 7, and 10; IC was characterized using signal detection theory to examine IC performance (d′) and response strategy (RS) (criterion).COMTgenotype was not related to initial levels of IC performance and RS at age 5 or change in RS from ages 5 to 10. In contrast,COMTgenotype was related to change in IC performance between 5 and 10 years. While Val/Val children did not differ from Val/Met children in development of IC performance, children with the Met/Met genotype exhibited more rapid development of IC performance when compared with Val/Met peers. These results suggest thatCOMTgenotype modulates the development of IC performance in middle childhood.

    

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3. Neural responses to linguistic stimuli in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13721  

   Finch, Kayla H. ; Tager‐Flusberg, Helen ; Nelson, Charles A. ( October 2017 , European Journal of Neuroscience)

   Atypical neural responses to language have been found in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in their unaffected siblings. However, given that language difficulties are often seen in these children, it is difficult to interpret whether these neural differences are a result of the diagnosis ofASDor impairments in their language abilities. In this study, we recorded event‐related potentials (ERPs) from four groups of 36‐month‐olds: low‐risk control (LRC), high risk forASDdefined as having an older sibling withASD(HRA) but who do not haveASDor milder autism‐like symptoms (HRA‐Typ),HRAchildren who do not haveASDbut exhibit milder autism‐like symptoms (HRA‐Atyp) andHRAchildren diagnosed withASD(ASD). Children listened to words expected to be acquired early (e.g. ball) and words expected to be acquired late (e.g. calf).ERPs were analysed over time windows sensitive to word processing as well as frontal and temporo‐parietal sites over the left and right hemispheres. When controlling for language abilities, there were group differences within the temporo‐parietal sites. Specifically, theHRA‐Atyp group showed a different timed response to late words compared to theASDandLRCgroups. In addition, we found a relation between neural responses in the left frontal sites andASDseverity. Our results suggest that both language abilities andASDdiagnoses are important to consider when interpreting neural differences in lexical processing.

    

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4. Feasibility, Acceptability, and Initial Efficacy of Delivering Alcohol Use Cognitive Interventions via Crowdsourcing

   https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.13987  

   Strickland, Justin C. ; Hill, J. Chauncey ; Stoops, William W. ; Rush, Craig R. ( March 2019 , Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research)

   Inhibitory control training and working memory training are 2 cognitive interventions that have been considered for alcohol use disorder (AUD). Existing studies have typically relied on small samples that preclude the evaluation of small effects. Crowdsourcing is a sampling method that can address these limitations by effectively and efficiently recruiting large samples with varying health histories. This study tested the feasibility and acceptability of delivering cognitive training interventions via crowdsourcing.

   Participants withAUDwere recruited from the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk) (ClinicalTrials.gov;NCT03438539). Following completion of a baseline survey, participants were randomized to an inhibitory control, working memory, or control training condition. Participants were asked to complete training tasks daily over a 2‐week period. Follow‐up assessments evaluating acceptability measures and alcohol and soda consumption were completed immediately following and 2 weeks after training.

   Response rates were satisfactory over the 2‐week intervention period (65% of training tasks completed), and performance on training tasks was consistent with expected effects. A majority of participants indicated that they were satisfied with the study procedures (94.6%), would participate again (97.4%), and would consider incorporating the training task in their daily life (81.1%). Modest reductions in alcohol consumption were observed (e.g., 0.5 drinking day/wk), primarily in the inhibitory control group, and these effects were selective to alcohol use and did not extend to soda consumption.

   These findings demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of utilizing crowdsourcing methods for interventions development. Such a demonstration helps establish the crowdsourcing setting for future large sample studies testing novel interventions forAUDand other substance use disorders.

    

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5. E‐mentoring and its relevance for competency‐based education for students with disabilities: research from the GSAA BreakThru model

   https://doi.org/10.1002/cbe2.1009  

   Todd, R. L. ; Moon, N. W. ; Langston, C. ( April 2016 , The Journal of Competency-Based Education)

   Communication and learning technologies to enable mentoring for students are important topics for online courses and competency‐based education approaches. However, research results have been limited. The GeorgiaSTEMAccessibility Alliance (GSAA) is a research project of the US National Science Foundation's Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program. It is a collaborativeRDEAlliance between the University of Georgia (UGA) and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Launched in 2010,GSAAseeks to enhance achievement of people with disabilities inSTEMeducation and careers.

   CoreGSAAfeatures are the use of virtual worlds, online, and smartphone technologies to enhance student success through mediated mentoring, collectively referred to as the BreakThru project.

   GeorgiaSTEMAccessibility Alliance enrolled between 74 and 99 secondary and postsecondary mentees during its 4 years of mentoring activities. Participants involved in these activities reported a higher frequency of usage with communications platforms with which they were already acquainted, including e‐mail, telephone, andSMStext messaging. Positive changes in these students’ internal characteristics (self‐advocacy, self‐determination, science and math anxiety, and intention to persist) also were documented.

   Preliminary results from BreakThru can help inform course designers to maximize mentor/faculty effectiveness with students. Project results indicate both an improvement of student persistence and an improved skill in navigating critical transition points to employment.

    

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