Mediating effect of amygdala activity on response to fear vs. happiness in youth with significant levels of irritability and disruptive mood and behavior disorders
Open accessAbstract
Introduction: Irritability, characterized by a tendency to exhibit increased anger, is a common clinical problem in youth. Irritability is a significant clinical issue in youth with various psychiatric diagnoses, especially disruptive behavior, and mood disorders (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder). Although there have been previous studies focusing on functional alteration in the amygdala related to irritability, there is no comprehensive model between emotional, neuronal, and behavioral characteristics. Methods: Using an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) procedure, we investigated the relationships between behavioral irritability, selective impairments in processing facial emotions and the amygdala neural response in youth with increased irritability. Fifty-nine youth with disruptive mood and behavior disorder completed a facial expression processing task with an event-related fMRI paradigm. The severity of irritability was evaluated using the Affective Reactivity Index. Results: In the result of behavioral data, irritability, and reaction time (RT) differences between interpreting negative (fear) and positive (happiness) facial expressions were positively correlated. In the fMRI result, youth showed higher activation in the right cingulate gyrus, bilateral cerebellum, right amygdala, right precuneus, right superior frontal gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, and middle temporal gyrus, during the happiness condition vs. fear condition. No brain region exhibited greater activation in the fear than in the happiness conditions. In the result of the mediator analysis, increased irritability was associated with a longer RT toward positive vs. negative facial expressions. Irritability was also positively associated with the difference in amygdala blood oxygen level-dependent responses between the two emotional conditions (happiness > fear). This difference in amygdala activity mediated the interaction between irritability and the RT difference between negative and positive facial expressions. Discussion: We suggest that impairment in the implicit processing of facial emotional expressions with different valences causes distinct patterns of amygdala response, which correlate with the level of irritability. These results broaden our understanding of the biological mechanism of irritability at the neural level and provide information for the future direction of the study.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Previous studies on irritability in youth with disruptive behavior and mood disorders implicate the middle occipital gyrus.
“This is consistent with previous studies on irritability in youth with disruptive behavior and mood disorders, in which middle occipital gyrus was also involved (30).”
From Abnormal functional connectivity associated with emotional dysregulation in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (2025) · cites this paper as [30]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 70 · Cited by 7
Research works printed but not linked: 61
- Anticevic A. Van Snellenberg J. X. Cohen R. E. Repovs G. Dowd E. C. Barch D. M. (2012). Amygdala recruitment in schizophrenia in response to aversive emotional material: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Schizophr. Bull. 38, 608– 621. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbq131, PMID: 21123853 PMC3329999 · DOI
- Arioli M. Basso G. Poggi P. Canessa N. (2021). Fronto-temporal brain activity and connectivity track implicit attention to positive and negative social words in a novel socio-emotional Stroop task. Neuroimage 226: 117580. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117580 33221447 · DOI
- Avenevoli S. Blader J. C. Leibenluft E. (2015). Irritability in youth: an update. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 54, 881– 883. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2015.08.012 26506577 · DOI
- Baron R. M. Kenny D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 51: 1173. 3806354
- Beauchaine T. P. Tackett J. L. (2020). Irritability as a transdiagnostic vulnerability trait: current issues and future directions. Behav. Ther. 51, 350– 364. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2019.10.009, PMID: 32138943 · DOI
- Bell E. Bryant R. A. Boyce P. Porter R. J. Malhi G. S. (2021). Irritability through research domain criteria: an opportunity for transdiagnostic conceptualisation. BJPsych Open 7: e36. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2020.168, PMID: 33461648 PMC8058909 · DOI
- Bilgi M. M. Taspinar S. Aksoy B. Oguz K. Coburn K. Gonul A. S. (2017). The relationship between childhood trauma, emotion recognition, and irritability in schizophrenia patients. Psychiatry Res. 251, 90– 96. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.01.091, PMID: 28192770 · DOI
- Brotman M. A. Rich B. A. Guyer A. E. Lunsford J. R. Horsey S. E. Reising M. M.. (2010). Amygdala activation during emotion processing of neutral faces in children with severe mood dysregulation versus ADHD or bipolar disorder. Am. J. Psychiatr. 167, 61– 69. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.09010043, PMID: 19917597 PMC3075433 · DOI · Paper page
- Carré J. M. Fisher P. M. Manuck S. B. Hariri A. R. (2012). Interaction between trait anxiety and trait anger predict amygdala reactivity to angry facial expressions in men but not women. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 7, 213– 221. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsq101, PMID: 21183456 PMC3277369 · DOI
- Cecere R. Bertini C. Maier M. E. Làdavas E. (2014). Unseen fearful faces influence face encoding: evidence from ERPs in hemianopic patients. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 26, 2564– 2577. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00671, PMID: 24893734 · DOI
- Coccaro E. F. Mccloskey M. S. Fitzgerald D. A. Phan K. L. (2007). Amygdala and orbitofrontal reactivity to social threat in individuals with impulsive aggression. Biol. Psychiatry 62, 168– 178. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.08.024, PMID: 17210136 · DOI
- Crum K. I. Hwang S. Blair K. S. Aloi J. M. Meffert H. White S. F.. (2020). Interaction of irritability and anxiety on emotional responding and emotion regulation: a functional MRI study. Psychol. Med. 51, 2778– 2788. doi: 10.1017/S0033291720001397 32584213 PMC7759590 · DOI
- Darlington R. B. Hayes A. F. (2017). Regression analysis and linear models. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
- Dougherty L. Smith V. Bufferd S. Carlson G. Stringaris A. Leibenluft E.. (2014). DSM-5 disruptive mood dysregulation disorder: correlates and predictors in young children. Psychol. Med. 44, 2339– 2350. doi: 10.1017/S0033291713003115, PMID: 24443797 PMC4480202 · DOI
- Dowdy E. Distefano C. Greer F. Moore S. Pompey K. (2019). Examining the latent structure of the BASC-3 BESS parent preschool form. J. Psychoeduc. Assess. 37, 181– 193. doi: 10.1177/0734282917739109 28770616 · DOI
- Eklund A. Nichols T. E. Knutsson H. (2016). Cluster failure: why fMRI inferences for spatial extent have inflated false-positive rates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 113, 7900– 7905. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1602413113, PMID: 27357684 PMC4948312 · DOI · Paper page
- Euler F. Jenkel N. Stadler C. Schmeck K. Fegert J. M. Kölch M.. (2015). Variants of girls and boys with conduct disorder: anxiety symptoms and callous-unemotional traits. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 43, 773– 785. doi: 10.1007/s10802-014-9946-x, PMID: 25349148 · DOI
- Fishburn F. A. Hlutkowsky C. O. Bemis L. M. Huppert T. J. Wakschlag L. S. Perlman S. B. (2019). Irritability uniquely predicts prefrontal cortex activation during preschool inhibitory control among all temperament domains: a LASSO approach. Neuroimage 184, 68– 77. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.09.023, PMID: 30213776 PMC6230482 · DOI
- Fisher R. J. Katz J. E. (2000). Social-desirability bias and the validity of self-reported values. Psychol. Mark. 17, 105– 120. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6793(200002)17:2<105::AID-MAR3>3.0.CO;2-9 · DOI
- Framorando D. Moses E. Legrand L. Seeck M. Pegna A. J. (2021). Rapid processing of fearful faces relies on the right amygdala: evidence from individuals undergoing unilateral temporal lobectomy. Sci. Rep. 11, 1– 9. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80054-1 33432073 PMC7801587 · DOI
- Gu S. Wang F. Patel N. P. Bourgeois J. A. Huang J. H. (2019). A model for basic emotions using observations of behavior in Drosophila. Front. Psychol. 10: 781. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00781, PMID: 31068849 PMC6491740 · DOI
- Guyer A. E. Mcclure E. B. Adler A. D. Brotman M. A. Rich B. A. Kimes A. S.. (2007). Specificity of facial expression labeling deficits in childhood psychopathology. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 48, 863– 871. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01758.x, PMID: 17714371 · DOI
- Habel U. Windischberger C. Derntl B. Robinson S. Kryspin-Exner I. Gur R. C.. (2007). Amygdala activation and facial expressions: explicit emotion discrimination versus implicit emotion processing. Neuropsychologia 45, 2369– 2377. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.01.023, PMID: 17408704 · DOI
- Haller S. P. Stoddard J. Botz-Zapp C. Clayton M. Macgillivray C. Perhamus G.. (2022). A randomized controlled trial of computerized interpretation Bias training for disruptive mood dysregulation disorder: a fast-fail study. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 61, 37– 45. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2021.05.022, PMID: 34147585 PMC8678378 · DOI
- Haxby J. V. Hoffman E. A. Gobbini M. I. (2000). The distributed human neural system for face perception. Trends Cogn. Sci. 4, 223– 233. doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01482-0 10827445 · DOI · Paper page
- Herzhoff K. Tackett J. L. (2016). Subfactors of oppositional defiant disorder: converging evidence from structural and latent class analyses. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 57, 18– 29. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12423, PMID: 25907358 · DOI
- Hommer R. E. Meyer A. Stoddard J. Connolly M. E. Mogg K. Bradley B. P.. (2014). Attention bias to threat faces in severe mood dysregulation. Depress. Anxiety 31, 559– 565. doi: 10.1002/da.22145, PMID: 23798350 PMC3933451 · DOI
- Ishai A. Ungerleider L. G. Martin A. Haxby J. V. (2000). The representation of objects in the human occipital and temporal cortex. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 12, 35– 51. doi: 10.1162/089892900564055 11506646 · DOI
- Kanwisher N. Mcdermott J. Chun M. M. (1997). The fusiform face area: a module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. J. Neurosci. 17, 4302– 4311. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-11-04302.1997, PMID: 9151747 PMC6573547 · DOI · Paper page
- Kaufman J. Birmaher B. Brent D. A. Ryan N. D. Rao U. (2000). K-SADS-PL. J. Am. Acad. Child. Adolesc. Psychiatry 39: 1208. doi: 10.1097/00004583-200010000-00002 11026169 · DOI
- Kaufman J. Birmaher B. Brent D. Rao U. Flynn C. Moreci P.. (1997). Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children-present and lifetime version (K-SADS-PL): initial reliability and validity data. JAACAP. 36, 980– 988. 9204677
- Kim P. Arizpe J. Rosen B. H. Razdan V. Haring C. T. Jenkins S. E.. (2013). Impaired fixation to eyes during facial emotion labelling in children with bipolar disorder or severe mood dysregulation. J. Psychiatry Neurosci. 38, 407– 416. doi: 10.1503/jpn.120232, PMID: 23906351 PMC3819155 · DOI
- Kimura A. Dan I. Watanabe N. Yamada H. Wada Y. (2012). Reaction time as an indicator of stimulus-response binding in affective judgment of visual stimuli 1. Jpn. Psychol. Res. 54, 335– 347. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-5884.2012.00511.x · DOI
- Kircanski K. White L. K. Tseng W.-L. Wiggins J. L. Frank H. R. Sequeira S.. (2018). A latent variable approach to differentiating neural mechanisms of irritability and anxiety in youth. JAMA Psychiatry 75, 631– 639. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0468, PMID: 29625429 PMC6137523 · DOI
- Kryza-Lacombe M. Iturri N. Monk C. S. Wiggins J. L. (2020). Face emotion processing in pediatric irritability: neural mechanisms in a sample enriched for irritability with autism spectrum disorder. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 59, 1380– 1391. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2019.09.002, PMID: 31541675 PMC9831686 · DOI
- Lee K. S. Hagan C. N. Hughes M. Cotter G. Freud E. M. Kircanski K.. (2022). Systematic review and Meta-analysis: task-based fMRI studies in youths with irritability. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 62, 208– 229. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2022.05.014 35944754 PMC9892288 · DOI
- Legenbauer T. Hübner J. Pinnow M. Ball A. Pniewski B. Holtmann M. (2016). Proper emotion recognition, dysfunctional emotion regulation: the mystery of affective dysregulation in adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Zeitschrift Kinder Jugendpsychiatrie Psychother 44, 1– 10. doi: 10.1024/1422-4917/a000479 27685191 · DOI
- Leibenluft E. (2017a). Irritability in children: what we know and what we need to learn. World Psychiatry 16, 100– 101. doi: 10.1002/wps.20397, PMID: 28127909 PMC5269491 · DOI
- Leibenluft E. (2017b). Pediatric irritability: a systems neuroscience approach. Trends Cogn. Sci. 21, 277– 289. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.02.002, PMID: 28274677 PMC5366079 · DOI
- Leppänen J. M. Tenhunen M. Hietanen J. K. (2003). Faster choice-reaction times to positive than to negative facial expressions: the role of cognitive and motor processes. J. Psychophysiol. 17, 113– 123. doi: 10.1027//0269-8803.17.3.113 · DOI
- Lozier L. M. Cardinale E. M. Vanmeter J. W. Marsh A. A. (2014). Mediation of the relationship between callous-unemotional traits and proactive aggression by amygdala response to fear among children with conduct problems. JAMA Psychiatry 71, 627– 636. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.4540, PMID: 24671141 PMC4479191 · DOI
- Marsh A. A. Finger E. C. Mitchell D. G. Reid M. E. Sims C. Kosson D. S.. (2008). Reduced amygdala response to fearful expressions in children and adolescents with callous-unemotional traits and disruptive behavior disorders. Am. J. Psychiatr. 165, 712– 720. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07071145, PMID: 18281412 · DOI · Paper page
- Mulraney M. A. Melvin G. A. Tonge B. J. (2014). Psychometric properties of the affective reactivity index in Australian adults and adolescents. Psychol. Assess. 26, 148– 155. doi: 10.1037/a0034891, PMID: 24188148 · DOI
- Obeso I. Robles N. Muñoz-Marrón E. Redolar-Ripoll D. (2013). Dissociating the role of the pre-SMA in response inhibition and switching: a combined online and offline TMS approach. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7: 150. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00150 23616761 PMC3629293 · DOI
- Posner J. Russell J. A. Peterson B. S. (2005). The circumplex model of affect: an integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology. Dev. Psychopathol. 17, 715– 734. doi: 10.1017/S0954579405050340, PMID: 16262989 PMC2367156 · DOI · Paper page
- Preacher K. J. Hayes A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Beh. Res. Meth. Instr. Comp. 36, 717– 731. 15641418
- Quarto T. Blasi G. Pallesen K. J. Bertolino A. Brattico E. (2014). Implicit processing of visual emotions is affected by sound-induced affective states and individual affective traits. PLoS One 9: e103278. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103278, PMID: 25072162 PMC4114563 · DOI
- Reynolds C. Kamphaus R. (2015). Behaviour assessment system for children–third edition manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
- Rich B. A. Grimley M. E. Schmajuk M. Blair K. S. Blair R. Leibenluft E. (2008). Face emotion labeling deficits in children with bipolar disorder and severe mood dysregulation. Dev. Psychopathol. 20, 529– 546. doi: 10.1017/S0954579408000266, PMID: 18423093 PMC2669935 · DOI
- Seok J. W. Bajaj S. Soltis-Vaughan B. Lerdahl A. Garvey W. Bohn A.. (2021). Structural atrophy of the right superior frontal gyrus in adolescents with severe irritability. Hum. Brain Mapp. 42, 4611– 4622. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25571, PMID: 34288223 PMC8410540 · DOI
- Shah N. J. Marshall J. C. Zafiris O. Schwab A. Zilles K. Markowitsch H. J.. (2001). The neural correlates of person familiarity: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with clinical implications. Brain 124, 804– 815. doi: 10.1093/brain/124.4.804 11287379 · DOI · Paper page
- Shankman S. A. Katz A. C. Passarotti A. M. Pavuluri M. N. (2013). Retracted: Deficits in emotion recognition in pediatric bipolar disorder: the mediating effects of irritability. J. Affect. Disord. 144, 134– 140. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2012.06.021, PMID: 22963899 PMC3513629 · DOI
- Stoddard J. Sharif-Askary B. Harkins E. A. Frank H. R. Brotman M. A. Penton-Voak I. S.. (2016). An open pilot study of training hostile interpretation bias to treat disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. J. Child Adolesc. Psychopharmacol. 26, 49– 57. doi: 10.1089/cap.2015.0100, PMID: 26745832 PMC4779288 · DOI
- Stringaris A. Goodman R. Ferdinando S. Razdan V. Muhrer E. Leibenluft E.. (2012). The affective reactivity index: a concise irritability scale for clinical and research settings. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 53, 1109– 1117. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02561.x, PMID: 22574736 PMC3484687 · DOI
- Tan T. X. Yi Z. Kamphaus R. W. Wang Y. Li Z. Cheng K. (2020). Testing the reliability and construct validity of a Chinese translation of BASC-3-SRP for 12-to 18-year-old youth. J. Psychoeduc. Assess. 38, 599– 612. doi: 10.1177/0734282919874257 · DOI
- Thomas L. A. Brotman M. A. Muhrer E. J. Rosen B. H. Bones B. L. Reynolds R. C.. (2012). Parametric modulation of neural activity by emotion in youth with bipolar disorder, youth with severe mood dysregulation, and healthy volunteers. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 69, 1257– 1266. doi: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.913, PMID: 23026912 PMC3538086 · DOI
- Thomas L. A. Kim P. Bones B. L. Hinton K. E. Milch H. S. Reynolds R. C.. (2013). Elevated amygdala responses to emotional faces in youths with chronic irritability or bipolar disorder. Neuroimage 2, 637– 645. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2013.04.007, PMID: 23977455 PMC3746996 · DOI
- Troiani V. Price E. T. Schultz R. T. (2014). Unseen fearful faces promote amygdala guidance of attention. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 9, 133– 140. doi: 10.1093/scan/nss116, PMID: 23051897 PMC3907921 · DOI
- Vidal-Ribas P. Brotman M. A. Valdivieso I. Leibenluft E. Stringaris A. (2016). The status of irritability in psychiatry: a conceptual and quantitative review. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 55, 556– 570. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2016.04.014, PMID: 27343883 PMC4927461 · DOI
- Whelan R. (2008). Effective analysis of reaction time data. Psychol. Rec. 58, 475– 482. doi: 10.1007/BF03395630 · DOI
- Wiggins J. L. Brotman M. A. Adleman N. E. Kim P. Oakes A. H. Reynolds R. C.. (2016). Neural correlates of irritability in disruptive mood dysregulation and bipolar disorders. Am. J. Psychiatry 173, 722– 730. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.15060833 26892942 PMC11193882 · DOI
- Authors
- Suk, J.-W., Blair, R. J. R., Vaughan, B., Lerdahl, A., Garvey, W. F., Edwards, R., Leibenluft, E., & Hwang, S.
- Affiliations
- Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KR)
- University of Nebraska Medical Center (US)
- National Institute of Mental Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hwang, Soonjo
- Venue
- Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2023-10-12
- Volume
- 17
- Pages
- 1204574-1204574
- ISSN
- 1662-5153 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10602729
- OpenAlex
- W4387580321
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6
- FWCI
- 0.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5u01mh120155-03)
- National Institute of Mental Health (U01-MH120155, U01MH120155-01A1)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U54GM115458)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Keywords
- irritability, amygdala, emotional face processing, reaction time, mediation, youth, Affective Reactivity Index, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review