Author name cluster

Jamie D. Feusner

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

3 papers

1 author row

YNICL Journal 2025 Journal Article

Consistency of reward responses in neutral and anxious states in adolescent females with anorexia nervosa

Hayden J. Peel
Nicco Reggente
Michael Strober
Jamie D. Feusner

BACKGROUND: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a difficult-to-treat psychiatric disorder that typically onsets in adolescence. AN is marked by atypical reward responsiveness and elevated anxiety. However, the neural dynamics of reward responsivity, and how this is impacted by being in an anxious state, are unknown in AN. To test this, we conducted a novel fMRI task consisting of a monetary reward following anxiety provocation or a neutral condition. METHODS: Forty-seven adolescent participants (25 females with partially or fully weight restored AN, post treatment and 22 mildly anxious controls) were presented with personalized anxiety-provoking or neutral words before receiving a reward. Mildly anxious controls were included to enable dimensional analysis of anxiety severity and to assess whether anxiety effects were specific to AN. To measure trial-by-trial consistency of multivariate patterns associated with reward, and the effects of anxiety on reward, neural responses across reward circuit and cognitive reward control regions were analyzed using representational similarity analysis. RESULTS: As hypothesized, AN participants showed lower representational similarity than controls during neutral-word rewarded trials, indicating more variable reactivity to rewarding outcomes. Contrary to predictions, there were no significant between-group differences for the effects of anxiety-words on reward representational similarity, and representational similarity did not predict longitudinal symptom change over six months. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate more variable responses to reward receipt in AN compared with controls, but no significant effects of anxiety states on the consistency of reward responses. These results provide insight into the dynamics of reward processing in AN, which has potential implications for planning and guiding reward-focused interventions.

Details DOI

YNICL Journal 2022 Journal Article

Neurocircuit dynamics of arbitration between decision-making strategies across obsessive-compulsive and related disorders

Darsol Seok
Reza Tadayonnejad
Wan-wa Wong
Joseph O'Neill
Jeff Cockburn
Ausaf A. Bari
John P. O'Doherty
Jamie D. Feusner

Obsessions and compulsions are central components of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessive–compulsive related disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Compulsive behaviours may result from an imbalance of habitual and goal-directed decision-making strategies. The relationship between these symptoms and the neural circuitry underlying habitual and goal-directed decision-making, and the arbitration between these strategies, remains unknown. This study examined resting state effective connectivity between nodes of these systems in two cohorts with obsessions and compulsions, each compared with their own corresponding healthy controls: OCD (nOCD = 43; nhealthy = 24) and BDD (nBDD = 21; nhealthy = 16). In individuals with OCD, the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, a node of the arbitration system, exhibited more inhibitory causal influence over the left posterolateral putamen, a node of the habitual system, compared with controls. Inhibitory causal influence in this connection showed a trend for a similar pattern in individuals with BDD compared with controls. Those with stronger negative connectivity had lower obsession and compulsion severity in both those with OCD and those with BDD. These relationships were not evident within the habitual or goal-directed circuits, nor were they associated with depressive or anxious symptomatology. These results suggest that abnormalities in the arbitration system may represent a shared neural phenotype across these two related disorders that is specific to obsessive–compulsive symptoms. In addition to nosological implications, these results identify potential targets for novel, circuit-specific treatments.

Details DOI

YNICL Journal 2021 Journal Article

Predicting outcomes of cross-sex hormone therapy in transgender individuals with gender incongruence based on pre-therapy resting-state brain connectivity

Teena D Moody
Jamie D. Feusner
Nicco Reggente
Jojo Vanhoecke
Mats Holmberg
Amirhossein Manzouri
Behzad Sorouri Khorashad
Ivanka Savic

Individuals with gender incongruence (GI) experience serious distress due to incongruence between their gender identity and birth-assigned sex. Sociological, cultural, interpersonal, and biological factors are likely contributory, and for some individuals medical treatment such as cross-sex hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery can be helpful. Cross-sex hormone therapy can be effective for reducing body incongruence, but responses vary, and there is no reliable way to predict therapeutic outcomes. We used clinical and MRI data before cross-sex hormone therapy as features to train a machine learning model to predict individuals’ post-therapy body congruence (the degree to which photos of their bodies match their self-identities). Twenty-five trans women and trans men with gender incongruence participated. The model significantly predicted post-therapy body congruence, with the highest predictive features coming from the cingulo-opercular (R2 = 0. 41) and fronto-parietal (R2 = 0. 30) networks. This study provides evidence that hormone therapy efficacy can be predicted from information collected before therapy, and that patterns of functional brain connectivity may provide insights into body-brain effects of hormones, affecting one's sense of body congruence. Results could help identify the need for personalized therapies in individuals predicted to have low body-self congruence after standard therapy.

Details DOI