The lab was fortunate enough to receive a very generous new NIMH award focused on understanding the computational and neural architecture of fear and anxiety.

Despite growing concerns about validity, the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework plays a key role in organizing basic, translational, and clinical research. RDoC’s approach to fear and anxiety is categorical: threat is either acute or potential; engages either the Amygdala or the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST); and elicits either fear or anxiety.

Recent work by our team, Dean Mobbs, and other investigators casts doubt on this binary perspective, spurring the development of alternative approaches.

Dimensional models posit that threat responses vary along a smooth continuum of perceived danger—from absolutely safety to on-going attack. Danger perceptions are thought to emerge from parametric estimates of threat proximity, probability, and certainty, which are computed in weakly segregated cortico-subcortical circuits. To date, there have been no systematic, well-powered efforts to computationally implement these competing models and compare their validity.

Furthermore, while both models highlight the importance of threat uncertainty, they do not specify which kind. Computational psychiatry recognizes 2 mathematically distinct kinds of uncertainty: Risk and Ambiguity. Which of these is more relevant to threat reactivity and how they map onto the underlying neurobiology is unknown. To address these fundamental questions, we will recruit a racially diverse community sample enriched for elevated fear/anxiety symptoms. Using techniques adapted from neuroeconomics, a parametric threat-anticipation paradigm will allow us to simultaneously probe circuits sensitive to categorical (RDoC) and dimensional variation in threat for the first time. Smartphone phenotyping will assess real-world threat exposure, uncertainty, and distress.

Extreme fear and anxiety are leading causes of human misery and morbidity. This project will provide an exciting opportunity to develop one of the first computationally grounded models of fear and anxiety in a relatively large and diverse “DMV” (DC, MD, & VA) sample. It will help adjudicate on-going theoretical debates, validate a new conceptual approach for use with other read-outs and species, set the stage for new kinds of translational models and clinical studies, prioritize new targets for neuromodulation and other therapeutics development, and set the stage for the development of RDoC 2.0.

This project represents a team-science collaboration between the University of Maryland (Drs. Alex Shackman & Jason Smith) and the University of California-Davis (Drs. Andrew Fox & Erie Boorman)

You can read more about the project at Maryland Today.

Open Science FTW! Although the lab has long made a point of uploading raw data to NDA for select NIMH-sponsored work and 2nd-level fMRI stats maps to NeuroVault for all publications, we are now taking it to the next level, and beginning to share subject-level brain imaging data with the ENIGMA Anxiety Workgroup (ENIGMA-Anxiety) and with the Affective Neuroimaging Collaboratory. These data will ultimately enable well-powered, reproducible, multi-lab analyses of the brain bases of anxiety disorders and BI, and the development of more sensitive and specific brain signatures of emotion. This is important because emotional disorders impose a staggering burden on global public health, and existing interventions are inconsistently effective.

Data sharing is a core scientific value, and maximizes the return on precious taxpayer investments in basic and clinical research.

Katie wrote, It’s crazy to think that it’s been almost a full year since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world as we knew it. Despite the extreme uncertainty that we’ve all faced over the last year, we’ve continued to persevere and put our best foot forward. In recognition of this, I wanted to share an exciting announcement of what we have accomplished.

As of March 2021, we have finished data collection for our two and a half year longitudinal study entitled “Prospective determination of neurobehavioral risk for the development of emotion disorders,” also affectionately known as “The neuroRED Project” or “PAX.”

Beginning in the Fall of 2016, our team set out to better understand how emotions are organized in the brain, how they differ from person to person, and ways in which these differences can influence the risk of developing an anxiety disorder or depression. Our recruitment and baseline data collection efforts included the screening of over 6,000 prospective participants, 258 consents, 246 lab assessments and smartphone ecological momentary assessment (EMA) batteries, 250 clinical assessments, and 241 MRI sessions. The volume and speed at which fMRI data collection was conducted was so extraordinary that the Maryland Neuroimaging Center (MNC) called for a reform of MRI scheduling procedures. These efforts ultimately resulted in 234 participants who were eligible for the longitudinal study.

Since then, we have completed 4 follow-up data collections, including 690 lab assessments, 691 EMA batteries, and 460 clinical assessments. In the end, we achieved an overall retention rate of 97.86% – an amazing feat for a longitudinal study (see table below for more details). Our participants enjoyed being a part of this project to the extent that 96.58% of them reported that they would like to be contacted for future research opportunities with the Shackman lab. Further, this study has provided our students with a number of invaluable training opportunities, from learning how to collect and make sense of cutting-edge brain imaging data to public speaking.

All of this is an absolutely enormous accomplishment that could not have been done without the help of each and every one of you. Through tight deadlines, long weekends at the MNC, countless hours spent on the phone, and hundreds of emails… we did it! As we like to say to our participants: “Thank you so much for your continued participation in the neuroRED project over the past two-and-a-half years. Your contributions were critical to our success and have already begun to provide important new insights to the fields of psychology and neuroscience research!”
But seriously… I hope you can join us in feeling the pride, joy, and relief that we are feeling right now. This has been a remarkably rewarding journey for all of us in the lab – scientifically, professionally, and personally. Alex and I are eternally grateful for your willingness to share so much of yourselves and your time with us.  

Alex wrote, First, a deep bow of gratitude to each and every one of you for making this possible. I would like to extend a special, heartfelt thanks to 
-> Sue Rose, who patiently helped guide the many revisions we made to the standard SCID-5 modules, single-handedly completed hundreds of detailed clinical interviews, and was compelled to repeatedly drive to the UPS store lugging the resulting boxes of interview notes
-> Jason Smith, who built the imaging paradigms and devised new ways of processing, analyzing, and storing the data
-> Katie DeYoung, the heart and soul of the project. Katie was involved with every aspect of PAX, often working extraordinarily long hours to ensure its success. Paired with Sue’s gentle probing of subjects’ psychological innards, Katie’s cheerful case-management approach made it possible to maintain extraordinarily high levels of sample retention across multiple waves of assessment.

You three made it possible for me to maintain my sanity and (for the most part) sleep soundly at night over the past 5 years, and we and other researchers will reap the scholarly rewards of your extraordinary efforts for years to come. I am so very grateful.

Thanks to EVERYONE who contributed to this project, in ways small or large. We could not have done it without you.   

A new study from the Shackman lab in the Journal of Neuroscience has been featured in several recent stories in the media. Building on other work by our group over the past decade (for example, this theoretical review), the new brain imaging study provides evidence that uncertain and certain threat are processed by a common core threat anticipation network. These results run counter to the popular idea that waiting for certain (“fear”) and uncertain threat (“anxiety”) reflect strictly segregated, non-overlapping brain circuits.

The study, which was first selected for special promotion by the Society for Neuroscience and UMD Brain & Behavior Institute, has since been the focus of articles in Axios, The Scientist, Medical Xpress, SciTech Daily, Theravive, Maryland Today, and the Italian-language Le Scienze.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, and spearheaded by our former postdoc, Dr. Juyoen Hur (now an Assistant Professor at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea).

Interested in learning more? The paper is freely available here.

Bittersweet congrats to Manuel (‘Manu’) Kuhn! New postdoctoral position at McLean with the Pizzagalli group.

To quote, Dr. Smith (top-center), “Manuel, we’ve enjoyed having you here. You’ve been a pleasure to have in the lab. I know the graduate students have benefited immensely from having you here to help them. When we both sent code to extract an ROI to help an unnamed grad-student, they used yours because it “made more sense.” That is a valuable thing. Other things you’ve given to them have also “made sense.” There is something special about knowing you have left a mark on students as they move forward and I think you have left something here. It’s a nice thing to hold on to when you’re fighting with reviewers on your next paper. You’ve also helped me with looking back at the big picture. It’s easy (and fun) to get lost in complex solutions to at least seemingly simple problems. It’s worth it to be reminded that rather than always hunting more and more complex solutions, simple ones can also have utility. It was humbling to see your “let’s just do it” SPM/SPM results pop as expected when JFS/JFS results were null no matter what the ultimate reason and outcome. There is definitely something to be learned there and I will try to remember it. I hate being wrong with all of my being but I absolutely love it too and would never pass it up so, thank you. I hope the totality of the AAS experience we’ve had gives you that same perspective. Seeking knowledge is difficult. Mostly we fail miserably. Maybe, once in a blue moon, we hit something truly interesting. Even if it never sees publication, that new piece of knowledge you’ve found it worth all the effort.
That said, you BETTER get something together to submit … within the next month or I’m coming up to Boston with a big stick to hunt you down! We’ve enjoyed having you in the lab and I wish you all the best in the future.”

Dr. Shackman is accepting graduate student applications this cycle. Although you are welcome to apply via the Clinical Psychology area group in the Department of Psychology or the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) training program, we strongly prefer NACS (‘affective neuroscience’) applications. This is a great opportunity to live in and explore the greater DC, MD, Northern VA region (‘The DMV’)!

Here are some tips–good luck!

Letters to potential advisors: Steve Luck’s Blog (I will respond slowly, but I promise that I will read and respond!)

Reflections on Graduate School: Blog. (Most of what Russ writes here applies equally well to our lab!)

PhD Life:

You might also check out this inspirational piece by Kay Tye (MIT): Mission

Some Questions to Ask Potential Mentors (h/t Jay Van Bavel, NYU):

Matt successfully defended his dissertation proposal, “An Initial Evaluation of IBI VizEdit: An RShiny Application for Obtaining Accurate Estimates of
Autonomic Regulation of Cardiac Activity.” The project will provide a vehicle for refining, validating, and applying open-source code for processing cardiac data (and for completing the last remaining hurdle to earning his PhD). Congrats, Matt!

The Impact of Spatial Normalization for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data Analyses Revisited

Continue reading New preprint available on bioRxiv: Smith et al. The Impact of Spatial Normalization for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data Analyses Revisited →

Candidates are being considered for a NIMH-funded postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. Alex Shackman in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland at College Park (http://shackmanlab.org/). The overarching mission of the lab is to have a deep impact on the fields of affective and translational neuroscience. To that end, we do our best to perform innovative studies that can lead to significant discoveries, to disseminate our discoveries as widely as possible, and to mentor trainees to become top-notch scientists. As part of a recently awarded R01 (MH107444), the major focus of this position will be on understanding the neural circuitry underlying fear and anxiety and its role in the development of anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse in young adults. A secondary focus will be on linking variation in the function of that circuitry to thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the real-world, indexed using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) techniques. Eye-tracking measures of attention and peripheral physiological measures of arousal will also be incorporated. There will be opportunities to become involved in other projects and to develop new analytic strategies. We are particularly excited about candidates with a strong background in fMRI methods, but will also consider those with expertise in other areas of affective neuroscience or clinical psychology. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in a relevant field; strong publication record; expertise in human cognitive, affective, or clinical/translational neuroscience; and excellent organizational and interpersonal skills. This is an excellent opportunity for receiving top-notch mentorship in affective/translational neuroscience in a highly productive environment. This is a 1 year position that is renewable for a total of 3 years, contingent on performance and funding. Applicants should send a cover letter describing relevant experience and interests, CV, and contact information for 3 references to Dr. Shackman (shackman@umd.edu). Applicants will be considered until the position is filled. The University of Maryland is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative-Action Employer.

Read more about the project here and here.