Brain mechanisms that underlie individual differences in cognitive and affective processing relevant to psychopathology. A primary focus is on cognitive-executive and regulatory deficits underlying impulse control (externalizing) problems such as substance use/abuse, antisocial behavior, and psychopathy. Methodologically, this work employs advanced time-frequency decomposition techniques with EEG/MEG signals. This includes amplitude measures that can delineate active brain regions and functional connectivity measures to characterize dynamic communication among areas. Integration of these EEG/MEG decomposition approaches with MRI/fMRI is currently being advanced
Current Research
Current projects investigate these phenomena within undergraduate, community, and incarcerated offender populations. The goal is to make inferences about brain function and externalizing psychopathology that span the range of human behavior.
Publications
Selected Publications (*student first author)
Bernat, E. M., Cadwallader, M., Seo, D., Vizueta, N., & Patrick, C. J. (2011). Effects of instructed emotion regulation on valence, arousal, and attentional indices of affective processing. Devel. Neuropsychol., 36(4), 493-518.
*Nelson, L. D., Patrick, C. J., Collins, P., Lang, A. R., & Bernat, E. M. (2011). Alcohol impairs brain reactivity to explicit loss feedback in a gambling task. Psychopharmacology, 218(2), 419-28.
Sponheim, S.R., McGuire, K., Kang, S.S., Davenport, N., Aviyente, S., Bernat, E., Lim, K. (2011). Evidence of Disrupted Functional Connectivity in the Brain After Combat-Related Blast Injury. Neuroimage, 54(Suppl 1), S21-9.
*Venables, N.C., Patrick, C.J., Hall, J.R., Bernat, E.M. (2011). Clarifying Relations Between Dispositional Aggression and Brain Potential Response: Overlapping and Distinct Contributions of Impulsivity and Stress Reactivity. Biological Psychology, 58(3), 279-88.
Aviyente, S., Bernat, E.M., Evans, W.S., Sponheim, S.R. (2011). A phase synchrony measure for quantifying dynamic functional integration in the brain. Human Brain Mapping, 32(1), 80-93.
Bernat, E. M., Nelson, L. D., Steele, V., Gehring, W.J., and Patrick, C. J. (2011). Externalizing Psychopathology and Gain/Loss Feedback in a Simulated Gambling Task: Dissociable Components of Brain Response Revealed by Time-Frequency Analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120(2), 352-364.
*Shannon, R. W., Patrick, C. J., Jiang, Y., Bernat, E., & He, S. (2011). Genes contribute to the switching dynamics of bistable perception. Journal of Vision, 11(3):8, 1-7.
*Vaidyanathan, U., Bernat. E.M., Hall, J.R., Patrick, C.J. (2011). Clarifying the Role of Fear Deficits in Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Using Startle Reflex Methodology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120(1), 253-258.
*Nelson, L. D., Patrick, C. J., and Bernat, E. M. (2011). Operationalizing proneness to externalizing psychopathology as a multivariate psychophysiological phenotype. Psychophysiology, 48(1), 64-72.
Marsolek, C.J., Deason, R.G., Ketz, N.A., Ramanathan, P., Bernat, E.M., Steele, V.R., Patrick, C.J., Verfaellie, M., and Schnyer, D.M. (2010). Identifying Objects Impairs Knowledge of Other Objects: A Relearning Explanation for the Neural Repetition Effect. Neuroimage.49(2):1919-32
*Gilmore, C S., Malone, S. M., Bernat, E. M., and Iacono, W. G. (2010). Relationship between the P3 Event-Related Potential, Its Associated Time-Frequency Components, and Externalizing Psychopathology. Psychophysiology, 47(1), 123–132.
Aviyente, S., Bernat, E.M., Malone, S.M., Iacono, W.G. (2010). Time-Frequency Data Reduction for Event Related Potentials: Combining Principal Component Analysis and Matching Pursuit. EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, 2010, Article ID 289571, 13 pages, DOI:10.1155/2010/289571.
*Vaidyanathan, U., Patrick, C. J., and Bernat, E. M. (2009). Startle reflex potentiation during aversive picture viewing as an index of trait fear. Psychophysiology, 46, 75-85.
*Jiang, Y., Shannon, R. W., Vizueta, N., Bernat, E. M., Patrick, C. J., and He, S. (2009). Dynamics of processing invisible faces in the brain: Automatic neural encoding of facial expression information. Neuroimage, 44, 1171-1177.
*Venables, N.C., Bernat, E.M., and Sponheim, S.R. (2008). Genetic and Disorder-Specific Aspects of Resting State EEG Abnormalities in Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 35(4), 826-839, DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbn021
*Yoon, H.H., Iacono, W.G., Malone, S.M., Bernat, E.M., and McGue, M. (2008). The effects of childhood disruptive disorder comorbidity on P3 event-related brain potentials in preadolescents with ADHD. Biological Psychology, 79, 329-336.
*Rakauskas, M.E., Ward, N.J., Boer, E., Bernat, E., Cadwallader, M., Patrick, C. (2008). Car following performance during conventional distractions and alcohol intoxication. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 40, 1742-49. DOI:10.1016/j.aap.2008.06.009
Bernat, E., Hall, J., Steffen, B., and Patrick, C.J. (2007). Violent offending predicts P300 amplitude. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 66, 161-167.
Bernat, E.M., Malone, S.M., Williams, W.J., Patrick, C.J., and Iacono, W.G. (2007). Decomposing delta, theta, and alpha time-frequency ERP activity from a visual oddball task using PCA. International Journal of Psychophysiology ,64(1), 62-74.
*Hall, R.J., Bernat, E.M., and Patrick, C.J. (2007). Externalizing psychopathology and the error-related negativity. Psychological Science, 18(4), 326-33
*Hicks, B.M., Bernat, E.M.,Malone, S.M., Iacono, W.G., Patrick, C.J., Kruieger R.F., and Mcgue M. (2007). Genes mediate the association between P300 amplitude and externalizing disorders. Psychophysiology, 44, 98-105.
Patrick, C.J., Bernat E., Malone S.M., Iacono W.G., Krueger, R.F., and McGue, M. (2006). P300 amplitude as a marker of externalizing in adolescent males. Psychophysiology, 43(1), 84-92.
Bernat, E., Patrick, C.J., and Benning, S., and Tellegen, A. (2006). Thematic content and affective intensity: Modulation of startle reflex, electromyogram, heart rate, and skin conductance. Psychophysiology, 43(1), 93-103.
Patrick, C.J. and Bernat, E. (2006). The construct of emotion as a bridge between personality and psychopathology. In R.F. Krueger and J.Tackett (Eds.), Personality and psychopathology: Building bridges. New York: Guilford Press.
Bernat, E., Williams, W.J., and Gehring, W. (2005). Decomposing ERP time-frequency energy using PCA. Clinical Neurophysiology, 116, 1314-1334.
