Scholars@Duke
Delin Sun

Delin Sun CV

Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Behavioral Medicine & Neurosciences
CV

Selected Publications

Genomic structural equation modeling reveals latent phenotypes in the human cortex with distinct genetic architecture.

Journal Article Translational psychiatry · October 2024 Genetic contributions to human cortical structure manifest pervasive pleiotropy. This pleiotropy may be harnessed to identify unique genetically-informed parcellations of the cortex that are neurobiologically distinct from functional, cytoarchitectural, or ... Full text Cite

Smaller total and subregional cerebellar volumes in posttraumatic stress disorder: a mega-analysis by the ENIGMA-PGC PTSD workgroup.

Journal Article Mol Psychiatry · March 2024 Although the cerebellum contributes to higher-order cognitive and emotional functions relevant to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), prior research on cerebellar volume in PTSD is scant, particularly when considering subregions that differentially map o ... Full text Link to item Cite

Examining the association between posttraumatic stress disorder and disruptions in cortical networks identified using data-driven methods.

Journal Article Neuropsychopharmacology · February 2024 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with lower cortical thickness (CT) in prefrontal, cingulate, and insular cortices in diverse trauma-affected samples. However, some studies have failed to detect differences between PTSD patients and healt ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neuroimaging-based classification of PTSD using data-driven computational approaches: A multisite big data study from the ENIGMA-PGC PTSD consortium.

Journal Article Neuroimage · December 1, 2023 BACKGROUND: Recent advances in data-driven computational approaches have been helpful in devising tools to objectively diagnose psychiatric disorders. However, current machine learning studies limited to small homogeneous samples, different methodologies, ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Harmonizing PTSD severity scales across instruments and sites.

Journal Article Neuropsychology · May 2023 OBJECTIVE: The variety of instruments used to assess posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) allows for flexibility, but also creates challenges for data synthesis. The objective of this work was to use a multisite mega analysis to derive quantitative recomme ... Full text Link to item Cite

Network Centrality and Modularity of Structural Covariance Networks in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Multisite ENIGMA-PGC Study.

Journal Article Brain Connect · May 2023 Introduction: Cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA) are established biomarkers of brain pathology in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Structural covariance networks (SCNs) are represented as graphs with brain regions as nodes and correlations ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adolescent alcohol use is linked to disruptions in age-appropriate cortical thinning: an unsupervised machine learning approach.

Journal Article Neuropsychopharmacology · January 2023 Cortical thickness changes dramatically during development and is associated with adolescent drinking. However, previous findings have been inconsistent and limited by region-of-interest approaches that are underpowered because they do not conform to the u ... Full text Link to item Cite

Editorial: The bio-psycho-social approach to understanding mental disorders

Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology · January 1, 2023 Full text Cite

A comparison of methods to harmonize cortical thickness measurements across scanners and sites.

Journal Article Neuroimage · November 1, 2022 Results of neuroimaging datasets aggregated from multiple sites may be biased by site-specific profiles in participants' demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as MRI acquisition protocols and scanning platforms. We compared the impact of four d ... Full text Link to item Cite

Remodeling of the Cortical Structural Connectome in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Results From the ENIGMA-PGC Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Consortium.

Journal Article Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging · September 2022 BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is accompanied by disrupted cortical neuroanatomy. We investigated alteration in covariance of structural networks associated with PTSD in regions that demonstrate the case-control differences in cortical th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Age-dependent white matter disruptions after military traumatic brain injury: Multivariate analysis results from ENIGMA brain injury.

Journal Article Hum Brain Mapp · June 1, 2022 Mild Traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a signature wound in military personnel, and repetitive mTBI has been linked to age-related neurogenerative disorders that affect white matter (WM) in the brain. However, findings of injury to specific WM tracts have b ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder modulate polygenic predictors of hippocampal and amygdala volume.

Journal Article Transl Psychiatry · December 16, 2021 The volume of subcortical structures represents a reliable, quantitative, and objective phenotype that captures genetic effects, environmental effects such as trauma, and disease effects such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Trauma and PTSD represe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Alcohol Use Disrupts Age-Appropriate Cortical Thinning in Adolescence: A Data Driven Approach

Journal Article · 2021 Objective Cortical thickness changes dramatically during development and is influenced by adolescent drinking. However, previous findings have been inconsistent and limited by region-of-interest approaches that are underpowered because they do not ... Full text Cite

A Comparison of Methods to Harmonize Cortical Thickness Measurements Across Scanners and Sites

Journal Article · 2021 Results: of neuroimaging datasets aggregated from multiple sites may be biased by site- specific profiles in participants’ demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as MRI acquisition protocols and scanning platforms. We compared the impa ... Full text Cite

Coronavirus Disease 2019 versus Influenza A in Children: An Observational Control Study in China.

Journal Article Biomed Environ Sci · August 20, 2020 This study aimed to understand the differences in clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory features between the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) and influenza A in children. Data of 23 hospitalized children with COVID-19 (9 boys, 5.7 ± 3.8 years ... Full text Link to item Cite

First Case of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Childhood Leukemia in China.

Journal Article Pediatr Infect Dis J · July 2020 We report the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) comorbid with leukemia in a patient hospitalized in Beijing, China. The patient showed a prolonged manifestation of symptoms and a protracted diagnosis period of COVID-19. It is necessary to e ... Full text Link to item Cite

Threat-induced anxiety during goal pursuit disrupts amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Transl Psychiatry · February 10, 2020 To investigate how unpredictable threat during goal pursuit impacts fronto-limbic activity and functional connectivity in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we compared military veterans with PTSD (n = 25) vs. trauma-exposed control (n = 25). Participan ... Full text Link to item Cite

Is (poly-) substance use associated with impaired inhibitory control? A mega-analysis controlling for confounders.

Journal Article Neurosci Biobehav Rev · October 2019 Many studies have reported that heavy substance use is associated with impaired response inhibition. Studies typically focused on associations with a single substance, while polysubstance use is common. Further, most studies compared heavy users with light ... Full text Link to item Cite

Brain structural covariance network centrality in maltreated youth with PTSD and in maltreated youth resilient to PTSD.

Journal Article Dev Psychopathol · May 2019 Featured Publication Child maltreatment is a major cause of pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous studies have not investigated potential differences in network architecture in maltreated youth with PTSD and those resilient to PTSD. High-resolution magnetic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Resting-state brain fluctuation and functional connectivity dissociate moral injury from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Depress Anxiety · May 2019 Featured Publication Moral injury is closely associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and characterized by disturbances in social and moral cognition. Little is known about the neural underpinnings of moral injury, and whether the neural correlates are different be ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of Male Defendants' Attractiveness and Trustworthiness on Simulated Judicial Decisions in Two Different Swindles.

Journal Article Front Psychol · 2019 The present study aimed to examine the effects of male defendants' facial appearance (attractiveness and trustworthiness) on judicial decisions in two different swindles. We selected the following four categories of faces by manipulating facial attractiven ... Full text Link to item Cite

Widespread Cortical Thickness Is Associated With Neuroactive Steroid Levels.

Journal Article Front Neurosci · 2019 BACKGROUND: Neuroactive steroids are endogenous molecules with regenerative and neuroprotective actions. Both cortical thickness and many neuroactive steroid levels decline with age and are decreased in several neuropsychiatric disorders. However, a system ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Smaller hippocampal CA1 subfield volume in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Depress Anxiety · November 2018 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Smaller hippocampal volume in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) represents the most consistently reported structural alteration in the brain. Subfields of the hippocampus play distinct roles in encoding and processing of memori ... Full text Link to item Cite

Resting-State Brain Fluctuation and Functional Connectivity Dissociate Moral Injury from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Journal Article · October 13, 2018 Abstract Moral injury is closely associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is characterized by disturbances in social and moral cognition. Little is known about the neural underpinnings of moral injury, and whether the neural correlates are ... Full text Cite

Structural covariance network centrality in maltreated youth with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · March 2018 Featured Publication Childhood maltreatment is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and elevated rates of adolescent and adult psychopathology including major depression, bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, and other medical comorbidities. Gray matter vo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Perceived Gaze Direction Modulates Neural Processing of Prosocial Decision Making.

Journal Article Front Hum Neurosci · 2018 Featured Publication Gaze direction is a common social cue implying potential interpersonal interaction. However, little is known about the neural processing of social decision making influenced by perceived gaze direction. Here, we employed functional magnetic resonance imagi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Brain Structural Covariance Network Topology in Remitted Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Journal Article Front Psychiatry · 2018 Featured Publication Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent, chronic disorder with high psychiatric morbidity; however, a substantial portion of affected individuals experience remission after onset. Alterations in brain network topology derived from cortical thic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Network Analysis in U.S. Military Veterans: Examining the Impact of Combat Exposure.

Journal Article Front Psychiatry · 2018 Recent work inspired by graph theory has begun to conceptualize mental disorders as networks of interacting symptoms. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom networks have been investigated in clinical samples meeting full diagnostic criteria, includi ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Smaller Hippocampal CA-1 Subfield Volume in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Journal Article · 2018 Background Smaller hippocampal volume in patients with PTSD represents the most consistently reported structural alteration in the brain. Subfields of the hippocampus play distinct roles in encoding and processing of memories, which are disrupted ... Full text Cite

Attractiveness Modulates Neural Processing of Infant Faces Differently in Males and Females.

Journal Article Front Hum Neurosci · 2017 Consistent attention and proper processing of infant faces by adults are essential for infant survival. Previous behavioral studies showed gender differences in processing infant cues (e.g., crying, laughing or facial attractiveness) and more importantly, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of New Diagnostic Techniques - Machine Learning.

Journal Article Adv Exp Med Biol · 2017 Traditional diagnoses on addiction reply on the patients' self-reports, which are easy to be dampened by false memory or malingering. Machine learning (ML) is a data-driven procedure that learns algorithms from training data and makes predictions. It is qu ... Full text Link to item Cite

The interaction of perceived control and Gambler's fallacy in risky decision making: An fMRI study.

Journal Article Hum Brain Mapp · March 2016 Featured Publication Limited recent evidence implicates the anterior/posterior cingulate (ACC/PCC) and lateral prefrontal networks as the neural substrates of risky decision-making biases such as illusions of control (IoC) and gambler's fallacy (GF). However, investigation is ... Full text Link to item Cite

Unfolding the Spatial and Temporal Neural Processing of Making Dishonest Choices.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2016 Featured Publication To understand the neural processing that underpins dishonest behavior in an economic exchange game task, this study employed both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) methodologies to examine the neural conditions ... Full text Link to item Cite

The effects of stress on risky and social decision making

Journal Article Advances in Psychological Science · 2016 Full text Cite

A Pontine Region is a Neural Correlate of the Human Affective Processing Network.

Journal Article EBioMedicine · November 2015 Featured Publication The in vivo neural activity of the pons during the perception of affective stimuli has not been studied despite the strong implications of its role in affective processing. To examine the activity of the pons during the viewing of affective stimuli, and to ... Full text Link to item Cite

Unfolding the spatial and temporal neural processing of lying about face familiarity.

Journal Article Cereb Cortex · April 2015 Featured Publication To understand the neural processing underpinnings of deception, this study employed both neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) and neurophysiological (event-related potential, ERP) methodologies to examine the temporal and spatial coup ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neural correlates of outcome processing post dishonest choice: an fMRI and ERP study.

Journal Article Neuropsychologia · February 2015 Featured Publication A dishonest person often utilizes another person's obliviousness to appropriate the property that belongs to the other person. Previous researchers have studied the making of a dishonest choice and the manipulation of truthful information. Here, we have in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Are Happy Faces Attractive? The Roles of Early vs. Late Processing.

Journal Article Front Psychol · 2015 Featured Publication Facial attractiveness is closely related to romantic love. To understand if the neural underpinnings of perceived facial attractiveness and facial expression are similar constructs, we recorded neural signals using an event-related potential (ERP) methodol ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mindfulness Trait Predicts Neurophysiological Reactivity Associated with Negativity Bias: An ERP Study.

Journal Article Evid Based Complement Alternat Med · 2015 Featured Publication This study explored the relationship of mindfulness trait with the early and late stages of affective processing, by examining the two corresponding ERP components, P2 and LPP, collected from twenty-two male Chinese participants with a wide range of medita ... Full text Link to item Cite

Resting-state functional connectivity predicts impulsivity in economic decision-making.

Journal Article J Neurosci · March 13, 2013 Featured Publication Increasing neuroimaging evidence suggests an association between impulsive decision-making behavior and task-related brain activity. However, the relationship between impulsivity in decision-making and resting-state brain activity remains unknown. To addre ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neural activities during affective processing in people with Alzheimer's disease.

Journal Article Neurobiol Aging · March 2013 Featured Publication This study examined brain activities in people with Alzheimer's disease when viewing happy, sad, and fearful facial expressions of others. A functional magnetic resonance imaging and a voxel-based morphometry methodology together with a passive viewing of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impaired social decision making in patients with major depressive disorder.

Journal Article Brain Behav · July 2012 Featured Publication Research on how depression influences social decision making has been scarce. This study investigated how people with depression make decisions in an interpersonal trust-reciprocity game. Fifty female patients diagnosed with major depressive disorders (MDD ... Full text Link to item Cite

Rejection of unfair offers can be driven by negative emotions, evidence from modified ultimatum games with anonymity.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2012 Featured Publication The rejection of unfair offers can be affected by both negative emotions (e.g. anger and moral disgust) and deliberate cognitive processing of behavioral consequences (e.g. concerns of maintaining social fairness and protecting personal reputation). Howeve ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identification and classification of facial familiarity in directed lying: an ERP study.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2012 Featured Publication Recognizing familiar faces is essential to social functioning, but little is known about how people identify human faces and classify them in terms of familiarity. Face identification involves discriminating familiar faces from unfamiliar faces, whereas fa ... Full text Link to item Cite

冒险行为受内外因素影响的神经机制 Neural correlates and modulation factors of risky decision making

Chapter · 2012 "Risk" refers to situations in which an individual is exposed to the danger of possible loss. To minimize such possibility of facing a loss, a series of cognitive affective processes, conscious or unconscious ones, are engaged to help the person evaluate t ... Cite

Masked smoking-related images modulate brain activity in smokers.

Journal Article Hum Brain Mapp · March 2009 Featured Publication The questions of whether and how indiscriminate drug-related stimuli could influence drug-users are important to our understanding of addictive behavior, but the answers are still inconclusive. In the present preliminary functional magnetic resonance imagi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Decision-making and prepotent response inhibition functions in excessive internet users.

Journal Article CNS Spectr · February 2009 Featured Publication INTRODUCTION: Excessive Internet use (EIU), also described as Internet addiction or pathological Internet use, has already become a serious social problem around the world. Some researchers consider EIU as a kind of behavioral addiction. However, there are ... Full text Link to item Cite

Computer games: a double-edged sword?

Journal Article Cyberpsychol Behav · October 2008 Featured Publication Excessive computer game playing (ECGP) has already become a serious social problem. However, limited data from experimental lab studies are available about the negative consequences of ECGP on players' cognitive characteristics. In the present study, we co ... Full text Link to item Cite