Cardinale Elise M, Meigs Jennifer M, Haller Simone P, Fling Kenny, Pandya Urmi, Siegal Olivia, Poe Anjali, Shaughnessy Shannon, Zapp Christian, Bezek Jessica L, Lee Kyunghun, Khosravi Parmis, German Ramaris, Jangraw David C, Henry Lauren M, Byrne Meghan E, Kircanski Katharina, Leibenluft Ellen, Naim Reut, Pine Daniel S, Brotman Melissa A
Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America, Columbia, Washington, United States of America.
Emotion & Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Jun 6;20(6):e0319004. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319004. eCollection 2025.
Quantifying relevant behavioral mechanisms has relied on rigorous, time-consuming tools restricted to laboratory settings and inaccessible to the clinical community. Advances in technology provide an opportunity to develop more accessible platforms. Here, we developed CALM-IT, a novel mobile-application to experimentally assess inhibitory control in vivo.
In a transdiagnostic sample of 200 youth aged 8-20, we (i) apply knowledge from canonical inhibitory control tasks in the methodological design of the mobile application, (ii) establish feasibility and engagement with CALM-IT, (iii) assess test-retest reliability of CALM-IT, (iv) investigate the convergent validity of CALM-IT with behavioral and neural responses to laboratory-based tasks, and (v) probe clinical relevance via associations with clinical symptoms.
First, we provide evidence that our novel inhibitory control mobile application, CALM-IT, was accessible, feasible, and engaging. Second, we found performance was reliable over time. Third, we found CALM-IT performance was associated with established measures of inhibitory control and activation in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus. Associations with brain but not behavior survived after controlling for age. Finally, we found evidence linking impaired CALM-IT performance to increased levels of co-occurring anxiety, irritability, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms.
Validation of this neuroscience-informed mobile application represents a critical first step in bridging precise, mechanism-driven research and community-based assessment of childhood psychopathology. The present work lays the groundwork for future research that could provide researchers and clinicians with a multifaceted tool to measure clinically-relevant behaviors in an engaging and accessible manner.
量化相关行为机制依赖于严格且耗时的工具，这些工具仅限于实验室环境，临床群体无法使用。技术进步为开发更易使用的平台提供了契机。在此，我们开发了CALM-IT，这是一款用于在体内实验性评估抑制控制的新型移动应用程序。
在一个由200名8至20岁青少年组成的跨诊断样本中，我们（i）将来自经典抑制控制任务的知识应用于移动应用程序的方法设计中，（ii）确定CALM-IT的可行性和参与度，（iii）评估CALM-IT的重测信度，（iv）研究CALM-IT与基于实验室任务的行为和神经反应的收敛效度，以及（v）通过与临床症状的关联探究临床相关性。
首先，我们提供证据表明我们的新型抑制控制移动应用程序CALM-IT易于使用、可行且具有吸引力。其次，我们发现随着时间推移表现是可靠的。第三，我们发现CALM-IT的表现与双侧额下回既定的抑制控制和激活测量指标相关。在控制年龄后，与大脑而非行为的关联依然存在。最后，我们发现有证据表明CALM-IT表现受损与共病的焦虑、易怒和注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）症状水平升高有关。
对这款基于神经科学的移动应用程序的验证是弥合精确的、机制驱动的研究与基于社区的儿童精神病理学评估之间差距的关键第一步。目前的工作为未来的研究奠定了基础，未来研究可为研究人员和临床医生提供一个多方面的工具，以一种引人入胜且易于使用的方式测量临床相关行为。
