Premature commitment to uncertain decisions during human NMDA receptor hypofunction.

Making accurate decisions based on unreliable sensory evidence requires cognitive inference. Dysfunction of n-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors impairs the integration of noisy input in theoretical models of neural circuits, but whether and how this synaptic alteration impairs human inference and confidence during uncertain decisions remains unknown. Here we use placebo-controlled infusions of ketamine to characterize the causal effect of human NMDA receptor hypofunction on cognitive inference and its neural correlates.

Unconscious memory suppression.

Recent evidence suggests that high-level executive control can occur unconsciously. In this study, we tested whether unconscious executive control extends to memory retrieval and forgetting. In a first experiment, participants learned word-word associations and were trained to either actively recall or forget theses associations in response to conscious visual cues (Think/No-Think paradigm).

Everolimus induced mood changes in breast cancer patients: a case-control study.

Introduction The PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway plays a critical role in cancer cell growth, proliferation and angiogenesis, but also in brain homeostasis and the pathophysiology of mood disorders. The impact of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus on the mood of breast cancer patients is unknown. Materials and methods Consecutive, post-menopausal metastatic breast cancer patients receiving hormone therapy +/- everolimus were prospectively followed-up using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the MADRS (Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale) questionnaires.

Specific effect of a dopamine partial agonist on counterfactual learning: evidence from Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.

The dopamine partial agonist aripiprazole is increasingly used to treat pathologies for which other antipsychotics are indicated because it displays fewer side effects, such as sedation and depression-like symptoms, than other dopamine receptor antagonists. Previously, we showed that aripiprazole may protect motivational function by preserving reinforcement-related signals used to sustain reward-maximization. However, the effect of aripiprazole on more cognitive facets of human reinforcement learning, such as learning from the forgone outcomes of alternative courses of action (i.

Illusion of agency in patients with Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome.

The sense of agency refers to the conscious experience of authorship and control over actions. The voluntary or involuntary nature of tics, which are the hallmark of Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS), is unclear. Here, we studied metacognitive processing of agency in an explicit agency task on non-medicated and medicated GTS patients compared to matched controls.

Enhanced habit formation in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.

Tics are sometimes described as voluntary movements performed in an automatic or habitual way. Here, we addressed the question of balance between goal-directed and habitual behavioural control in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and formally tested the hypothesis of enhanced habit formation in these patients. To this aim, we administered a three-stage instrumental learning paradigm to 17 unmedicated and 17 antipsychotic-medicated patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and matched controls.

Anxiety, depression and school absenteeism in youth with chronic or episodic headache.

Background: Chronic daily headache (CDH) in children has been documented in general and clinical populations. Comorbid psychological conditions, risk factors and functional outcomes of CDH in children are not well understood.

Objectives: To examine anxiety and depression, associated risk factors and school outcomes in a clinical population of youth with CDH compared with youth with episodic headache (EH).

Reading impairment in schizophrenia: dysconnectivity within the visual system.

Patients with schizophrenia suffer from perceptual visual deficits. It remains unclear whether those deficits result from an isolated impairment of a localized brain process or from a more diffuse long-range dysconnectivity within the visual system. We aimed to explore, with a reading paradigm, the functioning of both ventral and dorsal visual pathways and their interaction in schizophrenia.

Determination of chitin content in fungal cell wall: an alternative flow cytometric method.

The conventional methods used to evaluate chitin content in fungi, such as biochemical assessment of glucosamine release after acid hydrolysis or epifluorescence microscopy, are low throughput, laborious, time-consuming, and cannot evaluate a large number of cells. We developed a flow cytometric assay, efficient, and fast, based on Calcofluor White staining to measure chitin content in yeast cells. A staining index was defined, its value was directly related to chitin amount and taking into consideration the different levels of autofluorecence.

In vivo and in vitro effects of RAD001 on bladder cancer.

Objective: To evaluate the influence of Everolimus (RAD001) on chemically induced urothelial lesions in mice and its influence on in vitro human bladder cancer cell lines.

Methods: ICR male mice were given N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine in drinking water for a period of 12 weeks. Subsequently, RAD001 was administered via oral gavage, for 6 weeks.

Novel method using a laser scanning cytometer for detection of mycobacteria in clinical samples.

In order to evaluate the capacity of laser scanning cytometry (LSC) to detect acid-fast bacilli directly on clinical samples, a comparison between Kinyoun-stained smears analyzed under light microscopy and propidium iodide-auramine-stained smears analyzed by LSC was performed. The results were compared with those for culture on BACTEC MGIT 960. LSC is a new, reliable methodology to detect MYCOBACTERIA: