Increasing the Construct Validity of Computational Phenotypes of Mental Illness Through Active Inference and Brain Imaging.

After more than 30 years since its inception, the utility of brain imaging for understanding and diagnosing mental illnesses is in doubt, receiving well-grounded criticisms from clinical practitioners. Symptom-based correlational approaches have struggled to provide psychiatry with reliable brain-imaging metrics. However, the emergence of computational psychiatry has paved a new path not only for understanding the psychopathology of mental illness but also to provide practical tools for clinical practice in terms of computational metrics, specifically computational phenotypes.

Speech based natural language profile before, during and after the onset of psychosis: A cluster analysis.

Background And Hypothesis: Speech markers are digitally acquired, computationally derived, quantifiable set of measures that reflect the state of neurocognitive processes relevant for social functioning. "Oddities" in language and communication have historically been seen as a core feature of schizophrenia. The application of natural language processing (NLP) to speech samples can elucidate even the most subtle deviations in language.

More than words: Speech production in first-episode psychosis predicts later social and vocational functioning.

Background: Several disturbances in speech are present in psychosis; however, the relationship between these disturbances during the first-episode of psychosis (FEP) and later vocational functioning is unclear. Demonstrating this relationship is critical if we expect speech and communication deficits to emerge as targets for early intervention.

Method: We analyzed three 1-min speech samples using automated speech analysis and Bayes networks in an antipsychotic-naive sample of 39 FEP patients and followed them longitudinally to determine their vocational status (engaged or not engaged in employment education or training-EET vs.

Active Inference, Epistemic Value, and Uncertainty in Conceptual Disorganization in First-Episode Schizophrenia.

Background And Hypothesis: Active inference has become an influential concept in psychopathology. We apply active inference to investigate conceptual disorganization in first-episode schizophrenia. We conceptualize speech production as a decision-making process affected by the latent "conceptual organization"-as a special case of uncertainty about the causes of sensory information.

Widespread cortical thinning, excessive glutamate and impaired linguistic functioning in schizophrenia: A cluster analytic approach.

Introduction: Symptoms of schizophrenia are closely related to aberrant language comprehension and production. Macroscopic brain changes seen in some patients with schizophrenia are suspected to relate to impaired language production, but this is yet to be reliably characterized. Since heterogeneity in language dysfunctions, as well as brain structure, is suspected in schizophrenia, we aimed to first seek patient subgroups with different neurobiological signatures and then quantify linguistic indices that capture the symptoms of "negative formal thought disorder" (i.

Syntactic complexity of spoken language in the diagnosis of schizophrenia: A probabilistic Bayes network model.

In the clinical linguistics of schizophrenia, syntactic complexity has received much attention. In this study, we address whether syntactic complexity deteriorates within the six months following the first episode of psychosis in those who develop a diagnosis of schizophrenia. We collected data from a cohort of twenty-six first-episode psychosis and 12 healthy control subjects using the Thought and Language Index interview in response to three pictures from the Thematic Apperception Test at first assessment and after six months (the time of consensus diagnosis).

Gender differences in bone mineral density in patients with sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism.

Context: Primary hyperparathyroidism reduces bone mineral density, which increases the risk of fracture.

Objective: To investigate differences in bone mineral density and clinical characteristics after parathyroidectomy between men and women (premenopausal and postmenopausal) with sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism.

Design: This is a retrospective study of adult patients who underwent parathyroidectomy in a tertiary referral center from 1990 to 2013.

Postoperative local-regional radiation therapy in the treatment of parathyroid carcinoma: The MD Anderson experience of 35 years.

Purpose: We aimed to investigate outcomes of locoregional radiation therapy (XRT) in parathyroid carcinoma (PC) patients at a single institution over 35 years.

Methods And Materials: Retrospective review of PC patients who received postoperative locoregional XRT (1980-2015). Patients were grouped according to XRT after PC initial operation or after salvage surgery.

Immunohistochemical Expression of the Tumor Suppressor Protein p16INK4a in Cervical Adenocarcinoma.

 To evaluate the diagnostic utility of the p16 protein expression as a marker for adenocarcinoma of the cervix.  In a cross-sectional study, p16 expression was evaluated in 30 cervical biopsies from patients diagnosed with invasive adenocarcinoma from 2 reference clinics in Brazil, and compared with 18 biopsies of endocervical polyps (control cases). The performance of the tests for p16 was evaluated using a conventional contingency table, and the Kappa (κ) index was used to evaluate the agreement of the marker with the tissue diagnosis.

Temporal Prediction Errors Affect Short-Term Memory Scanning Response Time.

The Sternberg short-term memory scanning task has been used to unveil cognitive operations involved in time perception. Participants produce time intervals during the task, and the researcher explores how task performance affects interval production - where time estimation error is the dependent variable of interest. The perspective of predictive behavior regards time estimation error as a temporal prediction error (PE), an independent variable that controls cognition, behavior, and learning.

Operative intervention for primary hyperparathyroidism offers greater bone recovery in patients with sporadic disease than in those with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1-related hyperparathyroidism.

Background: We investigated whether the outcome of bone disease of primary hyperparathyroidism differs in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1-associated disease and sporadic hyperparathyroidism at 1-year postoperatively.

Methods: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1/hyperparathyroidism and sporadic hyperparathyroidism patients who underwent parathyroidectomy from 1990 to 2013 and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry at baseline and 1-year postoperatively were included. Preoperative and postoperative dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry measurements (bone mineral density and Z-score at the lumbar spine, total hip, and femoral neck) were analyzed.

Oncologic progress for the treatment of parathyroid carcinoma is needed.

Background And Objectives: Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) is rare but potentially lethal. No standardized staging system or treatment guidelines have been established. We aimed to determine whether management of PC and patient outcomes have changed at our institution over the past 35 years.

Differentiating Atypical Parathyroid Neoplasm from Parathyroid Cancer.

Introduction: The differentiation of benign parathyroid gland atypia and true parathyroid carcinoma (PC) can be challenging. In some instances, patients are classified as having 'atypical parathyroid neoplasms' (APNs), explicitly acknowledging that the distinction between benign and malignant disease appears impossible to determine. This 'grey area' diagnosis makes rendering an accurate prognosis difficult, and clouds clinical management and treatment planning.

Cervical hematoma following an endocrine surgical procedure: The MD Anderson experience.

Background: Airway compromise from postoperative neck hematoma remains the most feared complication after cervical endocrine operative procedures. Events are rare and potentially lethal, and clear multidisciplinary guidelines for management of these patients are lacking. The aim of our study was to review the experience of a tertiary cancer center in this scenario.

Temporal prediction errors modulate task-switching performance.

We have previously shown that temporal prediction errors (PEs, the differences between the expected and the actual stimulus' onset times) modulate the effective connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex and the right anterior insular cortex (rAI), causing the activity of the rAI to decrease. The activity of the rAI is associated with efficient performance under uncertainty (e.g.

Effects of L-DOPA on striatal iodine-123-FP-CIT binding and behavioral parameters in the rat.

Purpose: The effect of clinical L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) doses on the binding of [121I]N-Ω-fluoropropyl-2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)nortropane (121[I]FP-CIT) to the rat dopamine transporter (DAT) was investigated using small animal single-photon emission computed tomography.

Materials And Methods: DAT binding was measured at baseline, after challenge with the aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase inhibitor benserazide, and after challenge with either 5 or 10 mg/kg L-DOPA plus benserazide. For baseline and challenges, striatal equilibrium ratios (V3'') were computed as an estimation of the binding potential.

Elevated diastolic blood pressure in insulin-resistant polycystic ovarian syndrome patients.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to further understand interrelationships between insulin resistance in PCOS and elevated diastolic blood pressure.

Design: A prospective case control study.

Participants: Fifty normal women and 43 PCOS patients, 16 of them with insulin resistance.

Intranasally applied L-DOPA alleviates parkinsonian symptoms in rats with unilateral nigro-striatal 6-OHDA lesions.

l-3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) remains the most effective drug for therapy of Parkinson's disease. However, the current clinical route of L-DOPA administration is variable and unreliable because of problems with drug absorption and first-pass metabolism. Administration of drugs via the nasal passage has been proven an effective alternate route for a number of medicinal substances.