Gender differences in cardiovascular risk of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease, affecting women more than men, with a more aggressive course in women.

Design: A prospective study that recruited 58 patients (46 women aged 56 ± 12 years) with active long-standing RA disease (>12 months). Our goals were to measure their endothelial function, part of the cardiovascular risk assessment.

Disinhibition of the Nucleus Accumbens Leads to Macro-Scale Hyperactivity Consisting of Micro-Scale Behavioral Segments Encoded by Striatal Activity.

The striatum comprises of multiple functional territories involved with multilevel control of behavior. Disinhibition of different functional territories leads to territory-specific hyperkinetic and hyperbehavioral symptoms. The ventromedial striatum, including the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core, is typically associated with limbic input but was historically linked to high-level motor control.