Training response inhibition to food is associated with weight loss and reduced energy intake.

The majority of adults in the UK and US are overweight or obese due to multiple factors including excess energy intake. Training people to inhibit simple motor responses (key presses) to high-energy density food pictures reduces intake in laboratory studies. We examined whether online response inhibition training reduced real-world food consumption and weight in a community sample of adults who were predominantly overweight or obese (N = 83).

Scopolamine disrupts hippocampal activity during allocentric spatial memory in humans: an fMRI study using a virtual reality analogue of the Morris Water Maze.

The role of the septohippocampal cholinergic system in memory disorders is well established. The effects of cholinergic challenge in animals have been extensively studied using the Morris Water Maze (MWM) which engages allocentric spatial memory. The present study investigated the effect of the centrally active muscarinic antagonist scopolamine on allocentric spatial memory in humans using a virtual reality analogue of the MWM task, the Arena task.

Age-related neural activity during allocentric spatial memory.

Age-related decline in allocentric (viewer-independent) spatial memory is seen across species. We employed a virtual reality analogue of the Morris Water Maze to study the effect of healthy ageing on neural activity during allocentric spatial memory using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Voxel-based morphometry was used to ascertain hippocampal volumetric integrity.

Two case studies illustrating how relatively selective hippocampal lesions in humans can have quite different effects on memory.

Two patients, with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-confirmed relatively selective hippocampal damage, showed distinct patterns of performance on tests of recall, item recognition, and associative recognition. Patient AC showed a mean bilateral volume reduction of the hippocampus of 28%, but displayed no memory deficit. Both recall and recognition memory were unimpaired.

Prostate cancer risk and ESR1 TA, ESR2 CA repeat polymorphisms.

Background: Experimental evidence has suggested that estrogen receptor alpha (coded by the gene ESR1) might increase prostate cancer risk, whereas estrogen receptor beta (coded by the gene ESR2) might reduce prostate cancer risk.

Methods: We investigated the relationship with prostate cancer risk of both a TA repeat polymorphism in the ESR1 5' region, ESR1 (TA)(n), and with a CA repeat polymorphism in intron 5 of ESR2, ESR2 (CA)(n), in a case-control study (545 cases and 674 controls) nested in the Physicians' Health Study.

Results: Prostate cancer risk was highest for carriers of ESR1 (TA)(24) and ESR1 (TA)(25).