Changes in glial cell phenotypes precede overt neurofibrillary tangle formation, correlate with markers of cortical cell damage, and predict cognitive status of individuals at Braak III-IV stages.

Clinico-pathological correlation studies show that some otherwise healthy elderly individuals who never developed cognitive impairment harbor a burden of Alzheimer's disease lesions (plaques and tangles) that would be expected to result in dementia. In the absence of comorbidities explaining such discrepancies, there is a need to identify other brain changes that meaningfully contribute to the cognitive status of an individual in the face of such burdens of plaques and tangles. Glial inflammatory responses, a universal phenomenon in symptomatic AD, show robust association with degree of cognitive impairment, but their significance in early tau pathology stages and contribution to the trajectory of cognitive decline at an individual level remain widely unexplored.

Associations of cannabis use disorder with cognition, brain structure, and brain function in African Americans.

Although previous studies have highlighted associations of cannabis use with cognition and brain morphometry, critical questions remain with regard to the association between cannabis use and brain structural and functional connectivity. In a cross-sectional community sample of 205 African Americans (age 18-70) we tested for associations of cannabis use disorder (CUD, n = 57) with multi-domain cognitive measures and structural, diffusion, and resting state brain-imaging phenotypes. Post hoc model evidence was computed with Bayes factors (BF) and posterior probabilities of association (PPA) to account for multiple testing.

Central injection of oxytocin reduces food intake and affects hypothalamic and adipose tissue gene expression in chickens.

Oxytocin (OT) is a well-characterized neurotransmitter that participates in a wide range of physiological processes including the inhibition of food intake. The avian ortholog, mesotocin (MT), differs from OT by a single amino acid. Little is known regarding the function of OT in regulating energy balance in birds; thus, this study was designed to determine the effects of central OT injection on food intake and adipose tissue physiology in chicks.

Cognitive impairment from early to middle adulthood in patients with affective and nonaffective psychotic disorders.

Background: Cognitive impairment is a core feature of psychotic disorders, but the profile of impairment across adulthood, particularly in African-American populations, remains unclear.

Methods: Using cross-sectional data from a case-control study of African-American adults with affective (n = 59) and nonaffective (n = 68) psychotic disorders, we examined cognitive functioning between early and middle adulthood (ages 20-60) on measures of general cognitive ability, language, abstract reasoning, processing speed, executive function, verbal memory, and working memory.

Results: Both affective and nonaffective psychosis patients showed substantial and widespread cognitive impairments.

Clinical correlates of subsyndromal depression in African American individuals with psychosis: The relationship with positive symptoms and comorbid substance dependence.

Patients with psychosis exhibit subsyndromal depressive symptoms during the course of illness and yet the clinical correlates of these symptoms remain under-investigated. We aimed to investigate the clinical correlates of subsyndromal depression in psychosis including the extent to which they mediate commonly observed comorbid substance dependence. We developed a model of depression in a non-clinical sample recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (N = 266), and confirmed that model in a locally recruited African-American clinical sample comprising psychotic and non-psychotic individuals (N = 256).