Triple network resting-state functional connectivity patterns of alcohol heavy drinking.

Aims: Previous neuroimaging research in alcohol use disorder (AUD) has found altered functional connectivity in the brain's salience, default mode, and central executive (CEN) networks (i.e. the triple network model), though their specific associations with AUD severity and heavy drinking remains unclear.

Neural correlates of increased alcohol demand following alcohol cue exposure in adult heavy drinkers.

Alcohol use disorder is associated with overvaluation of alcohol relative to other rewards, in part due to dynamic increases in value in response to alcohol-related cues. In a neuroeconomic framework, alcohol cues increase behavioral economic demand for alcohol, but the neural correlates these cue effects are unknown. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study combined a neuroeconomic alcohol purchase task with an alcohol cue exposure in 72 heavy drinkers with established sensitivity to alcohol cues (51 % female; mean age=33.

Alcohol cues increase behavioral economic demand and craving for alcohol in nontreatment-seeking and treatment-seeking heavy drinkers.

Background: Behavioral economic research has revealed significant increases in alcohol demand following exposure to alcohol-related cues. Prior research has focused exclusively on nontreatment-seeking heavy drinkers, included only male participants, or used heterogeneous methods. The current studies sought to replicate and extend existing findings in treatment-seeking and nontreatment-seeking heavy drinkers while also examining sex effects and moderation by alcohol use disorder (AUD) severity.

Clinical Efficacy of Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Psychiatric and Cognitive Disorders: Protocol for a Systematic Review.

Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a widely used noninvasive brain stimulation technique for psychiatric and cognitive disorders. In recent years, deep TMS (dTMS) has shown promise as an enhanced form of TMS able to stimulate deeper brain structures and target broader networks. Various magnetic Hesed-coil (H-coil) designs-a novel feature of dTMS-have been used to stimulate brain regions implicated in the pathophysiology of specific psychiatric and cognitive disorders, thereby producing therapeutic effects.

The Impact of Recreational Cannabis Legalization on Cannabis Use and Associated Outcomes: A Systematic Review.

Background: Recreational cannabis legalization has become more prevalent over the past decade, increasing the need to understand its impact on downstream health-related outcomes. Although prior reviews have broadly summarized research on cannabis liberalization policies (including decriminalization and medical legalization), directed efforts are needed to synthesize the more recent research that focuses on recreational cannabis legalization specifically. Thus, the current review summarizes existing studies using longitudinal designs to evaluate impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on cannabis use and related outcomes.

Delay Discounting as a Transdiagnostic Process in Psychiatric Disorders: A Meta-analysis.

Importance: Delay discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsive preferences for smaller-immediate or larger-delayed rewards that is argued to be a transdiagnostic process across health conditions. Studies suggest some psychiatric disorders are associated with differences in discounting compared with controls, but null findings have also been reported.

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis of the published literature on delay discounting in people with psychiatric disorders.

Identity development in cultural context: The role of deviating from master narratives.

Objective: The great majority of research on identity and personality development has focused on individual processes of development, to the relative neglect of the cultural context of development. We employ a recently articulated framework for the examination of identity development in context, centered on the construct of master narratives, or culturally shared stories.

Method: Across four studies, we asked emerging and midlife adults (N = 512) to narrate personal experiences of deviations from these master narratives.

Fluorogenic Substrates for In Situ Monitoring of Caspase-3 Activity in Live Cells.

The in situ detection of caspase-3 activity has applications in the imaging and monitoring of multiple pathologies, notably cancer. A series of cell penetrating FRET-based fluorogenic substrates were designed and synthesised for the detection of caspase-3 in live cells. A variety of modifications of the classical caspase-3 and caspase-7 substrate sequence Asp-Glu-Val-Asp were carried out in order to increase caspase-3 affinity and eliminate caspase-7 cross-reactivity.