Neuropeptide S receptor gene: fear-specific modulations of prefrontal activation.

Since central administration of neuropeptide S (NPS) has been shown to exert anxiolytic effects on rodent behavior in a number of studies, genetic variants of its cognate G-protein coupled receptor (NPSR1) became the focus of several recent human studies on anxiety and anxiety disorders. The T allele of rs324981, which goes along with enhanced receptor function, was associated with panic disorder, increased anxiety sensitivity in healthy subjects, attenuated prefrontal brain activation and elevated amygdala responses to fear-relevant stimuli. To investigate whether prefrontal attenuations in rs324981 T allele carriers are specific to fear-relevant stimulus content and cannot be attributed to a generally higher interference of emotional stimuli, 92 subjects performed a combined cognitive and emotional Stroop task while oxygenation changes in the prefrontal cortex were recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

Neural correlates of the emotional Stroop task in panic disorder patients: an event-related fMRI study.

Although being a standard tool to assess interference effects of disorder-specific words in clinical samples, the neural underpinnings of the emotional Stroop task are still not well understood and have hardly been investigated in experimental case-control studies. We therefore used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the attentional bias toward panic-related words in panic disorder (PD) patients and healthy controls. Twenty PD patients (with or without agoraphobia) and 23 healthy controls matched for age and gender performed an event-related emotional Stroop task with panic-related and neutral words while undergoing 3 Tesla fMRI.

Low performance in attention testing is associated with reduced grey matter density of the left inferior frontal gyrus in euthyroid patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) can casually co-occur with an encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroid disease. Recently we found an increased occurrence of weaknesses in sustained attention and response inhibition in a subgroup of euthyroid patients with HT as obtained by the d2 attention test. Previous studies in healthy subjects and patients with brain lesions demonstrated a pivotal role for the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) in these skills.

A novel approach to probabilistic biomarker-based classification using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

Pattern recognition approaches to the analysis of neuroimaging data have brought new applications such as the classification of patients and healthy controls within reach. In our view, the reliance on expensive neuroimaging techniques which are not well tolerated by many patient groups and the inability of most current biomarker algorithms to accommodate information about prior class frequencies (such as a disorder's prevalence in the general population) are key factors limiting practical application. To overcome both limitations, we propose a probabilistic pattern recognition approach based on cheap and easy-to-use multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measurements.

Controlled attention allocation mediates the relation between goal-oriented pursuit and approach-avoidance reactions to negative stimuli.

Approach and avoidance are two basic behavioural principles. The current study investigated neuropsychological mechanisms underlying the influence of the personality characteristic goal-oriented pursuit on the efficiency of regulating such approach-avoidance reactions. Therefore, the P3 event-related potential (ERP) reflecting controlled attention allocation was assessed during the Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) with positive and negative pictures in 36 healthy participants.

Biomarkers for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A consensus report of the WFSBP task force on biological markers and the World Federation of ADHD.

Objective: Psychiatric "nosology" is largely based on clinical phenomenology using convention-based diagnostic systems not necessarily reflecting neurobiological pathomechanisms. While progress has been made regarding its molecular biology and neuropathology, the phenotypic characterization of ADHD has not improved. Thus, validated biomarkers, more directly linked to the underlying pathology, could constitute an objective measure for the condition.

Aging-related cortical reorganization of verbal fluency processing: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

While progressive neurocognitive impairments are associated with aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD), cortical reorganization might delay difficulties in effortful word retrieval, which represent one of the earliest cognitive signs of AD. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we investigated cortical hemodynamic responses elicited by phonological and semantic verbal fluency in non-demented, healthy subjects (n = 325; age: 51-82 years). Age predicted bilaterally reduced inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and increased middle frontal and supramarginal gyri activity in both task conditions using multiple regressions.

Reliability of the emotional Stroop task: an investigation of patients with panic disorder.

Despite its popularity in clinical research, the emotional Stroop task's reliability in patient groups is unknown. Given the low reliability of interference scores in healthy subjects, correlations with other variables pose a problem, especially as reliability in clinical samples is unknown. To assess reliability in panic disorder for the first time, we used the spilt-half method in two independent samples of patients and controls.

Vagus somatosensory evoked potentials--a possibility for diagnostic improvement in patients with mild cognitive impairment?

Objective: Vagus somatosensory evoked potentials (VSEP) are far-field potentials probably generated in nuclei of then. vagus in the lower brainstem. They represent a putative, easily applicable method for discrimination between patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and healthy controls (HC).

Is impaired set-shifting a feature of "pure" anorexia nervosa? Investigating the role of depression in set-shifting ability in anorexia nervosa and unipolar depression.

Impaired set-shifting has been reported in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and in patients with affective disorders, including major depression. Due to the prevalent comorbidity of major depression in AN, this study aimed to examine the role of depression in set-shifting ability. Fifteen patients with AN without a current comorbid depression, 20 patients with unipolar depression (UD) and 35 healthy control participants were assessed using the Trail Making Test (TMT), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and a Parametric Go/No-Go Test (PGNG).

Influence of stimulant medication and response speed on lateralization of movement-related potentials in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Background: Hyperactivity is one of the core symptoms in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, it remains unclear in which way the motor system itself and its development are affected by the disorder. Movement-related potentials (MRP) can separate different stages of movement execution, from the programming of a movement to motor post-processing and memory traces.

Revise the revised? New dimensions of the neuroanatomical hypothesis of panic disorder.

In 2000, Gorman et al. published a widely acknowledged revised version of their 1989 neuroanatomical hypothesis of panic disorder (PD). Herein, a 'fear network' was suggested to mediate fear- and anxiety-related responses: panic attacks result from a dysfunctional coordination of 'upstream' (cortical) and 'downstream' (brainstem) sensory information leading to heightened amygdala activity with subsequent behavioral, autonomic and neuroendocrine activation.

Similar autobiographical memory impairment in long-term secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Memory disturbance is a common symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS), but little is known about autobiographical memory deficits in the long-term course of different MS subtypes. Inflammatory activity and demyelination is pronounced in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) whereas, similar to Alzheimer's disease, neurodegeneration affecting autobiographical memory-associated areas is seen in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS).

Objective: In light of distinct disease mechanisms, we evaluated autobiographical memory in different MS subtypes and hypothesized similarities between elderly patients with SPMS and Alzheimer's disease.

Reduced neural error signaling in left inferior prefrontal cortex in young adults with ADHD.

Objective: The neural network involved in inhibition of inappropriate response tendencies shares commonalities with the error-processing network, signaling failure of inhibition. Most studies on error processing in ADHD have been conducted in children using electrophysiological methods.

Method: Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, the authors studied 14 adults with ADHD and 12 group-matched healthy control participants while performing a modified version of a combined Eriksen Flanker-Go/NoGo-task.

COMT x DRD4 epistasis impacts prefrontal cortex function underlying response control.

The prefrontal cortex plays a major role in cognitive control, but it is unclear how single genes and gene-gene interactions (genetic epistasis) impact neural and behavioral phenotypes. Both dopamine (DA) availability ("inverted U-model") and excitatory versus inhibitory DA receptor stimulation ("dual-state theory") have been linked to important principles of prefrontal processing. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT; Val158Met) and DA D4-receptor (DRD4; 48 bp VNTR) genotypes were analyzed for effects on behavioral and neural correlates of prefrontal response control (NoGo-anteriorization, NGA) using a Go-NoGo task and electroencephalography (114 controls and 181 patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).

Differential prefrontal and frontotemporal oxygenation patterns during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency.

Movement artifacts are still considered a problematic issue for imaging research on overt language production. This motion-sensitivity can be overcome by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In the present study, 50 healthy subjects performed a combined phonemic and semantic overt verbal fluency task while frontal and temporal cortex oxygenation was recorded using multi-channel fNIRS.

Working memory and response inhibition as one integral phenotype of adult ADHD? A behavioral and imaging correlational investigation.

Objective: It is an open question whether working memory (WM) and response inhibition (RI) constitute one integral phenotype in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Method: The authors investigated 45 adult ADHD patients and 41 controls comparable for age, gender, intelligence, and education during a letter n-back and a stop-signal task, and measured prefrontal oxygenation by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

Results: The authors replicated behavioral and cortical activation deficits in patients compared with controls for both tasks and also for performance in both control conditions.

Specificity of jumping to conclusions and attributional biases: a comparison between patients with schizophrenia, depression, and anorexia nervosa.

Introduction: The knowledge of the specificity of cognitive biases in psychiatric disorders is important in order to develop disorder-specific cognitive models and therapies. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the specificity of jumping to conclusions (JTC) and attributional biases (AB) for patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: Twenty patients with paranoid schizophrenia were compared with patients with depression (n=20) and with anorexia nervosa (n=15) and nonclinical controls (n=55).

The human execution/observation matching system investigated with a complex everyday task: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study.

The investigation of brain areas involved in the human execution/observation matching system (EOM) has been limited to restricted motor actions when using common neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A method which overcomes this limitation is functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In the present study, we explored the cerebral responses underlying action execution and observation during a complex everyday task.

Olfaction in child and adolescent anorexia nervosa.

Previous studies indicate disturbed olfactory functions in anorexia nervosa with presumable relationship to the clinical symptom of food aversion and weight loss. However, these studies are in part limited due to inadequately matched control samples, insufficient exclusion criteria, complex interactions of the olfactory and trigeminal system, and the lack of regard to co-morbidity and medication. Thus, we investigated olfactory function in 26 female adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa and 23 healthy controls matched for age, gender, handedness, and intelligence.

Reduced prefrontal oxygenation during object and spatial visual working memory in unpolar and bipolar depression.

Altered prefrontal brain activity (e.g. hypofrontality) during cognitive tasks such as working memory is a core neuroimaging marker in unipolar (UNI) and bipolar (BI) depression.

Simulation of near-infrared light absorption considering individual head and prefrontal cortex anatomy: implications for optical neuroimaging.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an established optical neuroimaging method for measuring functional hemodynamic responses to infer neural activation. However, the impact of individual anatomy on the sensitivity of fNIRS measuring hemodynamics within cortical gray matter is still unknown. By means of Monte Carlo simulations and structural MRI of 23 healthy subjects (mean age: 25.

Prefrontal activation patterns of automatic and regulated approach-avoidance reactions - a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study.

Introduction: The present pilot study investigated cortical processes during automatic and regulated approach-avoidance reactions for the first time. METHODS 1: In 15 healthy volunteers, prefrontal activity was measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during performance of a joystick version of the Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT). In experiment 1, participants approached (pulled towards their body) and avoided (pushed away from their body) positive and negative pictures.

Inhibitory transcranial magnetic theta burst stimulation attenuates prefrontal cortex oxygenation.

Recent studies highlighted the great potential of newly established theta burst stimulation (TBS) protocols for non-invasive human brain stimulation studies using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). While intermittent TBS over the primary motor cortex was found to potentiate motor evoked potentials, continuous TBS led to profound attenuations. Although numerous studies investigated the impact of TBS on motor cortex function, yet, only few imaging studies focused on its effects in other brain areas.

Exploring the Neural Basis of Real-Life Joint Action: Measuring Brain Activation during Joint Table Setting with Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Many every-day life situations require two or more individuals to execute actions together. Assessing brain activation during naturalistic tasks to uncover relevant processes underlying such real-life joint action situations has remained a methodological challenge. In the present study, we introduce a novel joint action paradigm that enables the assessment of brain activation during real-life joint action tasks using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).