The priming effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on clinical response to electroconvulsive therapy in treatment-resistant depression: a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study.

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective treatments for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, due to response delay and cognitive impairment, ECT remains an imperfect treatment. Compared to ECT, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is less effective at treating severe depression, but has the advantage of being quick, easy to use, and producing almost no side effects.

A Prospective Open-Label Pilot Study of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in High-Functioning Autistic Patients with a Dysexecutive Syndrome.

Background: Executive functions (EF) are often impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Such dysfunctions are associated with anxiety, depression, and a lack of autonomy. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to enhance EF in healthy adults and clinical populations and to improve working memory - a component of the EF - in adults with high-functioning ASD (HF-ASD).

Dissociation between Private and Social Counterfactual Value Signals Following Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Damage.

Individuals learn by comparing the outcome of chosen and unchosen actions. A negative counterfactual value signal is generated when this comparison is unfavorable. This can happen in private as well as in social settings-where the foregone outcome results from the choice of another person.

Dementia in middle-aged patients with schizophrenia.

Background: Although numerous studies have assessed cognitive dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia, very few have focused on the diagnosis of dementia.

Objective: Our objectives were to accurately diagnose dementia in a cohort of middle-aged patients with schizophrenia and to assess the type of dementia.

Methods: 96 patients with schizophrenia (46 inpatients and 50 outpatients), aged 50 to 70 years, underwent a psychiatric, neurological, and neuropsychological evaluation at baseline and after a 20-month follow-up.

Morbid risk for schizophrenia in first-degree relatives of people with frontotemporal dementia.

Background: Familial co-occurrence of frontotemporal dementia and schizophrenia has never been investigated.

Aims: To test the hypothesis that frontotemporal dementia and schizophrenia might have a common aetiology in some families in which both syndromes coexist (mixed families).

Method: The morbid risk for schizophrenia, calculated in first-degree relatives of 100 frontotemporal dementia probands, was compared with that calculated in first-degree relatives of 100 Alzheimer's disease probands.

Impaired decision making in schizophrenia and orbitofrontal cortex lesion patients.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine impaired decision making in patients with schizophrenia and in patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions.

Methods: Schizophrenia patients (N=21), healthy controls (N=20) and an independent group of orbitofrontal patients (N=10) underwent a computerized version of the "Regret Gambling Task". Participants chose between two gambles, each having different probabilities and different expected monetary outcomes, and rated their emotional states after seeing the obtained outcome.

Relevant category-specific effect on naming in Alzheimer's disease.

Aim: To determine category effect on naming in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its relation with severity of the disease or naming deficit.

Methods: A group of 50 patients suffering from probable AD was tested in a naming task involving 99 pictures of items belonging to living and non-living categories. Parameters relating to pictures (percentage of majority responses, familiarity, visual complexity and image agreement) were determined using a control group and parameters relating to words (frequency, age of acquisition, number of letters and syllables) were controlled.

Involvement of hyperprolinemia in cognitive and psychiatric features of the 22q11 deletion syndrome.

Microdeletions of the 22q11 region, responsible for the velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS), are associated with an increased risk for psychosis and mental retardation. Recently, it has been shown in a hyperprolinemic mouse model that an interaction between two genes localized in the hemideleted region, proline dehydrogenase (PRODH) and catechol-o-methyl-transferase (COMT), could be involved in this phenotype. Here, we further characterize in eight children the molecular basis of type I hyperprolinemia (HPI), a recessive disorder resulting from reduced activity of proline dehydrogenase (POX).