Diagnostic Value of Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Positron Emission Tomography in Early Stages of Frontotemporal Dementia.

Background: Due to suboptimal sensitivity and specificity of structural and molecular neuroimaging tools, the diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) remains challenging.

Objective: Investigation of the sensitivity of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to detect cerebral alterations in early stages of bvFTD despite inconspicuous conventional MRI.

Methods: Thirty patients with early stages of bvFTD underwent a detailed neuropsychological examination, cerebral 3T MRI with DTI analysis, and FDG-PET.

Gray matter correlates of pressure pain thresholds and self-rated pain sensitivity: a voxel-based morphometry study.

Individual differences in sensitivity to pain are large and have clinical and scientific importance. Although heavily influenced by situational factors, they also relate to genetic factors and psychological traits, and are reflected by differences in functional activation in pain-related brain regions. Here, we used voxel-based morphometry to investigate if individual pain sensitivity is related to local gray matter volumes.

Sample heterogeneity in unipolar depression as assessed by functional connectivity analyses is dominated by general disease effects.

Objectives: Combinations of resting-state fMRI and machine-learning techniques are increasingly employed to develop diagnostic models for mental disorders. However, little is known about the neurobiological heterogeneity of depression and diagnostic machine learning has mainly been tested in homogeneous samples. Our main objective was to explore the inherent structure of a diverse unipolar depression sample.

Effects of Different Exercise Strategies and Intensities on Memory Performance and Neurogenesis.

It is well established that physical exercise affects both hippocampal neurogenesis and memory functions. Until now, distinctive effects of controlled and voluntary training (VT) on behavior and neurogenesis as well as interactions between exercise intensity, neurogenesis and memory performance are still elusive. The present study tested the impact of moderate controlled and VT on memory formation and hippocampal neurogenesis and evaluated interactions between exercise performance, learning efficiency and proliferation of progenitor cells in the hippocampus.