Brain activation during implicit sequence learning in individuals with trichotillomania.

Trichotillomania (TTM) may be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other neuropsychiatric conditions characterized by cortico-striatal dysfunction. Functional imaging studies of OCD using an implicit learning task have found abnormalities in striatal and hippocampal activation. The current study investigated whether similar abnormalities occur in TTM.

Evidence for reduced cerebellar volumes in trichotillomania.

Background: Limited knowledge exists regarding the neurobiology of trichotillomania (TTM). Cerebellum (CBM) volumes were explored, given its role in complex, coordinated motor sequences.

Methods: Morphometric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained for 14 female subjects with DSM-IV diagnoses of TTM and 12 age-, education-, and gender-matched normal control (NC) participants.

UNC certificate program in core public health concepts: lessons learned.

Objectives: Public health workers need to be trained in the core public health sciences. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health created a Certificate in Core Public Health Concepts to meet the training needs of public health workers, primarily those working in state or local public health agencies.

Methods: This article examines the demographic, educational, job classification, and workplace characteristics of certificate program applicants from the first 3 years of the program.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging study of regional brain activation during implicit sequence learning in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Background: Corticostriatal circuitry has been implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The serial reaction time (SRT) task, a paradigm that tests implicit sequence learning, has been used with imaging to probe striatal function. Initial studies have indicated that OCD patients exhibit deficient striatal activation and aberrant hippocampal recruitment compared with healthy control (HC) subjects.

Brain correlates of negative and positive visuospatial priming in adults.

A balance of inhibitory and facilitatory mechanisms is essential for efficient and goal-directed behaviors. These mechanisms may go awry in several neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by uncontrolled, repetitive behaviors. The visuospatial priming paradigm is a well-established probe of inhibition and facilitation that has been used to demonstrate behavioral deficits in patients with Tourette syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Factors associated with potentially inappropriate drug utilization in a sample of rural community-dwelling older adults.

Background: Many medications present special risks when used by older adults (ie, those aged > or = 65 years) and are considered potentially inappropriate for this population. The Beers criteria are often used to identify such medications. Past research has documented that use of Beers drugs is common among older adults.

Brain correlates of negative visuospatial priming in healthy children.

Inhibitory mechanisms that begin to develop in childhood are essential for efficient and goal-directed behaviors. These inhibitory mechanisms may go awry in several childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Negative visuospatial priming is a well-established behavioral probe of inhibition that has been used to demonstrate deficits in children with neuropsychiatric disorders of inhibition, but the brain correlates of negative visuospatial priming have not previously been well delineated.

A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex responses to overtly presented fearful faces in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Background: Previous functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated exaggerated amygdala responses and diminished medial prefrontal cortex responses during the symptomatic state in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Objectives: To determine whether these abnormalities also occur in response to overtly presented affective stimuli unrelated to trauma; to examine the functional relationship between the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex and their relationship to PTSD symptom severity in response to these stimuli; and to determine whether responsivity of these regions habituates normally across repeated stimulus presentations in PTSD.

Design: Case-control study.

A magnetic resonance imaging study of cortical thickness in animal phobia.

Background: Despite the high prevalence of specific phobia (SP), its neural substrates remain undetermined. Although an initial series of functional neuroimaging studies have implicated paralimbic and sensory cortical regions in the pathophysiology of SP, to date contemporary morphometric neuroimaging methods have not been applied to test specific hypotheses regarding structural abnormalities.

Methods: Morphometric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods were used to measure regional cortical thickness in 10 subjects with SP (animal type) and 20 healthy comparison (HC) subjects.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence for a lack of striatal dysfunction during implicit sequence learning in individuals with animal phobia.

Objective: This study investigated the neural substrates of implicit sequence learning in subjects with and without small animal phobia, in a follow-up to analogous studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Method: Ten subjects with specific phobia and 10 healthy comparison subjects were studied by using a serial reaction time task paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Results: A main effect of condition (implicit sequence learning versus random sequence) was observed across diagnostic groups in the right striatum, as well as in other regions.

Amygdala and insular responses to emotionally valenced human faces in small animal specific phobia.

Background: Contemporary neurobiological models suggest that the amygdala plays an important role in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders. However, it is not clear to what extent this concept applies across anxiety disorders. Several studies have examined brain function in specific phobias but did not demonstrate amygdala responses or use specific probes of the amygdala.

Selectively reduced regional cortical volumes in post-traumatic stress disorder.

Different subterritories of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and adjacent ventromedial frontal cortex have been shown to serve distinct functions. This scheme has influenced contemporary pathophysiologic models of psychiatric disorders. Prevailing neurocircuitry models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) implicate dysfunction within pregenual ACC and subcallosal cortex (SC), as well as amygdala and hippocampus.

Differential amygdalar response to novel versus newly familiar neutral faces: a functional MRI probe developed for studying inhibited temperament.

Background: As a prelude to future studies of subjects with different temperaments, we sought to develop a probe to measure differential amygdalar responses to novel versus familiar stimuli. Prior neuroimaging studies of the amygdala in humans to date have focused principally on responses to emotional stimuli, primarily aversive, rather than to novelty per se.

Methods: Eight normal subjects aged 22.

Novelty responses and differential effects of order in the amygdala, substantia innominata, and inferior temporal cortex.

Recent studies of amygdala function have focused on examining responses to emotionally valenced versus neutral stimuli. However, electrophysiologic and neuroimaging studies also suggest that novel neutral faces activate the amygdala, though few investigations have examined the effects of novelty and its relation to changes in stimulus condition. To further investigate how the human amygdala and related structures react to novel neutral faces and to stimulus condition changes, we evaluated human brain responses to blocks containing multiple novel and single repeated face stimuli, presented in two different orders, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).