J Clin Exp Neuropsychol
August 2023
A.V. is a young herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) survivor who suffered extensive bilateral damage to the medial temporal lobe (MTL) leading to a severe and pervasive form of anterograde amnesia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is highly prevalent and commonly co-occurs with other psychiatric disorders among Veterans. Provisional evidence supports the use of Approach Avoidance Training (AAT) - a form of computer-delivered cognitive bias modification designed to target implicit approach bias for alcohol-related cues - as an adjunctive program to treat AUD. However, the extent to which AAT is effective for improving AUD recovery outcomes in outpatient Veteran samples and those with psychiatric comorbidities has been understudied to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Norepinephrine (NE) driven noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS), which improves attention and reduces reaction time, augments learning. Equally important, endogenous NE mediated arousal is highly dependent on the valence (positive or negative) of the exogenous stimulus. But to date, no study has measured valence specific effects of nVNS on both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) anticipation task response and reaction time in healthy individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: While preliminary evidence suggests that noninvasive vagal nerve stimulation (nVNS) may enhance cognition, to our knowledge, no study has directly assessed the effects of nVNS on brain function and cognitive performance in healthy individuals. The aim of this study was therefore to assess whether nVNS enhances complex visuospatial problem solving in a normative sample. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine underlying neural substrates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
March 2020
Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and childhood adversity on brain structure. We assessed hippocampal and amygdala shape in veterans with varying levels of PTSD symptom severity and exposure to early life stressors (ELS).
Methods: A total of 70 male veterans, who were deployed to a combat area during OIF/OEF/OND and who had been exposed to trauma during deployment, were included in the study.
The considerable comorbidity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD) poses a greater public health burden than either condition alone. Although there is a substantial body of evidence linking the direct neurotoxic effect of heavy drinking to gray matter (GM) deficits, as well as a growing body of literature supporting a strong association between PTSD and GM alterations, there is scant research interrogating the direct interaction of the two disorders. In order to generate data-driven, specific hypotheses regarding the overlapping neural substrates of PTSD and AUD, we conducted a meta-analysis of GM volumes in each disorder relative to healthy control subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn
September 2017
Understanding the relationship between memory function and lifestyle offers great opportunities for promoting beneficial lifestyle choices to foster healthy cognitive aging and for the development of intervention programs for older adults. We studied a cohort of older adults (age 65 and older) enrolled in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, an ongoing prospective population-based research project. A total of 1,966 men and women participated in an episodic memory test every 3 years over a period of 14 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The aim of the study was to explore associations between memory function and the personality constructs mastery, self-efficacy, and neuroticism in a large cohort of older adults over a 14-year period.
Methods: Memory function and personality traits were assessed every three years for 14 years. Data was derived from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA).
Modern scientific knowledge of how memory functions are organized in the human brain originated from the case of Henry G. Molaison (H.M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAJNR Am J Neuroradiol
August 2014
The neuropathogenetic processes underlying essential tremor appear to cause subtle morphologic changes in neural networks that include multiple brain structures, primarily the cerebellum, brain stem, frontal lobes, and thalamus. One of the main challenges of neuroimaging in essential tremor is differentiating disease-specific markers from the spectrum of structural changes that occur due to aging. This review discusses recent neuroimaging studies in the light of current knowledge of the neuropsychology and pathology of the disease.
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