Influence of probiotic bacteria on gut microbiota composition and gut wall function in an model in patients with Parkinson's disease.

We report here the potential role of a 4-strain probiotic suspension for use with patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Stool samples from a group of three patients with diagnosed PD were used to create microbiotas in an gut model. The effects of dosing with an oral probiotic suspension (Symprove) on bacterial composition and metabolic activity in the microbiotas was evaluated over 48 h and compared with healthy controls.

Investigating the role of executive attentional control to self-harm in a non-clinical cohort with borderline personality features.

Self-injurious behavior (or self-harm) is a frequently reported maladaptive behavior in the general population and a key feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Poor affect regulation is strongly linked to a propensity to self-harm, is a core component of BPD, and is linked with reduced attentional control abilities. The idea that attentional control difficulties may provide a link between BPD, negative affect and self-harm has yet to be established, however.

Complete abolition of reading and writing ability with a third ventricle colloid cyst: implications for surgical intervention and proposed neural substrates of visual recognition and visual imaging ability.

We report a rare case of a patient unable to read (alexic) and write (agraphic) after a mild head injury. He had preserved speech and comprehension, could spell aloud, identify words spelt aloud and copy letter features. He was unable to visualise letters but showed no problems with digits.

The typical developmental trajectory of social and executive functions in late adolescence and early adulthood.

Executive functions and social cognition develop through childhood into adolescence and early adulthood and are important for adaptive goal-oriented behavior (Apperly, Samson, & Humphreys, 2009; Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006). These functions are attributed to frontal networks known to undergo protracted maturation into early adulthood (Barker, Andrade, Morton, Romanowski, & Bowles, 2010; Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips, & Beaulieu, 2008), although social cognition functions are also associated with widely distributed networks. Previously, nonlinear development has been reported around puberty on an emotion match-to-sample task (McGivern, Andersen, Byrd, Mutter, & Reilly, 2002) and for IQ in midadolescence (Ramsden et al.

Inter-rater reliability of the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX): comparative data from non-clinician respondents-all raters are not equal.

Primary Objective: The Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) is used to obtain information about executive and emotional problems after neuropathology. The DEX is self-completed by the patient (DEX-S) and an independent rater such as a family member (DEX-I). This study examined the level of inter-rater agreement between either two or three non-clinician raters on the DEX-I in order to establish the reliability of DEX-I ratings.