Externalization Errors of Olfactory Source Monitoring in Healthy Controls-An fMRI Study.

Using a combined approach of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and noninvasive brain stimulation (transcranial direct current stimulation [tDCS]), the present study investigated source memory and its link to mental imagery in the olfactory domain, as well as in the auditory domain. Source memory refers to the knowledge of the origin of mental experiences, differentiating events that have occurred and memories of imagined events. Because of a confusion between internally generated and externally perceived information, patients that are prone to hallucinations show decreased source memory accuracy; also, vivid mental imagery can lead to similar results in healthy controls.

Some neuroanatomical insights to impulsive aggression in schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia are at increased risk of engaging in violence towards others, compared to both the general population and most other patient groups. We have here explored the role of cortico-limbic impairments in schizophrenia, and have considered these brain regions specifically within the framework of a popular neuroanatomical model of impulsive aggression. In line with this model, evidence in patients with aggressive schizophrenia implicated structural deficits associated with impaired decision-making, emotional control and evaluation, and social information processing, especially in the orbitofrontal and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.