Brain Morphometric Correlates of Depressive Symptoms among Patients with and without Dementia.

Introduction: Findings regarding brain morphometry among patients with dementia and concomitant depressive symptoms have been inconsistent. Thus, the aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that dementia and concomitant depressive symptoms are associated with structural brain changes in the temporal lobe measured with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: A sample of 492 patients from Norwegian memory clinics ( = 363) and Old Age Psychiatry services ( = 129) was studied.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms and brain morphology in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease with dementia.

Unlabelled: We present associations between neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) and brain morphology in a large sample of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease with dementia (AD dementia).Several studies assessed NPS factor structure in MCI and AD dementia, but we know of no study that tested for associations between NPS factors and brain morphology. The use of factor scores increases parsimony and power.

COVID-19 Concerns Among Old Age Psychiatric In- and Out-Patients and the Employees Caring for Them, a Preliminary Study.

A questionnaire was administered to 14 patients admitted at the Department of Old Age Psychiatric 24-h unit at Oslo University Hospital with questions about experiences and fears regarding COVID-19. A similar adjusted questionnaire was administered to 19 outpatients. The purpose was to investigate if the patients had fears, anxieties, and quality of life issues related to COVID-19 that could affect their treatment.

Performance on the mini-mental state exam and the Montreal cognitive assessment in a sample of old age psychiatric patients.

Objective: This study assesses to what extent the Mini-Mental State Exam and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores may predict the presence of dementia in a sample of typical old age psychiatric patients who may or may not have temporally or permanently reduced cognitive abilities.

Methods: A total of 141 inpatients completed the Mini-Mental State Exam and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment at arrival. All patients were subsequently diagnosed during their stay at the age-psychiatric unit.

The effect of anxiety on cognition in older adult inpatients with depression: results from a multicenter observational study.

Late-life depression is associated with reduced cognitive function beyond normal age-related cognitive deficits. As comorbid anxiety frequently occur in late-life depression, this study aimed to examine the association between anxiety symptoms and cognitive function among older inpatients treated for depression. We hypothesized that there would be an overall additive effect of comorbid anxiety symptoms on dysfunction across cognitive domains.

Working memory in recurrent brief depression: an fMRI pilot study.

Background: We examined women with recurrent brief depression (RBD) with and without episodes of hypomania with an n-back working memory paradigm to assess how working memory load affects the neurological network corresponding to working memory for these groups.

Method: Participants (n=33) were medication-free and mostly euthymic while performing a 1-back and a 2-back task in the fMRI scanner. Differential activation results between the tasks were assessed globally and within seven predefined regions of interest associated with working memory activation.

Visual recognition of shapes and textures: an fMRi study.

Previous literature suggest that processing of visually presented shapes and textures starts in the early visual areas, but subsequently follow different pathways. The purpose of this experiment was to further investigate differential activation for shapes and textures in order elucidate the pathways involved in visual shape and texture matching. In the present study, brain areas involved in discrimination of shapes and textures are mapped, using the same set of stimuli for shape and texture decisions.

An fMRI study of auditory hallucinations in patients with epilepsy.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate behavioral and brain activation in nonpsychotic hallucinating individuals. Auditory hallucinations are reported by patients with epilepsy, although less frequent than visual hallucinations are. If behavioral and neuronal activation patterns in hallucinating patients with epilepsy are found to be similar to what has been found in hallucinating patients with schizophrenia, this would support a unique neuronal representation for auditory hallucinations cutting across diagnostic groups.

An fMRI case study of visual memory in a patient with epilepsy: comparison before and after temporal lobe surgery.

We report fMRI activation data for a female patient with epilepsy, who was tested before and 2 years after resection surgery, to assess changes in fMRI activation. Areas within her right ATL/MTL were removed during surgery, including the right hippocampus. A visuo-spatial task was used in which novel and familiar pictures of objects, animals, scenes and buildings were randomly presented.

An fMRI analysis of object priming and workload in the precuneus complex.

Drawings depicting familiar objects and unreal structures were presented twice, and participants (N=16) determined whether line drawings were real (familiar) or unreal (unfamiliar). The second presentation (repetition) of a drawing was typically responded to faster and more accurately than the first presentation and was accompanied by reduced activation in occipitotemporal (fusiform) and lateral precuneus regions, and increased activation in medial precuneus regions. The behavioral effects and reduced activations (e.

Automatic semantic priming in the left and right hemispheres.

We investigated hemispheric differences and inter-hemispheric transfer of facilitation in automatic semantic priming, using prime-target pairs composed of words of the same category but not associated (e.g. skirt-glove), and a blank-target baseline condition.

Fast perceptual priming in the left and right hemispheres.

Visual field differences in fast perceptual priming of possible and impossible object decisions were investigated in a go/no-go task. Each participant (n = 74) was tested in two blocks of trials, each block containing 128 combinations of same-field and cross-field presentations of prime (blank) and target stimuli. The results indicate that fast perceptual priming of object decisions recruits processes that involve both cerebral hemispheres, independent of pre-existing representation.