Food Avoidance and Aversive Goal Value Computation in Anorexia Nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with food restriction and significantly low body weight, but the neurobiology of food avoidance in AN is unknown. Animal research suggests that food avoidance can be triggered by conditioned fear that engages the anterior cingulate and nucleus accumbens. We hypothesized that the neural activation during food avoidance in AN could be modeled based on aversive goal value processing.

Increased hippocampal cannabinoid 1 receptor expression is associated with protection from severe seizures in pregnant mice with reduced uterine perfusion pressure.

Eclampsia, new-onset seizures in pregnancy, can complicate preeclampsia, a hypertensive pregnancy disorder. The mechanisms contributing to increased risk of seizures in preeclampsia are not fully known. One mechanism could be abnormal endocannabinoid system (ECS) activity and impaired neuromodulation.

Neural Response to Expecting a Caloric Sweet Taste Stimulus Predicts Body Mass Index Longitudinally Among Young Adult Women With Anorexia Nervosa.

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an often-chronic illness, and we lack biomarkers to predict long-term outcome. Recent neuroimaging studies using caloric taste stimuli suggest that paradigms that have tested conditioned neural responses to expectation or salient stimulus receipt may underpin behaviors. However, whether activation of those neural circuits can predict long-term outcome has not been studied.

"There is always a waitlist": The experiences of perinatal women randomized to a waitlist condition in a trial evaluating a novel online self-directed intervention for perinatal anxiety.

Background: Pregnant and postpartum women are at a heightened risk for the development or worsening of mental health problems, with elevated rates of mood and anxiety disorders noted across studies. Timely access to mental health supports is critical during the perinatal period (spanning pregnancy to 1 year postpartum), to mitigate potential negative impacts on mother and child. In general adult populations, a small body of research has highlighted the association between being waitlisted for mental health services with a deterioration in mental health.

Retinal Venule Coverage by Pericytes Decreases in Multiparous Mice in a Time-Dependent Manner Post-Delivery.

Structural changes in the retinal vasculature have been linked to increased cardiovascular risks and also change as a function of age. Because multiparity has been associated with poorer cardiovascular health scores, we hypothesized that changes in retinal vascular caliber would be observed in multiparous, compared to nulliparous, females and retired breeder males. Age-matched nulliparous ( = 6) and multiparous ( = 11, retired breeder females with 4 ± 1 litters), and male breeder ( = 7) SMA-GFP reporter mice were included for assessment of retinal vascular structure.

Brain reward response in adolescents and young adults with anorexia nervosa is moderated by changes in body weight and sweetness perception.

Objective: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric illness with complex etiology. Recently, we found elevated striatal brain response to sweet taste stimuli in adolescents and young adults with AN. Here, we tested the hypothesis that nutritional rehabilitation normalizes prediction error activation, a measure for dopamine-related reward circuit response, to salient caloric taste stimuli in AN.

Trait anxiety is associated with amygdala expectation and caloric taste receipt response across eating disorders.

Anxious traits are elevated in eating disorders (EDs), are considered risk factors for ED development, and trait anxiety has been linked to ED psychopathology. How trait anxiety relates to ED neurobiology is not well understood. In this study 197 individuals across the ED spectrum (anorexia nervosa n = 91; other specified EDs n = 34; bulimia nervosa n = 56; binge ED n = 16), and 120 healthy controls were assessed for anxious traits and learned to expect and receive caloric or neutral taste stimuli during brain imaging.

Quality of Late-Life Depression Information on the Internet: Website Evaluation Study.

Background: The internet can increase the accessibility of mental health information and improve the mental health literacy of older adults. The quality of mental health information on the internet can be inaccurate or biased, leading to misinformation.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the quality, usability, and readability of websites providing information concerning depression in later life.

An evaluation of the quality of online perinatal depression information.

Background: During the perinatal period (including pregnancy and up to 12 months after childbirth), expectant and new mothers are at an elevated risk of developing depression. Inadequate knowledge about perinatal depression and treatment options may contribute to the low help-seeking rates exhibited by perinatal people. The Internet can be an accessible source of information about perinatal depression; however, the quality of this information remains to be evaluated.

Do anxiety websites have the answers people are looking for?

Unlabelled: OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: A wealth of online anxiety information exists but much of it is not evidence-based or well-balanced. This study evaluated anxiety websites (N = 20) on readability, quality, usability, visual design, and content.

Results: Overall, websites were of reasonable quality but only half were considered understandable according to the PEMAT usability scale (70% cutoff value).

Association of Brain Reward Response With Body Mass Index and Ventral Striatal-Hypothalamic Circuitry Among Young Women With Eating Disorders.

Importance: Eating disorders are severe psychiatric disorders; however, disease models that cross subtypes and integrate behavior and neurobiologic factors are lacking.

Objective: To assess brain response during unexpected receipt or omission of a salient sweet stimulus across a large sample of individuals with eating disorders and healthy controls and test for evidence of whether this brain response is associated with the ventral striatal-hypothalamic circuitry, which has been associated with food intake control, and whether salient stimulus response and eating disorder related behaviors are associated.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In this cross-sectional functional brain imaging study, young adults across the eating disorder spectrum were matched with healthy controls at a university brain imaging facility and eating disorder treatment program.

Persistence, Reward Dependence, and Sensitivity to Reward Are Associated With Unexpected Salience Response in Girls but Not in Adult Women: Implications for Psychiatric Vulnerabilities.

Background: Adolescence is a critical period for the development of not only personality but also psychopathology. These processes may be specific to sex, and brain reward circuits may have a role. Here, we studied how reward processing and temperament associations differ across adolescent and adult females.

Searching for answers: How well do depression websites answer the public's questions about treatment choices?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate websites providing information on treatment for depression to the public, and to evaluate changes in the quality of website information over time.

Methods: Websites (N = 25) addressing depression treatment were identified through the use of the Google search engine and by suggestions from healthcare professionals. Each website was evaluated based on the extent to which it addressed content areas deemed important by the public identified in previous research, overall quality as determined by the DISCERN, and reading level.

Association of Brain Reward Learning Response With Harm Avoidance, Weight Gain, and Hypothalamic Effective Connectivity in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa.

Importance: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with adolescent onset, severe low body weight, and high mortality as well as high harm avoidance. The brain reward system could have an important role in the perplexing drive for thinness and food avoidance in AN.

Objective: To test whether brain reward learning response to taste in adolescent AN is altered and associated with treatment response, striatal-hypothalamic connectivity, and elevated harm avoidance.

Evaluating the quality of perinatal anxiety information available online.

The Internet is an easily accessible source of information for women experiencing anxiety in pregnancy and/or postpartum to use when seeking health information. However, the Internet has several drawbacks, including inaccurate content that may be perceived as being accurate, non-biased, and evidence-based. Prior research indicates that anxiety and postpartum mental health websites have poor quality in terms of describing treatment options.

Altered structural and effective connectivity in anorexia and bulimia nervosa in circuits that regulate energy and reward homeostasis.

Anorexia and bulimia nervosa are severe eating disorders that share many behaviors. Structural and functional brain circuits could provide biological links that those disorders have in common. We recruited 77 young adult women, 26 healthy controls, 26 women with anorexia and 25 women with bulimia nervosa.

Understanding Neuronal Architecture in Obesity through Analysis of White Matter Connection Strength.

Despite the prevalence of obesity, our understanding of its neurobiological underpinnings is insufficient. Diffusion weighted imaging and calculation of white matter connection strength are methods to describe the architecture of anatomical white matter tracts. This study is aimed to characterize white matter architecture within taste-reward circuitry in a population of obese individuals.

Greater Insula White Matter Fiber Connectivity in Women Recovered from Anorexia Nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa is a severe psychiatric disorder associated with reduced drive to eat. Altered taste-reward circuit white matter fiber organization in anorexia nervosa after recovery could indicate a biological marker that alters the normal motivation to eat. Women recovered from restricting-type anorexia (Recovered AN, n = 24, age = 30.

Orbitofrontal cortex volume and brain reward response in obesity.

Background/objectives: What drives overconsumption of food is poorly understood. Alterations in brain structure and function could contribute to increased food seeking. Recently, brain orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) volume has been implicated in dysregulated eating but little is known how brain structure relates to function.

Angiotensin-II induced hypertension and renovascular remodelling in tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 knockout mice.

Background: Sustained hypertension induces renovascular remodelling by altering extracellular matrix (ECM) components. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are Zn-dependent enzymes that regulate ECM turnover in concert with their inhibitors, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs). Increased MMP-2 and MMP-9 have been implicated in hypertensive complications; however, the contribution of individual MMPs/TIMPs in renal remodelling has not been fully elucidated.

Investigating support needs for people living with heart disease.

Aim And Objectives: To identify the issues that required ongoing support for people who have completed a cardiac rehabilitation programme.

Background: Surviving a serious cardiac event is a stressful and traumatic experience, often resulting in major changes in a person's lifestyle, work, finances and family dynamics. Individuals who have experienced a cardiac event and completed a cardiac rehabilitation programme may require ongoing support.

Infection of Brachypodium distachyon with selected grass rust pathogens.

The model temperate grass Brachypodium distachyon is considered a nonhost for wheat rust diseases caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, P.

White matter integrity is reduced in bulimia nervosa.

Objective: To investigate brain white matter (WM) functionality in bulimia nervosa (BN) in relation to anxiety.

Method: Twenty-one control women (CW, mean age 27 ± 7 years) and 20 BN women (mean age 25 ± 5 years) underwent brain diffusion tensor imaging to measure fractional anisotropy (FA; an indication of WM axon integrity) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC; reflecting WM cell damage).

Results: FA was decreased in BN in the bilateral corona radiata extending into the posterior limb of the internal capsule, the corpus callosum, the right sub-insular WM, and right fornix.

Altered implicit category learning in anorexia nervosa.

Objective: Recent research has identified specific cognitive deficits in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), including impairment in executive functioning and attention. Another such cognitive process, implicit category learning has been less studied in AN. This study examined whether implicit category learning is impaired in AN.

Altered fimbria-fornix white matter integrity in anorexia nervosa predicts harm avoidance.

The eating disorder anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with high anxiety. The brain mechanisms that drive those behaviors are unknown. In this study we wanted to test whether brain white matter (WM) integrity is altered in AN, and related to heightened anxiety.