A Permissible Sin: Perceptions of Smoking Among Haredi Men in Israel.

This essay deals with perceptions of smoking among Haredi men in Israel. Though trends in smoking within the Haredi society have been quantitively examined, no qualitative research has ever focused on the motivations and mindsets stimulating individuals' choices to take health risks despite religious precepts to the contrary. Israeli Haredi men sometimes start smoking in their early childhood and are unmotivated to quit, and such circumstances should be examined.

Distinct Response Inhibition Patterns in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Patients and Pathological Gamblers.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and pathological gambling (PG) are common disorders. The cognitive models of OCD and PG focus on abnormalities in response inhibition. Although, these functions have been studied in different PG and OCD samples, no study has compared the response inhibition in both.

Machine learning fMRI classifier delineates subgroups of schizophrenia patients.

Background: The search for a validated neuroimaging-based brain marker in psychiatry has thus far been fraught with both clinical and methodological difficulties. The present study aimed to apply a novel data-driven machine-learning approach to functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data obtained during a cognitive task in order to delineate the neural mechanisms involved in two schizophrenia subgroups: schizophrenia patients with and without Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Methods: 16 schizophrenia patients with OCD ("schizo-obsessive"), 17 pure schizophrenia patients, and 20 healthy controls underwent fMRI while performing a working memory task.

Does co-morbid obsessive-compulsive disorder modify the abnormal language processing in schizophrenia patients? An FMRI study.

Background: Impaired language processing is one of the most replicated findings in functional brain studies of schizophrenia (SCH). This is demonstrated by reduced activations in left prefrontal language areas (i.e.

Working memory dysfunction in schizophrenia patients with obsessive-compulsive symptoms: an fMRI study.

Background: A substantial proportion of schizophrenia patients also meets DSM-IV criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Schizophrenia with OCD ("schizo-obsessive") patients are characterized by distinct clinical characteristics, treatment response and prognosis. Whether schizo-obsessive patients exhibit a distinct pattern of brain activation is yet unknown.