Cognitive function and brain structure in COVID-19 survivors: The role of persistent symptoms.

Persistent COVID-19 symptoms post-acute state have been shown to have a significant negative impact on brain structure and function. In this study, we conducted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the whole brain in 43 working-age adults (mean age: 44.79±10.

Sleep quality mediates the association between chronotype and mental health in young Indian adults.

There is increasing recognition of 'higher preference for eveningness' as a potential independent risk factor for poor mental health. To examine the chronotype-mental health relationship while also quantifying the potential roles of poor sleep quality, relevant personality traits, and childhood trauma, we assessed 282 young adults (18-40 years; 195 females) residing in North India, between January and March 2023 (to control for seasonal variation), using self-report measures of diurnal preference, sleep patterns, mental health (depression, anxiety, and stress), personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, schizotypy, and impulsivity), and childhood trauma. The results showed a significant association between eveningness and poor mental health but this association was fully mediated by poor sleep quality.

Positive schizotypy and Motor Impulsivity correlate with response aberrations in ventral attention network during inhibitory control.

Inhibitory control (IC) aberrations are present in various psychopathologies, including schizophrenia spectrum and personality disorders, especially in association with antisocial or violent behaviour. We investigated behavioural and neural associations between IC and psychopathology-related traits of schizotypy [Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE)], psychopathy [Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM)], and impulsivity [Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11)], using a novel Go/No-Go Task (GNG) featuring human avatars in 78 healthy adults (25 males, 53 females; mean age = 25.96 years, SD = 9.

Beyond sleep: A multidimensional model of chronotype.

Chronotype can be defined as an expression or proxy for circadian rhythms of varied mechanisms, for example in body temperature, cortisol secretion, cognitive functions, eating and sleeping patterns. It is influenced by a range of internal (e.g.

Distinct neural signatures of schizotypy and psychopathy during visual word-nonword recognition.

Previous behavioural data indicate lower word-nonword recognition accuracy in association with a high level of positive schizotypy, psychopathy, or motor impulsivity traits, each with some unique contribution, in the general population. This study aimed to examine the neural underpinnings of these associations using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a volunteer sample. Twenty-two healthy English-speaking adults completed self-report measures of schizotypy (Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences [O-LIFE]), psychopathy (Triarchic Psychopathy Measure [TriPM]), and impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale [BIS-11]) and underwent whole-brain fMRI while performing a lexical decision task (LDT) featuring high and low-frequency words, real nonwords, and pseudohomophones.

Diurnal preference and depressive symptomatology: a meta-analysis.

Eveningness, a preference for later sleep and rise times, has been associated with a number of negative outcomes in terms of both physical and mental health. A large body of evidence links eveningness to Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However, to date, evidence quantifying this association is limited.

Loneliness in the time of COVID.

In the effort to limit the transmission of COVID-19, countries around the world have instigated extended periods of restricted movement that has significantly impacted work, leisure, and social interaction. An indirect outcome of these restrictions is increased loneliness and social isolation. Here, data from an online survey carried out in the latter part 2020/early 2021, demonstrated that evening-type is associated with increased odds of reporting self-perceived loneliness, but with no evidence for a similar association in neither-types.

Associations between number of siblings, birth order, eating rate and adiposity in children and adults.

Eating quickly is associated with eating larger amounts at mealtimes and faster eaters tend to have a higher BMI. Evidence suggests that sibling structure influences the development of childhood eating behaviours. We hypothesized that number of siblings and birth order might play a role in the development of eating rate.

Associations between diurnal preference, impulsivity and substance use in a young-adult student sample.

A diurnal preference for eveningness is common in young adulthood and previous research has associated eveningness with anxiety symptoms as well as increased smoking and alcohol use behaviors. There is some evidence that impulsivity might be an important explanatory variable in these associations, but this has not been comprehensively researched. Here we used both subjective and objective measures of impulsivity to characterize impulsive tendencies in young adults and investigated whether trait impulsivity or trait anxiety could mediate the link between eveningness and substance use.

Diurnal Preference and Grey Matter Volume in a Large Population of Older Adults: Data from the UK Biobank.

Eveningness (a diurnal preference for evening time) is associated with a number of negative health outcomes and risk and prevalence for psychiatric disorder. Our understanding of the anatomical substrates of diurnal preference, however, is limited. The current study used Voxel-Based Morphometry to compare grey matter volume in a large sample ( = 3730) of healthy adults determined by questionnaire to be either definite morning-type or definite evening-type.

Chronotype, depression and hippocampal volume: cross-sectional associations from the UK Biobank.

Diurnal preference for evening time has been associated with increased odds for current depression and a number of indices of the disorder. In the current study, the association between chronotype and depression was explored in a population-based sample of 5360 adults aged between 40 and 70 years. Previous work has also suggested that larger hippocampal volume may be protective against depression.

Time to think: Subjective sleep quality, trait anxiety and university start time.

Poor quality sleep is related to mental health and there is increasing interest in student wellbeing and mental health. The aim of the current study was to evaluate sleep quality, daytime dozing, anxiety proneness, chronotype and preferred start time in a sample of university students. A total of 546 university students (age range, 18-55) from two university located in South East England were included and completed an online survey.

Predicting Treatment Response in Depression: The Role of Anterior Cingulate Cortex.

Background: Identification of biomarkers predicting therapeutic outcome of antidepressant treatment is one of the most important tasks in current research because it may transform the lengthy process of finding the right treatment for a given individual with depression. In the current study, we explored the potential of pretreatment pregenual anterior cingulate cortex activity as a putative biomarker of treatment response.

Methods: Thirty-two medication-free patients with depression were treated for 6 weeks with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, escitalopram.

Altered resting-state connectivity within default mode network associated with late chronotype.

Current evidence suggests late chronotype individuals have an increased risk of developing depression. However, the underlying neural mechanisms of this association are not fully understood. Forty-six healthy, right-handed individuals free of current or previous diagnosis of depression, family history of depression or sleep disorder underwent resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rsFMRI).

Exploring the effect of chronotype on hippocampal volume and shape: A combined approach.

Current evidence suggests that acute depression is associated with reduced total hippocampal volume and regional atrophy. Here, using structural magnetic resonance imaging, we assayed linear effects of chronotype on total hippocampal volume and morphology. Later chronotype was associated with localised atrophy in the subiculum region of the right hippocampus in the absence of changes in total volume.

Left entorhinal cortex and object recognition.

The present research explored the role of the medial temporal lobes in object memory in the unique patient MR, who has a selective lesion to her left lateral entorhinal cortex. Two experiments explored recognition memory for object identity and object location in MR and matched controls. The results showed that MR had intact performance in an object location task [MR=0.

Late chronotype is associated with enhanced amygdala reactivity and reduced fronto-limbic functional connectivity to fearful versus happy facial expressions.

Increasing evidence suggests late chronotype individuals are at increased risk of developing depression. However, the underlying neural mechanisms that confer risk are not fully understood. Here, fifty healthy, right-handed individuals without a current or previous diagnosis of depression, family history of depression or sleep disorder underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI).

Reduced Effective Emotion Regulation in Night Owls.

Previous research has demonstrated a clear link between late chronotype and depression. The vulnerability factors underpinning this link, however, are unclear. Here the relationship between two specific emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, and chronotype was investigated using multiple regression.

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Top 100 Most Cited Chronotype Research Papers.

Bibliometric indices are a widely used measure of research impact. The aim of the current study was to identify and characterise the top one hundred most-cited research articles in the topic of chronotype research. A search of the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database returned 974 eligible articles (published between 1990 and 2016).

Effect of chronotype on emotional processing and risk taking.

There is increasing evidence to suggest that late chronotypes are at increased risk for depression. The putative psychological mechanisms underpinning this risk, however, have not been fully explored. The aim of the present study was to examine whether, similar to acutely depressed patients and other "at risk" groups, late chronotype individuals display biases in tasks assaying emotional face recognition, emotional categorisation, recognition and recall and attention.

Muscle magnetic resonance imaging in congenital myasthenic syndromes.

Introduction: In this study we investigated muscle magnetic resonance imaging in congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMS).

Methods: Twenty-six patients with 9 CMS subtypes and 10 controls were imaged. T1-weighted (T1w) and short-tau inversion recovery (STIR) 3-Tesla MRI images obtained at thigh and calf levels were scored for severity.

Effect of short-term escitalopram treatment on neural activation during emotional processing.

Recent functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) imaging studies have revealed that subchronic medication with escitalopram leads to significant reduction in both amygdala and medial frontal gyrus reactivity during processing of emotional faces, suggesting that escitalopram may have a distinguishable modulatory effect on neural activation as compared with other serotonin-selective antidepressants. In this fMRI study we aimed to explore whether short-term medication with escitalopram in healthy volunteers is associated with reduced neural response to emotional processing, and whether this effect is predicted by drug plasma concentration. The neural response to fearful and happy faces was measured before and on day 7 of treatment with escitalopram (10mg) in 15 healthy volunteers and compared with those in a control unmedicated group (n=14).

Hippocampal volume in vulnerability and resilience to depression.

Background: Reduced hippocampal volume has been associated with clinical depression. However, it remains unclear whether these changes are a biological vulnerability marker or a consequence of this disorder. METHODS AND RESULTS (STUDY 1): We first compared hippocampal volumes between (i) never-depressed individuals with elevated risk for depression by virtue of high neuroticism (ii) recovered depressed individuals with matched levels of neuroticism; and (iii) individuals with low neuroticism and no history of depression.