Individuals with paraphilic interests in sexual violence or children may be more likely to sexually offend if they possess offense-supportive cognitions. These cognitions may develop in response to childhood adversity. However, this idea is largely based on research in men convicted of sexual offenses and may not generalize to non-incarcerated adults with paraphilic interests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFunctional connectivity analysis is a common approach to the characterization of brain function. While studies of functional connectivity have predominantly focused on resting-state fMRI, naturalistic paradigms, such as movie watching, are increasingly being used. This ecologically valid, yet relatively unconstrained acquisition state has been shown to improve subject compliance and, potentially, enhance individual differences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough produced largely in the periphery, gonadal steroids play a key role in regulating the development and functions of the central nervous system and have been implicated in several chronic neuropsychiatric disorders, with schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) most prominent. Despite major differences in pathobiology and clinical manifestations, in both conditions, estrogen transpires primarily with protective effects, buffering the onset and progression of diseases at various levels. As a result, estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) emerges as one of the most widely discussed adjuvant interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the last years, there has been a considerable increase of research into the neuroimaging correlates of inter-individual temperament and character variability-an endeavour for which the term 'personality neuroscience' was coined. Among other neuroimaging modalities and approaches, substantial work focuses on functional connectivity in resting state (rs-FC) functional magnetic resonance imaging data. In the current paper, we set out to independently query the questions asked in a highly cited study that reported a range of functional connectivity correlates of personality dimensions assessed by the widely used 'Big Five' Personality Inventory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cannabis, and specifically one of its active compounds delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in recreational doses, has a variety of effects on cognitive processes. Most studies employ resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques to assess the stationary effects of cannabis and to-date one report addressed the impact of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on the dynamics of whole-brain functional connectivity.
Methods: Using a repeated-measures, within-subjects design, 19 healthy occasional cannabis users (smoking cannabis ⩽2 per week) underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.
Rationale: Disruption of auditory event-related evoked potentials (ERPs) P300 and mismatch negativity (MMN), electrophysiological markers of attentive and pre-attentive cognitive processing, is repeatedly described in psychosis and schizophrenia. Similar findings were observed in a glutamatergic model of psychosis, but the role of serotonergic 5-HT receptors in information processing is less clear.
Objectives: We studied ERPs in a serotonergic model of psychosis, induced by psilocybin, a psychedelic with 5-HT agonistic properties, in healthy volunteers.
The endocannabinoid system (ECS), which is composed of the cannabinoid receptors types 1 and 2 (CB1 and CB2) for marijuana's psychoactive ingredient Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-THC), the endogenous ligands (AEA and 2-AG) and the enzymatic systems involved in their biosynthesis and degradation, recently emerged as important modulator of emotional and non-emotional behaviors. For centuries, in addition to its recreational actions, several contradictory claims regarding the effects of Cannabis use in sexual functioning and behavior (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCannabis consumption has individual influence to cognitive and psychomotor functions of drivers and it has been generally accepted that driving under influence is risky in the perspective of traffic safety. However, rules how to assess fitness to drive are not quite clear. The psychoactive compound delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) impairs cognition, psychomotor behaviour and driving performance in a dose-related manner approximately.
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