Impact of emotional valence on mismatch negativity in the course of cortical face processing.

Various aspects of cortical face processing have been studied by assessing event related potentials (ERP). It has been described in the literature that mismatch negativity (MMN), a well-studied ERP, is not only modulated by sensory features but also emotional valence. However, the exact impact of emotion on the temporo-spatial profile of visual MMN during face processing remains inconsistent.

Changes in Electric Brain Response to Affective Stimuli in the First Week of Antidepressant Treatment: An Exploratory Study.

Introduction: Asymmetrical alpha and frontal theta activity have been discussed as neurobiological markers for antidepressant treatment response. While most studies focus on resting-state EEG, there is evidence that task-related activity assessed at multiple time points might be superior in detecting subtle early differences.

Methods: This was a naturalistic study design assessing participants in a psychiatric in- and outpatient hospital setting.

Fronto-lateral alpha power asymmetry in panic disorder.

Resting state alpha power asymmetry in frontal and temporal regions has been reported in various clinical populations, possibly indicating deficits in prefrontal control. In panic disorder (PD), results regarding alpha asymmetric activity to date have been mixed. This study compared 55 PD patients and 42 healthy controls (HC) with regards to resting state alpha power asymmetry.

EEG Frontal Asymmetry and Theta Power in Unipolar and Bipolar Depression.

Background: Distinguishing between unipolar and bipolar depression is of high clinical relevance. However, there is sparse research directly comparing these groups in terms of EEG activity.

Method: We investigated 87 participants' left and right EEG frontal alpha-1, alpha-2, and theta activity related to happy and sad face stimuli in unipolar (UD, n=33) and bipolar (BD, n=22) depressed participants, and controls without depression (HC, n=32).

Peripheral oxytocin is inversely correlated with cognitive, but not emotional empathy in schizophrenia.

Endogenous oxytocin has been associated with different aspects of social cognition in healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia. In this pilot study, we investigated the relationship between plasma oxytocin and oxytocin level changes induced by empathy-eliciting, attachment-related movie scenes with correlates of cognitive and emotional empathy in patients and healthy controls. The Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) were administered to patients with schizophrenia (N = 35, 12 females) and healthy controls (N = 35, 12 females) to estimate dimensions of cognitive and emotional empathy.

Test-Retest Reliability of Frontal and Parietal Alpha Asymmetry during Presentation of Emotional Face Stimuli in Healthy Subjects.

Resting-state and event-related frontal alpha asymmetry have been suggested as potential neurobiological biomarkers for depression and other psychiatric conditions. To be used as such, sufficient test-retest reliability needs to be demonstrated. However, test-retest reliability is underinvestigated for event-related alpha asymmetry.

P50, N100, and P200 Sensory Gating in Panic Disorder.

Panic disorder (PD) has been linked to abnormalities in information processing. However, only little evidence has been published for sensory gating in PD. Sensory gating describes the brain's ability to exclude stimuli of low relevance from higher level information processing, thereby sustaining efficient cognitive processing.

Reduced Sensitivity to Non-Fear-Related Stimulus Changes in Panic Disorder.

Panic disorder (PD) is associated with increased body vigilance and reduced cognitive resources directed at non-fear-related stimuli, particularly in the absence of stimulus-rich environments. To date, only few studies have investigated whether this deficit in PD is reflected in reduced mismatch negativity (MMN), an event-related potential indexing preattentive sensitivity to unexpected stimulus changes. We tested 35 patients affected by PD and 42 matched healthy controls in an oddball paradigm, using frequency and duration deviant stimuli to measure auditory MMN.

Treatment response of lithium augmentation in geriatric compared to non-geriatric patients with treatment-resistant depression.

Background: Lithium augmentation (LA) of antidepressants is an effective strategy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Nevertheless, it is rarely used in geriatric patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate treatment response of LA in geriatric compared to non-geriatric patients.

Opposing Effects of Cannabis Use on Late Auditory Repetition Suppression in Schizophrenia Patients and Healthy Control Subjects.

Background: Chronic cannabis use may cause neurocognitive deficits and increase the risk of psychosis. Nevertheless, the effects of cannabis use on neurocognitive functioning in schizophrenia have remained largely unspecified.

Methods: Here, we studied repetition suppression of auditory event-related responses in a paired-stimulus design in a mixed sample of schizophrenia patients (n = 34) and healthy control subjects (n = 45) with chronic heavy cannabis use and schizophrenia patients (n = 33) and healthy control subjects (n = 61) without cannabis use.

[Coercive Interventions in Psychiatry: Prevention and Patients' Preferences].

This study explores patients' preferences and measures of prevention of coercive methods in psychiatric treatment. Structured interviews of 90 patients with psychotic disorders were undertaken, most of whom had previously experienced coercive methods. Participants saw preventive potential in a wider availability of individual non-pharmacological therapy, improvement of staff professional competence and communication skills, high staff-to-patient ratios and retreat facilities.

Expression of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits in HEp-2 cells for immunodetection of autoantibody specificities in sera from Myasthenia gravis patients.

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the formation of pathogenic autoantibodies mostly targeting the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR). The AChR is composed of two alpha subunits and one subunit of each beta, delta and gamma (fetal AChR), or epsilon (adult AChR), respectively. Serological diagnostics is commonly done by radioimmunoassay (RIA).

Attentional dysfunction in abstinent long-term cannabis users with and without schizophrenia.

Long-term cannabis use may confer cognitive deficits and increased risk of psychosis. However, the relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia is complex. In particular, little is known about the effects of chronic cannabis use on the attention-related electric brain response in schizophrenia.

Auditory mismatch negativity and repetition suppression deficits in schizophrenia explained by irregular computation of prediction error.

Background: The predictive coding model is rapidly gaining attention in schizophrenia research. It posits the neuronal computation of residual variance ('prediction error') between sensory information and top-down expectation through multiple hierarchical levels. Event-related potentials (ERP) reflect cortical processing stages that are increasingly interpreted in the light of the predictive coding hypothesis.

Critical evaluation of auditory event-related potential deficits in schizophrenia: evidence from large-scale single-subject pattern classification.

Event-related potential (ERP) deficits associated with auditory oddball and click-conditioning paradigms are among the most consistent findings in schizophrenia and are discussed as potential biomarkers. However, it is unclear to what extend these ERP deficits distinguish between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls on a single-subject level, which is of high importance for potential translation to clinical routine. Here, we investigated 144 schizophrenia patients and 144 matched controls with an auditory click-conditioning/oddball paradigm.

Pretreatment anterior cingulate activity predicts antidepressant treatment response in major depressive episodes.

Major depressive disorder leads to substantial individual and socioeconomic costs. Despite the ongoing efforts to improve the treatment for this condition, a trial-and-error approach until an individually effective treatment is established still dominates clinical practice. Searching for clinically useful treatment response predictors is one of the most promising strategies to change this quandary therapeutic situation.

Early orbitofrontal hyperactivation in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Dysfunctional activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is one of the core features in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Neuroimaging studies indicate orbitofrontal hyperactivation during the resting state as well as during symptom provocation, whereas orbitofrontal hypoactivation has been reported during tasks designed to dissociate specific cognitive processes. Combined magnetoencephalic and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies show early involvement of the OFC in stimulus processing in healthy subjects.

Neurophysiological effects of cannabinoids: implications for psychosis research.

It is widely accepted that there is a close relationship between cannabis use, the endocannabinoid system, and psychosis. In particular, cannabis use has the potential to trigger the onset of psychosis in vulnerable individuals and to exacerbate psychotic symptomatology in schizophrenia patients, including positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. With regard to the cognitive dysfunctions as a core feature of schizophrenia, overlapping deficits in the domains of attention, memory, and executive functioning have been observed between chronic cannabis use and the disease.

Differential effects of chronic cannabis use on preattentional cognitive functioning in abstinent schizophrenic patients and healthy subjects.

Introduction: A number of studies indicate a higher risk for psychosis as well as for neurocognitive deficits in healthy cannabis users. However, little is known about the impact of cannabis use on outcome in schizophrenia. In fact, there is growing evidence that cannabis-using schizophrenic patients may show preserved or even better neurocognitive performance compared to schizophrenic non-users.

COMT Val108/158Met genotype modulates human sensory gating.

Background: The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val(108/158)Met polymorphism of the dopamine system is essential for prefrontal cortex processing capacity and efficiency. In addition, dopaminergic neurotransmission is also associated with the sensory gating phenomenon protecting the cerebral cortex from information overload. It is however unclear if COMT genotype as a predictor of prefrontal efficiency modulates sensory gating on the level of the auditory cortex, i.

Comparison of midlatency auditory sensory gating at short and long interstimulus intervals.

Rationale: Suppression of P50, N100 and P200 auditory evoked responses in a dual-click procedure is considered an index for the multistage sensory gating process. Whereas most studies use a protocol with long interstimulus intervals of 8-12 s between the stimuli pairs, there is also evidence that sensory gating occurs at much lower intervals. The aim of the study was to investigate whether a simple modified dual-click protocol with short interstimulus intervals elicts similar sensory gating ratios compared to the classic protocol.