No antidepressant effects of low intensity transcranial pulsed electromagnetic fields for treatment resistant depression.

Background: Noninvasive neurostimulation with transcranial Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (tPEMF) may be a promising method for treatment resistant depression (TRD). Studies shown substantial improvement of depressive symptoms in patients with TRD, but there is no information on long-term antidepressant effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the short- and long-term efficacy of tPEMF in participants with TRD.

Lack of analgesic effects of transcranial pulsed electromagnetic field stimulation in neuropathic pain patients: A randomized double-blind crossover trial.

Background: Neuromodulation is nowadays investigated as a promising method for pain relief. Research indicates that a single 30-minute stimulation with transcranial pulsed electromagnetic fields (tPEMF) can induce analgesic effects. However, it is unknown whether tPEMF can induce analgesia in neuropathic pain patients.

Oral ketamine for the treatment of pain and treatment-resistant depression†.

Background: Recent studies with intravenous (i.v.) application of ketamine show remarkable but short-term success in patients with MDD.

CHANGES IN REGIONAL BRAIN ACTIVATION RELATED TO DEPRESSIVE STATE: A 2-YEAR LONGITUDINAL FUNCTIONAL MRI STUDY.

Background: Abnormal brain activations during processing of emotional facial expressions in depressed patients have been demonstrated. We investigated the natural course of brain activation in response to emotional faces in depression, indexed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans preceding and following change in depressive state. We hypothesized a decrease in activation in the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and insula with a decrease in depressive pathology.

Central Somatosensory Networks Respond to a De Novo Innervated Penis: A Proof of Concept in Three Spina Bifida Patients.

Introduction: Spina bifida (SB) causes low spinal lesions, and patients often have absent genital sensation and a highly impaired sex life. TOMAX (TO MAX-imize sensation, sexuality and quality of life) is a surgical procedure whereby the penis is newly innervated using a sensory nerve originally targeting the inguinal area. Most TOMAX-treated SB patients initially experience penile stimulation as inguinal sensation, but eventually, the perception shifts to penis sensation with erotic feelings.

DISC1 gene and affective psychopathology: a combined structural and functional MRI study.

The gene Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) has been indicated as a determinant of psychopathology, including affective disorders, and shown to influence prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus functioning, regions of major interest for affective disorders. We aimed to investigate whether DISC1 differentially modulates brain function during executive and memory processing, and morphology in regions relevant for depression and anxiety disorders (affective disorders). 128 participants, with (n = 103) and without (controls; n = 25) affective disorders underwent genotyping for Ser704Cys (with Cys-allele considered as risk-allele) and structural and functional (f) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) during visuospatial planning and emotional episodic memory tasks.

On the connection between level of education and the neural circuitry of emotion perception.

Through education, a social group transmits accumulated knowledge, skills, customs, and values to its members. So far, to the best of our knowledge, the association between educational attainment and neural correlates of emotion processing has been left unexplored. In a retrospective analysis of The Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we compared two groups of fourteen healthy volunteers with intermediate and high educational attainment, matched for age and gender.

Normal brain activation in schizophrenia patients during associative emotional learning.

Emotional deficits are among the core features of schizophrenia and both associative emotional learning and the related ability to verbalize emotions can be reduced. We investigated whether schizophrenia patients demonstrated impaired function of limbic and prefrontal areas during associative emotional learning. Patients and controls filled out an alexithymia questionnaire and performed an associative emotional learning task with positive, negative and neutral picture-word pairs during fMRI scanning.

Influence of COMT val158met genotype on the depressed brain during emotional processing and working memory.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with abnormal prefrontal-limbic interactions and altered catecholaminergic neurotransmission. The val158met polymorphism on the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene has been shown to influence prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation during both emotional processing and working memory (WM). Although COMT-genotype is not directly associated with MDD, it may affect MDD pathology by altering PFC activation, an endophenotype associated with both COMT and MDD.

A novel magnetic stimulator increases experimental pain tolerance in healthy volunteers - a double-blind sham-controlled crossover study.

Unlabelled: The 'complex neural pulse'(TM) (CNP) is a neuromodulation protocol employing weak pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF). A pioneering paper reported an analgesic effect in healthy humans after 30 minutes of CNP-stimulation using three nested whole head coils. We aimed to devise and validate a stimulator with a novel design entailing a multitude of small coils at known anatomical positions on a head cap, to improve applicability.

Interaction of neuropeptide Y genotype and childhood emotional maltreatment on brain activity during emotional processing.

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) has been associated with stress reactivity in affective disorders and is most densely expressed in the amygdala. An important stressor associated with affective disorders is the experience of childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM). We investigated whether the interaction of NPY risk genotype and CEM would affect brain activation.

Spumiform capillary basement membrane swelling: a new type of microvascular degeneration in senescent hamster.

Brain microvasculature plays a critical role in the regulation of homeostasis of neural tissues. The present study focuses on characteristic microvascular basement membrane (bm) aberrations in the midbrain periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) and their relation to aging. The PAG can be considered a caudal extension of the limbic system and is a key structure in the regulation of a myriad of autonomic and motor control functions.

Somatosensory profiles but not numbers of somatosensory abnormalities of neuropathic pain patients correspond with neuropathic pain grading.

Due to the lack of a specific diagnostic tool for neuropathic pain, a grading system to categorize pain as 'definite', 'probable', 'possible' and 'unlikely' neuropathic was proposed. Somatosensory abnormalities are common in neuropathic pain and it has been suggested that a greater number of abnormalities would be present in patients with 'probable' and 'definite' grades. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the presence of somatosensory abnormalities by means of Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) in patients with a clinical diagnosis of neuropathic pain and correlated the number of sensory abnormalities and sensory profiles to the different grades.

Bilateral sensory abnormalities in patients with unilateral neuropathic pain; a quantitative sensory testing (QST) study.

In patients who experience unilateral chronic pain, abnormal sensory perception at the non-painful side has been reported. Contralateral sensory changes in these patients have been given little attention, possibly because they are regarded as clinically irrelevant. Still, bilateral sensory changes in these patients could become clinically relevant if they challenge the correct identification of their sensory dysfunction in terms of hyperalgesia and allodynia.

Altered resting state connectivity of the default mode network in alexithymia.

Alexithymia is a trait characterized by a diminished capacity to describe and distinguish emotions and to fantasize; it is associated with reduced introspection and problems in emotion processing. The default mode network (DMN) is a network of brain areas that is normally active during rest and involved in emotion processing and self-referential mental activity, including introspection. We hypothesized that connectivity of the DMN might be altered in alexithymia.

Reduced aging defects in estrogen receptive brainstem nuclei in the female hamster.

Unlabelled: The nucleus pararetroambiguus (NPRA) and the commissural nucleus of the solitary tract (NTScom) show estrogen nuclear receptor-α immunoreactivity (nuclear ER-α-IR). Both cell groups are involved in estrous cycle related adaptations. We examined in normally cycling aged hamsters the occurrence/amount/frequency of age-related degenerative changes in NPRA and NTScom during estrus and diestrus.

Antipsychotic medication and prefrontal cortex activation: a review of neuroimaging findings.

Decreased prefrontal activation (hypofrontality) in schizophrenia is thought to underlie negative symptoms and cognitive impairments, and may contribute to poor social outcome. Hypofrontality does not always improve during treatment with antipsychotics. We hypothesized that antipsychotics, which share antagonism at dopamine receptors, with a relatively low dopamine receptor affinity and high serotonin receptor affinity may have a sparing effect on prefrontal function compared to strong dopamine receptor antagonists.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging correlates of emotional word encoding and recognition in depression and anxiety disorders.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD), panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder are among the most prevalent and frequently co-occurring psychiatric disorders in adults and may be characterized by a common deficiency in processing of emotional information.

Methods: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging during the performance of an emotional word encoding and recognition paradigm in patients with MDD (n = 51), comorbid MDD and anxiety (n = 59), panic disorder and/or social anxiety disorder without comorbid MDD (n = 56), and control subjects (n = 49). In addition, we studied effects of illness severity, regional brain volume, and antidepressant use.

Regional differences in age-related lipofuscin accumulation in the female hamster brainstem.

Lipofuscin accumulation is a characteristic feature of senescent postmitotic neuronal cells but estrogen may have protecting effects by inhibiting its formation. In the present ultrastructural study, lipofuscin accumulation was studied in 2 estrogen-α-receptive brainstem areas: nucleus pararetroambiguus (NPRA) and the commissural part of the solitary tract nucleus/A2 catecholaminergic group (NTScom/A2) and compared with the estrogen-insensitive medial tegmental field (mtf), in young (23 weeks) and aged (95 weeks) female hamsters. In the aged animals, extensive intracytoplasmic lipofuscin accumulation was observed.

COMT Val158Met polymorphism, verbalizing of emotion and activation of affective brain systems.

Genetic variation in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism has been shown to influence performance on cognitive and emotional tasks. Specifically, it has been suggested that the Met allele might be less advantageous than the Val allele with respect to emotional processing. This study addresses the question whether the presence of the Met allele is directly related to both lower emotional verbalizing proficiency and differences in brain activation during emotional processing.

Impaired attribution of emotion to facial expressions in anxiety and major depression.

Background: Recognition of others' emotions is an important aspect of interpersonal communication. In major depression, a significant emotion recognition impairment has been reported. It remains unclear whether the ability to recognize emotion from facial expressions is also impaired in anxiety disorders.

Microvascular changes in estrogen-α sensitive brainstem structures of aging female hamsters.

Structural neuronal plasticity is present in the nucleus para-retroambiguus (NPRA) and the commissural nucleus of the solitary tract/A2 group (NTScom/A2) in female hamsters. Both brainstem nuclei play a role in estrous cycle related autonomic adaptations. We investigated how aging affects the capillary condition in these adaptive brainstem regions.

Dynamic subcortical blood flow during male sexual activity with ecological validity: a perfusion fMRI study.

This study used arterial spin labeling (ASL) fMRI to measure brain perfusion in a group of healthy men under conditions that closely resembled customary sexual behavior. Serial perfusion measures for 30 min during two self-limited periods of partnered penis stimulation, and during post-stimulatory periods, revealed novel sexual activity-related cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes, mainly in subcortical parts of the brain. Ventral pallidum rCBF was highest during the onset of penile erection, and lowest after the termination of penis stimulation.