Pathological gambling and alcohol dependence: neural disturbances in reward and loss avoidance processing.

Pathological gambling (PG) shares clinical characteristics such as craving and loss of control with substance use disorders and is thus considered a behavioral addiction. While functional alterations in the mesolimbic reward system have been correlated with craving and relapse in substance use disorders, only a few studies have examined this brain circuit in PG, and no direct comparison has been conducted so far. Thus, we investigated the neuronal correlates of reward processing in PG in contrast to alcohol-dependent (AD) patients and healthy subjects.

Increased functional connectivity between prefrontal cortex and reward system in pathological gambling.

Pathological gambling (PG) shares clinical characteristics with substance-use disorders and is thus discussed as a behavioral addiction. Recent neuroimaging studies on PG report functional changes in prefrontal structures and the mesolimbic reward system. While an imbalance between these structures has been related to addictive behavior, whether their dysfunction in PG is reflected in the interaction between them remains unclear.

Higher volume of ventral striatum and right prefrontal cortex in pathological gambling.

Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated an involvement of the prefrontal cortex and mesolimbic reward system (i.e., ventral striatum) in pathological gambling (PG).

The human execution/observation matching system investigated with a complex everyday task: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study.

The investigation of brain areas involved in the human execution/observation matching system (EOM) has been limited to restricted motor actions when using common neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A method which overcomes this limitation is functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In the present study, we explored the cerebral responses underlying action execution and observation during a complex everyday task.

Exploring the Neural Basis of Real-Life Joint Action: Measuring Brain Activation during Joint Table Setting with Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Many every-day life situations require two or more individuals to execute actions together. Assessing brain activation during naturalistic tasks to uncover relevant processes underlying such real-life joint action situations has remained a methodological challenge. In the present study, we introduce a novel joint action paradigm that enables the assessment of brain activation during real-life joint action tasks using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Resting posterior minus frontal EEG slow oscillations is associated with extraversion and DRD2 genotype.

The agency facet of extraversion has been hypothesized to be based on individual differences in dopamine activity. Recent work suggests that resting posterior minus frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) slow oscillations (delta, theta) is both consistently associated with extraversion and sensitive to dopamine D2 receptor antagonist-induced changes in dopaminergic activity. Here we examine for the first time the interrelations between polymorphisms of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene (rs1800497 [previously termed TAQ1A], rs1076560, rs1799732 [-141C Ins/Del]), extraversion and resting posterior minus frontal (Pz-Fz) slow oscillations.

Catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met genotype affects neural correlates of aversive stimuli processing.

It was previously shown that variation of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene modulates brain activity during the processing of stimuli with negative valence, but not for pleasant stimuli. Here, we tested whether the COMT genotype also modulates the electrophysiological correlates of emotional processing and explored whether the environmental factor of life stress influences this effect. Using the early posterior negativity (EPN) paradigm, event-related brain potentials were measured in 81 healthy individuals during the processing of pictures that evoked emotions of positive and negative valence.