Peer Support Formation and the Promotion of Recovery Among People Using Psychiatric Day Care in Japan.

The present study aimed to clarify the process of peer support formation and the promotion of recovery in people using psychiatric day care. From January to March 2014, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants with mental illness living in the community in Japan. The qualitative data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach.

Relationship between self-disclosure to first acquaintances and subjective well-being in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders living in the community.

Objective: Focusing on people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders living in the community, the present study aims to examine the characteristics of and gender differences in self-disclosure to first acquaintances, and to clarify the relationship between self-disclosure and subjective well-being.

Methods: Participants (32 men and 30 women with schizophrenia spectrum disorders) were examined using the subjective well-being inventory, an original self-disclosure scale for people with mental illness, as well as the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, the Link devaluation-discrimination scale, and the affiliation scale.

Results: The self-disclosure content domains in descending order were as follows: "living conditions," "own strengths," "experiences of distress," and "mental illness and psychiatric disability.

Load effect on background rhythms during motor execution: A magnetoencephalographic study.

We investigated the effect of load against self-paced movement on cortical involvement for motor execution. Ten right-handed healthy volunteers were requested to perform brisk extension of the right index finger at self-paced intervals exceeding 10s for three load conditions: 0g, 50g and 100g. Movement-related magnetic fields were recorded using an MEG system.

Similarity in Neuronal Firing Regimes across Mammalian Species.

Unlabelled: The architectonic subdivisions of the brain are believed to be functional modules, each processing parts of global functions. Previously, we showed that neurons in different regions operate in different firing regimes in monkeys. It is possible that firing regimes reflect differences in underlying information processing, and consequently the firing regimes in homologous regions across animal species might be similar.

Neuropsychological Assessment of a New Computerized Cognitive Task that Was Developed to Train Several Cognitive Functions Simultaneously.

Recent studies have indicated that computerized cognitive training is effective as therapy for reducing the cognitive decline with aging and the dysfunction associated with neuropsychiatric illness. Although cognitive trainings that targets a specific function and multi-domain cognitive training have both been shown to have significant effects, we need one simple behavioral training paradigm to improve multiple domains of cognitive functions easily and simultaneously. We had developed a new computerized task that seeks to engage the cognitive functions of planning, mental calculation, and divergent thinking based on a working memory task in a single task.

Influence of self-efficacy on the interpersonal behavior of schizophrenia patients undergoing rehabilitation in psychiatric day-care services.

Aim: The present study examined whether the self-efficacy of interpersonal behavior influenced the interpersonal behavior of schizophrenia patients using psychiatric day-care services.

Methods: Thirty-nine patients with schizophrenia were examined with the Interpersonal Relations subscale of the Life Assessment Scale for Mentally Ill, the Self-efficacy Scale of Interpersonal Behavior, the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia-Japanese version, and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale.

Results: The Life Assessment Scale for Mentally Ill score was significantly correlated with the self-efficacy of interpersonal behavior, and was also significantly correlated with neurocognitive functions and negative symptoms.

Reward acts as a signal to control delay-period activity in delayed-response tasks.

Prefrontal delay-period activity represents a neural mechanism for the active maintenance of information and needs to be controlled by some signal to appropriately operate working memory. To examine whether reward-delivery acts as this signal, the effects of delay-period activity in response to unexpected reward-delivery were examined by analyzing single-neuron activity recorded in the primate dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Among neurons that showed delay-period activity, 34% showed inhibition of this activity in response to unexpected reward-delivery.

Activity of primate orbitofrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal neurons: effect of reward schedule on task-related activity.

Recent studies show that task-related activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is modulated by the quality and quantity of the reward, suggesting that the subject's motivational state affects cognitive operations in the DLPFC. The orbito-frontal cortex (OFC) is a possible source of motivational inputs to the DLPFC. However, it is not well known whether these two areas exhibit similar motivational effects on task-related activity.

Activity of primate orbitofrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal neurons: task-related activity during an oculomotor delayed-response task.

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has strong reciprocal connections to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is known to participate in spatial working memory processes. However, it is not known whether or not the OFC also participates in spatial working memory and whether the OFC and DLPFC contribute equally to this process. To address these issues, we collected single-neuron activity from both areas while a monkey performed an oculomotor delayed-response task, and compared the characteristics of task-related activities between the OFC and DLPFC.

Reward-period activity in primate dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal neurons is affected by reward schedules.

Reward-period activity observed in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is thought to represent the detection of reward delivery. To investigate whether this activity plays the same role in these areas, we examined this activity under different reward schedules and whether the reward schedule has similar effects on this activity in each of these areas. A monkey performed an oculomotor delayed-response (ODR) task under two reward schedules.