Transportation Physical Activity Earlier in Life and Areas of the Brain related to Dementia Later in Life.

Introduction: Efforts to preserve brain function may be most effective when administered before there are changes in the brain, which may occur decades before the onset of Alzheimer's disease symptoms. White matter hyperintensities (WMH), a cardiovascular disease biomarker, are areas of hyperintense signals scattered in the white matter of the brain evident on magnetic resonance images. WMH increase with age and are associated with a higher risk of dementia.

Feeling physical pain while depressed: The effect of alexithymia.

Background: In the literature, depression and alexithymia are associated with greater pain perception. It is unknown whether depression and alexithymia have additive effects on perceived pain.

Methods: The present study examined 152 participants (96 women, 56 men).

Integration Between Cerebral Hemispheres Contributes to Defense Mechanisms.

Defense mechanisms are mental functions which facilitate coping when real or imagined events challenge personal wishes, needs, and feelings. Whether defense mechanisms have a specific neural basis is unknown. The present research tested the hypothesis that interhemispheric integration plays a critical role in defense mechanism development, by studying a unique sample of patients born without the corpus callosum (agenesis of the corpus callosum; AgCC).

Lifetime Physical Activity and White Matter Hyperintensities in Cognitively Intact Adults.

Background: White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) observed on magnetic resonance images are associated with depression and increase the risk of stroke, dementia, and death. The association between physical activity and WMHs has been inconsistently reported in the literature, perhaps because studies did not account for a lifetime of physical activity or depression.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which a lifetime of leisure-time physical activity is associated with less WMHs while accounting for depression.

An Initial Study of Alexithymia and Its Relationship With Cognitive Abilities Among Mild Cognitive Impairment, Mild Alzheimer's Disease, and Healthy Volunteers.

The present study examined the degree to which alexithymia is greater in mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) relative to healthy volunteers (healthy comparison [HC]), and investigated relationships between alexithymia and cognition. Eighty-five participants (MCI = 30, AD = 21, HC = 34) underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological examination and completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Relative to HC, MCI and AD reported greater alexithymia total scores and higher scores on the TAS factor difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF).

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Is Critical for Helping Others Who Are Suffering.

Neurological patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are reported to display reduced empathy toward others in their daily lives in clinical case studies. However, the empathic behavior of patients with damage to the vmPFC has not been measured experimentally in response to an empathy-eliciting event. This is important because characterizing the degree to which patients with damage to the vmPFC have lower empathic behavior will allow for the development of targeted interventions to improve patients' social skills and in turn will help family members to better understand their impairments so they can provide appropriate supports.

Poststroke agitation and aggression and social quality of life: a case control study.

Background And Objective: Aggression and agitation are common after a stroke. The association between agitation/aggression following stroke and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in stroke survivors is unknown. This study aimed to examine the association between agitation/aggression and HRQoL in Chinese stroke survivors.

Longitudinal assessment of clinical risk factors for depression in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Background: During initial assessment of individuals with schizophrenia and related disorders (schizophrenia spectrum disorders [SSDs]), clinicians tend to pay greater attention to psychotic symptoms than mood symptoms, including depression. Depression is reported to influence the course of SSDs, but not much is known about the risk factors for depression in SSDs. In the present study, we examined clinical predictors of depression in SSDs.

Depressive symptoms related to low fractional anisotropy of white matter underlying the right ventral anterior cingulate in older adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease.

We sought to characterize the relationship between integrity of the white matter underlying the ventral anterior cingulate (vAC) and depressive symptoms in older adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease (AVD), a condition associated with preferential degeneration of the white matter. The vAC was defined as including white matter underlying ventral Brodmann Area 24 and Brodmann Area 25, corresponding with the "subcallosal" and "subgenual" cingulate respectively. This region of interest was chosen based on the preponderance of evidence that the white matter in the region plays a critical role in the manifestation of depressive symptoms.

Larger hippocampus size in women with anorexia nervosa who exercise excessively than healthy women.

Exercise has been shown to increase hippocampal volume in healthy older adults. Observations from animal models of diabetes and hypertension suggest that the combination of exercise and caloric restriction may exert greater neuroprotection in the hippocampus than either behavior alone. Yet, in humans, the effects of exercise and caloric restriction on the hippocampus are not known.

Social adaptive functioning, apathy, and nondysphoric depression among nursing home-dwelling very old adults.

Background: Apathetic and subsyndromal depressive conditions are common in the oldest old. This study examined whether nondysphoric depression (NDD), a clinical condition characterized by ideational and vegetative but no emotional symptoms of depression, belongs to the apathetic presentations of late-life depression. Rates of NDD, dysphoric depression (DD), apathy, and social functional impairment were examined in a sample of nondemented very old (mean age 87.

Characterizing white matter health and organization in atherosclerotic vascular disease: a diffusion tensor imaging study.

Atherosclerotic vascular disease (AVD) is endemic to the developed world, with known negative outcomes for cognition and brain health. The effects of AVD on the white matter fibers of the brain have not yet been studied using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). This study examined differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) between AVD and healthy comparison (HC) participants, and described the regional patterns of FA in each group.

Alexithymia, emotional empathy, and self-regulation in anorexia nervosa.

Background: Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) who are starved have poor awareness (alexithymia), reduced understanding of others' mental states (cognitive empathy), and difficulty regulating personal emotions (self-regulation). Despite its important role in social interaction, sympathy for others (emotional empathy) has not been measured in AN. Furthermore, it is unknown how restoring weight affects the relationship among alexithymia, empathy, and self-regulation in AN.

Modifiable risk factors for depressed mood among farmers.

Background: Risk for depression among farmers is not fully understood. DSM-IV considers sadness or depressed mood a critical symptom of depression. The aim of this study was to examine risk factors for depressed mood among farmers using a longitudinal study design.

Recognition of emotion from body language among patients with unipolar depression.

Major depression may be associated with abnormal perception of emotions and impairment in social adaptation. Emotion recognition from body language and its possible implications to social adjustment have not been examined in patients with depression. Three groups of participants (51 with depression; 68 with history of depression in remission; and 69 never depressed healthy volunteers) were compared on static and dynamic tasks of emotion recognition from body language.

Emotional blunting following left basal ganglia stroke: the role of depression and fronto-limbic functional alterations.

Disorders of the basal ganglia (BG) alter perception and experience of emotions. Left hemisphere BG (LBG) stroke is also associated with depression. The interplay between depression and alterations in emotional processing following LBG stroke was examined.

A selective role for right insula--basal ganglia circuits in appetitive stimulus processing.

Hemispheric lateralization of hedonic evaluation ('liking') and incentive motivation ('wanting') in neural networks connecting the basal ganglia and insula (BG-I) in humans was examined. Participants with brain damage restricted to the BG-I of the right (n = 5) or left (n = 5) hemisphere, and 26 healthy participants matched on age, sex and intelligence quotient were tested on positively and negatively valenced pictures drawn from varied stimulus categories (Vijayaraghavan et al., 2008).

Struggle for life, struggle for love and recognition: the neglected self in social cognitive neuroscience.

In the following article we present a view that social cognition and social neuroscience, as shaped by the current research paradigms, are not sufficient to improve our understanding of psychopathological phenomena. We hold that the self, self-awareness, and inter-subjectivity are integral to social perception and actions. In addition, we emphasize that the self and self-awareness are, by their very nature and function, involved over the entire lifespan with the way the individual is perceived in the social environment.

Mirror neuron function, psychosis, and empathy in schizophrenia.

Processing of social and emotional information has been shown to be disturbed in schizophrenia. The biological underpinnings of these abnormalities may be explained by an abnormally functioning mirror neuron system. Yet the relationship between mirror neuron system activity in schizophrenia, as measured using an electroencephalography (EEG) paradigm, and socio-emotional functioning has not been assessed.

Trait empathy as a predictor of individual differences in perceived loneliness.

Loneliness has been shown to be inversely correlated with empathy in younger adults. The present study extends previous research by investigating the association between empathy and loneliness across the adult lifespan and examining the role of relevant demographic and personality factors. 110 community-dwelling adults (18 to 81 years old) completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Empathy Quotient.

Effects of age-related differences in empathy on social economic decision-making.

Background: The ways in which aging affects social economic decision-making is a central issue in the psychology of aging. To examine age-related differences in social economic decision-making as a function of empathy, 80 healthy volunteers participated in the Repeated Fixed Opponent Ultimatum Game (UG-R). Previous economic decision-making research has shown that in younger adults empathy is associated with prosocial behavior.

Lifetime romantic attachment style and social adaptation in late-onset depression.

Background: Measuring social adjustment (including attachment style and current social adaptation) in late-life depression may support planning secondary prevention, rehabilitation, and treatment. Insecure attachment style is a risk factor for developing new depression, and social adjustment may constitute a problem after symptoms abatement. Few studies have examined attachment style and social adjustment in late-onset depression.

Beyond alcoholism: Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome in patients with psychiatric disorders.

Objective: Wernicke encephalopathy and Korsakoff syndrome (the combined disorder is named Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome [WKS]) are preventable, life-threatening neuropsychiatric syndromes resulting from thiamine deficiency. WKS has historically been associated with alcoholism; more recently, it has been recognized in patients who have anorexia nervosa or have undergone bariatric surgery for obesity. However, patients with nutritional deficiencies of any origin are at risk for WKS.

The impact of atypical antipsychotic use on obstructive sleep apnea: a pilot study and literature review.

Background: Limited evidence links atypical antipsychotics (AAs) use to sleep related respiratory dysfunction and greater severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The present paper reviews the published evidence and examines the impact of AA use on the presence and severity of OSA among subjects with clinically suspected OSA after adjusting for several confounds.

Methods: Archives of the University of Iowa Sleep Laboratory from 2005 to 2009 were searched for patients using AAs at the time of diagnostic polysomnogram (PSG).