A single low dose of valproic acid in late prenatal life alters postnatal behavior and glutamic acid decarboxylase levels in the mouse.

Rationale: Rodents exposed to valproic acid (VPA) in prenatal life exhibit post-natal characteristics analogous to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many previous studies used relatively high doses of VPA during early pregnancy, potentially confounding interpretation because the offspring are the 'survivors' of a toxic insult. Low dose or late gestation exposure has not been widely studied.

Tspyl2 Loss-of-Function Causes Neurodevelopmental Brain and Behavior Abnormalities in Mice.

Testis specific protein, Y-encoded-like 2 (TSPYL2) regulates the expression of genes encoding glutamate receptors. Glutamate pathology is implicated in neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia. In line with this, a microduplication incorporating the TSPYL2 locus has been reported in people with ADHD.

The Effect of Oxytocin on Social and Non-Social Behaviour and Striatal Protein Expression in C57BL/6N Mice.

Oxytocin has been suggested as a promising new treatment for neurodevelopmental disorders. However, important gaps remain in our understanding of its mode of action, in particular, to what extent oxytocin modulates social and non-social behaviours and whether its effects are generalizable across both sexes. Here we investigated the effects of a range of oxytocin doses on social and non-social behaviours in C57BL/6N mice of both sexes.

Multimodal MRI of the hippocampus in Parkinson's disease with visual hallucinations.

Visual hallucinations carry poor prognosis in Parkinson's disease. Here we tested the hypothesis that the hippocampus and visuospatial memory impairment play a central role in the pathology of PD with visual hallucinations. Multimodal magnetic resonance imaging of the brain was carried out in 12 people with PD and visual hallucinations; 15 PD individuals without hallucinations; and 14 healthy controls.

Genome-wide association analysis with gray matter volume as a quantitative phenotype in first-episode treatment-naïve patients with schizophrenia.

Reduced Gray matter (GM) volume is a core feature of schizophrenia. Mapping genes that is associated with the heritable disease-related phenotypes may be conducive to elucidate the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This study aims to identify the common genetic variants that underlie the deficits of GM volume in schizophrenia.

MRI study of minor physical anomaly in childhood autism implicates aberrant neurodevelopment in infancy.

Background: MPAs (minor physical anomalies) frequently occur in neurodevelopmental disorders because both face and brain are derived from neuroectoderm in the first trimester. Conventionally, MPAs are measured by evaluation of external appearance. Using MRI can help overcome inherent observer bias, facilitate multi-centre data acquisition, and explore how MPAs relate to brain dysmorphology in the same individual.

Can Asperger syndrome be distinguished from autism? An anatomic likelihood meta-analysis of MRI studies.

Background: The question of whether Asperger syndrome can be distinguished from autism has attracted much debate and may even incur delay in diagnosis and intervention. Accordingly, there has been a proposal for Asperger syndrome to be subsumed under autism in the forthcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, in 2013. One approach to resolve this question has been to adopt the criterion of absence of clinically significant language or cognitive delay--essentially, the "absence of language delay.

Frontal-subcortical protein expression following prenatal exposure to maternal inflammation.

Background: Maternal immune activation (MIA) during prenatal life is a risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders including schizophrenia and autism. Such conditions are associated with alterations in fronto-subcortical circuits, but their molecular basis is far from clear.

Methodology/principal Findings: Using two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and mass spectrometry, with targeted western blot analyses for confirmation, we investigated the impact of MIA on the prefrontal and striatal proteome from an established MIA mouse model generated in C57B6 mice, by administering the viral analogue PolyI:C or saline vehicle (control) intravenously on gestation day (GD) 9.

Voxel-based analysis of postnatal white matter microstructure in mice exposed to immune challenge in early or late pregnancy.

Maternal infection during prenatal life is a risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia and autism, in the offspring. We and others have reported white mater microstructure abnormalities in prefrontal-striato-temporal networks in these disorders. In addition we have shown that early rather than late maternal immune challenge in the mouse model precipitates ventricular volume change and impairs sensorimotor gating similar to that found in schizophrenia.

A naturalistic study of grey matter volume increase after early treatment in anti-psychotic naïve, newly diagnosed schizophrenia.

Background: Anti-psychotic treatment appears to be associated with striatal volume increase, but how early this change occurs is still unknown.

Methods: A single prospective cohort of 20 anti-psychotic-naïve patients, newly diagnosed with schizophrenia, underwent magnetic resonance imaging brain scan at baseline. This was repeated following up to 8 weeks of anti-psychotic treatment.

Prenatal immune challenge is an environmental risk factor for brain and behavior change relevant to schizophrenia: evidence from MRI in a mouse model.

Objectives: Maternal infection during pregnancy increases risk of severe neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism, in the offspring. The most consistent brain structural abnormality in patients with schizophrenia is enlarged lateral ventricles. However, it is unknown whether the aetiology of ventriculomegaly in schizophrenia involves prenatal infectious processes.

Spatiotemporal dipole source localization of face processing ERPs in adolescents: a preliminary study.

Background: Despite extensive investigation of the neural systems for face perception and emotion recognition in adults and young children in the past, the precise temporal activation of brain sources specific to the processing of emotional facial expressions in older children and adolescents is not well known. This preliminary study aims to trace the spatiotemporal dynamics of facial emotion processing during adolescence and provide a basis for future developmental studies and comparisons with patient populations that have social-emotional deficits such as autism.

Methods: We presented pictures showing happy, angry, fearful, or neutral facial expressions to healthy adolescents (aged 10-16 years) and recorded 128-channel event-related potentials (ERPs) while they performed an emotion discrimination task.

Age-related grey matter volume correlates of response inhibition and shifting in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Background: Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties with executive function and impulse control which may improve with age.

Aims: To map the brain correlates of executive function in ADHD and determine age-related changes in reaction times and brain volumes.

Method: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and control groups were compared on the change task measures of response inhibition (stop signal reaction time, SSRT) and shifting (change response reaction time, CRRT).

Abnormal spatiotemporal processing of emotional facial expressions in childhood autism: dipole source analysis of event-related potentials.

Previous studies of face processing in autism suggest abnormalities in anatomical development, functioning and connectivity/coordination of distributed brain systems involved in social cognition, but the spatial sequence and time course of rapid (sub-second) neural responses to emotional facial expressions have not been examined in detail. Source analysis of high-density event-related potentials (ERPs) is an optimal means to examine both the precise temporal profile and spatial location of early electrical brain activity in response to emotionally salient stimuli. Therefore, we recorded 128-channel ERPs from high-functioning males with autism (aged 6-10 years), and age-, sex- and IQ-matched typically developing controls during explicit and implicit processing of emotion from pictures showing happy, angry, fearful, sad and neutral facial expressions.

Distinct patterns of grey matter abnormality in high-functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome.

Background: Autism exists across a wide spectrum and there is considerable debate as to whether children with Asperger's syndrome, who have normal language milestones, should be considered to comprise a subgroup distinct other from high-functioning children with autism (HFA), who have a history of delayed language development. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of autism are in disagreement. One possible reason is that the diagnosis of autism takes precedence over Asperger's syndrome and a distinction in language acquisition is rarely made.

Evidence of normal hearing laterality in familial schizophrenic patients and their relatives.

Dichotic listening (DL) has been used as a tool to investigate possible left cerebral dysfunction in schizophrenia. However, the wide range of DL tests (e.g.

Immediate and sustained psychological impact of an emerging infectious disease outbreak on health care workers.

Objective: To assess the immediate and sustained psychological health of health care workers who were at high risk of exposure during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

Methods: At the peak of the 2003 SARS outbreak, we assessed health care workers in 2 acute care Hong Kong general hospitals with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). One year later, we reassessed these health care workers with the PSS-10, the 21-Item Depression and Anxiety Scale (DASS-21), and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R).

Stress and psychological distress among SARS survivors 1 year after the outbreak.

Objective: Our study examined the stress level and psychological distress of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) survivors 1 year after the outbreak.

Method: During the SARS outbreak in 2003, we used the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) to assess SARS survivors treated in 2 major hospitals (non-health care workers, n = 49; health care workers, n = 30). We invited SARS survivors from the same hospitals (non-health care workers, n = 63; health care workers, n = 33) to complete the PSS-10 again in 2004.

Mapping brain structure in attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder: a voxel-based MRI study of regional grey and white matter volume.

The neuroanatomical basis of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is postulated to involve brain circuitry responsible for attention and executive function. Relatively new automated methods of MRI analysis allow rapid examination of each volume element (voxel) of whole brain, therefore we planned a comprehensive quantitative examination of brain anatomy in children with ADHD using voxel-based methods. We aimed to quantify whole brain, global tissue class and regional grey and white matter volume differences in 28 male children with ADHD and 31 closely matched controls.

Cerebral grey, white matter and csf in never-medicated, first-episode schizophrenia.

We report the first voxel-based morphometric (VBM) study to examine cerebral grey and white matter and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) using computational morphometry in never-medicated, first-episode psychosis (FEP). Region-of-interest (ROI) analysis was also performed blind to group membership. 26 never-medicated individuals with FEP (23 with DSM-IV schizophrenia) and 38 healthy controls had MRI brain scans.

Psychological responses to the SARS outbreak in healthcare students in Hong Kong.

This paper reports a cross-sectional questionnaire study that investigated perceived stress and psychological responses to the SARS outbreak in healthcare students at the height of the outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003. Non-healthcare university students served as controls. All the groups reported high levels of perceived stress.

Mapping the brain in autism. A voxel-based MRI study of volumetric differences and intercorrelations in autism.

Autism is a disorder of neurodevelopment resulting in pervasive abnormalities in social interaction and communication, repetitive behaviours and restricted interests. There is evidence for functional abnormalities and metabolic dysconnectivity in 'social brain' circuitry in this condition, but its structural basis has proved difficult to establish reliably. Explanations for this include replication difficulties inherent in 'region of interest' approaches usually adopted, and variable inclusion criteria for subjects across the autism spectrum.

Psychological effects of the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong on high-risk health care workers.

Objective: To quantify stress and the psychological impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on high-risk health care workers (HCWs).

Method: We evaluated 271 HCWs from SARS units and 342 healthy control subjects, using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) to assess stress levels and a structured list of putative psychological effects of SARS to assess its psychological effects. Healthy control subjects were balanced for age, sex, education, parenthood, living circumstances, and lack of health care experience.