Audit of pulse oximetry screening for critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) in newborns.

Objectives: To assess the efficacy of a new screening protocol for critical congenital heart disease (CCHD).

Background: In March 2014, the Ontario Provincial Council for Maternal Child Health (PCMCH) recommended screening for CCHD, utilizing pulse oximetry to measure oxygen saturation as part of the newborn examination. However, this is yet to be implemented in all hospitals.

Functional changes in the activity of brain regions underlying emotion processing in the elderly.

Aging is associated with a decline in both cognitive and motor abilities that reflects deterioration of underlying brain circuitry. While age-related alterations have also been described in brain regions underlying emotional behavior (e.g.

Dextroamphetamine modulates the response of the human amygdala.

Amphetamine, a potent monoaminergic agonist, has pronounced effects on emotional behavior in humans, including the generation of fear and anxiety. Recent animal studies have demonstrated the importance of monoamines, especially dopamine, in modulating the response of the amygdala, a key brain region involved in the perception of fearful and threatening stimuli, and the generation of appropriate physiological and behavioral responses. We have explored the possibility that the anxiogenic effect of amphetamine in humans reflects the drug's influence on the activity of the amygdala.

Dopamine modulates the response of the human amygdala: a study in Parkinson's disease.

In addition to classic motor signs and symptoms, Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by neuropsychological and emotional deficits, including a blunted emotional response. In the present study, we explored both the neural basis of abnormal emotional behavior in PD and the physiological effects of dopaminergic therapy on the response of the amygdala, a central structure in emotion processing. PD patients and matched normal controls (NCs) were studied with blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a paradigm that involved perceptual processing of fearful stimuli.