Towards a Pragmatic Approach to a Psychophysiological Unit of Analysis for Mental and Brain Disorders: An EEG-Copeia for Neurofeedback.

This article proposes what we call an "EEG-Copeia" for neurofeedback, like the "Pharmacopeia" for psychopharmacology. This paper proposes to define an "EEG-Copeia" as an organized list of scientifically validated EEG markers, characterized by a specific association with an identified cognitive process, that define a psychophysiological unit of analysis useful for mental or brain disorder evaluation and treatment. A characteristic of EEG neurofeedback for mental and brain disorders is that it targets a EEG markers related to a supposed cognitive process, whereas conventional treatments target clinical manifestations.

Toward a transdiagnostic tool to evaluate depressive symptoms across mental disorders: Validation of the Calgary depression rating scale in patients with major depressive disorder.

The severity of depressive symptoms across two discrete mental disorders should be evaluated with the same psychometrically validated tools. In patients with schizophrenia the Calgary Depression Rating Scale (CDSS) is recommended for evaluating depressive symptoms. The aim of this study was to validate the CDSS in patients with major depressive disorder.

Psychometric Properties and Factor Structure of the Short Form of the Affective Lability Scale in Adult Patients With ADHD.

Affective lability is an important dimension of adult ADHD, associated with marked impairments and worse outcomes. A valid and quick tool to measure affective lability may therefore be of interest. In 187 adult ADHD patients, we explored psychometric properties of the Affective Lability Scale-Short Form (ALS-18 items).

Association of metabolic syndrome with sensory gating deficits in patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Metabolic syndrome is more prevalent in schizophrenia than in the general population and is associated with an increased rate of morbidity. It has been associated with cognitive impairments in schizophrenia, which are a core deficit in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Sensory gating deficit is also a core deficit in schizophrenia.

Elevated C-reactive protein is associated with sensory gating deficit in schizophrenia.

Sensory and cognitive impairments and inflammatory processes are contributing factors to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. A previous study found that an elevated CRP level (≥5mg/L) was associated with higher cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. We aimed to investigate the association between an elevated CRP level and sensory impairments defined by a sensory gating deficit (abnormal P50 suppression) in 55 outpatients.

Sensory gating in adult with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Event-evoked potential and perceptual experience reports comparisons with schizophrenia.

Background: In daily life, adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) report abnormal perceptual experiences that can be related to sensory gating deficit. This study investigated and compared P50 suppression (a neurophysiological measure of sensory gating) and perceptual abnormalities related to sensory gating deficit in ADHD and schizophrenias patients.

Methods: Three groups were compared: 24 adults with ADHD, 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 healthy subjects.

One step closer to a global tool for rapid screening of major depression in epilepsy: validation of the French NDDI-E.

Objective: Depression in people with epilepsy (PWE) is underdiagnosed and undertreated. The Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E) is a screening questionnaire used for detecting major depressive episode (MDE) in PWE, and is already validated in 10 languages. However a version in French, one of the world's widely spoken languages, was, until now, lacking.

Effects of clozapine on perceptual abnormalities and sensory gating: a preliminary cross-sectional study in schizophrenia.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of second-generation antipsychotics (clozapine or another second-generation antipsychotic) on perceptual abnormalities related to sensory gating deficit. Although clozapine is known to improve sensory gating assessed neurophysiologically, we hypothesized that patients with schizophrenia treated with clozapine would report less perceptual abnormalities related to sensory gating deficit than patients treated with other second-generation antipsychotics do. Forty patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were investigated (10 patients treated with clozapine and 30 patients treated with another second-generation antipsychotic drug).

Resting cortical PET metabolic changes in psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES).

Background: The pathophysiology of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) is poorly understood. Functional neuroimaging data in various functional neurological disorders increasingly support specific neurobiological dysfunction. However, to date, no studies have been reported of positron emission tomography (PET) in patients presenting with PNES.

Skin conductance biofeedback training in adults with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy and stress-triggered seizures: a proof-of-concept study.

The present proof-of-concept study investigated the feasibility of skin conductance biofeedback training in reducing seizures in adults with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), whose seizures are triggered by stress. Skin conductance biofeedback aims to increase levels of peripheral sympathetic arousal in order to reduce cortical excitability. This might seem somewhat counterintuitive, since such autonomic arousal may also be associated with increased stress and anxiety.

Validation of the French sensory gating inventory: a confirmatory factor analysis.

The Sensory Gating Inventory (SGI) is an instrument investigating daily experiences of sensory gating deficit developed for English speaking schizophrenia patients. The purpose of this study is to design and validate a French version of the SGI. A forward-backward translation of the SGI was performed.

Do schizophrenia patients with low P50-suppression report more perceptual anomalies with the sensory gating inventory?

Background: P50 amplitude changes in dual click conditioning-testing procedure might be a neurophysiological marker of deficient sensory gating in schizophrenia. However, the relationship between abnormalities in the neurophysiological and phenomenological dimensions of sensory gating in schizophrenia remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to determine if patients with low P50-suppression (below 50%) report more perceptual anomalies.

[Neuroenhancement in healthy subject? A French case study].

Neuroenhancement is an anglo-saxon concept concerning the use of stimulating psychotropic drugs by healthy subjects, outside any established medical indication or festive setting, to achieve an improvement of their mental functioning. In 2009, because of increasing requests for neuroenhancement in USA, the American Association of Neurology has published practical recommendations stating that "it is ethically permissible to prescribe medications for neuroenhancement" if a number of conditions is met. We present these ethical and psychopharmacological conditions ("the inverted U-Shape principle" in which cognitive performance is related to catecholamine levels and "the trade-off principle" to cognitive enhancement) through a clinical case of methylphenidate prescription in a healthy 24 years old medical student, preparing for the "examen classant national" (the French national ranking before postgraduate education).

Parieto-temporal alpha EEG band power at baseline as a predictor of antidepressant treatment response with repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: a preliminary study.

Background: The aim of this preliminary study was to determine the predictive value of absolute alpha band power measured during the rest EEG eyes closed task for responses to 20 sessions of high frequency repetitive transcranial stimulation (rTMS) in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in patients with pharmacoresistant major depressive episode.

Methods: 13 major depressive disorders (8 males) and 8 bipolar disorders (6 males) were included (mean age 58years). Spearman correlations between pretreatment alpha band power in height regions of analysis and absolute improvement in Beck Depression Inventory Short Form (ΔBDI-SF) were analyzed.

Toward an exploration of feeling of strangeness in schizophrenia: perspectives on acousmatic and everyday listening.

The aim of this study was to investigate abnormal perceptual experiences in schizophrenia, in particular the feeling of strangeness, which is commonly found in patients' self-reports. The experimental design included auditory complex stimuli within 2 theoretical frameworks based on "sensory gating deficit" and "aberrant salience," inspired from conventional perceptual scales. A specific sound corpus was designed with environmental (meaningful) and abstract (meaningless) sounds.

Categorization and timbre perception of environmental sounds in schizophrenia.

Perception of environmental sounds from impacted materials (Wood, Metal and Glass) was examined by conducting a categorization experiment. Stimuli consisted of sound continua evoking progressive transitions between material categories. Results highlighted shallower response curves in subjects with schizophrenia than healthy participants, and are discussed in the framework of Signal Detection Theory and in terms of impaired perception of specific timbre features in schizophrenia.