Neural and sympathetic activity associated with exploration in decision-making: further evidence for involvement of insula.

We previously reported that sympathetic activity was associated with exploration in decision-making indexed by entropy, which is a concept in information theory and indexes randomness of choices or the degree of deviation from sticking to recent experiences of gains and losses, and that activation of the anterior insula mediated this association. The current study aims to replicate and to expand these findings in a situation where contingency between options and outcomes is manipulated. Sixteen participants performed a stochastic decision-making task in which we manipulated a condition with low uncertainty of gain/loss (contingent-reward condition) and a condition with high uncertainty of gain/loss (random-reward condition).

Focal brain glucose hypometabolism in patients with neuropsychologic deficits after diffuse axonal injury.

Background And Purpose: Neuropsychologic deficits are well-known sequelae of traumatic brain injury. However, the cerebral correlates of these deficits are still unclear. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the regions of cerebral dysfunction correlated with such neuropsychologic deficits after traumatic brain injury.

[A case of a bacterial brain abscess presenting as symptoms of 'sudden stroke-like' onset].

We report a case of a bacterial brain abscess presenting symptoms of 'sudden stroke-like' onset, associated with infective endocarditis. A 59-year-old woman experienced a sudden stroke-like onset of left hemiplegia. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were performed on the day of ictus.