Articles

The role of autophagy in Parkinson's disease: rotenone-based modeling

Autophagy-mediated self-digestion of cytoplasmic inclusions may be protective against neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, excessive autophagic activation evokes autophagic pro...

Authors: Nian Xiong, Jing Xiong, Min Jia, Ling Liu, Xiaowei Zhang, Zhenzhen Chen, Jinsha Huang, Zhentao Zhang, Lingling Hou, Zhijian Luo, Devina Ghoorah, Zhicheng Lin and Tao Wang

Association of estrogen receptor alpha gene polymorphism with age at onset, general psychopathology symptoms, and therapeutic effect of schizophrenia

Estrogen is believed to play an important role in the central nervous system (CNS) and exert a protective role against schizophrenia. Estrogen receptor alpha (ESRα) mediates the biological action of estrogen. ...

Authors: Shuai Wang, Wenqiang Li, Jingyuan Zhao, Hongxing Zhang, Yongfeng Yang, Xiujuan Wang, Ge Yang and Luxian Lv

Reduced orbitofrontal cortical thickness in male adolescents with internet addiction

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has consistently been implicated in the pathology of both drug and behavioral addictions. However, no study to date has examined OFC thickness in internet addiction. In the curre...

Authors: Soon-Beom Hong, Jae-Won Kim, Eun-Jung Choi, Ho-Hyun Kim, Jeong-Eun Suh, Chang-Dai Kim, Paul Klauser, Sarah Whittle, Murat Yűcel, Christos Pantelis and Soon-Hyung Yi

Signatures of movement variability anticipate hand speed according to levels of intent

Complex movement sequences are composed of segments with different levels of functionality: intended segments towards a goal and segments that spontaneously occur largely beneath our awareness. It is not known...

Authors: Elizabeth B Torres

Investigation of rare variants in LRP1, KPNA1, ALS2CL and ZNF480 genes in schizophrenia patients reflects genetic heterogeneity of the disease

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disease characterized by a high heritability and a complex genetic architecture. Recent reports based on exome sequencing analyses have highlighted a significant increase ...

Authors: Loubna Jouan, Simon L Girard, Sylvia Dobrzeniecka, Amirthagowri Ambalavanan, Marie-Odile Krebs, Ridha Joober, Julie Gauthier, Patrick A Dion and Guy A Rouleau

Coupling movement with imagery as a new perspective for motor imagery practice

Recent data support the beneficial role of gesturing during mental practice. The present study examined whether coupling motor imagery (MI) with some movement sequences (dynamic imagery condition) impacted mot...

Authors: Aymeric Guillot, Kevin Moschberger and Christian Collet

A boy with homozygous microdeletion of NEUROG1 presents with a congenital cranial dysinnervation disorder [Moebius syndrome variant]

We report on a 6-year-old Turkish boy with profound sensorineural deafness, balance disorder, severe disorder of oral motor function, and mild developmental delay. Further findings included scaphocephaly, plag...

Authors: Julia C Schröder, Anne K Läßig, Danuta Galetzka, Angelika Peters, John C Castle, Stefan Diederich, Ulrich Zechner, Wibke Müller-Forell, Annerose Keilmann and Oliver Bartsch

Involvement of tryptophan hydroxylase 2 gene polymorphisms in susceptibility to tic disorder in Chinese Han population

Tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) is a potential candidate gene for screening tic disorder (TD).

Authors: Ping Zheng, Erzhen Li, Jianhua Wang, Xiaodai Cui and Liwen Wang

Object-based neglect in number processing

Recent evidence suggests that neglect patients seem to have particular problems representing relatively smaller numbers corresponding to the left part of the mental number line. However, while this indicates s...

Authors: Elise Klein, Korbinian Moeller, Daniela Zinsberger, Harald Zauner, Guilherme Wood, Klaus Willmes, Christine Haider, Alfred Gassner and Hans-Christoph Nuerk

Performance of conventional pigs and Göttingen miniature pigs in a spatial holeboard task: effects of the putative muscarinic cognition impairer Biperiden

The pig is emerging as a model species that bridges the gap between rodents and humans in research. In particular, the miniature pig (referred to hereafter as the minipig) is increasingly being used as non-rod...

Authors: Elise Gieling, Welmoed Wehkamp, Remco Willigenburg, Rebecca E Nordquist, Niels-Christian Ganderup and Franz Josef van der Staay

Individual differences in behavioural inhibition explain free riding in public good games when punishment is expected but not implemented

The literature on social dilemmas and punishment focuses on the behaviour of the punisher. However, to fully explain the effect of punishment on cooperation, it is important to understand the psychological mec...

Authors: Anya Skatova and Eamonn Ferguson

Two types of mental fatigue affect spontaneous oscillatory brain activities in different ways

Fatigue has a multi-factorial nature. We examined the effects of two types of mental fatigue on spontaneous oscillatory brain activity using magnetoencephalography (MEG).

Authors: Yoshihito Shigihara, Masaaki Tanaka, Akira Ishii, Etsuko Kanai, Masami Funakura and Yasuyoshi Watanabe

Association between the GRM7 rs3792452 polymorphism and attention deficit hyperacitiveity disorder in a Korean sample

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between the ionotropic and glutamate receptors, N-methyl D-asparate 2A (GRIN2A) and 2B (GRIN2B), and the metabotropic glutamate receptor mGluR7 (GRM...

Authors: Subin Park, Sun-Woo Jung, Boong-Nyun Kim, Soo-Churl Cho, Min-Sup Shin, Jae-Won Kim, Hee Jeong Yoo, Dae-Yeon Cho, Un-Sun Chung, Jung-Woo Son and Hyo-Won Kim

Apathy symptoms modulate motivational decision making on the Iowa gambling task

The present study represents an initial attempt to assess the role of apathy in motivated decision making on the Iowa Gambling Task. Clinical descriptions of patients with apathy highlight deficits in the cogn...

Authors: Progress Njomboro, Shoumitro Deb and Glyn W Humphreys

Genetic association between APOE*4 and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease is dependent on the psychosis phenotype

Neuropsychiatric symptoms such as psychosis are prevalent in patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Because these disabling symptoms are gene...

Authors: Drew Christie, Jane Shofer, Steven P Millard, Ellen Li, Mary Ann DeMichele-Sweet, Elise A Weamer, M Ilyas Kamboh, Oscar L Lopez, Robert A Sweet and Debby Tsuang

GABAergic neuroactive steroids: a new frontier in bipolar disorders?

Neurosteroids are synthesized in the brain and modulate brain excitability. There is increasing evidence of their sedative, anesthetic and antiseizure properties, as well as their influence on mood. Currently ...

Authors: Mauro Giovanni Carta, Krishna M Bhat and Antonio Preti

Resting state EEG oscillatory power differences in ADHD college students and their peers

Among the most robust neural abnormalities differentiating individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) from typically developing controls are elevated levels of slow oscillatory activity (...

Authors: Steven Woltering, Jessica Jung, Zhongxu Liu and Rosemary Tannock

Extinction learning deficit in a rodent model of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Deficient operant extinction has been hypothesized to be constitutive of ADHD dysfunction. In order to elucidate the behavioral mechanisms underlying this deficit, the performance of an animal model of ADHD, t...

Authors: Ryan J Brackney, Timothy HC Cheung, Katrina Herbst, Jade C Hill and Federico Sanabria

Comparative study between bone marrow mononuclear fraction and mesenchymal stem cells treatment in sensorimotor recovery after focal cortical ablation in rats

Different models of cortical lesion lead to different effects on plasticity of connections and loss of function. In opposition to ischemia, cortical lesion made by ablation does not induce significant adaptive...

Authors: Helder Teixeira de Freitas, Viviane Gomes da Silva and Arthur Giraldi-Guimarães

Glucocerebrosidase L444P mutation confers genetic risk for Parkinson’s disease in central China

Mutations of the glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene have reportedly been associated with Parkinson disease (PD) in various ethnic populations such as Singaporean, Japanese, Formosan, Canadian, American, Portuguese,...

Authors: Youpei Wang, Ling Liu, Jing Xiong, Xiaowei Zhang, Zhenzhen Chen, Lan Yu, Chunnuan Chen, Jinsha Huang, Zhentao Zhang, Asrah A Mohmed, Zhicheng Lin, Nian Xiong and Tao Wang

Marine omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids induce sex-specific changes in reinforcer-controlled behaviour and neurotransmitter metabolism in a spontaneously hypertensive rat model of ADHD

Previous reports suggest that omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) supplements may reduce ADHD-like behaviour. Our aim was to investigate potential effects of n-3 PUFA supplementation in an animal ...

Authors: Kine S Dervola, Bjørg Å Roberg, Grete Wøien, Inger Lise Bogen, Torbjørn H Sandvik, Terje Sagvolden, Christian A Drevon, Espen Borgå Johansen and Sven Ivar Walaas

Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia

The question whether Developmental Dyscalculia (DD; a deficit in the ability to process numerical information) is the result of deficiencies in the non symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., a group o...

Authors: Tamar Furman and Orly Rubinsten

Immunization with DAT fragments is associated with long-term striatal impairment, hyperactivity and reduced cognitive flexibility in mice

Possible interactions between nervous and immune systems in neuro-psychiatric disorders remain elusive. Levels of brain dopamine transporter (DAT) have been implicated in several impulse-control disorders, lik...

Authors: Walter Adriani, Susanne Koot, Sandra Columba-Cabezas, Emilia Romano, Domenica Travaglini, Ruud van den Bos, Oleg Granstrem, Syed F Ali and Giovanni Laviola

Evaluating the contribution of shape attributes to recognition using the minimal transient discrete cue protocol

Subjects were tested for their ability to identify objects that were represented by an array of dots that marked the major contours, usually only the outer boundary. Each dot was briefly flashed to make its po...

Authors: Ernest Greene and R Todd Ogden

Fear conditioning-related changes in cerebellar Purkinje cell activities in goldfish

Fear conditioning-induced changes in cerebellar Purkinje cell responses to a conditioned stimulus have been reported in rabbits. It has been suggested that synaptic long-term potentiation and the resulting inc...

Authors: Masayuki Yoshida and Hiroki Kondo

Age-dependent decline in learning and memory performances of WAG/Rij rat model of absence epilepsy

Recent clinical studies revealed emotional and cognitive impairments associated with absence epilepsy. Preclinical research with genetic models of absence epilepsy however have primarily focused on dysfunction...

Authors: Ayşe Karson, Tijen Utkan, Fuat Balcı, Feyza Arıcıoğlu and Nurbay Ateş

Time perception at different EEG-vigilance levels

Human time perception is influenced by various factors such as attention and drowsiness. Nevertheless, the impact of cerebral vigilance fluctuations on temporal perception has not been sufficiently explored. W...

Authors: Juliane Minkwitz, Maja U Trenner, Christian Sander, Sebastian Olbrich, Abigail J Sheldrick, Ulrich Hegerl and Hubertus Himmerich

ERP differences between processing of physical characteristics and personality attributes

Limited data from behavioral and brain-imaging studies indicate that personality traits and physical characteristics are processed differently by the brain. Additionally, electrophysiological results of studie...

Authors: Fanchang Kong, Yan Zhang and Hong Chen

Effect of mental fatigue on the central nervous system: an electroencephalography study

Fatigue can be classified as mental and physical depending on its cause, and eachtype of fatigue has a multi-factorial nature. We examined the effect of mentalfatigue on the central nervous system using electr...

Authors: Masaaki Tanaka, Yoshihito Shigihara, Akira Ishii, Masami Funakura, Etsuko Kanai and Yasuyoshi Watanabe

Maternal behavior in transgenic mice with reduced fibroblast growth factor receptor function in gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) and their receptors (FGFRs) are necessary for the proper development of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, which are key activators of the hypothalamo-pituitary-gon...

Authors: Leah R Brooks, Carter Duyet V Le, Wilson C Chung and Pei-San Tsai

Why are psychiatric imaging methods clinically unreliable? Conclusions and practical guidelines for authors, editors and reviewers

No reliable anatomical or functional alterations have been confirmed in psychiatric neuroimaging; however it can become reliable with translational impact on clinical practice when considering crucial methodol...

Authors: Stefan Borgwardt, Joaquim Radua, Andrea Mechelli and Paolo Fusar-Poli

Mitochondrion-toxic drugs given to patients with mitochondrial psychoses

Authors: Josef Finsterer

Altered spontaneous activity in young chronic cigarette smokers revealed by regional homogeneity

Few studies have been previously published about the resting state brain activity in young chronic smokers, although many previous fMRI studies have shown that the task-related activity pattern is altered in c...

Authors: Jinsong Tang, Yanhui Liao, Qijian Deng, Tieqiao Liu, Xiaogang Chen, Xuyi Wang, Xiaojun Xiang, Hongxian Chen and Wei Hao

An anxiogenic drug, FG 7142, induced an increase in mRNA of Btg2 and Adamts1 in the hippocampus of adult mice

Anxiety and stress-related disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders. The hippocampus is a crucial brain area involved in the neural circuits of the pathophysiology of anxiety and stress-relate...

Authors: Akeo Kurumaji and Toru Nishikawa

Effect of metabotropic glutamate receptor 3 genotype on N-acetylaspartate levels and neurocognition in non-smoking, active alcoholics

We studied the effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the metabotropic glutamate receptor 3 (GRM3) gene on brain N-acetylaspartate (NAA) concentrations and executive function (EF) skills in non-s...

Authors: Yan Xia, Dongying Ma, Jian Hu, Chunling Tang, Zheng Wu, Lei Liu and Feng Xin

Alterations in regional homogeneity of resting-state brain activity in internet gaming addicts

Internet gaming addiction (IGA), as a subtype of internet addiction disorder, is rapidly becoming a prevalent mental health concern around the world. The neurobiological underpinnings of IGA should be studied ...

Authors: Guangheng Dong, Jie Huang and Xiaoxia Du

Difficulty in disengaging from threat and temperamental negative affectivity in early life: A longitudinal study of infants aged 12–36 months

Attention disengagement is reportedly influenced by perceiving a fearful facial expression even in the first year of life. In the present study, we examined whether individual differences in disengaging from f...

Authors: Atsuko Nakagawa and Masune Sukigara

Deficits in retrospective and prospective components underlying prospective memory tasks in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

By use of purer indices of PM and RM components than previous studies and adoption of three PM task types, the present study aimed to investigate the deficits of these two components underlying global impairme...

Authors: Ting Zhou, Lucas S Broster, Yang Jiang, Feng Bao, Huali Wang and Juan Li

Atlas-based white matter analysis in individuals with velo-cardio-facial syndrome (22q11.2 deletion syndrome) and unaffected siblings

Velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS, MIM#192430, 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome) is a genetic disorder caused by a deletion of about 40 genes at the q11.2 band of one copy of chromosome 22. Individuals with VCFS pres...

Authors: Petya D Radoeva, Ioana L Coman, Kevin M Antshel, Wanda Fremont, Christopher S McCarthy, Ashwini Kotkar, Dongliang Wang, Robert J Shprintzen and Wendy R Kates

Individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s disease show differential patterns of ERP brain activation during odor identification

Studies suggest that older adults at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease may show olfactory processing deficits before other signs of dementia appear.

Authors: Charlie D Morgan and Claire Murphy

Event-related brain potentials that distinguish false memory for events that occurred only seconds in the past

False memory often involves retrieving events from the distant past that did not actually happen. However, recent evidence obtained using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm for eliciting false memory ...

Authors: Hong Chen, Joel L Voss and Chunyan Guo

An overview of the neuro-cognitive processes involved in the encoding, consolidation, and retrieval of true and false memories

Perception and memory are imperfect reconstructions of reality. These reconstructions are prone to be influenced by several factors, which may result in false memories. A false memory is the recollection of an...

Authors: Benjamin Straube

Perspective and agency during video gaming influences spatial presence experience and brain activation patterns

The experience of spatial presence (SP), i.e., the sense of being present in a virtual environment, emerges if an individual perceives himself as 1) if he were actually located (self-location) and 2) able to act ...

Authors: Michael Havranek, Nicolas Langer, Marcus Cheetham and Lutz Jäncke

The gamma-aminobutyric acid type B (GABA_B) receptor agonist baclofen inhibits morphine sensitization by decreasing the dopamine level in rat nucleus accumbens

Repeated morphine exposure can induce behavioral sensitization. There are evidences have shown that central gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system is involved in morphine dependence. However, the effect of a GABA_B

Authors: Zhenyu Fu, Hongfa Yang, Yuqiang Xiao, Gang Zhao and Haiyan Huang

Gender differences in mathematics anxiety and the relation to mathematics performance while controlling for test anxiety

Mathematics anxiety (MA), a state of discomfort associated with performing mathematical tasks, is thought to affect a notable proportion of the school age population. Some research has indicated that MA negati...

Authors: Amy Devine, Kayleigh Fawcett, Dénes Szűcs and Ann Dowker

Effect of intermittent exposure to ethanol and MDMA during adolescence on learning and memory in adult mice

Heavy binge drinking is increasingly frequent among adolescents, and consumption of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is often combined with ethanol (EtOH). The long-lasting effects of intermittent expo...

Authors: Antonio Vidal-Infer, Maria A. Aguilar, Jose Miñarro and Marta Rodríguez-Arias

A genetic association study of DNA methylation levels in the DRD4 gene region finds associations with nearby SNPs

Dopamine receptor D ₄ (DRD4) polymorphisms have been associated with a number of psychiatric disorders, but little is known about the mechanism of these associations. DNA met...

Authors: Sophia J. Docherty, Oliver S. P. Davis, Claire M. A. Haworth, Robert Plomin, Ursula D’Souza and Jonathan Mill

Differential effects of diazepam and MPEP on habituation and neuro-behavioural processes in inbred mice

Previous studies have demonstrated a profound lack of habituation in 129P3 mice compared to the habituating, but initially more anxious, BALB/c mice. The present study investigated whether this non-adaptive ph...

Authors: Amber R. Salomons, Nathaly Espitia Pinzon, Hetty Boleij, Susanne Kirchhoff, Saskia S. Arndt, Rebecca E. Nordquist, Lothar Lindemann, Georg Jaeschke, Will Spooren and Frauke Ohl

Neurological soft signs in persons with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and the relationships to neuropsychological functions

Neurological abnormalities have been reported in people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). The current study aimed to examine the prevalence of neurological soft signs (NSS) in this clinical group...

Authors: Hui-jie Li, Peng-yun Wang, Yang Jiang, Raymond C. K. Chan, Hua-li Wang and Juan Li

Paradox of schizophrenia genetics: is a paradigm shift occurring?

Genetic research of schizophrenia (SCZ) based on the nuclear genome model (NGM) has been one of the most active areas in psychiatry for the past two decades. Although this effort is ongoing, the current situat...

Authors: Nagafumi Doi, Yoko Hoshi, Masanari Itokawa, Takeo Yoshikawa, Tomoe Ichikawa, Makoto Arai, Chie Usui and Hirokazu Tachikawa