Valence-based Word-Face Stroop task reveals differential emotional interference in patients with major depression

Word-Face Stroop task creates emotional conflict between affective words and affective faces. In this task, healthy participants consistently slow down while responding to incongruent cases. Such interference related slowdown is associated with recruitment of inhibitory processes to eliminate task-irrelevant information. We created a valence-based Word-Face Stroop task, in which participants were asked to indicate whether the words in the foreground are positive, negative or neutral. Healthy participants were faster and more accurate than un-medicated patients with major depression disorder (MDD). In addition, a significant congruence by group interaction is observed: healthy participants slowed down for incongruent cases, but MDD patients did not. Furthermore, for the negative words, healthy individuals made more errors while responding to incongruent cases but MDD patients made the lowest number of errors for this category. The emotional percepts of the patients were intact, because correct response rates in word valence judgments for positive/negative words, and reaction times for happy/sad faces had similar patterns with those of controls. These findings are supported by the analytical rumination interpretation of depression: patients lose speed/accuracy in laboratory tasks due to processing load spent during continuous rumination. However, for tasks in line with their preoccupation, continual practice makes the patients more vigilant and adept. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Time Perception and Reward Anticipation

Findings suggest that the physiological mechanisms involved in the reward anticipation and time perception partially overlap. But the systematic investigation of a potential interaction between time and reward systems using neuroimaging is lacking. Eighteen healthy volunteers (all right-handed) participated in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment that employs a visual paradigm that consists monetary reward to assess whether the functional neural representations of time perception and reward prospection are shared or distinct. Subjects performed a time perception task in which observers had to extrapolate the velocity of an occluded moving object in “reward” vs. “no-reward” sessions during fMRI scanning. There were also “control condition” trials in which participants judged about the color tone change of the stimuli. Time perception showed a fronto-parietal (more extensive in the right) cingulate and peristriate cortical as well as cerebellar activity. On the other hand, reward anticipation activated anterior insular cortex, nucleus accumbens, caudate nucleus, thalamus, cerebellum, postcentral gyrus, and peristriate cortex. Interaction between the time perception and the reward prospect showed dorsolateral, orbitofrontal, medial prefrontal and caudate nucleus activity. Our findings suggest that a prefrontal-striatal circuit might integrate reward and timing systems of the brain

Prefrontal Cortex Activity During Facial Affect Processing in Schizophrenia: Association with Clinical Symptoms and Social Cognitive Functions

Objectives: In the present study, we aimed to investigate the prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during facial affect recognition in schizophrenia, as well as the association of this activity with symptom severity and with the higher order social cognitive functions, namely recognition of false beliefs, faux-pas and hinting. Method: Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure frontal cortical activity during a neuroimaging task prepared with a standard set of pictures of facial affect. The data of the Index Group (IG) consisting of 27 subjects with DSM-IV based diagnoses of schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder and control group (CG) (N=25) were compared. The control condition was to detect non-affective changes on a neutral face. Associations with frontal activity during affect recognition and clinical symptoms, false belief recognition, hinting and faux-pas were investigated. Results: Prefrontal activity during both affective and non-affective conditions was higher in the IG than the CG. The IG performed worse than the CG in social cognitive tests. Social cognitive test performance was not correlated with cortical activity. There were no correlations between education status, age and PFC activity in both groups. In the IG, right ventral prefrontal cortex (VPFC) and right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activities were associated with hallucination severity. Conclusion: These results suggest the presence of hyperfrontality during face processing in schizophrenia. Results also suggest that schizophrenia patients require more frontal resources to achieve a performance comparable to that of healthy controls in order to detect both affective and non-affective changes on a face. There might be a relationship between facial processing and hallucinations.WoSScopusTr-Dizi

The Utility of fNIRS Signals versus Self-Report for Classification of Fibromyalgia Syndrome

25th Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (SIU) -- MAY 15-18, 2017 -- Antalya, TURKEYEken, Aykut/0000-0002-7023-7930WOS: 000413813100133Fibromyalgia (FM) is a widespread painful disease that has a 2-8% prevalence. Its diagnosis is generally performed by American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria. However, these criteria are subjective and their reliability is controversial. In this study, painful stimulation and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) were applied to both hands of healthy controls and FM patients and hemodynamic responses was measured by using Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). Features extracted from hemodynamic responses and self-report data were used with 4 different classifiers and 14 different parameters. In conclusion, classification performed by objective data collected from fNIRS signals (95%) gave higher accuracy than classification performed by subjective self-report data (83%). This study showed that painful stimulation and TENS application can be used to diagnose Fibromyalgia disease by using fNIRS.Turk Telekom, Arcelik A S, Aselsan, ARGENIT, HAVELSAN, NETAS, Adresgezgini, IEEE Turkey Sect, AVCR Informat Technologies, Cisco, i2i Syst, Integrated Syst & Syst Design, ENOVAS, FiGES Engn, MS Spektral, Istanbul Teknik UnivHigher Education Council (Yuksekogretim Kurumu - YOK)We would like to thank to Cemre Topcu for her help during data collection, This study was supported by Higher Education Council (Yuksekogretim Kurumu - YOK)

Differential Efficiency Of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation In Dominant Versus Nondominant Hands In Fibromyalgia: Placebo-Controlled Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), modulation of hemodynamic responses by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) during delivery of nociceptive stimulation was investigated in fibromyalgia (FM) patients and healthy controls for both hands. Two experiments were conducted: (1) median nerve stimulation with TENS and (2) painful stimulation using electronic von Frey filaments with TENS/placebo TENS. Mean Delta HbO(2) brain activity was compared across groups and conditions using factorial ANOVA. Dominant (right) hand stimulation indicated significant interactions between group and condition in both hemispheres. Post hoc results revealed that FM patients showed an increased activation in "pain + TENS" condition compared to the "pain + placebo TENS" condition while the brain activity patterns for these conditions in controls were reversed. Left-hand stimulation resulted in similar TENS effects (reduced activation for "pain + TENS" than " pain + placebo TENS") in both groups. TENS effects in FM patients might be manipulated by the stimulation side. While the nondominant hand was responsive to TENS treatment, the dominant hand was not. These results indicate that stimulation side might be an effective factor in FM treatment by using TENS. Future studies are needed to clarify the underlying mechanism for these findings. (c) 2017 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).WoSScopu

Association of Fine Motor Loss and Allodynia in Fibromyalgia: An fNIRS Study

Recent studies showed that fine motor control dysfunction was observed in fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome as well as allodynia. However, brain signatures of this association still remain unclear. In this study, finger tapping task (FTT) and median nerve stimulation (MNS) were applied to both hands of 15 FM patients and healthy controls (HC) to understand this relationship. Hemodynamic activity was measured simultaneously using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Experiments were analyzed separately by using 2x2 repeated measures ANOVA. Results for the FTT experiment revealed that HC showed higher activity than FM patients in bilateral superior parietal gyrus (SPG), left supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and right somatosensory cortex (SI). Furthermore, right-hand FTT resulted in higher activity than left-hand FTT in left SPG, left SI and right motor cortex (MI). In the MNS experiment, FM patients showed higher activity than HC in bilateral SPG, right SMG, right SI and right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Negative correlation was observed in left SPG between FTT and MNS activities. Besides, MNS activity in left SPG was negatively correlated with left-hand pain threshold.This study revealed that left SPG might be an important indicator to associate fine motor loss and allodynia in FM

Effect of a Social Defeat Experience on Prefrontal Activity in Schizophrenia

The social defeat (SD) hypothesis of schizophrenia posits that repeated experiences of SD may lead to sensitization of the mesolimbic dopaminergic system and to precipitation of psychosis. Based on previous definitions adapted to a human experimental paradigm, we prepared a computer simulation of SD to mimic this subjective experience. We measured prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity in subjects with schizophrenia and healthy controls during exposure to a single SD experience with functional near infrared spectroscopy. PFC activity declined in both groups. Compared with the control condition. SD exposure was associated with a broader decline in left ventromedial, right medial and right lateral PFC. activity in healthy controls (n = 5), and a sharper decline in right ventrolateral PFC activity in subjects with schizophrenia (n=25). The activity in the right ventrolateral PFC, was significantly lower in patients compared with controls. This may be due to a deficiency in emotion regulation or self-control, or it may be related to impaired empathy in schizophrenia. Different patterns of brain activity during the SD experience in subjects with schizophrenia versus healthy controls may provide indirect evidence regarding the SD hypothesis of schizophrenia. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved,Wo

Major Depresif Bozukluğu Olan Türk Hastalarda 5-HTTLPR Polimorfizmin ve Sitalopram Yanıtı Arasındaki İlişkisi

Bu çalışmanın amacı, serotonin transporter geni bağlantılı polimorfik bölgenin (5-HTTLPR) genetik polimorfizmini ve bunun majör depresif bozukluğu olan Türk hastalarda sitalopram tedavisine yanıt ve tedavinin yan etkileriyle ilişkisini araştırmaktır. Çalışma, 4 ile 6 hafta boyunca 10-40 mg/gün sitalopram kullanmış 51 hastadan oluşmuştur. Klinik belirtiler 4 ve/veya 6 haftada 17 maddelik Hamilton Depresyon Derecelendirme (HAMD-17) ölçeği, Klinik Global İzlenim (KGİ) ve UKU Yan Etki Değerlendirme ölçekleri (UKU) ile değerlendirildi. 5-HTTLPRL/S polimorfizmi yavaşlama-polimeraz zincir reaksiyonu yöntemi ile belirlenmiştir. Elli bir hastanın, 13'ü (% 26) LL genotip, 21'i (% 41) LS genotip, 17'si (% 33) ise SS genotipli idi. S aleline karşı L allelin odds oranından dolayı, istatistiksel olarak anlamlı olmamasına rağmen L alleli daha iyi yanıt verme ile ilişkili görünmektedir. KGI-Şiddet ölçeği açısından, 6. haftada LS genotipe karşı LL genotipi daha yüksek riske sahipti (P<0.05). Öte yandan, bu kıyaslamının dışında 4. ve/veya 6. haftada genotip dağılımlarına göre KGİ-Şiddet ve İyileşme ve UKU ölçeklerinde önemli farklılık bulunmamaktadır. Ancak, bu bulguların daha fazla araştırılması ve doğrulanması gerekmektedir.The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the genetic polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) and the response to citalopram treatment and side effects in Turkish patients with major depressive disorder. The study involved 51 patients who received 10-40 mg/day of citalopram for 4 to 6 weeks. Clinical symptoms were evaluated by the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating (HAMD-17) scale, Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and UKU side effect rating scale (UKU) at weeks 4 and/or 6. The 5-HTTLPRL/S polymorphism was determined by slowdown-polymerase chain reaction method. Of the fifty-one patients, 13 (26%) were the LL genotype, 21 (41%) were the LS genotype, 17 (33%) were the SS genotype. L allele seems to be associated with better response due to odds ratio for L allele versus S allele despite statistically insignificant. In terms of CGI-Severity scale, The LL genotype versus the LS genotype had a higher risk at the week 6 (P&lt;0.05). On the other hand, apart from this comparison, there is no significant difference in CGI-Severity and Improvement and UKU scales according to the distribution of genotypes at week 4 and/or 6. However, these findings surely need further investigation and confirmation

Genotype and Allele Frequency of CYP3A4-392A > G in Turkish Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

OZEL-KIZIL, ERGUVAN TUGBA/0000-0001-9657-1382; ozguven, halise/0000-0002-9355-2757; Suzen, Sinan/0000-0003-1779-5850WOS: 000438973100013PubMed: 32454661Objectives: Genetic polymorphisms may help for individualized drug dosing and improved therapeutics. CYP3A4 is responsible for the metabolism of more than 50% of the commonly used drugs and metabolizes typical antipsychotic medications and antidepressant drugs. The objective of the study was to assess the genotype and allele frequencies of CYP3A4 -392A>G in Turkish patients with major depressive disorder receiving any SSRIs and to compare these results with the frequencies of other ethnic groups. Materials and Methods: Genotyping analyses of CYP3A4 -3921>G was conducted on 84 Turkish patients using the PCR-RFLP technique. Results: The allele frequencies were found as 0.982 (A) and 0.018 (G) for CYP3A4 -392A>G. The genotype frequencies were determined as 0.976 (AA), 0.012 (AG), and 0.012 (GG). The genotype frequencies were consistent with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Conclusion: The genotype and allele frequencies of CYP3A4 -392A>G were determined to be low in Turkish patients with major depressive disorder receiving SSRIs. Furthermore, the results of the study were compared with those of other ethnic groups and they displayed pronounced differences among other ethnic groups, especially black subjects.Scientific and Technological Research Council of TurkeyTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [109S147]This work was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Project: 109S147)