Normal Pursuit-System Limitations— First Discovered in Infantile Nystagmus Syndrome

Infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) patients occasionally have impaired pursuit. Model and patient data identified relative timing between target motion initiation and INS-waveform saccades as the cause. We used a new stimulus, the “step-pause-ramp” (SPR), to induce saccades proximal to target-velocity onset and test their effect on normal pursuit. Our OMS model predicted that proximal saccades impaired normal ramp responses, as in INS. Eye movements of subjects were calibrated monocularly and recorded binocularly; data were analyzed using OMtools software. Proximal saccades caused lengthened target acquisition times and steady-state position errors, confirming the model’s predictions. Spontaneous pursuit oscillation supported the hypothesis that INS is caused by loss of smooth-pursuit damping. Snooth pursuit may be impaired by saccades overlapping targetmotion onset

The neurodevelopmental continuum towards a neurodevelopmental gradient hypothesis

In contrast to the categorical approach of the current nosographic system, in the last decades increasing literature is suggesting that psychiatric disorders may be better conceptualized as a continuum, which would feature as a common basis a neurodevelopmental alteration. The “neurodevelopmental continuum” (NC) is a theoretical framework supported by several empirical evidences in multiple fields of research. The conceptual core of this model is that an alteration in brain development, the expression of which would be determined by the intertwined relationships between genetic and environmental factors, may constitute the common underpinning of different kinds of mental disorders. Moreover, the NC theory also implies that psychiatric conditions could be placed along a gradient, where autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with intellectual disabilities would be the most severe expression of an alteration of the “social brain development”, followed by other DSM-5 neurodevelopmental phenotypes characterized by a milder impairment. This model would subsequently include, along a decreasing neurodevelopmental gradient, other psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and mood disorders as well as eating and anxiety disorders, encompassing also non-psychopathological personality traits. From a cognitive point of view, the link between neurodevelopmental alterations and vulnerability towards psychopathology could be identified in an impairment of the proprioceptive experience and of the interoceptive inference, which would prevent the patient to properly define his own subjectivity and to adequately place him-self in the relational space. The conceptual framework proposed here may allow significant changes in both research and clinical settings, eventually leading to improve therapeutic and prevention strategies

Are lay people good at recognising the symptoms of schizophrenia?

©2013 Erritty, Wydell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the general public’s perception of schizophrenia symptoms and the need to seekhelp for symptoms. The recognition (or ‘labelling’) of schizophrenia symptoms, help-seeking behaviours and public awareness of schizophrenia have been suggested as potentially important factors relating to untreated psychosis. Method: Participants were asked to rate to what extent they believe vignettes describing classic symptoms (positive and negative) of schizophrenia indicate mental illness. They were also asked if the individuals depicted in the vignettes required help or treatment and asked to suggest what kind of help or treatment. Results: Only three positive symptoms (i.e., Hallucinatory behaviour, Unusual thought content and Suspiciousness) of schizophrenia were reasonably well perceived (above 70%) as indicating mental illness more than the other positive or negative symptoms. Even when the participants recognised that the symptoms indicated mental illness, not everyone recommended professional help. Conclusion: There may be a need to improve public awareness of schizophrenia and psychosis symptoms, particularly regarding an awareness of the importance of early intervention for psychosis

Concurrent and Predictive Relationships Between Compulsive Internet Use and Substance Use: Findings from Vocational High School Students in China and the USA

Purpose: Compulsive Internet Use (CIU) has increasingly become an area of research among process addictions. Largely based on data from cross-sectional studies, a positive association between CIU and substance use has previously been reported. This study presents gender and country-specific longitudinal findings on the relationships between CIU and substance use. Methods: Data were drawn from youth attending non-conventional high schools, recruited into two similarly implemented trials conducted in China and the USA. The Chinese sample included 1,761 students (49% male); the US sample included 1,182 students (57% male) with over half (65%) of the US youth being of Hispanic ethnicity. Path analyses were applied to detect the concurrent and predictive relationships between baseline and one-year follow-up measures of CIU level, 30-day cigarette smoking, and 30-day binge drinking. Results: (1) CIU was not positively related with substance use at baseline. (2) There was a positive predictive relationship between baseline CIU and change in substance use among female, but not male students. (3) Relationships between concurrent changes in CIU and substance use were also found among female, but not male students. (4) Baseline substance use did not predict an increase in CIU from baseline to 1-year follow-up. Conclusions: While CIU was found to be related to substance use, the relationship was not consistently positive. More longitudinal studies with better measures for Internet Addiction are needed to ascertain the detailed relationship between Internet addiction and substance use

Robot-assisted image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation for somatotopic mapping of the motor cortex: a clinical pilot study

Shape and exact location of motor cortical areas varies among individuals. The exact knowledge of these locations is crucial for planning of neurosurgical procedures. In this study, we have used robot-assisted image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (Ri-TMS) to elicit MEP response recorded for individual muscles and reconstruct functional motor maps of the primary motor cortex

Meta-Review of Metanalytic Studies with Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for the Treatment of Major Depression

BACKGROUND: Major Depression (MD) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD) are worldwide leading causes of disability and therapeutic strategies for these impairing and prevalent conditions include pharmacological augmentation strategies and brain stimulation techniques. In this perspective, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique with a favorable profile of tolerability which, despite being recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with medication-refractory unipolar depression, still raises some doubts about most effective parameters of stimulation.METHODS: A literature search was performed using PubMed for the years 2001 through February 2011 in order to review meta-analytic studies assessing efficacy and safety issues for rTMS in depressive disorders. Fifteen meta-analyses were identified and critically discussed in order to provide an updated and comprehensive overview of the topic with specific emphasis on potentially optimal parameters of stimulation.RESULTS: First meta-analyses on the efficacy of rTMS for the treatment of MD and TRD have shown mixed results. On the other hand, more recent meta-analytic studies seem to support the antidepressant efficacy of the technique to a greater extent, also in light of longer periods of stimulation (e.g. > 2 weeks).CONCLUSION: rTMS seems to be an effective and safe brain stimulation technique for the treatment of medication refractory depression. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to better define specific stimulation-related issues, such as duration of treatment as well as durability of effects and predictors of response

A Review of Pharmacologic Treatment for Compulsive Buying Disorder

At present, no treatment recommendations can be made for compulsive buying disorder. Recent studies have found evidence for the efficacy of psychotherapeutic options, but less is known regarding the best pharmacologic treatment. The purpose of this review is to present and analyze the available published evidence on the pharmacological treatment of compulsive buying disorder. To achieve this, we conducted a review of studies focusing on the pharmacological treatment of compulsive buying by searching the PubMed/MEDLINE database. Selection criteria were applied, and 21 studies were identified. Pharmacological classes reported included antidepressants, mood stabilizers, opioid antagonists, second-generation antipsychotics, and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists. We found only placebo-controlled trials for fluvoxamine; none showed effectiveness against placebo. Three open-label trials reported clinical improvement with citalopram; one was followed by a double-blind discontinuation. Escitalopram was effective in an open-label trial but did not show efficacy in the double-blind phase. Memantine was identified as effective in a pilot open-label study. Fluoxetine, bupropion, nortriptyline, clomipramine, topiramate and naltrexone were only reported to be effective in clinical cases. According to the available literature, there is no evidence to propose a specific pharmacologic agent for compulsive buying disorder. Future research is required for a better understanding of both pathogenesis and treatment of this disorder.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Alexithymia may explain the relationship between autistic traits and eating disorder psychopathology

Background: Autistic people are disproportionately vulnerable to anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders (ED), and within the general population, autistic traits correlate with ED psychopathology. A putative mechanism which may underpin this heightened risk is alexithymia, a difficulty identifying and describing emotional states which is observed in both autism and ED. In two experiments with independent non-clinical samples, we explored whether alexithymia might mediate the heightened risk of eating psychopathology in individuals high in autistic traits. Methods: Our first experiment used the PROCESS macro for SPSS to examine relationships between alexithymia (measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20)), autistic traits (autism quotient (AQ)), and eating psychopathology (Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26)) in 121 participants. Our second experiment (n = 300) replicated and furthered this analysis by examining moderating effects of sex and controlling for anxiety and depression as covariates. We also included an additional performance-based measure of alexithymia, the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). Results: Study 1 suggested that TAS-20 scores mediated the relationship between heightened autistic traits and eating psychopathology. Replication and further scrutiny of this finding, in study 2, revealed that this mediation effect was partial and specific to the female participants in this sample. The mediation effect appeared to be carried by the difficulty identifying feelings subscale of the TAS-20, even when depression and anxiety were controlled for. LEAS scores, however, were not significantly related to autistic traits or eating psychopathology. Limitations: Cross-sectional data prevents any conclusions around the direction and causality of relationships between alexithymia, autistic traits, and eating psychopathology (alongside depression and anxiety), necessitating longitudinal research. Our non-clinical sample was predominantly Caucasian undergraduate students, so it remains to be seen if these results would extrapolate to clinical and/or autistic samples. Divergence between the TAS-20 and LEAS raises crucial questions regarding the construct validity of these measures. Conclusions: Our findings with respect to autistic traits suggest that alexithymia could partially explain the prevalence of ED in autistic people and may as such be an important consideration in the pathogenesis and treatment of ED in autistic and non-autistic people alike. Further research with clinical samples is critical to explore these ideas. Differences between men and women, furthermore, emphasize the importance of looking for sexspecific as well as generic risk factors in autistic and non-autistic men and women

A RELAÇÃO ENTRE PREÇO E DEMANDA POR JOGOS DE FUTEBOL NO BRASIL

RESUMO A indústria do futebol chega a movimentar em todo mundo, por ano, de acordo com Belo e Paolozzi (2013), um valor entre US$400 bilhões e US$ 1 trilhão. Como atividade econômica, tem atraído a atenção de diversos estudos acadêmicos (DOBSON e GODDARD, 2001; SOUZA, 2004 e MADALOZZO, 2008). Entre os resultados obtidos nesses estudos, tem-se divergências com relação à variável preço nas equações de demanda por futebol. Dessa forma, este estudo objetiva identificar a relação entre preço e demanda por futebol. Foram utilizados dados secundários a partir do IBGE, da CBF e da Pluri Consultoria. A pesquisa faz uma análise a partir de 380 jogos do campeonato brasileiro. Para estimação da demanda utilizou-se o método de MQO. O modelo teve como variável dependente o público pagante presente nos estádios. Os resultados evidenciaram que a função demanda é não homogênea