Higher autonomic activation predicts better performance in Iowa Gambling Task

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the relationship between the autonomic nervous system basal state and performance in decision making tasks. Background: The link between performance in decision making tasks and acute changes in autonomic parameters during their execution has been extensively investigated. However, there is lacking evidence regarding the relationship between decision making and basal autonomic state. Methods: Resting autonomic nervous system activity in 18 healthy subjects was assessed by means of heart rate variability (HRV) analysis before conducting three different decision making tasks: an ambiguous one, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT); a test that assesses risk taking behavior, the Game of Dice Task (GDT); and a test that assesses reversal learning behavior, the Reversal Learning Task (RLT). The tasks were administered in a random fashion. Results: There was a direct correlation between the IGT net score and the resting low frequency HRV (r= 0.73; p<0.001), which is strongly influenced by sympathetic activity. No correlations were found between HRV and the GDT net score or the RLT last error trial. Conclusions: The results are compatible with the idea that a higher basal activation of autonomic nervous system is beneficial for subsequent decision making process

Hemispheric specialization of mood processing is abnormal in patients with schizophrenia

the present results offer evidence on abnormal lateralization of brain activity associated to mood processing in schizophrenia. To our knowledge, lateralized mood processing has not been previously studied in this disorder. The present observation adds to burgeoning evidence on a widespread deficit of brain lateralization in psychosis, probably underlying language-related abnormalities such as delusions and auditory hallucinations, social cognitive deficits, and motor dexterity.Fil: Drucaroff, Lucas Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Costanzo, Elsa Y.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Castro, Mariana Nair. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Ortiz Villafañe, Manuel. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Wainsztein, Agustina E.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Abulafia, Carolina Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Duarte Abritta, Bárbara. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Villarreal, Mirta Fabiana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Guinjoan, Salvador Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Brain activation induced by psychological stress in patients with schizophrenia

Environmental influences are critical for the expression of genes putatively related to the behavioral and cognitive phenotypes of schizophrenia. Among such factors, psychosocial stress has been proposed to play a major role in the expression of symptoms. However, it is unsettled how stress interacts with pathophysiological pathways to produce the disease. We studied 21 patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls aged 18 to 50 years with 3T-fMRI, in which a period of 6 min of resting state acquisition was followed by a block design, with three blocks of 1-min control-task, 1-min stress-task and 1-min rest after-task. Self-report of stress and PANSS were measured. Limbic structures were activated in schizophrenia patients by simple tasks and remained active during, and shortly after stress. In controls, stress-related brain activation was more time-focused, and restricted to the stressful task itself. Negative symptom severity was inversely related to activation of anterior cingulum and orbitofrontal cortex. Results might represent the neurobiological aspect of hyper-reactivity to normal stressful situations previously described in schizophrenia, thus providing evidence on the involvement of limbic areas in the response to stress in schizophrenia. Patients present a pattern of persistent limbic activation probably contributing to hypervigilance and subsequent psychotic thought distortions.Fil: Castro, Mariana Nair. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Salud Mental; ArgentinaFil: Villarreal, Mirta Fabiana. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bolotinsky, N.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Papávero, E.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Goldschmidt, M.G.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Costanzo, E.Y.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Salud Mental; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Drucaroff, Lucas Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Salud Mental; ArgentinaFil: Wainsztein, A.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: de Achaval, Delfina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Salud Mental; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Pahissa, J.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Bär, K.-J.. Friedrich-Schiller-Universität; AlemaniaFil: Nemeroff, C.B.. University of Miami; Estados UnidosFil: Guinjoan, Salvador Martín. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Salud Mental; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentin

Brain Structural and Amyloid Correlates of Recovery From Semantic Interference in Cognitively Normal Individuals With or Without Family History of Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease.

Failure to recover from proactive semantic interference (frPSI) has been shown to be more sensitive than traditional cognitive measures in different populations with preclinical Alzheimer's disease. The authors sought to characterize the structural and amyloid in vivo correlates of frPSI in cognitively normal offspring of patients with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (O-LOAD), compared with individuals without a family history of neurodegenerative disorders (CS). The authors evaluated the LASSI-L, a test tapping frPSI and other types of semantic interference and delayed recall on the RAVLT, along with 3-T MRI volumetry and positron emission tomography Pittsburgh compound B, in 27 O-LOAD and 18 CS with equivalent age, sex, years of education, ethnicity, premorbid intelligence, and mood symptoms. Recovery from proactive semantic interference (frPSI) and RAVLT delayed recall were lower in O-LOAD cases. Structural correlates of both cognitive dimensions were different in CS and O-LOAD, involving brain regions concerned with autonomic, motor, and motivational control in the former, and regions traditionally implicated in Alzheimer's disease in the latter. Better recovery from retroactive semantic interference was associated with less amyloid load in the left temporal lobe in O-LOAD but not CS. In middle-aged cognitively normal individuals with one parent affected with LOAD, frPSI was impaired compared with persons without a family history of LOAD. The neuroimaging correlates of such cognitive measure in those with one parent with LOAD involve Alzheimer's-relevant brain regions even at a relatively young age.status: publishe

Failure to recover from proactive semantic interference and abnormal limbic connectivity in asymptomatic, middle-aged offspring of patients with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease

Background: We have obtained previous evidence of limbic dysfunction in middle-aged, asymptomatic offspring of lateonset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) patients, and failure to recover from proactive semantic interference has been shown to be a sensitive cognitive test in other groups at risk for LOAD. Objective: To assess the effects of specific proactive semantic interference deficits as they relate to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neocortical and limbic functional connectivity in middle aged offspring of individuals with LOAD (O-LOAD) and age-equivalent controls. Methods:We examined 21O-LOADand 20 controls without family history of neurodegenerative disorders (CS) on traditional measures of cognitive functioning and the LASSI-L, a novel semantic interference test uniquely sensitive to the failure to recover from proactive interference (frPSI). Cognitive tests then were correlated to fMRI connectivity of seeds located in entorhinal cortex and anterodorsal thalamic nuclei among O-LOAD and CS participants. Results: Relative to CS, O-LOAD participants evidenced lower connectivity between entorhinal cortex and orbitofrontal, anterior cingulate, and anterior temporal cortex. In the offspring of LOAD patients, LASSI-L measures of frPSI were inversely associated with connectivity between anterodorsal thalamus and contralateral posterior cingulate. Intrusions on the task related to frPSI were inversely correlated with a widespread connectivity network involving hippocampal, insular, posterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, along with precunei and anterior thalamus in this group. Different patterns of connectivity associated with frPSI were observed among controls. Conclusion: The present results suggest that both semantic interference deficits and connectivity abnormalities might reflect limbic circuit dysfunction as a very early clinical signature of LOAD pathology, as previously demonstrated for other limbic phenotypes, such as sleep and circadian alterations.Fil: Sánchez, Stella M. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Servicio de Psiquiatría; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, Stella M. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, Stella M. Universidad Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Abulafia, Carolina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Servicio de Psiquiatría; ArgentinaFil: Abulafia, Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Abulafia, Carolina. Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Ciencas Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Duarte-Abritta, Bárbara. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Servicio de Psiquiatría; ArgentinaFil: Ladrón de Guevara, M. Soledad. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Servicio de Psiquiatría; ArgentinaFil: Ladrón de Guevara, M. Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Castro, Mariana N. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Servicio de Psiquiatría; ArgentinaFil: Castro, Mariana N. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Castro, Mariana N. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de psiquiatría y salud mental; ArgentinaFil: Drucaroff, Lucas J. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Servicio de Psiquiatría; ArgentinaFil: Drucaroff, Lucas J. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Drucaroff, Lucas J. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de psiquiatría y salud mental; ArgentinaFil: Sevlever, Gustavo. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Departamento de Neuropatología y Biología Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Nemeroff, Charles B. University of Miami. Miller School of Medicine. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Center on Aging; Estados UnidosFil: Vigo, Daniel E. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Vigo, Daniel E. Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Ciencas Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Loewenstein, David A. University of Miami. Miller School of Medicine. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Center on Aging; Estados UnidosFil: Villarreal, Mirta F. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Servicio de Psiquiatría; ArgentinaFil: Villarreal, Mirta F. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Villarreal, Mirta F. Universidad Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Guinjoan, Salvador M. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Servicio de Psiquiatría; ArgentinaFil: Guinjoan, Salvador M. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Guinjoan, Salvador M. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de psiquiatría y salud mental; ArgentinaFil: Guinjoan, Salvador M. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología. Neurofisiología I; Argentin

Heart Rate Variability: A Tool to Explore Autonomic Nervous System Activity in Health and Disease

It is accepted that several biological (genetic, physiological), psychological (personality, mood), social (family, work) and ecological (living environment) factors, interact to allow the preservation of quality of life and health. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is structural and rhythmically interfaced between forebrain, internal and external environments, to regulate energy, matter and information exchanges, thus expressing the bio-psycho-social nature of the individual. During last year?s strong evidence has been produced that demonstrate the influence of the ANS into beat to beat fluctuations of cardiac heart period. Stephen Hales was the first in describing the association between respiratory cycle and heart rate. However, it was not until the second half of the XX century that subtle relations between ANS activity and heart rate variability (HRV) were systematically explored in several physiological conditions, including physical activity, sleep and stress. In addition, autonomic imbalance may configure a final common pathway to increased morbidity and mortality from a host of physical, such as metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease, and psychological conditions, like anxiety or depression. This chapter will focus on the physiological mechanisms underlying HRV, the methods for assessing it and the information that has provided about ANS activity in certain physiological and pathological situations.Fil: Vigo, Daniel Eduardo. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Nicola Siri, Leonardo. Universidad Tecnológica; UruguayFil: Cardinali, Daniel Pedro. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; Argentin