"An eye for an eye"?

Humans have evolved strong preferences for equity and fairness. Neuroimaging studies suggest that punishing unfairness is associated with the activation of a neural network comprising the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, the ventral striatum, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Here, we report the neuronal correlates of retribution and "forgiveness" in a scenario, in which individuals first acted as a recipient in an Ultimatum Game, and subsequently assumed the position of a proposer in a Dictator Game played against the same opponents as in the Ultimatum Game. Most subjects responded in a tit-for-tat fashion, which was accompanied by activation of the ventral striatum, corroborating previous findings that punishing unfair behaviour has a rewarding connotation. Subjects distinguished between the human opponent and computer condition by activation of the ventromedial PFC in the human condition, indicative of mentalising. A substantial number of subjects did not retaliate. Neurally, this "forgiveness" behaviour was associated with the activation of the right (and to a lesser degree left) DLPFC, a region that serves as a cognitive control region and thus may be involved in inhibiting emotional responses against unfairness

Kinematic analysis of handwriting movements in individuals with intellectual disabilities with and without obsessive compulsive symptoms

$\textbf {Theory/calculation:}$ Movement disorders such as disturbances of coordination, clumsiness, and hand-related stereotypies are a frequent phenomenon in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). Obsessive-compulsive symptoms are also common in persons with ID. Our aim was to investigate hand motor dysfunction in persons with ID with and without OCD, using a digitizing tablet and the kinematic analysis of handwriting and drawing movements. $\textbf {Methods:}$ We examinedthe hand motor performance of 23 individuals (12 males, 11 females, 42.6 $\pm$ 13.7 years old) with ID of heterogeneous aetiology. All subjects were required to write a sentence and draw circles under various conditions. Kinematic parameters were calculated to quantify hand motion. $\textbf {Results:}$ Individuals with ID exhibit serious hand motor impairments suggestive of bradykinesia, irregularity, and micrographia. More than half of our ID patients (60.9%) displayed obsessive-compulsive symptoms of moderate severity (Y-BOCS total score: 16.6 $\pm$ 8.3). Interestingly, the ID patients with OCD displayed smaller amplitudes of hand motor movements than did patients with no obsessive-compulsive symptoms, while differences observed in the writing and drawing concentric circles trials were significant. $\textbf {Conclusions:}$ The results of this pilot study support the use of kinematic analyses of handwriting movements to evaluate motor abnormalities in patients with ID and comorbid mental illnesses

Enhanced processing of painful emotions in patients with borderline personality disorder

Previous research has demonstrated that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are more sensitive to negative emotions and often show poor cognitive empathy, yet preserved or even superior emotional empathy. However, little is known about the neural correlates of empathy. Here, we examined empathy for pain in 20 patients with BPD and 19 healthy controls (HC) in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, which comprised an empathy for pain paradigm showing facial emotions prior to hands exposed to painful stimuli. We found a selectively enhanced activation of the right supramarginal gyrus for painful hand pictures following painful facial expressions in BPD patients, and lower activation to nonpainful pictures following angry expressions. Patients with BPD showed less activation in the left supramarginal gyrus when viewing angry facial expressions compared to HC, independent of the pain condition. Moreover, we found differential activation of the left anterior insula, depending on the preceding facial expression exclusively in patients. The findings suggest that empathy for pain becomes selectively enhanced, depending on the emotional context information in patients with BPD. Another preliminary finding was an attenuated response to emotions in patients receiving psychotropic medication compared to unmedicated patients. These effects need to be replicated in larger samples. Together, increased activation during the observation of painful facial expressions seems to reflect emotional hypersensitivity in BPD

P300 and delay-discounting in obsessive–compulsive disorder

Previous research showed that dysfunctions of fronto-striatal neural networks are implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Accordingly, patients with OCD showed altered performances during decision-making tasks. As P300, evoked by oddball paradigms, is suggested to be related to attentional and cognitive processes and generated in the medial temporal lobe and orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices, it is of special interest in OCD research. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate P300 in OCD and its associations with brain activity during decision-making: P300, evoked by an auditory oddball paradigm, was analysed in 19 OCD patients and 19 healthy controls regarding peak latency, amplitude and source density power in parietal cortex areas by sLORETA. Afterwards, using a fMRI paradigm, Blood–oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast imaging was conducted during a delay-discounting paradigm. We hypothesised differences between groups regarding P300 characteristics and associations with frontal activity during delay-discounting. The P300 did not differ between groups, however, the P300 latency over the P4 electrode correlated negatively with the NEO-FFI score openness to experience in patients with OCD. In healthy controls, P300 source density power correlated with activity in frontal regions when processing rewards, a finding which was absent in OCD patients. To conclude, associations of P300 with frontal brain activation during delay-discounting were found, suggesting a contribution of attentional or context updating processes. Since this association was absent in patients with OCD, the findings could be interpreted as being indeed related to dysfunctions of fronto-striatal neural networks in patients with OCD

Pareidolias and creativity in patients with mental disorders

$\bf Objective:$ Pareidolias are ilusionary misjudgments and are seen as the result of deliberately or unconsciously caused misinterpretations by the human brain, which tends to complete diffuse and apparently incomplete perceptual images. The psychopathological value of pareidolia in the context of neuropsychiatric diseases has, however, been little researched so far. $\bf Methods:$ In this pilot study, a total of 25 patients (mean age 43.3 years, SD 16.2) with an affective disorder or schizophrenic disease (ICD-10: F3.X or F2.X) and 25 healthy volunteers (mean age 46.1 years, SD 15.4) were compared for sociodemographic factors and psychometric findings, as well as pareidolias and creativity. $\bf Results:$ We found that the patients identified significantly fewer pareidolias than healthy controls ($\it p$ = 0.002) and that patients with schizophrenia, in particular, had a significantly lower hit rate ($\it p$ = 0.005). Across the whole group, there were clear positive correlations between pareidolia and high creativity, as well as personality traits such as impulsiveness/spontaneity, extraversion, and conscientiousness. $\bf Conclusions:$ Unexpectedly, having less nosology-specific features than individual specific properties such as creativity and extraversion, and especially openness and verbal intelligence, in patients with affective disorder or schizophrenia promotes the recognition of pareidolia as a specific form of illusionary misperception

Alterations of monetary reward and punishment processing in chronic cannabis users

Alterations in reward and punishment processing have been reported in adults suffering from long-term cannabis use. However, previous findings regarding the chronic effects of cannabis on reward and punishment processing have been inconsistent. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to reveal the neural correlates of reward and punishment processing in long-term cannabis users ($\it n$ = 15) and in healthy control subjects ($\it n$ = 15) with no history of drug abuse. For this purpose, we used the well-established Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task, a reliable experimental paradigm that allows the differentiation between anticipatory and consummatory aspects of reward and punishment processing. Regarding the gain anticipation period, no significant group differences were observed. In the left caudate and the left inferior frontal gyrus, cannabis users were – in contrast to healthy controls – not able to differentiate between the conditions feedback of reward and control. In addition, cannabis users showed stronger activations in the left caudate and the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus following feedback of no punishment as compared to healthy controls. We interpreted these deficits in dorsal striatal functioning as altered stimulus-reward or action-contingent learning in cannabis users. In addition, the enhanced lateral prefrontal activation in cannabis users that is related to non-punishing feedback may reflect a deficit in emotion regulation or cognitive reappraisal in these subjects