Neural processing of emotional facial stimuli in specific phobia: An fMRI study

Background Patients with specific phobia (SP) show altered brain activation when confronted with phobia-specific stimuli. It is unclear whether this pathogenic activation pattern generalizes to other emotional stimuli. This study addresses this question by employing a well-powered sample while implementing an established paradigm using nonspecific aversive facial stimuli. Methods N = 111 patients with SP, spider subtype, and N = 111 healthy controls (HCs) performed a supraliminal emotional face-matching paradigm contrasting aversive faces versus shapes in a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging scanner. We performed region of interest (ROI) analyses for the amygdala, the insula, and the anterior cingulate cortex using univariate as well as machine-learning-based multivariate statistics based on this data. Additionally, we investigated functional connectivity by means of psychophysiological interaction (PPI). Results Although the presentation of emotional faces showed significant activation in all three ROIs across both groups, no group differences emerged in all ROIs. Across both groups and in the HC > SP contrast, PPI analyses showed significant task-related connectivity of brain areas typically linked to higher-order emotion processing with the amygdala. The machine learning approach based on whole-brain activity patterns could significantly differentiate the groups with 73% balanced accuracy. Conclusions Patients suffering from SP are characterized by differences in the connectivity of the amygdala and areas typically linked to emotional processing in response to aversive facial stimuli (inferior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, middle cingulate, postcentral cortex, and insula). This might implicate a subtle difference in the processing of nonspecific emotional stimuli and warrants more research furthering our understanding of neurofunctional alteration in patients with SP.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Peer Reviewe

Apolipoprotein E Homozygous ε4 Allele Status: A Deteriorating Effect on Visuospatial Working Memory and Global Brain Structure

Theoretical background: The Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 genotype is known to be one of the strongest single-gene predictors for Alzheimer disease, which is characterized by widespread brain structural degeneration progressing along with cognitive impairment. The ε4 allele status has been associated with brain structural alterations and lower cognitive ability in non-demented subjects. However, it remains unclear to what extent the visuospatial cognitive domain is affected, from what age onward changes are detectable and if alterations may interact with cognitive deficits in major depressive disorder (MDD). The current work investigated the effect of APOE ε4 homozygosity on visuospatial working memory (vWM) capacity, and on hippocampal morphometry. Furthermore, potential moderating roles of age and MDD were assessed.Methods: A sample of n = 31 homozygous ε4 carriers was contrasted with n = 31 non-ε4 carriers in a cross-sectional design. The sample consisted of non-demented, young to mid-age participants (mean age = 34.47; SD = 13.48; 51.6% female). Among them were n = 12 homozygous ε4 carriers and n = 12 non-ε4 carriers suffering from MDD (39%). VWM was assessed using the Corsi block-tapping task. Region of interest analyses of hippocampal gray matter density and volume were conducted using voxel-based morphometry (CAT12), and Freesurfer, respectively.Results: Homozygous ε4 carriers showed significantly lower Corsi span capacity than non-ε4 carriers did, and Corsi span capacity was associated with higher gray matter density of the hippocampus. APOE group differences in hippocampal volume could be detected but were no longer present when controlling for total intracranial volume. Hippocampal gray matter density did not differ between APOE groups. We did not find any interaction effects of age and MDD diagnosis on hippocampal morphometry.Conclusion: Our results point toward a negative association of homozygous ε4 allele status with vWM capacity already during mid-adulthood, which emerges independently of MDD diagnosis and age. APOE genotype seems to be associated with global brain structural rather than hippocampus specific alterations in young- to mid-age participants

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

We never sleep

Le pouvoir de fascination des récits d’espionnage constitue depuis toujours une source d’inspiration artistique, on ne s’étonnera donc pas de voir tant d’artistes du monde entier traiter dans leurs œuvres des stratégies du secret. Car le charme glamour avec lequel les espionnes et les espions sont présentés dans la culture populaire n’a d’égal que la nature explosive pour la société des informations qu’ils recueillent clandestinement. Si des individus ou des états ont été par le passé espionnés par des gouvernements, ce sont les citoyens à l’ère de la communication numérique qui rendent publics les secrets d’état, ou les lanceurs d’alerte qui dénoncent l’espionnage de la population par son gouvernement. Les artistes contemporains de leur côté traitent dans leurs œuvres différentes composantes de l’espionnage tels la surveillance, la paranoïa, la menace et le camouflage, la cryptographie, la manipulation, le sang-froid et la trahison. De multiples stratégies artistiques et objets surprenants présentent « l’âge d’or » de l’espionnage pendant la Guerre froide et la manière dont il est aujourd’hui jugé à la lumière des médias

Smartphone-Based Self-Reports of Depressive Symptoms Using the Remote Monitoring Application in Psychiatry (ReMAP): Interformat Validation Study

Background: Smartphone-based symptom monitoring has gained increased attention in psychiatric research as a cost-efficient tool for prospective and ecologically valid assessments based on participants’ self-reports. However, a meaningful interpretation of smartphone-based assessments requires knowledge about their psychometric properties, especially their validity. Objective: The goal of this study is to systematically investigate the validity of smartphone-administered assessments of self-reported affective symptoms using the Remote Monitoring Application in Psychiatry (ReMAP). Methods: The ReMAP app was distributed to 173 adult participants of ongoing, longitudinal psychiatric phenotyping studies, including healthy control participants, as well as patients with affective disorders and anxiety disorders; the mean age of the sample was 30.14 years (SD 11.92). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and single-item mood and sleep information were assessed via the ReMAP app and validated with non–smartphone-based BDI scores and clinician-rated depression severity using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Results: We found overall high comparability between smartphone-based and non–smartphone-based BDI scores (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.921; P<.001). Smartphone-based BDI scores further correlated with non–smartphone-based HDRS ratings of depression severity in a subsample (r=0.783; P<.001; n=51). Higher agreement between smartphone-based and non–smartphone-based assessments was found among affective disorder patients as compared to healthy controls and anxiety disorder patients. Highly comparable agreement between delivery formats was found across age and gender groups. Similarly, smartphone-based single-item self-ratings of mood correlated with BDI sum scores (r=–0.538; P<.001; n=168), while smartphone-based single-item sleep duration correlated with the sleep item of the BDI (r=–0.310; P<.001; n=166). Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that smartphone-based monitoring of depressive symptoms via the ReMAP app provides valid assessments of depressive symptomatology and, therefore, represents a useful tool for prospective digital phenotyping in affective disorder patients in clinical and research applications

Brain structural correlates of alexithymia in patients with major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND: Alexithymia is a risk factor for major depressive disorder (MDD) and has been associated with diminished treatment response. Neuroimaging studies have revealed structural aberrations of the anterior cingulate cortex and the fusiform gyrus in healthy controls with high levels of alexithymia. The present study tried to corroborate and extend these results to patients with MDD compared with healthy controls. METHODS: We investigated the relationship between alexithymia, depression and grey matter volume in 63 patients with MDD (mean age ± standard deviation = 42.43 yr ± 11.91; 33 female) and 46 healthy controls (45.35 yr ± 8.37; 22 female). We assessed alexithymia using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. We conducted an alexithymia × group analysis of covariance; we used a region-of-interest approach, including the fusiform gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex, and conducted whole brain analysis using voxelbased morphometry. RESULTS: Our analysis revealed a significant alexithymia × group interaction in the fusiform gyrus (left, pFWE = 0.031; right, pFWE = 0.010). Higher alexithymia scores were associated with decreased grey matter volume in patients with MDD (pFWE = 0.009), but with increased grey matter volume of the fusiform gyrus in healthy controls (pFWE = 0.044). We found no significant main effects in the region-of-interest analysis. LIMITATIONS: Owing to the naturalistic nature of our study, patients with MDD and healthy controls differed significantly in their alexithymia scores. CONCLUSION: Our results showed the fusiform gyrus as a correlate of alexithymia. We also found differences related to alexithymia between patients with MDD and healthy controls in the fusiform gyrus. Our study encourages research related to the transition from risk to MDD in people with alexithymia

Association of hospitalization with structural brain alterations in patients with affective disorders over nine years

Abstract Repeated hospitalizations are a characteristic of severe disease courses in patients with affective disorders (PAD). To elucidate how a hospitalization during a nine-year follow-up in PAD affects brain structure, a longitudinal case-control study (mean [SD] follow-up period 8.98 [2.20] years) was conducted using structural neuroimaging. We investigated PAD (N = 38) and healthy controls (N = 37) at two sites (University of Münster, Germany, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland). PAD were divided into two groups based on the experience of in-patient psychiatric treatment during follow-up. Since the Dublin-patients were outpatients at baseline, the re-hospitalization analysis was limited to the Münster site (N = 52). Voxel-based morphometry was employed to examine hippocampus, insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and whole-brain gray matter in two models: (1) group (patients/controls)×time (baseline/follow-up) interaction; (2) group (hospitalized patients/not-hospitalized patients/controls)×time interaction. Patients lost significantly more whole-brain gray matter volume of superior temporal gyrus and temporal pole compared to HC (p FWE = 0.008). Patients hospitalized during follow-up lost significantly more insular volume than healthy controls (p FWE = 0.025) and more volume in their hippocampus compared to not-hospitalized patients (p FWE = 0.023), while patients without re-hospitalization did not differ from controls. These effects of hospitalization remained stable in a smaller sample excluding patients with bipolar disorder. PAD show gray matter volume decline in temporo-limbic regions over nine years. A hospitalization during follow-up comes with intensified gray matter volume decline in the insula and hippocampus. Since hospitalizations are a correlate of severity, this finding corroborates and extends the hypothesis that a severe course of disease has detrimental long-term effects on temporo-limbic brain structure in PAD

Association of brain white matter microstructure with cognitive performance in major depressive disorder and healthy controls: a diffusion-tensor imaging study

Cognitive deficits are central attendant symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) with a crucial impact in patients' everyday life. Thus, it is of particular clinical importance to understand their pathophysiology. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible relationship between brain structure and cognitive performance in MDD patients in a well-characterized sample. N = 1007 participants (