Demonstration of chewing-related areas in the brain via functional magnetic resonance imaging

Purpose: To localize and identify chewing-related areas and their connections with other centres in the human brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Material and methods: The paradigm of the present study was block designed. Spontaneous and controlled chewing with sugar-free gum was used as the main task in a 3-Tesla fMRI unit with a 32-channel birdcage coil. Our study population comprised 32 healthy volunteers. To determine possible intersections, we also put the rosary pulling (silent tell one's beads) movement in the fMRI protocol. The data analyses were performed with the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) toolbox integrated into the Matlab platform. Results: The superomedial part of the right cerebellum was activated during either pulling rosary beads or spontaneous chewing. This region, however, was not activated during controlled chewing. We did not find statistically significant activation or connection related to the brain stem. Conclusion: We have confirmed that the cerebellum plays an important role in chewing. However, we could not find a definite central pattern generator (CPG) in the brain stem, which has been hypothesized to underlie spontaneous chewing

HOW IS COGNITIVE CONTROL OF A SIMPLE MENTAL IMAGE ACHIEVED? AN fMRI STUDY

Cicek, Metehan/0000-0002-8782-2191; Atbasoglu, E. Cem/0000-0002-8211-6095WOS: 000260207200008PubMed: 18937119The aim of this study was to determine the brain regions associated with suppressing the image of an object. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during five mental tasks (imagining, suppressing, erasing, free thinking and resting) performed by the subjects. The analysis showed that the suppressing, erasing and imagining conditions all activated the parietal and prefrontal regions to a different extent. These results suggest that the regions associated with cognitive control were also activated while a simple mental process was performed. Additionally, the results showed that the parietal lobe is the key region for the suppression of a mental image.The Brain Research Organization (Turkey)This work was supported by The Brain Research Organization (Turkey). The authors thank the entire staff of the Integra Imaging Center where data were collected

Effects of comorbid anxiety disorders on the course of bipolar disorder-I

WOS: 000369972000009PubMed: 25765438Background and aims: Although comorbid anxiety disorders (AD) are quite frequent in bipolar disorders (BD), data on how this comorbidity affects BD are limited. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of comorbid AD in Turkish patients with bipolar disorder-I (BD-I) and the effects of comorbid AD on the course of BD-I. Methods: 114 patients with BD-I were included in the study. All patients were diagnosed by a psychiatrist. The patients were divided into two groups as BD-I patients with lifetime comorbid AD (BDI-CAD) or those without comorbid AD (BDI). Results: 37 (32.46%) patients had one or more comorbid lifetime AD. The numbers of admissions to the outpatient clinic within calendar year 2013 (P = 0.014), the number of lifetime mood episodes (P = 0.019) and the duration of BD (P = 0.007) were higher in the BDI-CAD group compared with the BDI group. There was a strong relationship between the duration of the disorder and the number of episodes (r = 0.583, P < 0.001). Partial correlation analyses showed that the number of admission to the outpatient clinic correlated significantly with the frequency of episodes (P = 0.007, r = 0.282). Conclusion : We found that the patients with BDI-CAD use the healthcare system more frequently than the BDI patients. This suggests that AD comorbidity may have a negative influence on the course of BD-I and it is a factor that should be considered in the clinical follow-up

A video-based eye pupil detection system for diagnosing bipolar disorder

WOS: 000326514200019Eye pupil detection systems have become increasingly popular in image processing and computer vision applications in medical systems. In this study, a video-based eye pupil detection system is developed for diagnosing bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a condition in which people experience changes in cognitive processes and abilities, including reduced attentional and executive capabilities and impaired memory. In order to detect these abnormal behaviors, a number of neuropsychological tests are also designed to measure attentional and executive abilities. The system acquires the position and radius information of eye pupils in video sequences using an active contour snake model with an ellipse-fitting algorithm. The system also determines the time duration of the eye pupils looking at certain regions and the duration of making decisions during the neuropsychological tests. The tests are applied to 2 different groups consisting of people with bipolar disorder (bipolar group) and people without bipolar disorder (control group) in order to mathematically model the people with bipolar disorder. The mathematical modeling is performed by using the support vector machines method. It is a supervised learning method that analyzes data and recognizes patterns for classification. The developed system acquires data from the being tested and it classifies the person as bipolar or nonbipolar based on the learned mathematical model

Magical ideation associated social cognition in adolescents: signs of a negative facial affect recognition deficit

WOS: 000357908800013PubMed: 26073064Background: Studies provide evidence for impaired social cognition in schizotypy and its association with negative symptoms. Cognitive features related to magical ideation a component of the positive dimension of schizotypy have been less investigated. We aimed to assess social cognitive functioning among adolescents with high magical ideation scores, mainly focusing on face and emotion recognition. Methods: 22 subjects with magical ideation scale scores above the cut off level and 22 controls with lowest scores from among 250 students screened with this scale were included in the study. A face and emotion recognition n-back test, the empathy quotient, theory of mind tests and the Physical Anhedonia Scale were applied to both magical ideation and control groups. Results: The magical ideation group performed significantly worse than controls on both face and emotion recognition tests. Emotion recognition performance was found to be affected by memory load, with sadness, among emotions, revealing a difference between the two groups. Empathy and theory of mind tests did not distinguish the magical ideation group from controls. Conclusion: Our findings provide evidence for a deficit in negative emotion recognition affected by memory load associated with magical ideation in adolescents. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Verbal, visuo-spatial memory and executive functions in OCD

WOS: 000209020900068Objective:There is concrete evidence of problems in the circuits between the frontal lobe, basal ganglions,thalamus, and the frontal lobe again in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). These circuits have important role in executive functions. However, OCD patients have been also shown that they had verbal and visuo-spatial memory problems. In addition studies have pointed out an impairment in, both verbal and visuo-spatial skills. In the light of these findings, it was aimed, in this study, to test whether the memory functions of OCD patients were significantly more impaired regardless of the type of information (verbal or visual-spatial) compared to the functions of the control group, and whether this impairment was associated with an impairment in the executive functions. Method and Results: Results obtained from 20 OCD and 20 healthy volunteers as controls, showed that OCD patients were worse than control subject in all cognitive domains that verbal memory, verbal executive functions, visuo-spatial memory and visuo-spatial executive functions. Also neither scores of the tests included in the battery (except between Wechsler Memory Scale logical memory and the trait anxiety) nor symptom severity inventories and the neuropsychological tests were not significantly correlated with each other in OCD group. Conclussion: Considering the fact that verbal ability is focused in the left hemisphere and visual-spatial ability, in the right hemisphere, and our findings suggest impairments in executive functions addressing to both functional areas, it is possible to say that there is not only a problem in intrahemispheric the prefrontal area - basal ganglions thalamus - prefrontal area circuits but there can be a problem in widespread interhemispheric relationship

Cortical motor areas show different reorganizational changes in adult patients with brachial plexus birth injury (BPBI)

Tuna, Zeynep/0000-0001-5139-2401WOS:000561435700005PubMed: 32416040Introduction Brachial plexus birth injury (BPBI) may cause permanent disability. It is recently thought to result from the (mal)adaptive reorganizational central nervous system problems. Methods In this study, adult patients with BPBI and age-matched healthy controls were compared for the cortical activity during action observation by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Results The cortical activity in patients was significantly weaker than in the control group (p < .05). Areas of difference were middle temporal gyrus, premotor area, and inferior parietal lobule. The signal change in these areas was significantly lower in the patient group (p < .05). Conclusions This study showed that the cortical activity in the associative motor regions was weaker in the patients while no primary region showed any difference. The results were concluded that there is a diversity in the neuroplastic changes between primary and associative motor areas. Clinically, neurorehabilitative interventions should be planned based on this diversity

The effect of temperament on the treatment adherence of bipolar disorder type I

WOS: 000370961500003PubMed: 26207348Background and aims: Treatment adherence is one of the most important factors that may determine treatment response in patients with bipolar disorders (BD). Many factors have been described to be associated with treatment adherence in BD. Temperament that can influence the course of BD will have an impact on treatment adherence. The aim of this study is to investigate temperament effect on treatment adherence in euthymic patients with BD-I. Methods: Eighty patients with BD-I participated in the study. A psychiatrist used the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-I Disorders to determine the diagnosis and co-morbidities. Hamilton Depression and Young Mania Rating Scale were used to detect the remission. We used the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, San Diego Autoquestionnaire and the 4-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale to evaluate temperament and treatment adherence, respectively. The study group was divided into two groups as "treatment adherent" and "treatment non-adherent". Results: The cyclothymic and anxious temperament scores of the treatment non-adherent patients with BD-I were significantly higher than those of the treatment adherent group (p < 0.001, p = 0.006, respectively). Multiple linear regression analysis determined that cyclothymic temperament predicted treatment non-adherence (p = 0.009). Conclusion: It should be kept in mind that BD-I patients with cyclothymic temperament may be treatment non-adherent and future studies should explore whether temperament characteristics deteriorate BD-I course by disrupting treatment adherence

Cognitive control of a simple mental image in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Cicek, Metehan/0000-0002-8782-2191; Atbasoglu, E. Cem/0000-0002-8211-6095WOS: 000291903700007PubMed: 21507542The nature of obsessions has led researchers to try to determine if the main problem in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is impaired inhibitory control. Previous studies report that the effort to suppress is one of the factors that increase the frequency of obsessive thoughts. Based on these results and those of the present study that suggest inferior parietal lobe (IPL) abnormality in OCD and findings of a recent study that reported the importance of the right posterior parietal cortex in cognitive control of a simple mental image, the present cognitive control paradigm study aimed to determine whether there is a difference in brain dynamics between OCD patients and non-obsessive controls while performing tasks that necessitate cognitive control of a simple mental image, and whether the right posterior parietal region is one of the regions in which a difference in activity between the OCD patients and controls would be observed. Functional brain imaging was performed while the participants attempted to suppress, imagine, or manipulate a mental image. The general linear model showed that there was a main effect of group and main effect of task. Accordingly, in all contrasts (suppression minus free-imagination, erasing minus free-imagination, and imagination minus free-imagination), the right IPL, right posterior cingulate cortex, and right superior frontal gyrus activity were lower in the OCD patients than in the healthy controls. These results and the observed correlations between activity levels, and symptom and subjective performance scores are discussed. In conclusion, the results of the present study and those of previous studies suggest that the main problem in OCD might be difficulty activating the right frontoparietal networks during tasks that require cognitive control, which might result in the intrusiveness of obsessive thoughts. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Psychiatric Association of TurkeyThis study was supported by the Psychiatric Association of Turkey (2006). The authors thank the entire staff of Integra Imaging Center, where the data were collected