Smartphone app-induced habit: a therapeutic component in psychological treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder

© 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access conference article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CC BY-NC-ND licence, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Peer reviewe

Bilateral versus ipsilesional cortico-subcortical activity patterns in stroke show hemispheric dependence

Background Understanding of interhemispheric interactions in stroke patients during motor control is an important clinical neuroscience quest that may provide important clues for neurorehabilitation. In stroke patients, bilateral overactivation in both hemispheres has been interpreted as a poor prognostic indicator of functional recovery. In contrast, ipsilesional patterns have been linked with better motor outcomes. Aim We investigated the pathophysiology of hemispheric interactions during limb movement without and with contralateral restraint, to mimic the effects of constraint-induced movement therapy. We used neuroimaging to probe brain activity with such a movement-dependent interhemispheric modulation paradigm. Methods We used an fMRI block design during which the plegic/paretic upper limb was recruited/mobilized to perform unilateral arm elevation, as a function of presence versus absence of contralateral limb restriction ( n = 20, with balanced left/right lesion sites). Results Analysis of 10 right-hemispheric stroke participants yielded bilateral sensorimotor cortex activation in all movement phases in contrast with the unilateral dominance seen in the 10 left-hemispheric stroke participants. Superimposition of contralateral restriction led to a prominent shift from activation to deactivation response patterns, in particular in cortical and basal ganglia motor areas in right-hemispheric stroke. Left-hemispheric stroke was in general characterized by reduced activation patterns, even in the absence of restriction, which induced additional cortical silencing. Conclusion The observed hemispheric-dependent activation/deactivation shifts are novel and these pathophysiological observations suggest short-term neuroplasticity that may be useful for hemisphere-tailored neurorehabilitation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The involuntary nature of binge drinking: goal directedness and awareness of intention

Binge drinking represents a public health issue and is a known risk factor in the development of alcohol use disorders. Previous studies have shown behavioural as well as neuroanatomical alterations associated with binge drinking. Here, we address the question of the automaticity or involuntary nature of the behaviour by assessing goal-directed behaviour and intentionality. In this study, we used a computational two-step task, designed to discern between model-based/goal-directed and model-free/habitual behaviours, and the classic Libet clock task, to study intention awareness, in a sample of 31 severe binge drinkers (BD) and 35 matched healthy volunteers. We observed that BD had impaired goal-directed behaviour in the two-step task compared with healthy volunteers. In the Libet clock task, BD showed delayed intention awareness. Further, we demonstrated that alcohol use severity, as reflected by the alcohol use disorders identification test, correlated with decreased conscious awareness of volitional intention in BD, although it was unrelated to performance on the two-step task. However, the time elapsed since the last drinking binge influenced the model-free scores, with BD showing less habitual behaviour after longer abstinence. Our findings suggest that the implementation of goal-directed strategies and the awareness of volitional intention are affected in current heavy alcohol users. However, the modulation of these impairments by alcohol use severity and abstinence suggests a state effect of alcohol use in these measures and that top-down volitional control might be ameliorated with alcohol use cessation.N.D. is a research fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DO1915/1-1). This study was funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship to V.V. (983705/Z/10/Z). V.V. is funded by a Medical Research Council Senior Fellowship (MR/P008747/1)

Solubility and solid phase studies of isomeric phenolic acids in pure solvents

The solubilities of gallic, protocatechuic, gentisic or α-resorcylic acids were measured in nine pure solvents (water, methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, 2-butanone, ethyl acetate, acetonitrile and dimethylformamide) at 298.15 K and 313.15 K, using the analytical isothermal shake-flask method. Additionally, solid phase studies of the selected phenolic acids were carried out using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), giving access to important data on melting properties as well as on the structure of the solid phase before and after the dissolution. The NRTL-SAC model coupled to the reference solvent approach (RSA) were applied to correlate the solubility data in a set of seven solvents and, after used to predict the solubility in 1-propanol and dimethylformamide. Average relative deviations (ARD) between 28 and 40% for the correlation and between 16 and 59% for the predictions were obtained. These values are within the order of magnitude usually found for such type of semi-predictive models, using a limited set of data.This work is supported by: Project “AIProcMat@N2020 - Advanced Industrial Processes and Materials for a Sustainable Northern Region of Portugal 2020”, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984 – Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM funded by ERDF through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI); Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030463 financed by COMPETE and Portugal2020 and national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia . We also acknowledge the support of CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007679 (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013 ). Appendix Ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Increased ventral striatal volume in college-aged binge drinkers

BACKGROUND Binge drinking is a serious public health issue associated with cognitive, physiological, and anatomical differences from healthy individuals. No studies, however, have reported subcortical grey matter differences in this population. To address this, we compared the grey matter volumes of college-age binge drinkers and healthy controls, focusing on the ventral striatum, hippocampus and amygdala. METHOD T1-weighted images of 19 binge drinkers and 19 healthy volunteers were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry. Structural data were also covaried with Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores. Cluster-extent threshold and small volume corrections were both used to analyze imaging data. RESULTS Binge drinkers had significantly larger ventral striatal grey matter volumes compared to controls. There were no between group differences in hippocampal or amygdalar volume. Ventral striatal, amygdalar, and hippocampal volumes were also negatively related to AUDIT scores across groups. CONCLUSIONS Our findings stand in contrast to the lower ventral striatal volume previously observed in more severe forms of alcohol use disorders, suggesting that college-age binge drinkers may represent a distinct population from those groups. These findings may instead represent early sequelae, compensatory effects of repeated binge and withdrawal, or an endophenotypic risk factor

Developing the islamic financial services sector in Italy: An institutional theory perspective

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2016. The Islamic Financial Services (IFS) sector has experienced wider consumer acceptance and rapid growth since its commercial launch in the 1970s. This growth has primarily been in countries in Asia such as Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Middle East region. Although non-Muslim majority countries like Hong Kong and Singapore have taken positive strides in developing the sector, European countries have lagged behind their Asian counterparts (Daily Times, 2013). Europe is host to a large Muslim population, but the lack of developed Islamic financial institutions means that the potential of IFS product offerings is yet to be fully realized in the region (Volk and Pudelko, 2010)