The influence of emotional priming on the neural substrates of memory: a prospective fMRI study using portrait art stimuli

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Left and right amygdala : mediofrontal cortical functional connectivity is differentially modulated by harm avoidance

Background: The left and right amygdalae are key regions distinctly involved in emotion-regulation processes. Individual differences, such as personality features, may affect the implicated neurocircuits. The lateralized amygdala affective processing linked with the temperament dimension Harm Avoidance (HA) remains poorly understood. Resting state functional connectivity imaging (rsFC) may provide more insight into these neuronal processes. Methods: In 56 drug-naive healthy female subjects, we have examined the relationship between the personality dimension HA on lateralized amygdala rsFC. Results: Across all subjects, left and right amygdalae were connected with distinct regions mainly within the ipsilateral hemisphere. Females scoring higher on HA displayed stronger left amygdala rsFC with ventromedial prefrontal cortical (vmPFC) regions involved in affective disturbances. In high HA scorers, we also observed stronger right amygdala rsFC with the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), which is implicated in negative affect regulation. Conclusions: In healthy females, left and right amygdalae seem implicated in distinct mPFC brain networks related to HA and may represent a vulnerability marker for sensitivity to stress and anxiety (disorders)

Does the amygdala response correlate with the personality trait 'harm avoidance' while evaluating emotional stimuli explicitly?

Background: The affective personality trait 'harm avoidance' (HA) from Cloninger's psychobiological personality model determines how an individual deals with emotional stimuli. Emotional stimuli are processed by a neural network that include the left and right amygdalae as important key nodes. Explicit, implicit and passive processing of affective stimuli are known to activate the amygdalae differently reflecting differences in attention, level of detailed analysis of the stimuli and the cognitive control needed to perform the required task. Previous studies revealed that implicit processing or passive viewing of affective stimuli, induce a left amygdala response that correlates with HA. In this new study we have tried to extend these findings to the situation in which the subjects were required to explicitly process emotional stimuli. Methods: A group of healthy female participants was asked to rate the valence of positive and negative stimuli while undergoing fMRI. Afterwards the neural responses of the participants to the positive and to the negative stimuli were separately correlated to their HA scores and compared between the low and high HA participants. Results: Both analyses revealed increased neural activity in the left laterobasal (LB) amygdala of the high HA participants while they were rating the positive and the negative stimuli. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the left amygdala response to explicit processing of affective stimuli does correlate with HA

Double-Layered Patella (DLP) in Multiple Epiphyseal Dysplasia (MED)

Double-layered patella (DLP) is a rare form of bipartite patella, pathognomonic for a certain type of chondrodysplasia, named multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED). This patellar deformity may be asymptomatic, but it may also cause several complaints, including anterior knee pain and severe maltracking of the patella. We present the case of a young man with recurrent anterior knee pain, mainly provoked by movement, who was already known to have MED

THE EFFECT OF ONE LEFT-SIDED DORSOLATERAL PREFRONTAL CORTICAL HF-rTMS SESSION ON EMOTIONAL BRAIN PROCESSES IN WOMEN

Although repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is frequently used to examine emotional changes in healthy volunteers, it remains largely unknown how rTMS is able to influence emotion.We carried out a sham-controlled single-blind crossover study using fMRI, we examined in 20 right-handed healthy female volunteers whether a single high frequency (HF)-rTMS session applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) could influence emotional processing while focussing on blocks of positively and negatively valenced baby faces. A single HF-rTMS session selectively influenced the processing of positively and negatively valenced baby faces. In essence, our results indicate that the effects of one left-sided HF-rTMS sessions results in improved processing of positive emotions and reduced negative emotional processing in never depressed female subject

Liver Abscess Due to Dropped Appendicolith after Laparoscopic Appendectomy

The lifetime risk of appendicitis is 6 to 7 % [1]. When appendicitis is clinically suspected, an appendicolith can be found in 30% of the patients [2]. An appendicolith may be retained post-operatively (‘dropped appendicolith’) due to previous perforation, non-recognition during surgery or the impossibility to remove it. Abscesses that result from ectopic appendicoliths tend to occur paraceacally in the vicinity of Morrison’s pouch and should be removed to prevent abscess development and possible overt sepsis [3]. As far as we know, we describe the first documented case of an intrahepatic localization of a dropped appendicolith causing a liver abscess