Dysexecutive Symptoms Among a Non-clinical Sample: A Study with the Use of the Dysexecutive Questionnaire

British Journal of Psychology (London, England : 1953). Aug, 2001  |  Pubmed ID: 11802889

Clinical studies indicate that damage to the frontal lobes may lead to a set of symptoms collectively known as 'Dysexecutive syndrome', which is characterized by changes in emotion, personality, motivation, behaviour and cognitive aspects. Factor analytical study using questionnaires measuring dysexecutive problems in everyday life also suggests a fractionation of the dysexecutive syndrome among patients with neurological disorders. As yet, very little research has been conducted to explore the base-rate of executive problems in everyday life among the non-clinical population. This pilot study aimed to explore dysexecutive behaviour similar to that of dysexecutive syndrome reported by a non-clinical sample. A total of 93 presumably normal participants were recruited. The Dysexecutive Questionnaire and a set of clinical tests of executive function were administered to all the participants. A 5-factor solution very similar to that of a previous study was derived: inhibition (factor 1), intentionality (factor 2), knowing-doing dissociation (factor 3), in-resistance (factor 4), and social regulation (factor 5). Correlation was established among the derived factors and tests of executive function. This study provides empirical evidence that a non-clinical sample may encounter similar dysexecutive behaviours in daily life. The issue of the fractionation of the executive system among the non-clinical sample will also be discussed.

A Molecular Link Between Gene-specific and Chromosome-wide Transcriptional Repression

Genes & Development. Apr, 2002  |  Pubmed ID: 11937488

Gene-specific and chromosome-wide mechanisms of transcriptional regulation control development in multicellular organisms. SDC-2, the determinant of hermaphrodite fate in Caenorhabditis elegans, is a paradigm for both modes of regulation. SDC-2 represses transcription of X chromosomes to achieve dosage compensation, and it also represses the male sex-determination gene her-1 to elicit hermaphrodite differentiation. We show here that SDC-2 recruits the entire dosage compensation complex to her-1, directing this X-chromosome repression machinery to silence an individual, autosomal gene. Functional dissection of her-1 in vivo revealed DNA recognition elements required for SDC-2 binding, recruitment of the dosage compensation complex, and transcriptional repression. Elements within her-1 differed in location, sequence, and strength of repression, implying that the dosage compensation complex may regulate transcription along the X chromosome using diverse recognition elements that play distinct roles in repression.

Hepatitis B Virus Surface Gene Variation: Just Skin Deep or Profoundly Pathogenic?

Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Sep, 2002  |  Pubmed ID: 12167111

Talking While Performing a Task: a Better Attentional Performance in Patients with Closed Head Injury?

Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. Aug, 2002  |  Pubmed ID: 12187452

This study explored the potentially beneficial effect of explicit verbalization on the attentional performance in patients with closed head injury (CHI) in both distracting and nondistracting environments. Ten patients with CHI and 10 normal controls were recruited. The findings indicated that in the absence of distractors, the two groups did not differ significantly on the total actual time of off-task behaviour. When distractors were present, the patients performed worse than their controls; whereas verbalization tended to reduce total actual time of off-task behaviour in patients more than normal controls (z=1.965, p=.049), the controls were at ceiling under the verbalization condition. Although the findings must be considered tentative because of this ceiling effect and the small sample sizes, our results do suggest that patients with CHI benefit more from self-instructional cues in a complex and distracting environment.

The Application of "dysexecutive Syndrome" Measures Across Cultures: Performance and Checklist Assessment in Neurologically Healthy and Traumatically Brain-injured Hong Kong Chinese Volunteers

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS. Sep, 2002  |  Pubmed ID: 12240741

Deficits in planning, self-regulation and attention are a relatively common consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Such "dysexecutive" deficits tend to be most exposed in complex, real world situations. Consequently, clinicians often have to rely on interviews, questionnaires and observation in their assessments. While there is little doubt that dysexecutive symptoms occur across different cultures, the expression of those symptoms, the way in which they are experienced by others, and the propensity of friends/relatives to report negative features may vary considerably. The cross-cultural use of standardized checklists and measures that have predominantly been studied with English speaking, Western groups therefore requires empirical support. Here a group of 68 healthy Chinese speaking volunteers were asked to complete translations of 2 UK developed questionnaires (the Dysexecutive Questionnaire and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire) measures and to perform 2 "executive" tasks (The Six Elements Test and the Tower of Hanoi). Their self ratings and the ratings of close relatives were very close to those seen in the original UK standardization samples--as was their performance on the 2 tasks. Accordingly, the conditions for assessing their clinical sensitivity were met. Comparison between 30 Chinese patients with TBI and matched controls showed that both questionnaires and tests were sensitive to the deficits in this group.

Reliability and Validity of the Cantonese Version of the Test of Everyday Attention Among Normal Hong Kong Chinese: a Preliminary Report

Clinical Rehabilitation. Dec, 2002  |  Pubmed ID: 12501953

To validate the translated Cantonese version of an ecologically valid clinical test of attention - the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA).

Attentional Deficits in Patients with Persisting Postconcussive Complaints: a General Deficit or Specific Component Deficit?

Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. Dec, 2002  |  Pubmed ID: 12650233

This study aimed to examine attentional performance in patients with persisting postconcussive complaints, using a multi-componential perspective. Comparisons of attentional performances of 92 patients with postconcussive complaints and 86 normal controls were conducted using tests of sustained attention (Sustained Attention to Response Task; Digit Backward Span), selective attention (Stroop Word-Color Test; Color Trails Test), divided attention (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test; Symbol Digit Modalities Test), and attentional control processing (Six Elements Test; Tower of Hanoi). Questionnaires on daily life inattentive behaviour were also administered to all participants and their significant others. A MANOVA indicated that patients with persisting postconcussive complaints demonstrated a general deficit in attentional performance as compared with their normal controls, F(18, 145) = 7.939, p = .005. These patterns still persisted when measures of emotional disturbance were controlled, F(18, 143) = 5.159, p = .005. Moreover, for sustained attention and selective attention, we were able to statistically control for speed and the differences remained. Future research should be conducted to better control the potential confound of speed for all the attentional components in order to differentiate any specific component deficits in these patients.

Chromosome Cohesion is Regulated by a Clock Gene Paralogue TIM-1

Nature. Jun, 2003  |  Pubmed ID: 12827206

Faithful transmission of the genome requires that a protein complex called cohesin establishes and maintains the regulated linkage between replicated chromosomes before their segregation. Here we report the unforeseen participation of Caenorhabditis elegans TIM-1, a paralogue of the Drosophila clock protein TIMELESS, in the regulation of chromosome cohesion. Our biochemical experiments defined the C. elegans cohesin complex and revealed its physical association with TIM-1. Functional relevance of the interaction was demonstrated by aberrant mitotic chromosome behaviour, embryonic lethality and defective meiotic chromosome cohesion caused by the disruption of either TIM-1 or cohesin. TIM-1 depletion prevented the assembly of non-SMC (structural maintenance of chromosome) cohesin subunits onto meiotic chromosomes; however, unexpectedly, a partial cohesin complex composed of SMC components still loaded. Further disruption of cohesin activity in meiosis by the simultaneous depletion of TIM-1 and an SMC subunit decreased homologous chromosome pairing before synapsis, revealing a new role for cohesin in metazoans. On the basis of comparisons between TIMELESS homologues in worms, flies and mice, we propose that chromosome cohesion, rather than circadian clock regulation, is the ancient and conserved function for TIMELESS-like proteins.

Coronary Calcium Quantification Using Various Calibration Phantoms and Scoring Thresholds

Investigative Radiology. Sep, 2003  |  Pubmed ID: 12960525

To compare scoring threshold and calibration method-dependent accuracy and variability of coronary calcium measurements by multidetector computed tomography (MDCT).

An Application of Individual Subtest Scores Calculation in the Cantonese Version of the Test of Everyday Attention

Psychological Reports. Dec, 2003  |  Pubmed ID: 14765601

This study aimed to apply Crawford, et al's formula for calculating individual subtest scores of the Cantonese version of the Test of Everyday Attention. A total of 133 (72 men, 61 women) healthy Hong Kong Chinese were recruited from the general public. The sample reported a mean age and education of 35.2 yr. (SD=10.2) and 11 yr. (SD=3.1), respectively. Tables for examining whether an individual's subtest profile contains reliable and abnormal subtest discrepancies are presented and discussed. The data are useful for clinicians when they take into account cultural differences of Cantonese-speaking clinical populations.

Are There Sub-types of Attentional Deficits in Patients with Persisting Post-concussive Symptoms? A Cluster Analytical Study

Brain Injury : [BI]. Feb, 2003  |  Pubmed ID: 12519640

The present study aimed to examine attentional deficits in patients with persisting post-concussive symptoms using a multi-componential framework of attention.

Blink Rate Does Matter: a Study of Blink Rate, Sustained Attention, and Neurological Signs in Schizophrenia

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Nov, 2004  |  Pubmed ID: 15505523

This study aimed to explore the relationships among cognitive functions, neurological soft signs, and clinical symptoms in a group of patients with chronic schizophrenia. A total of 90 patients were recruited. Blink rate was recorded when patients were in a resting and relaxed condition. Significant correlations were found only between blink rate and general psychopathology (p < .01) and disinhibition soft signs (p < .05). When the group was further divided into two subgroups by taking the lower and upper quartiles of their blink rate, patients at the upper quartiles exhibited significantly more disinhibition signs than those at the lower quartiles. There was also a trend for those patients at the upper quartiles to commit more error in a sustained attention task. These findings suggest that blink rate is associated with disinhibition signs in the present sample.

Condensin Restructures Chromosomes in Preparation for Meiotic Divisions

The Journal of Cell Biology. Nov, 2004  |  Pubmed ID: 15557118

The production of haploid gametes from diploid germ cells requires two rounds of meiotic chromosome segregation after one round of replication. Accurate meiotic chromosome segregation involves the remodeling of each pair of homologous chromosomes around the site of crossover into a highly condensed and ordered structure. We showed that condensin, the protein complex needed for mitotic chromosome compaction, restructures chromosomes during meiosis in Caenorhabditis elegans. In particular, condensin promotes both meiotic chromosome condensation after crossover recombination and the remodeling of sister chromatids. Condensin helps resolve cohesin-independent linkages between sister chromatids and alleviates recombination-independent linkages between homologues. The safeguarding of chromosome resolution by condensin permits chromosome segregation and is crucial for the formation of discrete, individualized bivalent chromosomes.

Integration of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Three-dimensional Electroanatomic Mapping to Guide Left Ventricular Catheter Manipulation: Feasibility in a Porcine Model of Healed Myocardial Infarction

Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dec, 2004  |  Pubmed ID: 15582319

In a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments, we evaluated the feasibility of integrating three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroanatomic mapping (EAM) data to guide real-time left ventricular (LV) catheter manipulation.

Mechanical Analysis of Atherosclerotic Plaques Based on Optical Coherence Tomography

Annals of Biomedical Engineering. Nov, 2004  |  Pubmed ID: 15636110

Finite element analysis is a powerful tool for investigating the biomechanics of atherosclerosis and has thereby provided an improved understanding of acute myocardial infarction. Structural analysis of arterial walls is traditionally performed using geometry contours derived from histology. In this paper we demonstrate the first use of a new imaging technique, optical coherence tomography (OCT), as a basis for finite element analysis. There are two primary benefits of OCT relative to histology: 1) imaging is performed without excessive tissue handling, providing a more realistic geometry than histology and avoiding structural artifacts common to histologic processing, and 2) OCT imaging can be performed in vivo, making it possible to study disease progression and the effect of therapeutic treatments in animal models and living patients. Patterns of mechanical stress and strain distributions computed from finite element analysis based on OCT were compared with those from modeling based on "gold standard" histology. Our results indicate that vascular structure and composition determined by OCT provides an adequate basis for investigating the biomechanical factors relevant to atherosclerosis and acute myocardial infarction.

The Differential Clinical and Neurocognitive Profiles of COMT SNP Rs165599 Genotypes in Schizophrenia

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS. Mar, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 15962707

Pharmacy Practice in Thailand

American Journal of Health-system Pharmacy : AJHP : Official Journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Jul, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 15972385

An Instrument to Assess Mental Patients' Capacity to Appraise and Report Subjective Quality of Life

Quality of Life Research : an International Journal of Quality of Life Aspects of Treatment, Care and Rehabilitation. Apr, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 16022062

Quality of life (QOL) is increasingly recognized as an important outcome measure in treatment studies and service evaluation. However, patients or service users may sometimes lack the capacity to either evaluate or express their subjective QOL, for example due to cognitive impairment, communication disorders, symptom distress or burden of completing the assessment itself. This paper describes the development of an instrument, the capacity to report subjective quality of life inventory (CapQOL), which evaluates the ability of patients to appraise their subjective QOL and to complete related measures. The CapQOL is a simple and brief screening tool, designed for use in people with a wide range of mental disabilities. It helps researchers to identify individuals who are unable to appraise or report their subjective quality of life. We administered the CapQOL to 442 patients with early psychosis. About 89% of the participants were assessed to be able to complete a subjective QOL measure. The CapQOL demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties. Further validation studies in people with psychosis as well as other mental disabilities are indicated.

Impact of Untreated Psychosis on Quality of Life in Patients with First-episode Schizophrenia

Quality of Life Research : an International Journal of Quality of Life Aspects of Treatment, Care and Rehabilitation. Oct, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 16155768

Despite increasing interest in the quality of life (QOL) of psychiatric patients in recent years, few studies have focused on the potential adverse effects of the illness on QOL during the period of untreated psychosis. Our study compares the QOL of patients with first-episode schizophrenia when they first presented to the psychiatric service with that of the normal population, and identifies possible relationships with various clinical parameters. One hundred and seventeen patients with schizophrenia (aged 14-28 years) who entered the Early Assessment Services for Young People with Psychosis (EASY) programme in Hong Kong from June 2001 to January 2004 were assessed with the MOS 36 item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Measure, abbreviated Hong Kong version (WHOQOL-BREF(HK)). We compared their SF-36 scores with controls from the normal population matched by age, sex, marital status and educational level. We assessed clinical parameters including positive, negative and depressive symptoms by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), and the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). When compared with matched controls from the normal population, significantly lower scores in all of the eight scales of the SF-36 were found in our patient group (p < 0.005). Various QOL domain scores had significant inverse correlations with the total MADRS score. However, there was no significant correlation with other clinical parameters. Young patients with first-episode schizophrenia have poorer QOL in the period of untreated psychosis than their counterparts in the community. Amongst various clinical parameters, the severity of depressive symptoms correlates most with QOL.

Tissue Elasticity Estimation with Optical Coherence Elastography: Toward Mechanical Characterization of in Vivo Soft Tissue

Annals of Biomedical Engineering. Nov, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 16341928

High-resolution imaging provides a significant means for accurate material modulus estimation and mechanical characterization. Within the realm of in vivo soft tissue characterization, particularly on small biological length scales such as arterial atherosclerotic plaques, optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers a desirable imaging modality with higher spatial resolution and contrast of tissue as compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Based on recent advances in OCT imaging and elastography, we present a fully integrated system for tissue elasticity reconstruction, and assess the benefits of OCT on the distribution results of four representative tissue block models. We demonstrate accuracy, with displacement residuals on the order of 10(-6) mm (more than 3 orders of magnitude less than average calculated displacements), and high-resolution estimates, with the ability to resolve inclusions of 0.15 mm diameter.

Prevention of Laboratory-acquired Brucellosis: Significant Side Effects of Prophylaxis

Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Feb, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16392095

Improved Vessel Morphology Measurements in Contrast-enhanced Multi-detector Computed Tomography Coronary Angiography with Non-linear Post-processing

European Journal of Radiology. Mar, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16442768

Multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) permits detection of coronary plaque. However, noise and blurring impair accuracy and precision of plaque measurements. The aim of the study was to evaluate MDCT post-processing based on non-linear image deblurring and edge-preserving noise suppression for measurements of plaque size. Contrast-enhanced MDCT coronary angiography was performed in four subjects (mean age 55 +/- 5 years, mean heart rate 54 +/- 5 bpm) using a 16-slice scanner (Siemens Sensation 16, collimation 16 x 0.75 mm, gantry rotation 420 ms, tube voltage 120 kV, tube current 550 mAs, 80 mL of contrast). Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS; 40 MHz probe) was performed in one vessel in each patient and served as a reference standard. MDCT vessel cross-sectional images (1 mm thickness) were created perpendicular to centerline and aligned with corresponding IVUS images. MDCT images were processed using a deblurring and edge-preserving noise suppression algorithm. Then, three independent blinded observers segmented lumen and outer vessel boundaries in each modality to obtain vessel cross-sectional area and wall area in the unprocessed MDCT cross-sections, post-processed MDCT cross-sections and corresponding IVUS. The wall area measurement difference for unprocessed and post-processed MDCT images relative to IVUS was 0.4 +/- 3.8 mm2 and -0.2 +/- 2.2 mm2 (p < 0.05), respectively. Similarly, Bland-Altman analysis of vessel cross-sectional area from unprocessed and post-processed MDCT images relative to IVUS showed a measurement difference of 1.0 +/- 4.4 and 0.6 +/- 4.8 mm2, respectively. In conclusion, MDCT permitted accurate in vivo measurement of wall area and vessel cross-sectional area as compared to IVUS. Post-processing to reduce blurring and noise reduced variability of wall area measurements and reduced measurement bias for both wall area and vessel cross-sectional area.

Bright and Black Blood Imaging of the Carotid Bifurcation at 3.0T

European Journal of Radiology. Mar, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16443343

The aim of this study was to evaluate our preliminary experience at 3.0 T with imaging of the carotid bifurcation in healthy and atherosclerotic subjects. Application at 3.0 T is motivated by the signal-to-noise gain for improving spatial resolution and reducing signal averaging requirements.

Clozapine Alone Versus Clozapine and Risperidone with Refractory Schizophrenia

The New England Journal of Medicine. Feb, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16452559

The treatment of schizophrenia with multiple antipsychotic drugs is common, but the benefits and risks are not known.

The Neural Basis of Motor Sequencing: an FMRI Study of Healthy Subjects

Neuroscience Letters. May, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16469446

The present study used functional MRI to clarify the brain regions activated during a series of motor sequencing tasks in healthy volunteers. Ten subjects were scanned while performing three soft signs tasks ranging from simple (PT: palm tapping), moderate (PS: pronation/supination) to complex movements (FEP: fist-edge-palm). The FEP task induced significant activations within the cortical networks including bilateral sensorimotor, SMA, left parietal, and right cerebellum, but no activation in the prefrontal area. Moreover, the percentage signal changes within the left sensorimotor, left thalamus and right cerebellum showed an increase in activation with task complexity. The present findings challenge the traditional belief that FEP was a task for frontal lobe function but suggest that successful performance of more complex neurological soft sign tasks like FEP requires the participation of more brain areas than simple motor sequencing and coordination task like PS and PT. These also provide the empirical data on the neural basis of neurological soft signs for further study in other clinical group like schizophrenia in the near future.

Community-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus in Bone and Joint Infections: Development of Rifampicin Resistance

The Medical Journal of Australia. Feb, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16489910

Latent Structure of the Test of Everyday Attention: Convergent Evidence from Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Brain Injury : [BI]. Jun, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16754290

The present study aimed to examine the nature of attention distinctions among sub-tests of the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) underlying the performance of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Examination of Postconcussion-like Symptoms in Healthy University Students: Relationships to Subjective and Objective Neuropsychological Function Performance

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists. May, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16765018

This study examined postconcussion-like symptoms in a group of university students and explored their relationships to neuropsychological function performance. A sample of 124 students was recruited. All of the participants received the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) and completed a comprehensive set of neuropsychological tests. They reported a relatively high base rate of postconcussion-like symptoms. The most frequently endorsed items were "fatigue" (76.9%), "longer time to think" (60.3%), "poor concentration" (58.7%), "sleep disturbance" (50.4%), and "frustration" (46.3%). There were no significant differences between low symptom reporters and high symptom reporters, except for self-reported dysexecutive problems. A comparison of the healthy high symptom reporters and a convenient sample of traumatic brain injury patients revealed that the patients performed significantly worse on neuropsychological functions than the high symptom reporters, despite non-significant differences between symptom endorsement. Our findings demonstrate that: (a) the base rate of postconcussion-like symptoms in a group of healthy university students is relatively high and (b) postconcussion symptom (PCS) is not related to neuropsychological functions in normal people.

Arterial Wall Imaging: Evaluation with 16-section Multidetector CT in Blood Vessel Phantoms and Ex Vivo Coronary Arteries

Radiology. Sep, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16857982

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of 16-section multidetector computed tomography (CT) for assessment of plaques in phantoms and ex vivo coronary arteries, with intravascular ultrasonography (US) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) as reference standards.

Latent Structure of the Test of Everyday Attention in a Non-clinical Chinese Sample

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists. Aug, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16876382

The validity and clinical viability of Posner and Petersen's (1999) 3-factor model of attention was tested through a confirmatory factor analysis of attentional performance (Test of Everyday Attention [Robertson, I. H., Ward, T., Ridgeway, V., & Nimmo-Smith, I. (1996). The structure of normal human attention: The Test of Everyday Attention. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 2, 525-534]) in a sample of 133 Chinese participants. This study served both as a cross-cultural replication of the clinical implementation of this leading theoretical model of attention, and as a more stringent test of the validity of the hypothesized attentional processes underlying human cognitive control. The results support the validity of a 3-factor model of attention consistent with that proposed by Posner and Petersen (selective attention, sustained attention, and attentional switching/control), and demonstrate that clinical assessment of neuroanatomically-distinct attentional processes using simulated real life activities is possible.

Multitasking Performance of Chinese Children with ADHD

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS. Jul, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16981611

The aim of this study was to explore multitasking skills in a Chinese sample of 22 children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with 22 healthy controls matched by gender, age, and IQ. All of the participants completed the children's version of the Six Elements Test (C-SET) and neuropsychological tests that captured specific domains of attention, memory, and executive function. Children with ADHD performed significantly worse than the healthy controls in all domains except the number of rules broken in the C-SET. The majority of the C-SET domain scores correlated significantly with measures of executive function. The ADHD group also demonstrated deficits in various neurocognitive test performances compared with the healthy group. This preliminary study suggests that the C-SET is sensitive to multitasking behavior in Chinese children with ADHD. The main impairments of multitasking behavior in this clinical group involve the inhibition of goal-directed planning, flexible strategy generation, and self-monitoring.

Comprehensive Volumetric Optical Microscopy in Vivo

Nature Medicine. Dec, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 17115049

Comprehensive volumetric microscopy of epithelial, mucosal and endothelial tissues in living human patients would have a profound impact in medicine by enabling diagnostic imaging at the cellular level over large surface areas. Considering the vast area of these tissues with respect to the desired sampling interval, achieving this goal requires rapid sampling. Although noninvasive diagnostic technologies are preferred, many applications could be served by minimally invasive instruments capable of accessing remote locations within the body. We have developed a fiber-optic imaging technique termed optical frequency-domain imaging (OFDI) that satisfies these requirements by rapidly acquiring high-resolution, cross-sectional images through flexible, narrow-diameter catheters. Using a prototype system, we show comprehensive microscopy of esophageal mucosa and of coronary arteries in vivo. Our pilot study results suggest that this technology may be a useful clinical tool for comprehensive diagnostic imaging for epithelial disease and for evaluating coronary pathology and iatrogenic effects.

The Components of Executive Functioning in a Cohort of Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia: a Multiple Single-case Study Design

Schizophrenia Research. Jan, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16188430

We examined the fractionation of executive functioning performance in ninety patients with schizophrenia, who were tested for initiation, sustained attention, switching/flexibility, attention allocation and impulsivity/disinhibition. The participants were also given tests of general intelligence and memory. We analysed the executive functioning performance of individual patients against normative data from our laboratory, and summary scores for all of the executive functioning components were computed. For each component, participants were classified as having impairment with a test performance of 1.5 standard deviations or more from the norm of the corresponding test. Of all of the participants, 27.8% (n=25) demonstrated poor performance in all of the components, and 5.6 % (n=5) exhibited intact or fair performance in all of the components. Furthermore, 18.9% (n=17) showed intact or fair performance in one component, 16.7% (n=15) in two components, 21.1% (n=19) in three components and 10% (n=9) in four components. The groups did not differ in education, gender or duration of illness, but the group that showed impaired performance in all of the components demonstrated the most severe psychotic symptoms after controlling for background intelligence, age and medication. The differential breakdown for the executive functioning performance across the participants suggests that the fractionation of central executive functioning occurs in schizophrenia.

Specific Executive Dysfunction in Patients with First-episode Medication-naïve Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia Research. Feb, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16326075

Many studies have shown that schizophrenia is associated with a wide range of cognitive impairments. Empirical findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia suffer from a "dysexecutive syndrome". However, the extent to which a general decline in neuropsychological function accounts for symptoms of executive dysfunction in schizophrenia is not clear. In this study, we examined further the nature and pattern of executive function in a sample of medication-naïve patients experiencing a first-episode of schizophrenia with a set of tests capturing the specific components of executive function. We also compared the performance of this clinical group with healthy controls. A total of 78 medication-naïve patients with first episode schizophrenia were recruited from the Early Assessment Service for Young People with Psychosis (EASY). Another 60 healthy controls were recruited for comparison. All subjects participated in a comprehensive set of executive function tests assessing initiation, sustained attention, online updating, switching, attention allocation, inhibition, and non-executive function. The executive function of patients with first-episode schizophrenia was found to be compromised relative to healthy controls. However, unlike patients with established schizophrenia, first episode patients exhibited only a limited deficit in sustained attention. Moreover, the majority of executive function deficits did not correlate with intellectual functioning and memory impairment in a sub-group of first episode patients without intellectual impairment. These findings suggest that first-episode patients exhibit a specific pattern of executive dysfunction compared to healthy controls and patients with an established illness. This differential breakdown of executive function components is unlikely to be an artefact of general intellectual decline or memory impairment in schizophrenia.

Intra-operative Volume Imaging of the Left Atrium and Pulmonary Veins with Rotational X-ray Angiography

Medical Image Computing and Computer-assisted Intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 17354940

Complex electrophysiology (EP) procedures, such as catheter-based ablation in the left atrium and pulmonary veins (LAPV) for treatment of atrial fibrillation, require knowledge of heart chamber anatomy. Electroanatomical mapping (EAM) is typically used to define cardiac structures by combining electromagnetic spatial catheter localization with surface models which interpolate the anatomy between EAM point locations in 3D. Recently, the incorporation of pre-operative volumetric CT or MR data sets has allowed for more detailed maps of LAPV anatomy to be used intra-operatively. Preoperative data sets are however a rough guide since they can be acquired several days to weeks prior to EP intervention. Due to positional and physiological changes, the intra-operative cardiac anatomy can be different from that depicted in the pre-operative data. We present a novel application of contrast-enhanced rotational X-ray imaging for CT-like reconstruction of 3D LAPV anatomy during the intervention itself. We perform two selective contrast-enhanced rotational acquisitions and reconstruct CT-like volumes with 3D filtered back projection. Two volumes depicting the left and right portions of the LAPV are registered and fused. The combined data sets are then visualized and segmented intra-procedurally to provide anatomical data and surface models for intervention guidance. Our results from animal and human experiments indicate that the anatomical information from intra-operative CT-like reconstructions compares favorably with pre-acquired CT data and can be of sufficient quality for intra-operative guidance.

Neurocognitive Deficits in First-episode Schizophrenic Patients and Their First-degree Relatives

American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics : the Official Publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. Jun, 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17440937

Some neuropsychological abilities, particularly those affecting memory, attention and executive function, are impaired amongst both schizophrenic patients and their unaffected relatives, implying that these deficits are at least partly genetic in origin. However neuropsychological performance can be altered by medication, and has rarely been examined in first onset, drug naive patients. The objective of this study was to determine whether selected neurocognitive abilities are impaired in first-onset schizophrenic patients and their relatives compared to controls. We examined attention and speed of information processing, memory and learning, verbal function, visuoconstructive abilities and executive function in 207 first-episode schizophrenic patients (163 of whom were drug naïve), 322 of their first-degree relatives and 133 unrelated normal controls. The data were subjected to multilevel modeling to compare neurocognitive performance between schizophrenic probands, relatives and controls while taking into account potential correlations among members of the same family; age, gender, and years of education were included as covariates. Of the three groups, schizophrenic patients performed poorest at all neuropsychological tests, suggestive of a broad range of neurocognitive deficits. Their first-degree relatives showed a narrower pattern of poor performance at Digit Symbol, Digit Span, Trail Making, Verbal Fluency test, Tower of Hanoi, and WCST-M tests. Our findings show that selected neurocognitive deficits especially attention and executive function are impaired in the families of schizophrenic patients. These patterns of neurocognitive deficits may represent "endophenotypes" denoting varying degrees of vulnerability to schizophrenia and may be of value in future molecular genetic studies.

A Meta-analysis of Association Studies Between the 10-repeat Allele of a VNTR Polymorphism in the 3'-UTR of Dopamine Transporter Gene and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics : the Official Publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. Jun, 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17440978

The association between the 10-repeat allele of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is uncertain. This study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of the association between the 10-repeat allele of a variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism in the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) of the DAT1 gene and ADHD. We pooled up 18 published transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) studies between the 40-base pair VNTR polymorphism in the3'-UTR of the DAT1 gene and ADHD. It included a total of 1,373 informative meioses, 7 haplotype-based haplotype relative risk (HHRR) studies, and 6 case-control-based association studies. There were statistically significant evidences for heterogeneity of the odds ratio in TDT and HHRR studies (P < 0.10), but not in case-control studies. The results of random effects model showed small but significant association between ADHD and the DAT1 gene in TDT studies (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.05-1.30, chi-square = 8.11, df = 1, P = 0.004), but not in HHRR and case-control studies. The 10-repeat allele of a VNTR polymorphism in the 3'-UTR the DAT1 gene has a small but significant role in the genetic susceptibility of ADHD. These meta-analysis findings support the involvement of the dopamine system genes in ADHD liability variation. However, more work is required to further identify the functional allelic variants/mutations that are responsible for this association.

Two Dissociable Aspects of Feeling-of-knowing: Knowing That You Know and Knowing That You Do Not Know

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006). May, 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17455075

Feeling-of-knowing judgement is traditionally regarded as a unitary cognitive process. However, recent research suggests that knowing that you know (positive feeling-of-knowing) and knowing that you do not know (negative feeling-of-knowing) have different neural substrates (Luo, Niki, Ying, & Luo, 2004). In the present study, we used a paradigm adapted from Koriat and Levy-Sadot (2001) to examine whether positive feeling-of-knowing and negative feeling-of-knowing were mediated by distinct cognitive processes. We found that positive and negative feeling-of-knowing were dissociated during immediate feeling-of-knowing judgements (i.e., preliminary feeling-of-knowing) and delayed feeling-of-knowing judgements (i.e., postretrieval feeling-of-knowing). At the judgement intervals, positive feeling-of-knowing was based on partial recovery of the nonrecalled targets, whereas negative feeling-of-knowing was determined by familiarity with the retrieval cues. Our results suggest that feeling-of-knowing is a heterogeneous process.

Desulfovibrio Fairfieldensis Bacteremia Associated with Choledocholithiasis and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography

Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Aug, 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17567792

Desulfovibrio fairfieldensis is a gram-negative, curved, motile, anaerobic bacillus. D. fairfieldensis has been isolated only from human specimens and is considered a normal resident of the human gastrointestinal tract. We report the second case of Desulfovibrio bacteremia associated with choledocholithiasis and review the other reported cases of D. fairfieldensis bacteremia.

Integrating Functional and Anatomical Information to Facilitate Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology : PACE. Aug, 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17669088

Multiple imaging modalities are required in patients receiving cardiac resynchronization therapy. We have developed a strategy to integrate echocardiographic and angiographic information to facilitate left ventricle (LV) lead position. Full three-dimensional LV-volumes (3DLVV) and dyssynchrony maps were acquired before and after resynchronization. At the time of device implantation, 3D-rotational coronary venous angiography was performed. 3D-models of the veins were then integrated with the pre- and post-3DLVV. In the case displayed, prior to implantation, the lateral wall was delayed compared to the septum. The LV lead was positioned into the vein over the most delayed region, resulting in improved LV synchrony.

Time Perception Deficit in Children with ADHD

Brain Research. Sep, 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17669375

Time perception deficit has been demonstrated in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by using time production and time reproduction tasks. The impact of motor demand, however, has not yet been fully examined. The current study, which is reported herein, aimed to investigate the pure time perception of Chinese children with ADHD by using a duration discrimination task. A battery of tests that were specifically designed to measure time perception and other related abilities, such as inhibition, attention, and working memory, was administered to 40 children with ADHD and to 40 demographically matched healthy children. A repeated measure MANOVA indicated that children with ADHD showed significantly higher discrimination thresholds than did healthy controls, and there was an interaction effect between group and duration. Pairwise comparison indicated that children with ADHD were less accurate in discriminating duration at either target duration. Working memory (Corsi blocks task) was related to the discrimination threshold at a duration of 800 ms after controlling for full-scale IQ (FIQ) in the ADHD group, but this did not survive the Bonferroni correction. The results indicated that children with ADHD may have perceptual deficits in time discrimination. They needed a greater difference between the comparison and target intervals to discriminate the short, median, and long durations reliably. This study provides further support for the existence of a generic time perception deficit, which is probably due to the involvement of a dysfunctional fronto-striato-cerebellar network in this capacity, especially the presence of deficits in basic internal timing mechanisms.

Error Monitoring is Associated with the Clinical State of Schizophrenia

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. Sep, 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17894036

Executive Functioning in Healthy Elderly Chinese People

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists. May, 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17336035

This study aimed to explore the executive function of healthy elderly Chinese people. A sample of 58 healthy Chinese aged 60 and over was recruited from Guangzhou in China. They were divided into two age groups, a younger age group (aged 60-70) and an older age group (aged over 70). Executive function was measured by a battery of seven tests which were assumed to capture specific components of executive function. The tests were initiation (Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSC)), sustained attention (Monotone Counting Test), switching and flexibility (word fluency and modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)), disinhibition (Modified Six Element Task (SET), Stroop Test, and HSC), attention allocation and planning (SET and modified version of WCST), and updating (Chinese Letter-Number Span). When independent neurocognitive tests were analyzed, there were significant age differences in the WCST (perseverative errors and category completed, p=0.025, 0.023) and the SET (raw score, p=0.050). The older age group tended to do worse in the total profile score of the SET and correct responses of the HSC Part A. However, when these tests were grouped into specific executive function components, a significant difference was found between the two groups in attention allocation and planning (p=0.007) and total component score (p=0.026). Regression analyses also indicated that age accounted for only very little variance of executive function in this narrow band of the elderly, whereas educational level accounted for a large part of the variance in initiation (R(2)=0.252, p<0.001), switching and flexibility (R(2)=0.211, p<0.001), and updating (R(2)=0.236, p<0.001) components of executive function. Our findings suggest that a significant decline in general executive functioning with advancing age was only evident in some putative tests in this sample. In addition, executive functions were selectively affected by older age, with attention location and planning and initiation being the components that were most affected.

Neurological Abnormalities in Chinese Schizophrenic Patients

Behavioural Neurology. 2007  |  Pubmed ID: 17726246

This study attempted to examine the prevalence and type of neurological signs in Chinese patients with schizophrenia.

Comprehension of Metaphor and Irony in Schizophrenia During Remission: the Role of Theory of Mind and IQ

Psychiatry Research. Jan, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 17854910

The study reported herein explored the comprehension of metaphor and irony in schizophrenia during remission, and examined the role of IQ and a theory of mind. Performance of 29 Schizophrenic patients in remission and 22 healthy controls was compared on metaphor and irony comprehension tasks and first- and second-order theory of mind tasks. Participants' IQs were measured using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, and the symptoms of individuals with schizophrenia were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. The results showed that patients with schizophrenia were impaired in their comprehension of metaphor and irony as compared with healthy controls. A theory of mind deficit was found in patients with remitted schizophrenia. The comprehension of metaphor was significantly correlated with second-order false belief understanding and the comprehension of irony was not significantly related to theory of mind. IQ and verbal IQ did not explain the deficit of metaphor and irony comprehension. These findings were not explained by Happé's [Happé, F.G.E., 1993. Communication competence and theory of mind in autism: a test of relevance theory. Cognition 48, 101-119] theory and the shared semantic understanding requirement was discussed.

Automatic Intra-operative Generation of Geometric Left Atrium/pulmonary Vein Models from Rotational X-ray Angiography

Medical Image Computing and Computer-assisted Intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18982590

Pre-procedural imaging with cardiac CT or MR has become popular for guiding complex electrophysiology procedures such as those used for atrial fibrillation ablation therapy. Electroanatomical mapping and ablation within the left atrium and pulmonary veins (LAPV) is facilitated using such data, however the pre-procedural anatomy can be quite different from that at the time of intervention. Recently, a method for intra-procedural LAPV imaging has been developed based on contrast-enhanced 3-D rotational X-ray angiography (3-D RA). These intraprocedural data now create a compelling need for rapid and automated extraction of the LAPV geometry for catheter guidance. We present a new approach to automatic intra-procedural generation of LAPV surfaces from 3-D RA volumes. Using model-based segmentation, our technique is robust to imaging noise and artifacts typical of 3-D RA imaging, strongly minimizes the user interaction time required for segmentation, and eliminates inter-subject variability. Our findings in 33 patients indicate that intra-procedural LAPV surface models accurately represent the anatomy at the time of intervention and are comparable to pre-procedural models derived from CTA or MRA.

Intraprocedural Volume Imaging of the Left Atrium and Pulmonary Veins with Rotational X-ray Angiography: Implications for Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation

Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology. Mar, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18005027

The use of preprocedural CT or MR imaging to generate patient-specific cardiac anatomy greatly facilitates catheter ablation of the left atrium and pulmonary veins (LA-PVs) to treat atrial fibrillation (AF). This report details the accuracy and utility of an intraprocedural means to generate 3-D volumetric renderings of the LA-PV anatomy: contrast-enhanced rotational X-ray angiography (3DRA).

Assessment of Executive Functions: Review of Instruments and Identification of Critical Issues

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists. Mar, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18096360

"Executive functions" is an umbrella term for functions such as planning, working memory, inhibition, mental flexibility, as well as the initiation and monitoring of action. The impairment of executive functions in various clinical groups is a topic of much debate, as are recent attempts to formulate the corresponding intervention and rehabilitation regimes of these dysfunctions. This article reviewed current theories of executive functions and their associated assessment instruments. In addition, it identified issues that are imperative for more accurate, sensitive, and specific assessment of various components of this construct. It is concluded that more research is needed to fractionate the executive system by assessing a wide range of functions and to verify their neuroanatomical correlates. Recently developed measurement models and technology may also facilitate a more ecologically and ethologically valid assessment for the specific needs of different individuals.

The Development of a Chinese Equivalence Version of Letter-number Span Test

The Clinical Neuropsychologist. Jan, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18247221

The present study aimed to develop a Chinese equivalence version of the Letter-Number (LN) Span Test and to explore the preliminary construct and discriminative validity of the developed version among a group of healthy Chinese volunteers and patients with stroke. A group of 165 (73 men and 92 women) healthy participants were recruited for the validation study, most of them were undergraduates or postgraduates. Moreover, a comparison was made between nine patients with stroke and the healthy controls. For the healthy sample, the Chinese version correlated significantly with the English version in total number of correct span (r = .6, p < .00001) and the longest span (r = .5, p < .00005). The Chinese version of LN Span Test was also found to be significantly associated with memory-loaded tests but not other tests. A series of ANCOVAs controlling for age, education, and IQ indicated that stroke patients performed significantly worse than the healthy controls in LN Span total number of correct responses (p < .04), immediate recall (p < .0005), and delayed recall (p < .0005) of WMS-R, SART total number of correct response (p < .0005), PASAT dyads correct response (p < .01). The preliminary findings suggest that the Chinese version of the LN Span Test shows impressive preliminary validity among a group of healthy volunteers and an impressive clinical discriminative validity among a group of stroke cases.

Objective Measures of Prospective Memory Do Not Correlate with Subjective Complaints in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia Research. Aug, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18420383

While a number of studies have shown that individuals with schizophrenia are impaired on various types of prospective memory, few studies have examined the relationship between subjective and objective measures of this construct in this clinical group. The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between computer-based prospective memory tasks and the corresponding subjective complaints in patients with schizophrenia, individuals with schizotypal personality features, and healthy volunteers. The findings showed that patients with schizophrenia demonstrated significantly poorer performance in all domains of memory function except visual memory than individuals with schizotypal personality disorder and healthy controls. More importantly, there was a significant interaction effect of prospective memory type and group. Although patients with schizophrenia were found to show significantly poorer performance on computer-based measures of prospective memory than controls, their level of subjective complaint was not found to be significantly higher. While subjective complaints of prospective memory were found to associate significantly with self-reported executive dysfunctions, significant relationships were not found between these complaints and performance on a computer-based task of prospective memory and other objective measures of memory. Taken together, these findings suggest that subjective and objective measures of prospective memory are two distinct domains that might need to be assessed and addressed separately.

First Australian Description of Eggerthella Lenta Bacteraemia Identified by 16S RRNA Gene Sequencing

Pathology. Jun, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18446634

Neurological Soft Signs As Candidate Endophenotypes for Schizophrenia: a Shooting Star or a Northern Star?

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. Jul, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18462797

The crucial role of neurological indicators in schizophrenia has been recognized as among the "target features" that encompass the idea that genetic and non-genetic processes lead to neurointegrative defects later manifested in neurocognitive systems. In addition, aberrant neurological indicators have also been suggested as potential endophenotypes in schizophrenia. In the current paper, we review evidence for the utility of quantifiable neurological soft signs as potential endophenotypes for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. We start by defining endophenotypes and justifying their utility. We highlight the key criteria that must be met for an endophenotype to be useful and assess the extent to which the manifestations of neurological soft signs meet these criteria. Finally, we recommend areas in which additional research should be done to further elucidate the potential use of neurological soft signs for schizophrenia research.

A Psychometric Study of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children in the Chinese Setting

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists. Jul, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18472391

To explore the psychometric properties of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch) in the context of a Chinese setting.

A Regulation Role of the Prefrontal Cortex in the Fist-edge-palm Task: Evidence from Functional Connectivity Analysis

NeuroImage. Jul, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18495496

The Fist-Edge-Palm (FEP) task is a motor sequencing task that is widely used in neurological examination. Deficits in this task are believed to reflect impairment in the frontal lobe regions. However, two recent functional brain imaging studies of the FEP task using conventional subtraction analysis failed to demonstrate FEP-induced activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which contradicts existing neuropsychological literature. In this study, psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis was used to reanalyze our previous neuroimaging dataset from 10 healthy subjects in order to evaluate the changes of functional connectivity between the sensorimotor cortex and the prefrontal regions during the performances of the FEP task relative to simple motor control tasks. The PPI analysis revealed significantly increased functional connectivity between bilateral sensorimotor cortex and the right inferior and middle frontal cortex during the performance of the FEP task compared with the control tasks. However, regional signal changes showed no significant activation differences in these prefrontal regions. These results provide evidence supporting the involvement of the frontal lobe in the performance of the FEP task, and suggest a role of regulation, rather than direct participation, of the prefrontal cortex in the execution of complex motor sequence tasks such as the FEP task.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA): "missing the Wood for the Trees"

The Medical Journal of Australia. Jun, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18558902

Estimation of Radial Strain and Rotation Using a New Algorithm Based on Speckle Tracking

Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : Official Publication of the American Society of Echocardiography. Oct, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18672346

The aim of this study was to test the ability of a new algorithm to accurately measure point-to-point Lagrangian strain (LS) and local rotation (ROT). Change in distance between 2 separate regions of interest (ROIs) can theoretically be computed with speckle tracking (SpT) and used to calculate LS in any tissue location with angle independence and high spatial resolution. Similarly, tracking an ROI relative to a fixed point should provide an estimate of ROT.

Prospective Memory in Schizophrenia: Further Clarification of Nature of Impairment

Schizophrenia Research. Oct, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18707848

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to execute a delayed intention and is different from retrospective memory (RM) in its nature and underlying mechanism (e.g., intention formation, maintenance, detection of PM cue and intention execution). Although preliminary studies have found PM impairment in patients with schizophrenia, the nature and magnitude of this problem in this clinical group is not yet fully known. The current study aimed to further clarify the nature of this impairment in schizophrenia. Fifty-four patients with schizophrenia and fifty-four healthy volunteers matched on demographic variables, IQ and executive functions took part in the study. Time-, event-, and activity-based PM tasks and a set of neurocognitive tests were administered to the participants. Results showed that patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse on all sub-types of PM tasks, even after controlling for neurocognitive functions such as working memory, verbal memory, visual memory, and executive function. These findings suggest PM deficit is a primary deficit rather than a secondary consequence of neurocognitive impairments in schizophrenia. Analysis found that PM deficits may be mainly due to the impairment of the cue detection and intention retrieval stage.

Healthcare Workers and Immunity to Infectious Diseases

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. Aug, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 18782402

In 2002, New South Wales (NSW) Health introduced an updated policy for occupational screening and vaccination against infectious diseases. This study describes healthcare worker (HCW) immunity to hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and varicella based on serological screening, following introduction of this policy.

A Preliminary Study of Food Transfer in Sichuan Snub-nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus Roxellana)

American Journal of Primatology. Feb, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 17694533

Food transfer happens regularly in a few nonhuman primates species that are also characterized by remarkable social tolerance. Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana), or golden monkeys, which exhibit high social tolerance in their social relationships are thus of interest to see whether tolerance would extend to food transfer. In this study, branch feeding activity was observed in a semi-captive group of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys, which consisted of 10 subjects that included a one-male unit (OMU) and an all-male unit (AMU). We recorded 1,275 food interactions over 27 days, and 892 instances of food transfer. The most commonly observed types of food transfer behavior were co-feeding (62.1%) and relaxed claim (22.8%). Of 892 food transfers, 756 (84.8%) took place in the OMU, most of which were among adults (34.7%) and among juveniles (42.1%). The transfer success rate was high in both the cases (87.9% for adults and 78.9% for juveniles). Food transfer in the AMU took place less often than that among adults in the OMU though with similar high transfer success. Food transfer between the OMU and AMU was limited to juvenile males from the OMU and adults from the AMU. These results provide the first evidence of food transfer in golden monkeys and suggest that tolerant social relationships in golden monkeys make transfer possible.

Prospective Memory Deficits in Subjects with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: a Comparison Study with Schizophrenic Subjects, Psychometrically Defined Schizotypal Subjects, and Healthy Controls

Schizophrenia Research. Nov, 2008  |  Pubmed ID: 17719206

Memory impairment is one of the core deficits in schizophrenia. This study explored the memory profiles of schizophrenic and psychometrically defined schizotypal subjects. The study participants included 15 patients with schizophrenia, 41 schizotypal subjects, and 20 healthy controls. All of the participants completed verbal and visual memory, working memory, and prospective memory tasks. The results showed that patients with schizophrenia were impaired in all aspects of memory function, whereas the schizotypal subjects tended to show moderate to large impairment effect sizes in prospective memory. It is suggested that prospective memory be considered a potential endophenotype of schizophrenia.

Dexterous Movement Complexity and Cerebellar Activation: a Meta-analysis

Brain Research Reviews. Mar, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 18973773

The importance of the cerebellum in coordinates of movement has been established by lesion studies. However, there is no clear understanding of whether there is consistent activation in cerebellum across various motor task complexities or how different parts of the cerebellum contribute to finger coordinates in dexterous manipulation. This article reviews imaging studies with data from healthy subjects. A mini meta-analysis using label-based and activation likelihood estimation (ALE) methods reveals that ipsilateral anterior and vermis regions of the cerebellum were consistently activated across various dexterous movement complexities and were associated with finger and hand movement.

Psychological Investigation of the "feeling of Being Seen Through" in a Non-clinical Sample Using an ERP Paradigm

Brain Research. Feb, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19094969

This study aimed to explore the validity of an experiment-based paradigm for assessing the suspicious thoughts in healthy volunteers and its corresponding neural process. Twenty-four pairs of healthy college students participated in this study and were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions: the informed (12 pairs) and the naive (12 pairs) conditions. EEG of one subject in each pair was recorded when the 'feeling of being seen through' was evoked. The findings showed a prominent positive deflection of the difference wave within the time window 200 ms-400 ms after stimuli presentation (0 ms) in the naive group. The ERP amplitude of frontal and central scalp sites was significantly different between high and low paranoia rating scores. These findings provide preliminary evidence on the use of an ERP paradigm to detect paranoid ideation or suspicious thoughts in non-clinical sample.

Neuroleptic Effects on P50 Sensory Gating in Patients with First-episode Never-medicated Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia Research. Mar, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19106034

Sensory gating deficit, as reflected by P50 suppression, has been demonstrated in schizophrenia. Despite extensive evidence of the irreversible effects of typical neuroleptics on this deficit, recent studies of atypical neuroleptics have produced inconsistent findings on the reversibility of P50 suppression in schizophrenia. As the majority of these studies were limited by either their cross-sectional design or the recruitment of patients on multiple medications, the current study was designed to examine the effects of different neuroleptic medications on the P50 sensory gating index in patients with first-episode, never-medicated schizophrenia. P50-evoked potential recordings were obtained from 62 normal controls when they entered the study and from 65 patients with first-episode, never-medicated schizophrenia at baseline and after six weeks of different neuroleptic treatments (sulpiride [n=24], risperidone [n=24] and clozapine [n=17]). The first-episode, never-medicated schizophrenia patients had impaired sensory gating relative to the normal controls (mean=94.19% [SD=61.31%] versus mean=41.22% [SD=33.82%]). The test amplitude S2 was significantly higher in the schizophrenia patients than in the normal controls. The conditioning amplitude S1 and the positive symptom scores were related to the P50 gating ratios in schizophrenia at baseline. There was no change in P50 sensory gating (P>0.10) and a significant improvement in the clinical ratings (P>0.10) after six-week neuroleptic treatment for schizophrenia. P50 sensory gating was not significant for the patients who received sulpiride, risperidone or clozapine at baseline (F=1.074, df=2, 62, P=0.348) or at endpoint (F=0.441, df=2, 62, p=0.646). Our findings indicate that there is P50 sensory gating impairment in first-episode, never-medicated schizophrenia and that treatment with typical and atypical antipsychotics has no significant impact on such gating in this illness.

Invader Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Type 16 and 18 Assays As Adjuncts to HPV Screening of Cervical Papanicolaou Smears with Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance

Cancer. Feb, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19127558

High-risk (HR) human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is standard practice for triaging women who have Papanicolaou (Pap) smears with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US), however, only 5% to 17% of these women have underlying cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2 (CIN-2)/CIN-3. Recent reports have demonstrated that the presence of either HPV type 16 (HPV-16) or HPV-18 confers an elevated risk for CIN-2/CIN-3. The current study was designed to determine the prevalence of HPV-16 and HPV-18 in ASC-US Pap smears and to determine whether further typing would enhance the risk stratification of patients for CIN-2/CIN-3.

Lack of Allergic Cross-reactivity Between Fluconazole and Voriconazole

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Apr, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19164151

Magnetization Transfer Imaging Reveals the Brain Deficit in Patients with Treatment-refractory Depression

Journal of Affective Disorders. Oct, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19211150

Studies on treatment resistant depression (TRD) using advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques are very limited.

Emotion Categorization Perception in Schizophrenia in Conversations with Different Social Contexts

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. May, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19373705

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the boundaries between the happy and angry emotions of schizophrenia would be influenced by social context and the difference in emotion categorization boundaries between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls.

Meta-analysis of Prospective Memory in Schizophrenia: Nature, Extent, and Correlates

Schizophrenia Research. Oct, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19713081

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to carry out an intended action in the future and it is an important function for everyday living. Studies have found that the neural basis of PM is located mainly in the prefrontal lobes (particularly in Brodmann Area 10) and patients with schizophrenia have functional deficits in this area. The present study provided a meta-analytic review of PM performances in patients with schizophrenia in 11 studies. A total of 485 patients with schizophrenia and 409 controls were included. Results showed that patients with schizophrenia exhibited impairments in all time- (d=-1.33), event- (d=-0.827), and activity-based (d=-0.729) PM, with time-based PM more impaired than event-based PM. In addition, PM was found to be significantly correlated with negative symptoms (r=-0.18), general psychopathology (r=-0.168), medication dosage (r=-0.119), duration of illness (r=-0.131), age (r=-0.23), education (r=0.249), IQ (r=0.439) and premorbid IQ (r=0.356). It has theoretical and clinical implications. Theoretically, the results indicate time-based PM involves more initiation than event-based PM. Clinically, the results indicate patients on high dose of antipsychotic medication and with long duration of illness need special attention from care givers for PM problems.

High-field MRI Reveals an Acute Impact on Brain Function in Survivors of the Magnitude 8.0 Earthquake in China

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Sep, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19720989

Besides the enormous medical and economic consequences, national disasters, such as the Wenchuan 8.0 earthquake, also pose a risk to the mental health of survivors. In this context, a better understanding is needed of how functional brain systems adapt to severe emotional stress. Previous animal studies have demonstrated the importance of limbic, paralimbic, striatal, and prefrontal structures in stress and fear responses. Human studies, which have focused primarily on patients with clinically established posttraumatic stress disorders, have reported abnormalities in similar brain structures. At present, little is known about potential alterations of brain function in trauma survivors shortly after traumatic events. Here, we show alteration of brain function in a cohort of healthy survivors within 25 days after the Wenchuan earthquake by a recently discovered method known as "resting-state" functional MRI. The current investigation demonstrates that regional activity in frontolimbic and striatal areas increased significantly and connectivity among limbic and striatal networks was attenuated in our participants who had recently experienced severe emotional trauma. Trauma victims also had a reduced temporal synchronization within the "default mode" of resting-state brain function, which has been characterized in humans and other species. Taken together, our findings provide evidence that significant alterations in brain function, similar in many ways to those observed in posttraumatic stress disorders, can be seen shortly after major traumatic experiences, highlighting the need for early evaluation and intervention for trauma survivors.

Sustained Attention Deficit Along the Psychosis Proneness Continuum: a Study on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART)

Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology : Official Journal of the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology. Sep, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19741328

Sustained attention deficits have been associated with schizophrenia. However, these findings were limited to patients with schizophrenia and cannot be generalized to a wider nonclinical sample with schizotypal personality features.

White Matter Reduction in Patients with Schizophrenia As Revealed by Voxel-based Morphometry: an Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-analysis

Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. Nov, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19744536

Schizophrenia is thought to be a mental disorder caused by the disconnection of brain regions. Cumulative evidence of white matter deficit in patients with schizophrenia has been reported using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), but these studies have not been quantitatively reviewed. In the study reported herein, we used activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis to quantitatively estimate focal white matter abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia. Seventeen studies that compared the white matter deficit of patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls were ascertained. The frontal white matter regions and internal capsule revealed consistent white matter reduction in patient groups relative to healthy controls, suggesting a clear focal white matter deficit in patients with schizophrenia. These results support the macro-circuit theory of white matter change in schizophrenia.

Neurological Soft Signs and Their Relationships to Neurocognitive Functions: a Re-visit with the Structural Equation Modeling Design

PloS One. 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 20041110

Neurological soft signs and neurocognitive impairments have long been considered important features of schizophrenia. Previous correlational studies have suggested that there is a significant relationship between neurological soft signs and neurocognitive functions. The purpose of the current study was to examine the underlying relationships between these two distinct constructs with structural equation modeling (SEM).

Depressive Disorders: Focally Altered Cerebral Perfusion Measured with Arterial Spin-labeling MR Imaging

Radiology. May, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19401575

To assess focal cerebral perfusion in patients with refractory depressive disorder (RDD), patients with nonrefractory depressive disorder (NDD), and healthy control subjects by using arterial spin-labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Conversation Prosody on Emotion and Intention Identification in Schizophrenia

Brain Research. Jul, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19497312

Emotion perception deficits have been well documented in schizophrenia. However, very little is known about decoding of emotion cues in daily communication in this clinical group. The aim of the current study is to examine whether patients with schizophrenia experience difficulties in decoding other people's emotional cues, such as prosody, in daily conversations. Eighteen patients with schizophrenia and nineteen matched controls were administrated an emotion and intention identification task in a series of conversations with a prosody manipulation and a questionnaire that specifically captured subjective experiences of pleasure. Compared with the healthy controls, the patients with schizophrenia exhibited a chance-level performance in emotion identification in the presence of negative prosody. These findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia have a specific deficit in recognizing negative emotion in conversation.

Do Deaf Adults with Limited Language Have Advanced Theory of Mind?

Research in Developmental Disabilities. Nov-Dec, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20591616

Previous studies show that deaf children have deficits in false belief understanding due to their language impairment. However, it is not clear whether deaf adults still have problems in advanced theory of mind (ToM). The present study examined deaf adults' performance on three aspects of advanced ToM. All of the deaf groups lacking mental state language tended to perform worse than the hearing group on explicit mental state understanding. Deaf groups with either vocabulary skill or interpersonal experience from early years were similar to the hearing group in implicit mental state reasoning. Individuals frequently using syntactic complements or having interpersonal experience with hearing people from early years tended to use ToM better. Moreover, language ability was the only predictor for explicit rather than implicit mental state understanding. Sufficient language is not necessary for all aspects of advanced ToM. Rich interpersonal experience as a substitute for language may facilitate deaf adults' advanced ToM.

Comparison of the Accuracy of Multidetector Computed Tomography Versus Two-dimensional Echocardiography to Measure Left Atrial Volume

The American Journal of Cardiology. Jul, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20609656

Left atrial (LA) volume is an important prognostic factor in cardiovascular disease. Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) is an emerging cardiac imaging modality; however, its accuracy in measuring the LA volume has not been well studied. The aim of our study was to determine the accuracy of MDCT in quantifying the LA volume. A total of 48 patients underwent MDCT and 2-dimensional (2D) echocardiography (2DE) on the same day. The area-length and Simpson's methods were used to obtain the 2D echocardiographic LA volume. The LA volume assessment by MDCT was obtained using the modified Simpson's method. Four artificial phantoms were created, and their true volume was assessed by an independent observer using both imaging modalities. The correlation between the LA volume by MDCT and 2DE was significant (r = 0.68). The mean 2D echocardiographic LA volume was lower than the LA volume obtained with MDCT (2DE 79 +/- 37 vs MDCT 103 +/- 32, p <0.05). In the phantom experiment, the volume obtained using MDCT and 2DE correlated significantly with the true volume (r = 0.97, p <0.05 vs r = 0.96, p <0.05, respectively). However, the mean 2D echocardiographic phantom volume was 16% lower than the true volume (2DE, Simpson's method 53 +/- 24 vs the true volume 61 +/- 24, p <0.05). The mean volume calculated using MDCT did not differ from the true volume (MDCT 60 +/- 21 vs true volume 61 +/- 24, p = NS). 2DE appeared to systematically underestimate the LA volume compared to phantom and cardiac MDCT, suggesting that different normal cutoff values should be used for each modality. In conclusion, LA volume quantification using MDCT is an accurate and feasible method.

Coping Flexibility in Young Adults: Comparison Between Subjects with and Without Schizotypal Personality Features

Schizophrenia Research. Sep, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20510586

The current study examined characteristics of coping patterns adopted by college students in mainland China. In particular, it examined the coping strategies adopted by subjects with schizotypal personality (SPD) features compared to those without SPD features, and compared the relative effectiveness of their coping. Four types of coping flexibility were identified among the college sample (n=427), including active-inflexible, passive-inflexible, active-inconsistent, and passive-inconsistent styles. The passive-inconsistent style was related to the worst outcomes. When comparing subjects with SPD features with those without SPD features, subjects with SPD features endorsed significantly more emotion-focused strategies in uncontrollable situations than those without SPD features. The SPD group experienced higher levels of trait anxiety, depression, paranoid ideation and general health problems. The SPD group also generally perceived more, less controllable stress than the non-SPD group and randomly used all four categories of coping strategies.

Executive Control in Schizophrenia in Task Involving Semantic Inhibition and Working Memory

Psychiatry Research. Oct, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20537400

Executive dysfunctions have been consistently demonstrated in patients with schizophrenia. This study aimed to investigate deficits in specific executive functioning components, namely working memory and inhibition, in schizophrenia. In study 1, a set of neurocognitive function tests was administered to 41 patients with schizophrenia and 25 healthy controls to capture specific components of executive functioning, including semantic inhibition (the Stroop-like paradigm and the Chinese Version of the Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSC)), working memory (the spatial n-back), and response inhibition (the stop signal task (SST)). Results showed that schizophrenia patients did significantly worse than controls under both working memory and inhibition demands in the Stroop-like paradigm. In particular, patients were impaired when inhibiting a semantically associated response; and performance was correlated with negative symptoms. In study 2, we employed a modified semantic inhibitory error monitoring paradigm to examine whether patients with schizophrenia (n=11) were impaired in semantic inhibitory error monitoring or not as compared to 11 healthy controls. The results suggested that patients with schizophrenia in this study remained intact in semantic inhibition error monitoring. There was no difference in the semantic inhibitory monitoring performance between healthy controls and patients with schizophrenia. Taken together, these results suggested impaired working memory context maintenance and semantic inhibition in schizophrenia patients, and these impairments were related to clinical symptoms of schizophrenia.

Do Executive Function Deficits Differentiate Between Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and ADHD Comorbid with Oppositional Defiant Disorder? A Cross-cultural Study Using Performance-based Tests and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function

The Clinical Neuropsychologist. 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20582856

This study examined the differential executive dysfunction of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and those with ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in Han Chinese. A total of 258 children (89 ADHD, 53 ADHD + ODD, 116 controls) completed performance-based executive function tests and had their everyday life executive skills rated by their parents using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Both the ADHD and ADHD + ODD groups performed worse than the controls in the Stroop and Trail-making tests and the BRIEF. The ADHD + ODD group were rated worse than the ADHD group on the BRIEF, but the two groups showed no significant difference in the performance-based tests. These findings suggest Han Chinese children with ADHD display executive dysfunction in performance-based tests and everyday life scenarios, in a similar way to findings in Western counterparts. However, children with ADHD + ODD showed more severe executive dysfunction in everyday life scenarios than those with ADHD only.

Do Patients with Schizophrenia and Healthy Elderly People Show Similar Patterns of Prospective Memory Performance?

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists. Nov, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20660603

Schizophrenia and normal aging have both been associated with structural and physiological changes in the prefrontal and temporal cortex and impairments in prospective memory (PM). This study aimed to compare PM performance in patients with schizophrenia, healthy older, and healthy younger individuals. Computerized event- and time-based PM tasks were administered to 30 patients with schizophrenia, 30 healthy older adults, and 30 healthy younger adults. The healthy older adults and patients with schizophrenia demonstrated deficits in time-based PM when compared with the healthy younger adults. However, only healthy older adults were found to be impaired in event-based PM when compared with the healthy younger adults. These findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia show a similar pattern of performance on one type but not another type of PM and provide only partial support for the accelerated aging hypothesis of schizophrenia.

Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) Proteins Promote Homolog-independent Recombination Repair in Meiosis Crucial for Germ Cell Genomic Stability

PLoS Genetics. Jul, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20661436

In meiosis, programmed DNA breaks repaired by homologous recombination (HR) can be processed into inter-homolog crossovers that promote the accurate segregation of chromosomes. In general, more programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are formed than the number of inter-homolog crossovers, and the excess DSBs must be repaired to maintain genomic stability. Sister-chromatid (inter-sister) recombination is postulated to be important for the completion of meiotic DSB repair. However, this hypothesis is difficult to test because of limited experimental means to disrupt inter-sister and not inter-homolog HR in meiosis. We find that the conserved Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) 5 and 6 proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans are required for the successful completion of meiotic homologous recombination repair, yet they appeared to be dispensable for accurate chromosome segregation in meiosis. Mutations in the smc-5 and smc-6 genes induced chromosome fragments and dismorphology. Chromosome fragments associated with HR defects have only been reported in mutants, which have disrupted inter-homolog crossover. Surprisingly, the smc-5 and smc-6 mutations did not disrupt the formation of chiasmata, the cytologically visible linkages between homologous chromosomes formed from meiotic inter-homolog crossovers. The mutant fragmentation defect appeared to be preferentially enhanced by the disruptions of inter-homolog recombination but not by the disruptions of inter-sister recombination. Based on these findings, we propose that the C. elegans SMC-5/6 proteins are required in meiosis for the processing of homolog-independent, presumably sister-chromatid-mediated, recombination repair. Together, these results demonstrate that the successful completion of homolog-independent recombination is crucial for germ cell genomic stability.

Short-term Effects of Antipsychotic Treatment on Cerebral Function in Drug-naive First-episode Schizophrenia Revealed by "resting State" Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Archives of General Psychiatry. Aug, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20679586

Most of what we know about antipsychotic drug effects is at the receptor level, distal from the neural system effects that mediate their clinical efficacy. Studying cerebral function in antipsychotic-naive patients with schizophrenia before and after pharmacotherapy can enhance understanding of the therapeutic mechanisms of these clinically effective treatments.

Neurological Soft Signs in Individuals with Schizotypal Personality Features

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. Sep, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20815666

The current study attempted to examine the prevalence of neurological soft signs and their relationships with schizotypal traits in individuals with psychometrically defined schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) features.

High-field Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Suicidality in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

The American Journal of Psychiatry. Nov, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20843871

Suicide is a major social and public health problem, but its neurobiology in major depressive disorder is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to use magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging to characterize abnormalities of white matter integrity in major depressive disorder patients with and without a history of suicide attempts.

A Preliminary Study on the Function of Food Begging in Sichuan Snub-nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus Roxellana): Challenge to Begging for Nutritional Gain

Folia Primatologica; International Journal of Primatology. 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 21212680

Several hypotheses have been developed to explain what benefits a donor may gain from sharing food with another individual, with nutritional gain assumed to be the sole benefit for the beggar. Recently, it has been proposed that begging behaviour serves a social function in non-human primates. In this study, the nutritional-gain assumption was again challenged based on observations on a captive group of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana), or golden snub-nosed monkeys. The major findings from this study are that (1) beggars sometimes left their own branches or passed by available branches to beg for similar food from other individuals, (2) beggars occasionally ignored branches that were acquired by begging and (3) food begging occurred more frequently in the all-male unit after the social rank had changed between 2 individuals in this unit. Overall, these preliminary findings suggest that some begging behaviours in captive golden snub-nosed monkeys were not driven by nutritional gain only; instead, we propose that these begging behaviours could be interpreted as attempts at deriving social benefits.

Prevalence of Neurological Soft Signs and Their Neuropsychological Correlates in Typically Developing Chinese Children and Chinese Children with ADHD

Developmental Neuropsychology. Nov, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 21038161

This study examined prevalence of soft signs in 214 typically developing Chinese children and investigated whether soft signs are associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in this population. Chinese children with ADHD (N = 54) scored significantly higher than age-matched controls on all three soft signs subscales and motor coordination correlated significantly with Stroop interference. Logistic regression supported the utility of the soft sign scales in discriminating children with ADHD and controls. Children with ADHD had a significant excess of soft signs, which may be a useful marker of developmental disruption in this clinical condition.

Strategies for the Study of Neuropsychiatric Disorders Using Endophenotypes in Developing Countries: a Potential Databank from China

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 21103014

Endophenotypic research can be considered to be one of the most promising strategies to bridge the gap between genomic complexity and the phenotypic heterogeneity observed in neuropsychiatric disorders. However, despite the promising and systematic work initiated by our western counterparts, this research strategy is still not well known in developing countries. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to argue the merits and promise of a potentially useful database on phenotypes and endophenotypes for developing countries.

Coping Flexibility in College Students with Depressive Symptoms

Health and Quality of Life Outcomes. 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20626865

The current study explored the prevalence of depressed mood among Chinese undergraduate students and examined the coping patterns and degree of flexibility of flexibility of such patterns associated with such mood.

Alterations in the Processing of Non-drug-related Affective Stimuli in Abstinent Heroin Addicts

NeuroImage. Jan, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 19683582

Long-term exposure to drug may alter the neural system associated with affective processing, as evidenced by both clinical observations and behavioral data documenting dysfunctions in emotional experiences and processing in drug addicts. Although many imaging studies examined neural responses to drug or drug-related cues in addicts, there have been few studies explicitly designed to reveal their neural abnormalities in processing non-drug-related natural affective materials. The present study asked abstinent heroin addicts and normal controls to passively view standardized affective pictures of positive, negative, or neutral valence and compared their brain activities with functional MRI. Compared to normal controls, addicts showed reduced activation in right amygdala in response to the affective pictures, consistent with previous reports of blunted subjective experience for affective stimuli in addicts. Furthermore, in two visual cortical areas BA 19 and 37, while the controls showed greater responses to positive pictures than to negative ones replicating literature findings, the addicts showed the opposite pattern. The results reveal a complex pattern of altered processing of non-drug-related affective materials in addicts showing both heightened and blunted neural responses in different brain regions and for different stimulus valence. The present study highlights the importance of brain imaging research on drug addicts' processing of affective stimuli in understanding disruptions in their emotion circuitry.

Facial Emotion Perception in Chinese Patients with Schizophrenia and Non-psychotic First-degree Relatives

Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. Mar, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20079792

Although there is a consensus that patients with schizophrenia have certain deficits in perceiving and expressing facial emotions, previous studies of facial emotion perception in schizophrenia do not present consistent results. The objective of this study was to explore facial emotion perception deficits in Chinese patients with schizophrenia and their non-psychotic first-degree relatives. Sixty-nine patients with schizophrenia, 56 of their first-degree relatives (33 parents and 23 siblings), and 92 healthy controls (67 younger healthy controls matched to the patients and siblings, and 25 older healthy controls matched to the parents) completed a set of facial emotion perception tasks, including facial emotion discrimination, identification, intensity, valence, and corresponding face identification tasks. The results demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than their siblings and younger healthy controls in accuracy in a variety of facial emotion perception tasks, whereas the siblings of the patients performed as well as the corresponding younger healthy controls in all of the facial emotion perception tasks. Patients with schizophrenia also showed significantly reduced speed than younger healthy controls, while siblings of patients did not demonstrate significant differences with both patients and younger healthy controls in speed. Meanwhile, we also found that parents of the schizophrenia patients performed significantly worse than the corresponding older healthy controls in accuracy in terms of facial emotion identification, valence, and the composite index of the facial discrimination, identification, intensity and valence tasks. Moreover, no significant differences were found between the parents of patients and older healthy controls in speed after controlling the years of education and IQ. Taken together, the results suggest that facial emotion perception deficits may serve as potential endophenotypes for schizophrenia.

Automatic Segmentation of Rotational X-ray Images for Anatomic Intra-procedural Surface Generation in Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Procedures

IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. Feb, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20129843

Since the introduction of 3-D rotational X-ray imaging, protocols for 3-D rotational coronary artery imaging have become widely available in routine clinical practice. Intra-procedural cardiac imaging in a computed tomography (CT)-like fashion has been particularly compelling due to the reduction of clinical overhead and ability to characterize anatomy at the time of intervention. We previously introduced a clinically feasible approach for imaging the left atrium and pulmonary veins (LAPVs) with short contrast bolus injections and scan times of approximately 4 -10 s. The resulting data have sufficient image quality for intra-procedural use during electro-anatomic mapping (EAM) and interventional guidance in atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation procedures. In this paper, we present a novel technique to intra-procedural surface generation which integrates fully-automated segmentation of the LAPVs for guidance in AF ablation interventions. Contrast-enhanced rotational X-ray angiography (3-D RA) acquisitions in combination with filtered-back-projection-based reconstruction allows for volumetric interrogation of LAPV anatomy in near-real-time. An automatic model-based segmentation algorithm allows for fast and accurate LAPV mesh generation despite the challenges posed by image quality; relative to pre-procedural cardiac CT/MR, 3-D RA images suffer from more artifacts and reduced signal-to-noise. We validate our integrated method by comparing 1) automatic and manual segmentations of intra-procedural 3-D RA data, 2) automatic segmentations of intra-procedural 3-D RA and pre-procedural CT/MR data, and 3) intra-procedural EAM point cloud data with automatic segmentations of 3-D RA and CT/MR data. Our validation results for automatically segmented intra-procedural 3-D RA data show average segmentation errors of 1) approximately 1.3 mm compared with manual 3-D RA segmentations 2) approximately 2.3 mm compared with automatic segmentation of pre-procedural CT/MR data and 3) approximately 2.1 mm compared with registered intra-procedural EAM point clouds. The overall experiments indicate that LAPV surfaces can be automatically segmented intra-procedurally from 3-D RA data with comparable quality relative to meshes derived from pre-procedural CT/MR.

Prospective Memory in Healthy Chinese People: the Latent Structure of the Comprehensive Assessment of Prospective Memory Questionnaire

Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. Jun, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20155572

This study aimed to examine the latent structure of the Chinese version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Prospective Memory (CAPM) using confirmatory factor analysis. A total of 264 healthy Chinese participants (118 men and 146 women) took part in the study and their ages ranged from 17 to 90 years. There was no gender effect upon the frequency of prospective memory (PM) forgetting but age and education were found to be correlated significantly with these frequencies in the current sample. Results of the study also showed that the model with the best fit had a tripartite structure which consisted of a general memory factor (with all items loading on it) plus a basic activities of daily living as well as an instrumental activities of daily living factor. Furthermore, this tripartite model was robust across subgroups with respect to gender, education, and age. These findings provide support for the construct validity of the original CAPM and demonstrate its utility in another culture.

Maturation of Social Attribution Skills in Typically Developing Children: an Investigation Using the Social Attribution Task

Behavioral and Brain Functions : BBF. 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20181076

The assessment of social attribution skills in children can potentially identify and quantify developmental difficulties related to autism spectrum disorders and related conditions. However, relatively little is known about how these skills develop in typically developing children. Therefore the present study aimed to map the trajectory of social attribution skill acquisition in typically developing children from a young age.

The Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT): an Extension to Individuals with Schizotypal Personality Features

Psychiatry Research. Jun, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20421136

The current study aimed to extend the clinical utility of the Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) to individuals with schizotypal personality features. It provided preliminary findings on the suitability and efficacy of the SCIT for these individuals in mainland China.

Impaired Facial Emotion Perception in Schizophrenia: a Meta-analysis

Psychiatry Research. Jul, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20483476

Research into facial emotion perception in schizophrenia has burgeoned over the past several decades. The evidence is mixed regarding whether patients with schizophrenia have a general facial emotion perception deficit (a deficit in facial emotion perception plus a more basic deficit in facial processing) or specific facial emotion perception deficits (deficits only in facial emotion perception tasks). A meta-analysis is conducted of 28 facial emotion perception studies that include control tasks. These studies use differential deficit designs to examine whether patients with schizophrenia demonstrate a general deficit or specific deficit in facial emotion perception. A significant mean effect size is found for total facial emotion perception (d=-0.85). Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate impaired ability to perform corresponding control tasks, and the mean effect size is -0.70. The current findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia have moderately to severely impaired perception of facial emotion.

Prospective Memory in Non-psychotic First-degree Relatives of Patients with Schizophrenia

Psychiatry Research. Oct, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20493547

Although a number of studies have found prospective memory (PM) impairment in patients with schizophrenia, very little is known about the PM performance in non-psychotic relatives of these patients. The current study aimed to explore the PM performance in non-psychotic first-degree relatives of these patients. Two groups of participants (26 non-psychotic first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients and 26 healthy comparison participants) were administered three PM tasks (time-, event-, and activity-based) and a set of neurocognitive tests. Results showed that the relatives performed significantly worse than the comparisons on most indices of the PM tasks, with a similar pattern of impairment found in other neurocognitive measures. Together with findings from previous studies, results of the current study suggest that PM may be a potential endophenotype for schizophrenia.

Human Papillomavirus Genotypes in Anal Intraepithelial Neoplasia and Anal Carcinoma As Detected in Tissue Biopsies

Modern Pathology : an Official Journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc. Jan, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 19838162

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection strongly correlates with the development of anal intraepithelial neoplasias and carcinomas; however, few studies have characterized the distribution of the specific subtypes of the virus in the varying grades of dysplasia. This report characterizes the distribution of HPV 16/18 in surgical specimens with anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) I-III and histological variants of anal carcinoma. A total of 111 anal surgical specimens with no dysplasia (10), AIN I-III (53), and anal carcinomas (48) were evaluated for the presence of high-risk HPV infection and subtyped by nested PCR or the Invader Assay. High-risk virus types were detected in progressively greater number of anal intraepithelial lesions from 56% in low grade to 88% in high grade. Type 16 was the prevalent subtype and was noted in 28% of low grade and 68% of high-grade lesions. Moderate dysplasias showed type 16 in 20%, a prevalence similar to that in low-grade lesions. The non-16/18 subtypes of the virus predominated and were present in 50% of the cases. Most (89%) squamous carcinomas were associated with high-risk viruses, 68% with type 16, a prevalence similar to that noted in high-grade dysplasia. Non-16/18 subtypes were encountered more frequently in squamous carcinomas from immunodeficient individuals (57% cases) as compared with immunocompetent individuals (18% cases). The similarity in the prevalence of type 16 in high-grade dysplasia and squamous carcinomas suggests that anal intraepithelial lesion III is the true precursor of squamous carcinoma and warrants aggressive management. Anal intraepithelial lesions II showed a virus distribution that was similar to low-grade dysplasia. In addition, a subset of these that were associated with type 16 or 18 showed progression, whereas those associated with non-16/18 subtypes regressed, thereby raising the possibility of conservative management for these lesions.

Neurological Soft Signs in Non-psychotic First-degree Relatives of Patients with Schizophrenia: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. May, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 19925825

Neurological soft signs (NSS) have been associated with the neuropsychopathology of schizophrenia, and have been proposed as candidate endophenotypes for this clinical group. However, the prevalence rate of NSS in non-psychotic first-degree relatives is not fully known. The authors systematically and quantitatively reviewed the literature to determine the magnitude of difference between: (1) first-degree non-psychotic relatives of schizophrenia patients and healthy controls, and (2) between schizophrenia patients and their non-psychotic relatives.

Localization of Cerebral Functional Deficits in Treatment-naive, First-episode Schizophrenia Using Resting-state FMRI

NeuroImage. Feb, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 19963069

Spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations (LFF) in the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal have been shown to reflect cerebral spontaneous neural activity, and the present study attempts to explore the functional changes in the regional brain in patients with schizophrenia using the amplitude of the BOLD signals.

Anticipatory and Consummatory Components of the Experience of Pleasure in Schizophrenia: Cross-cultural Validation and Extension

Psychiatry Research. Jan, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 19963276

This study examined anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in schizophrenia patients with and without negative symptoms. Negative symptom patients experienced less anticipatory pleasure than non-negative symptom patients; only one facet of consummatory pleasure was unaffected in negative schizophrenia. Greater pleasure deficits were correlated with more severe positive and negative symptoms.

Integrating Functional and Anatomical Information to Guide Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

European Journal of Heart Failure. Jan, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20023045

Neurological Soft Signs in Schizophrenia: a Meta-analysis

Schizophrenia Bulletin. Nov, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 19377058

Neurological soft signs (NSS) are hypothesized as candidate endophenotypes for schizophrenia, but their prevalence and relations with clinical and demographic data are unknown. The authors undertook a quantification (meta-analysis) of the published literature on NSS in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. A systematic search was conducted for published articles reporting NSS and related data using standard measures in schizophrenia and healthy comparison groups.

Facial Emotion Processing in Schizophrenia: a Meta-analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Data

Schizophrenia Bulletin. Sep, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 19336391

People with schizophrenia have difficulty with emotion perception. Functional imaging studies indicate regional brain activation abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia when processing facial emotion. However, findings have not been entirely consistent across different studies.

Identification of Neuroglycan C and Interacting Partners As Potential Susceptibility Genes for Schizophrenia in a Southern Chinese Population

American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics : the Official Publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. Jan, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 19367581

Chromosome 3p was reported by previous studies as one of the regions showing strong evidence of linkage with schizophrenia. We performed a fine-mapping association study of a 6-Mb high-LD and gene-rich region on 3p in a Southern Chinese sample of 489 schizophrenia patients and 519 controls to search for susceptibility genes. In the initial screen, 4 SNPs out of the 144 tag SNPs genotyped were nominally significant (P < 0.05). One of the most significant SNPs (rs3732530, P = 0.0048) was a non-synonymous SNP in the neuroglycan C (NGC, also known as CSPG5) gene, which belongs to the neuregulin family. The gene prioritization program Endeavor ranked NGC 8th out of the 129 genes in the 6-Mb region and the highest among the genes within the same LD block. Further genotyping of NGC revealed 3 more SNPs to be nominally associated with schizophrenia. Three other genes (NRG1, ErbB3, ErbB4) involved in the neuregulin pathways were subsequently genotyped. Interaction analysis by multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) revealed a significant two-SNP interaction between NGC and NRG1 (P = 0.015) and three-SNP interactions between NRG1 and ErbB4 (P = 0.009). The gene NGC is exclusively expressed in the brain. It is implicated in neurodevelopment in rats and was previously shown to promote neurite outgrowth. Methamphetamine, a drug that may induce psychotic symptoms, was reported to alter the expression of NGC. Taken together, these results suggest that NGC may be a novel candidate gene, and neuregulin signaling pathways may play an important role in schizophrenia.

Trying to Be Optimistic? The Emotion Perception of Schizophrenia Within Conversation Context

Psychiatry Research. Jan, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20494462

Exploratory Study on the Base-rate of Paranoid Ideation in a Non-clinical Chinese Sample

Psychiatry Research. Jan, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20510465

Recent findings from several large-scale community surveys suggest that delusions tend to occur in non-clinical samples as a continuous phenotype rather than as an all-or-none phenomenon. However, the majority of studies on the prevalence of delusions and paranoid ideation are limited to Western samples. The present study aims to examine the phenomenon and base-rate of paranoid ideation in a Chinese non-clinical sample. A total of 4951 undergraduates (65.9% male) completed a checklist for paranoid ideation and the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Participants were classified into individuals with and without schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) features based on the SPQ. For the frequency subscale, 2.1-18.2% of the participants without SPD features experienced certain types of paranoid ideation at least once a week during the survey. The prevalence rate even elevated to a higher proportion in conviction and distress dimensions. For the conviction subscale, 9.3-53.5% of the participants somewhat believed of the ideations. For the distress subscale, 14.7-31.3% of the participants felt somewhat distressing in the experienced paranoid ideation. Participants with SPD features reported significantly higher prevalence in most items across these three dimensions. Findings indicate a high base-rate of attenuated forms of psychotic-like symptoms in a non-clinical Chinese sample, and provide further evidence for the continuity of psychotic phenomenon in non-clinical samples.

Perceptual Bias of Patients with Schizophrenia in Morphed Facial Expression

Psychiatry Research. Jan, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20646764

Limited research has specifically examined the nature of the dysfunction in emotion categorization representation in schizophrenia. The current study aimed to investigate the perception bias of morphed facial expression in subjects with schizophrenia and healthy controls in the emotion continua. Twenty-eight patients with schizophrenia and thirty-one healthy controls took part in this study. They were administered a standardized set of morphed photographs of facial expressions with varying emotional intensities between 0% and 100% of the emotion, in 10% increments to provide a range of intensities from pleasant to unpleasant and approach to withdraw. Shift points, indicating the time point that the subjects' emotion identification begins to change, and response slopes, indicating how rapidly these changes have happened at the shift points in the emotion continuum, were measured. Patients exhibited a significantly greater response slope (i.e., patients' perception changed more rapidly) and greater shift point (i.e., patients still perceived mild expressions of anger as happy faces) with increasing emotion signal compared with healthy controls when the facial expression morphed from happy to angry. Furthermore, patients with schizophrenia still perceived mild expressions of fear as angry faces(a greater shift point) and were less discriminative from angry to fearful emotion(a flatter response slope). They were sensitive to sadness (a smaller shift point) and the perception changed rapidly (a sharper response slope) as compared with healthy controls in the emotion continuum of happy to sad. In conclusion, patients with schizophrenia demonstrated impaired categorical perception of facial expressions, with generally 'rapid' but 'late' discrimination towards social threat-related stimuli such as angry facial expression. Compared with healthy controls, these patients have a sharper discrimination perception pattern in the emotion continua from positive valence to negative valence.

Deceiving High-grade Cervical Dysplasias Identified As Human Papillomavirus Non-16 and Non-18 Types by Invader Human Papillomavirus Assays

Annals of Diagnostic Pathology. Dec, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 22197542

High-grade cervical intraepithelial lesions (HGCINs) are easily diagnosed by established histologic criteria. However, we encountered problematic cases that are difficult to diagnose because features intermediate between dysplasia and metaplasia are present. p16 and Ki-67 immunostains proved HGCIN in these difficult and unusual cases. Because these are unusual cases of cervical dysplasia, we decided to type the human papillomavirus (HPV) using the Invader HPV test with analyte-specific reagents developed by Third Wave Technologies (Madison, WI, USA) (a new HPV screening assay applicable to tissue and amenable to rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of 14 high- to intermediate-risk HPV types) and a panel of immunostains. Results of these difficult cases are compared with classic HGCIN cases. We searched our pathology files over a period of 16 months for high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia II, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia III, and p16. To identify cases of difficult HGCIN with features intermediate between dysplasia and metaplasia, we reviewed all surgical cases of HGCIN that required p16 and Ki-67 diagnosis confirmation. Cases of interest were also stained with ProExC. Human papillomavirus screening and HPV 16/18 typing were performed by the Invader assays as described previously. Ten cases of classic HGCIN were easily diagnosed by hypercellularity, significant atypia, mitotic figures, and diffuse staining by p16, Ki67 and ProExC. The Invader assay identified HPV 16 (A9 positive/HPV16 positive) in 7 of 10 cases; the 3 others were A7 positive/not HPV18 (1) and A9 positive/not HPV16 (2). Eight cases of difficult HGCIN were identified. These showed only mild-to-moderate cellularity, a lack of significant atypia, absent-to-rare mitotic figures, and diffuse staining by p16, Ki-67, and ProExC. Human papillomavirus DNA was detected in 5 of 8 cases: only 1 was A9 positive/HPV16 positive, 1 was A5/A6 positive, 1 was A7 positive/not HPV18, and 2 were A9 positive/not HPV16. Three remaining cases demonstrated sufficient DNA to be analyzed by the Invader assay, but results were negative. This is a poorly recognized unusual group of cervical HGCIN with features intermediate between dysplasia and metaplasia that is easily confused by histologic examination. Immunostains prove the high-grade nature of these lesions, and Invader assay demonstrates association with HPV types other than 16/18 (ie, other HPV types detected by Invader assay). In this study, we present an unusual group of cases of high-grade dysplasia, not recognized by hematoxylin and eosin but identified by Ki67 and P16. It is very important to emphasize that this unusual group of high-grade dysplasias is associated with high-risk HPV but with types other than 16/18.

Dysfunction in Different Phases of Working Memory in Schizophrenia: Evidence from ERP Recordings

Schizophrenia Research. Dec, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 22014837

The present study combined a time-locked paradigm and high-time-resolution event-related potential (ERP) recordings to examine different phases of working memory, including early visual processing and late memory-related processes of encoding, maintenance, and retrieval, in 67 adults with schizophrenia and 46 healthy controls. Alterations in ERP components were correlated with task performance. Patients performed significantly worse in the working memory task than healthy subjects, although all subjects' accuracy exceeded 80%. During encoding, the N1 and P2 component amplitudes were lower while the P300 amplitude was higher in schizophrenic patients compared to healthy controls. There were no differences between groups with respect to the mean amplitudes of the negative slow waves in the early stage (the first 400 ms) of the maintenance phase. However, in the next 500-ms time window, the patients exhibited a more negative deflection in the middle fronto-central region than the control group. Likewise, a similar pattern was observed in the second 500-ms period in the middle fronto-central region, although the effect was marginally significant. There were no differences between groups in the remaining 1000 ms. During retrieval, the P1, N1 and P2 amplitudes were lower while the P300 amplitude and latency were higher in schizophrenic patients. The present results indicate early visual deficits in the working memory task in adults with schizophrenia. Impairments in the maintenance phase were confined to the late rehearsal stage. The increased P300 amplitude at the fronto-central electrode sites along with the poorer behavioral performance suggests that schizophrenic patients have an inefficient working memory system.

Comparative Study of OROS-MPH and Atomoxetine on Executive Function Improvement in ADHD: a Randomized Controlled Trial

The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology / Official Scientific Journal of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP). Oct, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 22017969

This study aimed to compare the effects of osmotic release oral system-methylphenidate (OROS-MPH) and atomoxetine (ATX) on executive function in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by a randomized controlled trial. Subjects who met DSM-IV ADHD criteria were randomized to receive either OROS-MPH or ATX treatment. The doses were titrated to achieve optimal response and then maintained for 4-6 wk. A battery of executive function tests and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) were administered to subjects who completed the dose titration (OROS-MPH, n=85; ATX, n=57) at the pre- and post-treatment periods. Forty-six children without ADHD were recruited as controls. Both OROS-MPH and ATX significantly improved scores in the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT), digit span, and Stroop color-word task. The scores in RCFT and the reverse digit span were not significantly different from the control group at post-treatment assessment (OROS-MPH=ATX=control, p>0.05), whereas the word interference time of the Stroop test was still more than that of the control group (OROS-MPH=ATX>control, p>0.05). OROS-MPH also significantly improved the total correct response in the verbal fluency test to normal level, and the shifting time in the trail-making test to subnormal level. The current findings suggest both OROS-MPH and ATX improved executive function generally in children and adolescents with ADHD, and could return working memory back to normative performance level.

Semantic Processing Disturbance in Patients with Schizophrenia: a Meta-analysis of the N400 Component

PloS One. 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 22022395

Theoretically semantic processing can be separated into early automatic semantic activation and late contextualization. Semantic processing deficits have been suggested in patients with schizophrenia, however it is not clear which stage of semantic processing is impaired. We attempted to clarify this issue by conducting a meta-analysis of the N400 component.

Impact of Acute Stress on Human Brain Microstructure: An MR Diffusion Study of Earthquake Survivors

Human Brain Mapping. Oct, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 22042533

A characterization of the impact of natural disasters on the brain of survivors is critical for a better understanding of posttraumatic responses and may inform the development of more effective early interventions. Here we report alterations in white matter microstructure in survivors soon after Wenchuan earthquake in China in 2008. Within 25 days after the Wenchuan earthquake, 44 healthy survivors were recruited and scanned on a 3T MR imaging system. The survivors were divided into two groups according to their self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) score, including the SAS(+) (SAS > 55 after correction) group and "SAS(-)" (SAS < 55 after correction) group. Thrity-two healthy volunteers were also recruited as control group before earthquake. Individual maps of fractional anisotropy (FA) were calculated and voxel-based analysis (VBA) was performed to allow the comparison between survivors and controls using ANCOVAs in SPM2. In addition, a correlation between SAS score and regional FA value was examined using Pearson's correlation analysis in SPSS 11.5. Compared with the healthy cohort, the whole group of 44 survivors showed significantly decreased FA values in the right prefrontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the basal ganglia, and the right parahippocampus. These effects did not appear to depend on self-rating anxiety. For the first time we provide evidence that acute trauma altered cerebral microstructure within the limbic system; furthermore, these alterations are evident shortly after the traumatic event, highlighting the need for early evaluation and intervention for trauma survivors. Hum Brain Mapp, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

RBX1 (RING Box Protein 1) E3 Ubiquitin Ligase is Required for Genomic Integrity by Modulating DNA Replication Licensing Proteins

The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Feb, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21115485

RBX1 (RING box protein 1), also known as ROC1 (Regulator of Cullin 1), is an essential component of SCF (Skp1/Cullins/F-box) E3 ubiquitin ligases, which target diverse proteins for proteasome-mediated degradation. Our recent study showed that RBX1 silencing triggered a DNA damage response (DDR) leading to G(2)-M arrest, senescence, and apoptosis, with the mechanism remaining elusive. Here, we show that, in human cancer cells, RBX1 silencing causes the accumulation of DNA replication licensing proteins CDT1 and ORC1, leading to DNA double-strand breaks, DDR, G(2) arrest, and, eventually, aneuploidy. Whereas CHK1 activation by RBX1 silencing is responsible for the G(2) arrest, enhanced DNA damage renders cancer cells more sensitive to radiation. In Caenorhabditis elegans, RBX-1 silencing causes CDT-1 accumulation, triggering DDR in intestinal cells, which is largely abrogated by simultaneous CDT-1 silencing. RBX-1 silencing also induces lethality during development of embryos and in adulthood. Thus, RBX1 E3 ligase is essential for the maintenance of mammalian genome integrity and the proper development and viability in C. elegans.

Executive Function Profile of Chinese Boys with Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Different Subtypes and Comorbidity

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists. Mar, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21177762

This study examined the executive function (EF) profile of Chinese boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using a large sample. Executive function performance within the ADHD subtypes and the effects of comorbidity were also investigated. Five hundred Chinese boys (375 with ADHD and 125 controls) aged 6-15 completed a battery of EF tests. Boys with all types of ADHD performed worse in all of the EF tests than age- and intelligence quotient-matched healthy controls. The boys with the inattention ADHD subtype and the combined subtype showed similar impairments across different EF tasks, whereas the boys with the hyperactive-impulsive ADHD subtype primarily displayed deficits in theory of mind and visual memory. Comorbid oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder had no additional influence on the EF characteristics of the boys with ADHD only, whereas comorbid learning disorder increased the severity of inhibition and shifting impairments.

Executive Function in First-episode Schizophrenia: a Three-year Longitudinal Study of an Ecologically Valid Test

Schizophrenia Research. Mar, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21194894

Executive function impairment is a key cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. However, traditional neuropsychological tests of executive function may not be sensitive enough to capture the everyday dysexecutive problems experienced by patients. Additionally, existing literature has been inconsistent about longitudinal changes of executive functions in schizophrenia. The present study focuses on examining the longitudinal change of executive functions in schizophrenia using the Modified Six Elements Test (MSET) that was developed based on the Supervisory Attentional System model and shown to be sensitive to everyday dysexecutive problems. In the present study, MSET performance was assessed in 31 medication-naïve first-episode schizophrenic patients at four times over a period of three years, while the 31 normal controls were assessed once. Patients demonstrated impairment in MSET as compared to controls. Importantly, the MSET impairment persisted from the medication-naïve state to clinical stabilization and the three years following the first psychotic episode though patients improved in a conventional executive test (Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). Performance was not related to intelligence, educational level, symptom changes, age-of-onset, or duration of untreated psychosis. Better MSET performance at medication-naïve state predicted improvement in negative and positive symptoms over the three-year period. These findings may suggest that MSET impairment is a primary deficit in schizophrenia that occurs early in the course of the illness and remains stable irrespective of clinical state for at least three years following the first episode of schizophrenia.

Self-reported Pleasure Experience and Motivation in Individuals with Schizotypal Personality Disorders Proneness

East Asian Archives of Psychiatry : Official Journal of the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists = Dong Ya Jing Shen Ke Xue Zhi : Xianggang Jing Shen Ke Yi Xue Yuan Qi Kan. Sep, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21921305

In our current research, 2 studies were conducted to investigate self-reported pleasure and approach motivation in individuals with schizotypal personality disorders (SPD) proneness.

Minor Physical Anomalies in Patients with Schizophrenia, Unaffected First-degree Relatives, and Healthy Controls: a Meta-analysis

PloS One. 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21931654

Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) have been found to be more prevalent in schizophrenia than control participants in numerous studies and may index a potential endophenotype for schizophrenia.

Event-related Potential Correlates of Suspicious Thoughts in Individuals with Schizotypal Personality Features

Social Neuroscience. Oct, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21939412

Suspiciousness is a common feature of schizophrenia. However, suspicious thoughts are also commonly experienced by the general population. This study aimed to examine the underlying neural mechanism of suspicious thoughts in individuals with and without schizotypal personality disorder (SPD)-proneness, using an event-related potential (ERP) paradigm. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded when the "feeling of being seen through" was evoked in the participants. The findings showed a prominent positive deflection of the difference wave within the time window 250-400 ms after stimuli presentation in both SPD-prone and non-SPD-prone groups. Furthermore, the P3 amplitude was significantly reduced in the SPD-prone group compared to the non-SPD-prone group. The current density analysis also indicated hypoactivity in both frontal and temporal regions in the SPD-prone group, suggesting that the frontotemporal cortical network may play a role in the onset of suspicious thoughts. The P3 of difference wave was inversely correlated with the cognitive-perception factor and the suspiciousness/paranoid ideation trait, which provided preliminary electrophysiological evidence for the association of suspiciousness with SPD features.

Prospective Memory in Patients with Closed Head Injury: a Review

Neuropsychologia. Jul, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21315750

This paper aimed to review the limited, but growing literature on prospective memory (PM) following closed head injury (CHI). Search of two commonly used databases yielded studies that could be classified as: self- or other-report of PM deficits; behavioral PM measures in adults with CHI, behavioral PM measures in children and adolescents with CHI, and treatment of PM in adults with CHI. The methodology and findings of these studies were critically reviewed and discussed. Because of the small number of studies, meta-analysis was only conducted for studies that used behavioral PM measures in adults to integrate findings. PM deficits were found to be commonly reported by patients with CHI and their significant others and they could be identified using behavioral measures in adults, children and adolescents with CHI. However, more work is needed to clarify the nature and mechanisms of these deficits. Although some promising results have been reported by studies that evaluated PM treatment, most studies lack tight experimental control and used only a small number of participants. The paper concluded with some suggestions for future research.

Alexithymia and Emotional Regulation: A Cluster Analytical Approach

BMC Psychiatry. 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21345180

Alexithymia has been a familiar conception of psychosomatic phenomenon. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there were subtypes of alexithymia associating with different traits of emotional expression and regulation among a group of healthy college students.

Resting-state Functional Connectivity in Treatment-resistant Depression

The American Journal of Psychiatry. Jun, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21362744

The authors used resting-state functional connectivity MRI to evaluate brain networks in patients with refractory and nonrefractory major depressive disorder.

Deficits in Sustaining Reward Responses in Subsyndromal and Syndromal Major Depression

Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. Jun, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21371518

Preliminary findings suggest a reduction in capacity to sustain reward responses in major depression. However, relatively little is known about the stability of reward learning over time and the effect of stress on reward responses in depressed individuals. This study aimed to evaluate sustained behaviour to maximize reward in the context of known reinforcement contingencies and to evaluate the extent to which stress influences such behaviour in clinically depressed patients (n=43), subsyndromally depressed individuals (n=43), and healthy controls (n=44). A probabilistic reward learning task with contingencies known to participants was used to evaluate the change of reward response over time in both 'stress' and 'non-stress' conditions. Stress was induced by salient negative feedback during the task performance. Questionnaires capturing subjective affect were also administered to all participants after completion of the task. Response bias to the stimulus signaling greater reward decreased significantly over time in both subsyndromally and clinically depressed participants, but not in healthy controls. Healthy controls demonstrated a trend of dysfunctional reward processing under the stress condition. Moreover, in the stress condition, the deficit in sustaining behaviour to maximize reward was associated with subjective rating of pleasure in participants with either subsyndromal depression or major depression. These findings suggest that individuals with depression have difficulty sustaining behaviour during a known reinforcement schedule. Participants with anhedonic symptoms are even less likely to sustain behaviour to maximize reward under stress.

The Association Between Family History of Mental Disorder and Delusional-like Experiences: a General Population Study

American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics : the Official Publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. Jun, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21438148

Recent studies have indicated that isolated delusional-like experiences (DLE) are common in the general population. Furthermore, there is preliminary evidence to suggest that these experiences are more common in those with a family history of mental disorders. We had the opportunity to explore the association between family history of a wide range of mental disorders and DLE in an Australian general population survey. The Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2007 examined 8,841 adult community residents. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to generate various DSM-IV lifetime diagnoses and to assess DLE. The participants were asked to report mental disorders in their first-degree relatives. The influence of family history of mental disorders on DLE endorsement was assessed with logistic regression, with adjustments for age, sex, and the presence of comorbid psychiatric diagnoses in the respondents. A family history of anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or alcohol or illicit drug abuse/dependence was each significantly associated with endorsement of DLE, and these associations remained significant when we adjusted for the presence of mental illness in the respondents. When we examined a more restrictive definition of DLE, only a family history of depression and schizophrenia remained significantly associated with DLE. DLE are associated with a family history of a wide range of mental disorders. These findings suggest that familial factors associated with DLE may be shared with a wide range of common mental disorders.

The Development of Prospective Memory in Typically Developing Children

Neuropsychology. May, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21443342

This study aimed to use specifically designed tasks to capture time-based, activity-based, and event-based prospective memory (PM) performance in typically developing school-age children.

Prospective Memory in Patients with First-onset Schizophrenia and Their Non-psychotic Siblings

Neuropsychologia. Jul, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21507327

This behavioral study used a dual-task paradigm to compare PM performance in 35 patients with first-onset schizophrenia, 40 non-psychotic siblings and 35 healthy controls. It aimed specifically to examine the effect of schizophrenia group status on PM, the differential effect of group status on PM type, and correlations between PM and other neurocognitive functions and clinical data in first-onset schizophrenia. It also aimed to test the hypothesis that non-psychotic siblings had poorer PM performance than controls. The cohort of first-onset schizophrenia patients had relatively short illness durations (M=1.7 years). The three groups of participants were matched in terms of age, gender and years of education. Results of the study confirmed that first-onset schizophrenia status had a primary effect on PM after controlling for other neurocognitive functions. We also found that first-onset schizophrenia status did not differentially affect two different types of PM. In the first-onset schizophrenia cohort, PM was found to correlate significantly with IQ, executive functions and sustained attention. Finally, contrary to the findings of the previous study, this study did not find siblings of schizophrenia patients to have impaired PM. Taking into account the previous findings of PM in chronic schizophrenia, we concluded that schizophrenia has a primary effect on PM regardless of illness duration.

Latent Factor Structure of the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System: a Confirmatory Factor Analysis in a Chinese Setting

Research in Developmental Disabilities. Sep-Oct, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21571501

This study aims to measure the psychometric properties of the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (D-N CAS) and to determine its clinical utility in a Chinese context. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the construct validity of the Chinese version of the D-N CAS among a group of 567, normally developed children. Test-retest reliability was examined in a random subsample of 30 children at a five-week interval. The clinical discrimination of the D-N CAS was also examined by comparing children with and without ADHD (18 children in each group) and by comparing children with and without Chinese reading disabilities (18 children in each group). The current Chinese sample demonstrated a four-factor solution for cognitive performance among children with normal development: Planning, Attention, Simultaneous processing and Successive processing (χ2(48)=91.90, p=.000; χ2/df=1.92, RMSEA=.050, GFI=.966, CFI=.954). Moreover, all subtests of the battery demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability (r=.72-.90, p<.01) at a five-week interval among the subjects of the small subsample. Children with ADHD performed significantly worse than normal children on the Attention factor (p<.001) and the Planning factor (p<.05) of the D-N CAS, and children with Chinese reading disabilities performed significantly worse than normal children on the Simultaneous processing factor (p<.01), the Successive processing factor (p<.001) and the Planning factor (p<.05) of the D-N CAS. These findings suggested that the current four-factor structure of the D-N CAS was similar to the original factor structure of the test. The latent factor of the D-N CAS was fairly stable across the cultures. Moreover, the D-N CAS can distinguish between children with ADHD or Chinese reading disabilities and normally developed children.

Translating Genomic Research into Care for People with Schizophrenia in China

Schizophrenia Research. Sep, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21636253

The implications of increased understanding of the genetic contribution to schizophrenia for patients and their families remain unclear. We carried out a study of Chinese patients'(n=118) and relatives' (n=78) views of illness severity, attribution of cause, concern about developing illness, and effect of schizophrenia on family planning. A comparison sample of English-survey respondents was also obtained, using the same series of questions (n=42 patients, n=127 relatives). Fewer Chinese patients and family members rated schizophrenia as very severe (33%) than did the predominantly North American respondents (67%, p<0.0001). The pattern of attribution of cause differed between samples (p<0.0001), favoring environmental alone in the Chinese sample (52%), with a low frequency of genetics alone (9%). Although comparatively fewer Chinese respondents were very concerned about developing schizophrenia themselves or about the risk of illness in their families (21%), this high level of concern was more common in family members (28%). Finally, Chinese respondents were somewhat less likely to indicate that schizophrenia impacted on family planning decisions (31%) than were English-survey respondents (45%, p=0.02). The descriptive findings contribute to understanding schizophrenia in China. The comparative findings must be regarded as preliminary, since differences in demographics could influence results. The present findings suggest that understanding patients' and families' attributions of cause of schizophrenia may be important for developing a shared model of illness in order to decrease stigmatization, and improve therapeutic alliances.

Abnormal Spontaneous Brain Activity in Medication-naïve ADHD Children: a Resting State FMRI Study

Neuroscience Letters. Sep, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21810451

Abnormal baseline brain functional connectivity in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been revealed in a number of studies by using resting-state functional MRI (rfMRI). The aim of this study was to investigate the spontaneous frontal activities in medication-naïve ADHD boys using the rfMRI derived index, amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF). In total 17 ADHD boys and 17 matched controls were recruited to undergo rfMRI scan on a 3.0T MRI system. For each subject, six oblique slices covering the frontal areas were acquired with a rapid sampling rate (TR=400ms). Functional images were processed in AFNI for calculation of ALFF and then group comparison was performed using voxel-based t-test. With a corrected threshold of p<0.05 determined by AlphaSim, we found that in comparison with controls, ADHD patients demonstrated higher ALFF values in the left superior frontal gyrus and sensorimotor cortex (SMC), and lower ALFF values in the bilateral anterior, middle cingulate and the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Significant correlations were found between patients' WSCT measures and the peak ALFF located in the right MFG (r=0.69, p=0.02), and the left SMC (r=0.65, p=0.03). Our results revealed abnormal frontal activities at resting state associated with underlying physiopathology of ADHD, and suggested the ALFF analysis to be a potential approach in further exploration of this disorder.

The Chinese Version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised Scale: Replication and Extension to Non-clinical and Clinical Individuals with OCD Symptoms

BMC Psychiatry. 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21824413

The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) was designed to evaluate the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in both clinical and non-clinical samples. The aim of the study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of this scale.

Neurological Abnormalities and Neurocognitive Functions in Healthy Elder People: a Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Behavioral and Brain Functions : BBF. 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 21827719

Neurological abnormalities have been reported in normal aging population. However, most of them were limited to extrapyramidal signs and soft signs such as motor coordination and sensory integration have received much less attention. Very little is known about the relationship between neurological soft signs and neurocognitive function in healthy elder people. The current study aimed to examine the underlying relationships between neurological soft signs and neurocognition in a group of healthy elderly.

Extract of Ginkgo Biloba Treatment for Tardive Dyskinesia in Schizophrenia: a Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial

The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. May, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20868638

Free radicals may be involved in the pathogenesis of tardive dyskinesia (TD). Extract of Ginkgo biloba (EGb) is a potent antioxidant possessing free radical-scavenging activities. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of EGb-761, a standardized extract given in capsule form, in treating TD in schizophrenia patients.

Abnormal Small-world Architecture of Top-down Control Networks in Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience : JPN. Jan, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20964957

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common neuropsychiatric disorder that is characterized by recurrent intrusive thoughts, ideas or images and repetitive ritualistic behaviours. Although focal structural and functional abnormalities in specific brain regions have been widely studied in populations with OCD, changes in the functional relations among them remain poorly understood. This study examined OCD-related alterations in functional connectivity patterns in the brain's top-down control network.

Minor Physical Anomalies: Potentially Informative Vestiges of Fetal Developmental Disruptions in Schizophrenia

International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience. May, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20974242

Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are subtle signs of developmental deviation that are observed at an elevated frequency among patients with schizophrenia. These minor morphological abnormalities of the craniofacial region and limbs arise during fetal development and represent a set of risk markers for schizophrenia. Although MPAs are not specific to schizophrenia, established findings about MPAs vis-à-vis schizophrenia include the replicated findings that MPAs are more prevalent among individuals with schizophrenia than healthy controls, MPAs are more prevalent among individuals with schizophrenia than unaffected relatives, and MPAs are not consistently associated with symptom domains or other risk markers, such as neurological soft signs. Unresolved questions include whether or not MPAs are more prevalent among unaffected relatives than healthy controls, and which specific MPAs are most associated with schizophrenia. This overview presents three promising avenues of further research on MPAs, including: (1) studies relying on traditional summary scores that combine multiple MPAs, which may have a role in prospective risk stratification in conjunction with other risk markers and endophenotypes; (2) research on specific, quantitatively assessed MPAs (especially in specific craniofacial structures) that may inform neurodevelopmental understandings of schizophrenia; and (3) genetic studies aimed at identifying the heritable and nonheritable determinants of specific MPAs, which may increase the field's understanding of the origins of MPAs and the nature of their association with schizophrenia.

Abnormal Regional Spontaneous Neural Activity in Treatment-refractory Depression Revealed by Resting-state FMRI

Human Brain Mapping. Aug, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20665717

Treatment-refractory depression (TRD) represents a large proportion of the depressive population, yet has seldom been investigated using advanced imaging techniques. To characterize brain dysfunction in TRD, we performed resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) on 22 TRD patients, along with 26 matched healthy subjects and 22 patients who were depressed but not treatment-refractory (NDD) as comparison groups. Results were analyzed using a data-driven approach known as Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) analysis which measures the synchronization of spontaneous fMRI signal oscillations within spatially neighboring voxels. Relative to healthy controls, both depressed groups showed high ReHo primarily within temporo-limbic structures, and more widespread low ReHo in frontal, parietal, posterior fusiform cortices, and caudate. TRD patients showed more cerebral regions with altered ReHo than did NDD. Moderate but significant correlations between the altered regional ReHo and measures of clinical severity were observed in some identified clusters. These findings shed light on the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying TRD and demonstrate the feasibility of using ReHo as a research and clinical tool to monitor persistent cerebral dysfunction in depression, although further work is necessary to compare different measures of brain function to elucidate the neural substrates of these ReHo abnormalities.

Contribution of Specific Cognitive Dysfunction to People with Schizotypal Personality

Psychiatry Research. Mar, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20667601

The current study aimed to determine whether there is a specific neurocognitive deficit in individuals with schizotypal personality features. One hundred and fifty-nine healthy participants and 62 schizotypal individuals completed a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests. The cognitive functions captured by the battery could be reduced to 6 factors. Significant difference was found between participants with schizotypal features and healthy controls in allocation, verbal memory and marginally in working memory. Schizotypal traits tended to correlate with some of the cognitive factors, especially allocation, verbal memory and working memory.

Do Patients with Schizophrenia Have a General or Specific Deficit in the Perception of Social Threat? A Meta-analytic Study

Psychiatry Research. Jan, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20584553

This study investigates whether social cognitive deficits found in patients with schizophrenia are specific to social threat stimuli, and whether the deficits increase across the delusion spectrum from a subclinical sample to clinical manifestation. The authors presented the meta-analytic review of the published literature on social threat perception performance in three kinds of group comparisons: a subclinical group and a healthy control group, a schizophrenia group and a healthy control group, and a schizophrenia with delusion symptoms group and a healthy control group. The meta-analysis of 20 studies yielded six weighted effect sizes. The largest differences were found between the schizophrenia with delusion group and the healthy controls in both the threat and non-threat conditions. No differences were found between the effect sizes in the threat-related condition and the non-threat condition in any of the three group comparisons. Age was found to be significantly correlated with the effect sizes. The performance differences in both the threat and non-threat conditions reflect a generalized performance deficit, rather than a specific deficit, in the perception of social threat stimuli among patients with schizophrenia.

Subjective Awareness of Everyday Dysexecutive Behavior Precedes 'objective' Executive Problems in Schizotypy: a Replication and Extension Study

Psychiatry Research. Feb, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 20624658

This study aimed to examine the subjective awareness of everyday dysexecutive function and the 'objective' executive function in individuals with schizotypal personality features. Forty-nine individuals with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) proneness (25 negative schizotypy and 24 non-negative schizotypy were identified using cluster analysis) and 44 non-SPD individuals completed a battery of 'objective' executive function tests and a self-reported Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) on everyday executive problems. The findings showed that individuals with SPD proneness including negative schizotypy and non-negative schizotypy did not have significant worse performance than non-SPD in most of 'objective' executive function tests, but self-reported significantly disproportionate more dysexecutive problems than non-SPD. Furthermore, SPD proneness, especially negative schizotypy was found to give undependable estimation on their everyday dysexecutive function while non-negative schizotypy was not. The current findings suggest that the subjective awareness of dysexecutive function may precede actual 'objective' executive function impairments in a subtype of SPD (non-negative schizotypy) and the subjective complaint of the daily dysexecutive behavior in SPD proneness, especially negative schizotypy might result from their unreliable estimation of executive function.

Brain Anatomical Abnormalities in High-risk Individuals, First-episode, and Chronic Schizophrenia: an Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-analysis of Illness Progression

Schizophrenia Bulletin. Jan, 2011  |  Pubmed ID: 19633214

The present study reviewed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies on high-risk individuals with schizophrenia, patients experiencing their first-episode schizophrenia (FES), and those with chronic schizophrenia. We predicted that gray matter abnormalities would show progressive changes, with most extensive abnormalities in the chronic group relative to FES and least in the high-risk group.

Absence of Left Ventricular Apical Rocking and Atrial-ventricular Dyssynchrony Predicts Non-response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging. Jan, 2012  |  Pubmed ID: 21921079

Current imaging techniques attempt to identify responders to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). However, because CRT response may depend upon several factors, it may be clinically more useful to identify patients for whom CRT would not be beneficial even under optimal conditions. We aimed to determine the negative predictive value of a composite echocardiographic index evaluating atrial-ventricular dyssynchrony (AV-DYS) and intraventricular dyssynchrony.

Voxelwise Meta-analysis of Gray Matter Reduction in Major Depressive Disorder

Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. Jan, 2012  |  Pubmed ID: 22001316

Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) has been widely used in studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) and has provided cumulative evidence of gray matter abnormalities in patients relative to controls. Thus we performed a meta-analysis to integrate the reported studies to determine the consistent gray matter alterations in MDD.

Facial Emotion Processing in Patients with Schizophrenia and Their Non-psychotic Siblings: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Schizophrenia Research. Feb, 2012  |  Pubmed ID: 22113155

Previous studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia show abnormalities in brain activation when processing emotional faces. However, very few studies have examined if such abnormalities are also found in non-western patient samples and in at-risk individuals. The current study explored whether patients with schizophrenia and siblings of patients in China would show abnormal brain activation during processing of emotional faces.

Temporal Processing Impairment in Children with Attention-deficit-hyperactivity Disorder

Research in Developmental Disabilities. Mar-Apr, 2012  |  Pubmed ID: 22119703

The current study aimed to investigate temporal processing in Chinese children with Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) using time production, time reproduction paradigm and duration discrimination tasks. A battery of tests specifically designed to measure temporal processing was administered to 94 children with ADHD and 100 demographically matched healthy children. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and a repeated measure MANOVA indicated that children with ADHD were impaired in time processing functions. The results of pairwise comparisons showed that the probands with a family history of ADHD performed significantly worse than those without family history in the time production tasks and the time reproduction task. Logistic regression analysis showed duration discrimination had a significant role in predicting whether the children were suffering from ADHD or not, while temporal processing had a significant role in predicting whether the ADHD children had a family history or not. This study provides further support for the existence of a generic temporal processing impairment in ADHD children and suggests that abnormalities in time processing and ADHD share some common genetic factors.

In Vitro Activity of Antibiotic Combinations Against Multidrug-resistant Strains of Acinetobacter Baumannii and the Effects of Their Antibiotic Resistance Determinants

FEMS Microbiology Letters. Mar, 2012  |  Pubmed ID: 22151035

Various combinations of antibiotics are reported to show synergy in treating nosocomial infections with multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii). Here, we studied hospital-acquired outbreak strains of MDR A. baumannii to evaluate optimal combinations of antibiotics. One hundred and twenty-one strains were grouped into one major and one minor clonal group based on repetitive PCR amplification. Twenty representative strains were tested for antibiotic synergy using Etest(®) . Five strains were further analyzed by analytical isoelectric focusing and PCR to identify β-lactamase genes or other antibiotic resistance determinants. Our investigation showed that the outbreak strains of MDR A. baumannii belonged to two dominant clones. A combination of colistin and doxycycline showed the best result, being additive or synergistic against 70% of tested strains. Antibiotic additivity was observed more frequently than synergy. Strains possessing the same clonality did not necessarily demonstrate the same response to antibiotic combinations in vitro. We conclude that the effect of antibiotic combinations on our outbreak strains of MDR A. baumannii seemed strain-specific. The bacterial response to antibiotic combinations is probably a result of complex interactions between multiple concomitant antibiotic resistance determinants in each strain.

Characteristics and Clinical Correlates of Prospective Memory Performance in First-episode Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia Research. Jan, 2012  |  Pubmed ID: 22222379

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine prospective memory (PM) and its socio-demographic, clinical, and neurocognitive correlates in first episode schizophrenia (FES). METHODS: Fifty-one FES patients and 42 healthy controls formed the study sample. Time- and event-based PM (TBPM and EBPM) performance were measured with the Chinese version of the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (C-CAMPROMPT). A battery of neuropsychological tests was also administered. Patients' clinical symptoms were evaluated with the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS). RESULTS: Patients performed significantly worse in both TBPM (8.7±5.3 vs. 14.8±3.5) and EBPM (11.3±4.7 vs. 15.7±2.7) than the controls. After controlling for age, gender, education level and neurocognitive test score, the difference in performance on the two types of PM tasks between patients and controls was no longer present. In multiple linear regression analyses, longer duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), lower scores of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) and the categories completed of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST-CC) and higher score of the Color Trails Test-2 (CTT-2) contributed to poorer TBPM performance, while lower score of HVLT-R, higher score of the perseverative errors of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST-PE) and longer DUP contributed to worse performance on EBPM. CONCLUSIONS: Both subtypes of PM are impaired in first-episode schizophrenia suggesting that PM deficits are an integral part of the cognitive dysfunction in the disease process.