Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Current Understanding of the Neural Mechanisms of Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
AbstractPurpose of ReviewIn this article, we aim to give an overview over recent neuroimaging research on dissociation in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Stress-related dissociation is highly prevalent in BPD, while so far only little is known about its neural underpinnings.Recent FindingsBased on research in depersonalization and the dissociative subtype of posttraumatic stress disorder, it has been proposed that dissociation involves alterations in a cortico-limbic network. In BPD, neuroimaging research explicitly focusing on dissociation is still scarce.SummaryFunctional neuroimaging studies have provided prelimi...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - February 12, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Developmental Aspects of Schizotypy and Suspiciousness: a Review
AbstractPurpose of the ReviewThis review identifies the early developmental processes that contribute to schizotypy and suspiciousness in adolescence and adulthood. It includes the most recent literature on these phenomena in childhood.Recent FindingsThe early developmental processes that affect schizotypy and paranoia in later life are complex. In contrast to existing studies of psychiatric patients and clinical/nonclinical adult populations, the study of schizotypy and suspiciousness in young children and adolescents is possible due to new child-appropriate dimensional assessments. New assessments and the advancement of ...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - February 9, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Inter-relationship of the Intestinal Microbiome, Diet, and Mental Health
AbstractPurpose of the ReviewAn unbalanced microbiota (dysbiosis) has been associated with or causative for a large array of human pathologies, including cognitive/emotional-related disorders. This review focuses on recent findings that address the restoration of a dysbiotic microbiota by dietary interventions with the main purpose of influencing brain function.Recent FindingsRecent research strongly suggests a critical connection between dietary habits, cognitive performance, and microbiota, but a thorough study of this inter-relationship presents a significant challenge. Although gut microbiota composition may be altered...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - February 8, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Rapid-Acting Antidepressants: Mechanistic Insights and Future Directions
AbstractPurpose of ReviewKetamine produces rapid (within hours) antidepressant actions, even in patients considered treatment resistant, and even shows promise for suicidal ideation. Here, we review current research on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of ketamine and other novel rapid-acting antidepressants, and briefly explore gender differences in the pathophysiology and treatment of MDD.Recent FindingsKetamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, increases BDNF release and synaptic connectivity, opposing the deficits caused by chronic stress and depression. Efforts are focused on the development of novel rapid agents that...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - February 5, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Intrusive Memories of Trauma in the Laboratory: Methodological Developments and Future Directions
AbstractPurpose of the ReviewIntrusive memories are those that spring to mind unbidden, e.g. sensory recollections of stressful/traumatic events. We review recent methods to monitor intrusions of a stressor (a trauma film) within the laboratory.Recent FindingsRecent studies suggest three main methodologies after viewing a trauma film by which to monitor intrusions in the laboratory: during post-film rest periods, after exposure to trigger cues, and while performing an ongoing task. These approaches allow factors to be tested (e.g. psychological or pharmacological) that may influence the frequency of occurrence of intrusion...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - January 31, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for the Treatment of Depression: a Review of the Candidate Mechanisms of Action
AbstractPurpose of ReviewNumerous studies published in the last 10  years indicate that repeated administration of prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a potential effective treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the mechanisms of action are unclear and methods of patient selection for clinical trials are limited. This revi ew seeks to examine the potential neural and cognitive mechanisms of action of tDCS in the treatment of MDD, to aid patient selection for future clinical trials.Recent FindingsCognitive measures of tDCS efficacy in the treatment of MDD have begun to be examined ...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - January 31, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Antisocial Personality Disorder: Neurophysiological Mechanisms and Distinct Subtypes
AbstractPurpose of ReviewThe trait-oriented triarchic model of psychopathy emphasizes heterogeneity in mechanisms that give rise to antisocial behavior. We review findings from neurophysiological studies that provide evidence for distinct variants of antisocial personality involving different configurations of triarchic model traits —boldness, meanness, and disinhibition.Recent FindingsHigh boldness is evident in some manifestations of ASPD, where it operates as a “mask” to conceal callous-disinhibitory proclivities. Meanness involves features of low empathy, weak affiliation, and an antagonistic social style that ap...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - January 25, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Pathways to Neuroprediction: Opportunities and Challenges to Prediction of Treatment Response in Depression
AbstractPurpose of ReviewWe set out to review the current state of science in neuroprediction, using biological measures of brain function, with task based fMRI to prospectively predict response to a variety of treatments.Recent FindingsTask-based fMRI neuroprediction studies are balanced between whole brain and ROI specific analyses. The predominant tasks are emotion processing, with ROIs based upon amygdala and subgenual anterior cingulate gyrus, both within the salience and emotion network. A rapidly emerging new area of neuroprediction is of disease course and illness recurrence. Concerns include use of open-label and ...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - January 24, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Translational Genetic Modelling of 3D Craniofacial Dysmorphology: Elaborating the Facial Phenotype of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Through the “Prism” of Schizophrenia
AbstractPurpose of ReviewIn the context of human developmental conditions, we review the conceptualisation of schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder, the status of craniofacial dysmorphology as a clinically accessible index of brain dysmorphogenesis, the ability of genetically modified mouse models of craniofacial dysmorphology to inform on the underlying dysmorphogenic process and how geometric morphometric techniques in mutant mice can extend quantitative analysis.Recent FindingsMutant mice with disruption of neuregulin-1, a gene associated meta-analytically with risk for schizophrenia, constitute proof-of-concep...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - November 9, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Microbes Tickling Your Tummy: the Importance of the Gut-Brain Axis in Parkinson ’s Disease
AbstractPurpose of ReviewPatients suffering from Parkinson ’s disease (PD) are known to experience gastrointestinal dysfunction that might precede the onset of motor symptoms by several years. Evidence suggests an important role of the gut-brain axis in PD pathogenesis. These interactions might be essentially influenced by the gut microbiota. Here, we rev iew recent findings supporting that changes in the gut microbiota composition might be a trigger for inflammation contributing to neurodegeneration in PD.Recent FindingsRecent research revealed that PD patients exhibit a pro-inflammatory microbiota profile in their inte...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - November 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Vascular Contributions to Late Life Depression
AbstractPurpose of ReviewThis review aims to examine the current evidence for vascular contributions to late life depression (LLD).Recent FindingsWhite matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are very common in the elderly. Greater WMH severity is consistently associated with LLD. High levels of endothelial plasma soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1, indicating vascular endothelial dysfunction, are associated with LLD. Chronic ischemic lesions, which are visualized as WMHs on T2-weighted or fluid-attenuated inversion recovery image of MRI, may disrupt frontal-subcortical-limbic networks. These disruptions can then be detected...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - November 2, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Roles of Inflammation and Depression in the Development of Gestational Diabetes
ConclusionsDepression in the perinatal period is a common disorder; however, available data do not indicate that there is a specific inflammatory picture associated with perinatal depression. We suggest that perinatal depression may be a heterogeneous construct, and that inflammation may be relevant to it in the context of other inflammatory morbidities of pregnancy. There is some circumstantial support for the hypothesis that inflammation associated with depression may contribute to risk for gestational diabetes, but as yet, no direct tests of this hypothesis have been published. (Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports)
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - October 28, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

Developing Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) as a Treatment Tool for Cocaine Use Disorder: a Series of Six Translational Studies
AbstractPurpose of the ReviewCocaine dependence is a chronic and relapsing disorder which is particularly resistant to behavioral or pharmacologic treatment, and likely involves multiple dysfunctional frontal-striatal circuits. Through advances in preclinical research in the last decade, we now have an unprecedented understanding of the neural control of drug-taking behavior. In both rodent models and human clinical neuroimaging studies, it is apparent that medial frontal-striatal limbic circuits regulate drug cue-triggered behavior. While non-human preclinical studies can use invasive stimulation techniques to inhibit dru...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - October 23, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

You Need Guts to Make New Neurons
AbstractPurpose of the ReviewIn the present review, we discuss the very recent findings that the gut microbiota composition can modulate cell-based plasticity in the brain, namely, adult hippocampal neurogenesis, and thereby alter hippocampal dependent behavior.Recent FindingsAbsence of gut microbiota from birth or antibiotic-induced dysbiosis in adults leads to an aberrant metabolite production and immune functions. Both scenarios compromise a proper postnatal brain development, or brain wiring in adults, including aberrant neurogenesis. This in turn leads to a hippocampal mismanagement of environmental cues and renders t...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - October 12, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research

What Effect Does tDCS Have on the Brain? Basic Physiology of tDCS
AbstractPurpose of the ReviewTranscranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can effectively modulate a wide range of clinical and cognitive outcomes by modulating cortical excitability. Here, we summarize the main findings from both animal and human neurophysiology literature, which have revealed mechanistic evidence for the acute and neuroplastic after-effects of tDCS.Recent FindingsInsights into the magnitude and geometric orientation of transcranially induced currents have been provided by the combination of computational modeling of current flow in animal slice preparations and intracranial recordings in humans. In add...
Source: Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports - October 9, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research