Development and validation of stable isotope dilution LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous quantification of four Alternaria toxins in 15 food commodities.

Alternaria toxins (ATs) are produced from Alternaria species that result in crop losses and harmful impacts on human health. A stable isotope dilution LC-MS/MS method was established to quantify four ATs in 15 food commodities: alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), tentoxin (TEN), and tenuazonic acid (TeA). Based on systematically optimization of detection conditions and pre-processing steps, the limits of detection and limits of quantification of the four ATs ranged from 0.1 to 10 µg/kg and 0.2 to 30 µg/kg, respectively. The results showed that the recoveries of the four ATs were 72.0%-119.1%. The intra-precision and inter-precision ranged from 0.7% to 11.1% and 1.1% to 13.1%, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the determination of four ATs in 35 food samples, suggesting that this method could provide meaningful occurrence data to support the assessment of emerging ATs in food commodities.

Electrolyte Design Chart Reframed by Intermolecular Interactions for High-Performance Li-Ion Batteries.

Developing advanced electrolytes has been regarded as a pivotal strategy for enhancing the electrochemical performance of batteries; however, the criteria for electrolyte design remain elusive. In this study, we present an electrolyte design chart reframed through intermolecular interactions. By combining systematic nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier transform infrared measurements, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and machine-learning-assisted classifications, we establish semiquantitative correlations between electrolyte components and the electrochemical reversibility of electrolytes. We propose the equivalent increment of Li salt resulting from functional cosolvent and solvent-solvent interactions for effective electrolyte design and prediction. The controllable regulation of the electrolyte design chart by the properties of solvent-solvent interactions presents varying equivalent effects of increasing Li salt concentrations in different electrolyte systems. Based on this mechanism, we demonstrate highly reversible and nonflammable phosphate-based electrolytes for graphite||NCM811 full cells. The proposed electrolyte design chart, semiquantitatively determined by intermolecular interactions, provides the necessary experimental foundation and basis for the future rapid screening and prediction of electrolytes using machine-learning methods.

Phytoremediation potential of forage mulberry (Morus atropurpurea Roxb.) for cadmium contaminated paddy soils.

Mulberry is an important material to utilize the Cd polluted farmland in China and planting forage mulberry is a new development direction. This study aimed to investigate the changes of annual biomass and Cd content in shoot of Guisangyou 62, Guisangyou 12 and Yuesang 11 in field XT-C1, XT-X1 and ZZ-M1 under the pressure of Cd in 3 years. The Cd extraction ability of forage mulberry was analyzed, and the safety of forage mulberry was also discussed. The results showed that the annual biomass of each forage mulberry shoot could reach 64.52 ∼ 86.61 t/hectare (ha). The total harvest biomass of Guisangyou 12 was the highest, followed by Guisangyou 62 and Yuesang 11. In the same test area, for different forage mulberry varieties, there were no significant differences in Cd content in the shoot at each sampling time, and the Cd concentrations in shoot were in the range of 0.05 ∼ 0.66 mg/kg, meeting the hygienical standard for feeds (GB 13078-2017, China). Without considering the test area, the average Cd removal amount of each forage mulberry in a year was about 18.52 g/ha. Planting forage mulberry may become a new ecological economic model to achieve the safe utilization of Cd polluted farmland.Novelty statement Mulberry is one of the most important plants for safe utilization the Cd polluted farmland in China and planting mulberry as animal feed is a new development direction. This study investigated the effects of Cd on the shoot biomass of 3 forage mulberry varieties at 3 experimental areas in 3 years. It also examined how much Cd could be removed from soil by harvesting forage mulberry for 4 times a year. The Cd content in the shoot of forage mulberry and its safety were also evaluated.

Disrupted Regional Homogeneity in Major Depressive Disorder With Gastrointestinal Symptoms at Rest.

Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are prominent in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Previous studies have reported brain structural and functional changes in both MDD and digestive system diseases but it remains unclear whether MDD patients with GI symptoms have brain imaging changes. Methods: We recruited 35 MDD patients with GI symptoms, 17 MDD patients without GI symptoms and 28 age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls. All participants were scanned by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Imaging data were analyzed with regional homogeneity (ReHo). Results: The GI group showed higher total HRSD-17 scores, anxiety/somatization, weight loss, and sleep disturbance scores compared to the non-GI group. We found increased ReHo in the right inferior parietal gyrus (IPL), bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA), bilateral cerebellum Crus II, left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and bilateral superior medial frontal cortex (SMFC) and decreased ReHo in the right posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), bilateral cuneus, and left middle occipital gyrus (MOG) in patients with GI symptoms relative to the HCs. The GI group showed higher ReHo values in the bilateral precuneus than the non-GI group. Conclusion: MDD patients with GI symptoms showed a greater severity of symptoms than MDD patients without GI symptoms, particularly in terms of anxiety/somatization, weight loss, and sleep disturbances. Increased activity in the default-mode network might be associated with GI symptoms in MDD patients.

Abnormal Default-Mode Network Homogeneity in Melancholic and Nonmelancholic Major Depressive Disorder at Rest.

Background: Melancholic depression has been assumed as a severe type of major depressive disorder (MDD). We aimed to explore if there were some distinctive alterations in melancholic MDD and whether the alterations could be used to discriminate the melancholic MDD and nonmelancholic MDD. Methods: Thirty-one outpatients with melancholic MDD, thirty-three outpatients with nonmelancholic MDD, and thirty-two age- and gender-matched healthy controls were recruited. All participants were scanned by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Imaging data were analyzed with the network homogeneity (NH) and support vector machine (SVM) methods. Results: Both patient groups exhibited increased NH in the right PCC/precuneus and right angular gyrus and decreased NH in the right middle temporal gyrus compared with healthy controls. Compared with nonmelancholic patients and healthy controls, melancholic patients exhibited significantly increased NH in the bilateral superior medial frontal gyrus and decreased NH in the left inferior temporal gyrus. But merely for melancholic patients, the NH of the right middle temporal gyrus was negatively correlated with TEPS total and contextual anticipatory scores. SVM analysis showed that a combination of NH values in the left superior medial frontal gyrus and left inferior temporal gyrus could distinguish melancholic patients from nonmelancholic patients with accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 79.66% (47/59), 70.97% (22/31), and 89.29%(25/28), respectively. Conclusion: Our findings showed distinctive network homogeneity alterations in melancholic MDD which may be potential imaging markers to distinguish melancholic MDD and nonmelancholic MDD.

Shared and distinct homotopic connectivity changes in melancholic and non-melancholic depression.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have revealed different neuroimaging features between melancholic and non-melancholic major depressive disorder (MDD). However, homotopic connectivity of melancholic and non-melancholic MDD remains unknown. The present study aimed to explore common and distinct homotopic connectivity patterns of melancholic and non-melancholic MDD and their associations with clinical characteristics. METHODS: Sixty-four patients with MDD and thirty-two healthy controls were scanned by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) and pattern classification were applied to analyze the imaging data. RESULTS: Relative to healthy controls, melancholic patients displayed decreased VMHC in the fusiform gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), superior occipital gyrus (SOG), postcentral gyrus and precentral/postcentral gyrus, and non-melancholic patients displayed decreased VMHC in the PCC. Compared with non-melancholic patients, melancholic patients displayed reduced VMHC in the precentral gyrus and precentral/postcentral gyrus. Support vector machine (SVM) results exhibited VMHC in the precentral gyrus could distinguish melancholic patients from non-melancholic patients with more than 0.6 for specificity, sensitivity and accuracy. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated common and distinct homotopic connectivity patterns in melancholic and non-melancholic patients. Decreased VMHC in the PCC may be a state-related change for depression, and reduced VMHC in the precentral gyrus and postcentral gyrus may be a distinctive neurobiological feature for melancholic MDD. VMHC in precentral gyrus might be served as potential imaging markers to discriminate melancholic patients from non-melancholic MDD.

Disrupted Regional Homogeneity in Melancholic and Non-melancholic Major Depressive Disorder at Rest.

Background: Melancholic depression has been viewed as one severe subtype of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, it is unclear whether melancholic depression has distinct changes in brain imaging. We aimed to explore specific or distinctive alterations in melancholic MDD and whether the alterations could be used to separate melancholic MDD from non-melancholic MDD or healthy controls. Materials and Methods: Thirty-one outpatients with melancholic MDD and thirty-three outpatients with non-melancholic MDD and thirty-two age- and gender-matched healthy controls were recruited. All participants were scanned by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Imaging data were analyzed with the regional homogeneity (ReHo) and support vector machine (SVM) methods. Results: Melancholic MDD patients exhibited lower ReHo in the right superior occipital gyrus/middle occipital gyrus than non-melancholic MDD patients and healthy controls. Merely for non-melancholic MDD patients, decreased ReHo in the right middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with the total HRSD-17 scores. SVM analysis results showed that a combination of abnormal ReHo in the right fusiform gyrus/cerebellum Crus I and the right superior occipital gyrus/middle occipital gyrus exhibited the highest accuracy of 83.05% (49/59), with a sensitivity of 90.32% (28/31), and a specificity of 75.00% (21/28) for discriminating patients with melancholic MDD from patients with non-melancholic MDD. And a combination of abnormal ReHo in the right fusiform gyrus/cerebellum VI and left postcentral gyrus/precentral gyrus exhibited the highest accuracy of 98.41% (62/63), with a sensitivity of 96.77% (30/31), and a specificity of 100.00%(32/32) for separating patients with melancholic MDD from healthy controls. Conclusion: Our findings showed the distinctive ReHo pattern in patients with melancholic MDD and found brain area that may be associated with the pathophysiology of non-melancholic MDD. Potential imaging markers for discriminating melancholic MDD from non-melancholic MDD or healthy controls were reported.

Accumulation of Cd by three forage mulberry (Morus atropurpurea Roxb.) cultivars in heavy metal-polluted farmland: a field experiment.

A 3-year field experiment was conducted to evaluate the accumulation ability of 3 forage mulberry (Morus atropurpurea Roxb.) varieties (Guisangyou 62, Guisangyou 12, Yuesang 11) for Cadmium (Cd). The results showed that the shoot biomass of forage mulberry could reach to 64.51~69.58 t/ha in 2018. The total production of Guisangyou 12 was the highest among the tested 3 cultivars in each year. However, the biomass of the 3 varieties displayed without significant differences at every sampling time. In addition, the concentrations of Cd in the roots of the 3 mulberry cultivars were higher than those in the corresponding shoots in 2018. But in 2019, the Cd content in roots was near to that of shoots. The Cd concentrations in the roots of the forage mulberry showed Guisangyou 62 > Yuesang 11 > Guisangyou 12. And the Cd concentrations in shoots of all the 3 tested forage mulberry varieties were less than 1 mg/kg, meeting the hygienical standard for feeds (China). Though the 3 forage mulberry varieties were not hyperaccumulators for Cd, they could be used as alternative plants to make use of the Cd-polluted (< 1.0 mg/kg) paddy soils.

Adhesive Sulfide Solid Electrolyte Interface for Lithium Metal Batteries.

All solid-state Li metal batteries have drawn extensive attention because of the limited side reaction and consequent safety character. The applications of Li metal anodes are indispensable for realizing high energy density but still face many obstacles. One of the critical issues is the contact failure of the solid/solid interface. The rigid interface between a sulfide electrolyte and Li anode cannot afford the volume variation during cycling. Herein, we design an adhesive solid-state electrolyte film, which is supported by hot melt adhesive porous membranes for anode protection. The Li symmetric cells and all solid-state batteries based on adhesive electrolyte layers all exhibit enhanced long cyclic stability and suppressed voltage polarization. The peel strength tests confirm that the electrolyte layers decorated with adhesive components can offer intimate Li metal/electrolyte physical contact and withstand the volume variation of the Li anode. The adhesion force from porous membranes is believed to play a vital role in maintaining solid-solid interfacial contact stability. This work gives a new insight for interface engineering in all solid-state Li metal batteries.

Ultrahigh-Areal-Capacity Battery Anodes Enabled by Free-Standing Vanadium Nitride@N-Doped Carbon/Graphene Architecture.

Nanostructured anode materials have attracted significant attention for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high specific capacity. However, their practical application is hindered by the rather low areal capacity in the ultrathin electrode (∼1 mg cm-2). Herein, we propose a new strategy of an all-conductive electrode to fabricate a flexible and free-standing vanadium nitride@N-doped carbon/graphene (VN@C/G) thick electrode. Due to the free-standing structure and absence of any nonconductive components in the electrode, the obtained thick electrode displays excellent cycling performances. With the high mass loading of 5 mg cm-2, VN based electrodes achieve a reversible capacity of 2.6 mAh cm-2 after 200 cycles. Moreover, the all-conductive electrode allows an ultrahigh areal capacity of 7 mAh cm-2 with a high mass loading of 18.3 mg cm-2, which is comparable to state-of-the-art graphite anodes (4 mAh cm-2). Theoretical calculations prove the metallic conductivity of VN, which allows fast charge transport in the thick electrode. This strategy of fabricating all-conductive electrodes shows great potentials to achieve high areal capacity in practical lithium-ion batteries.

The mobility of cadmium and lead in the soil-mulberry-silkworm system.

Evaluation of the transportation of heavy metals in food chain has received a great deal of attention. In this study, the mobility of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in soil-mulberry-silkworm system was assessed. The results showed that bioconcentration factors for Cd and Pb were lower than 1 for all the three mulberry cultivars. Higher translocation factors (TFs) were observed in the levels from branch to leaf, larvae to excrement. The BCFs of Pb in root and silkworm excrement were higher than those in the other parts. Meanwhile, most of Cd accumulated from soils located in the root (48.00-54.40%) and only about 10% was in the leaf. But the Cd and Pb had significant effects on the ratios of cocoon shell with Yuesang 11 under different planting densities. For Yuesang 11 and Qiangsang 1, the Pb percentages were roots > branches > leaves > stems. The rates of ingestion (IR) and digestion (DR) were a little higher than those in the control at first and then decreased gradually with time. The IR reached the lowest values on 8th day while the DR arrived at the highest. Planting mulberry and raising silkworm could be a reasonable method for the utilization of heavy metal contaminated paddy soils.

Sugarcane stem nodes based on the maximum value points of the vertical projection function / Identificação de nós de tronco de cana-de-açúcar com base nos pontos de valor extremos da função de projeção vertical

ABSTRACT: In order to solve the problem that the stem nodes are difficult to identify in the process of sugarcane seed automatic cutting, a method of identifying the stem nodes of sugarcane based on the extreme points of vertical projection function is proposed in this paper. Firstly, in order to reduce the influence of light on image processing, the RGB color image is converted to HSI color image, and the S component image of the HSI color space is extracted as a research object. Then, the S component image is binarized by the Otsu method, the hole of the binary image is filled by morphology closing algorithm, and the sugarcane and the background are initially separated by the horizontal projection map of the binary image. Finally, the position of sugarcane stem is preliminarily determined by continuously taking the derivative of the vertical projection function of the binary image, and the sum of the local pixel value of the suspicious pixel column is compared to further determine the sugarcane stem node. The experimental results showed that the recognition rate of single stem node is 100%, and the standard deviation is less than 1.1 mm. The accuracy of simultaneous identification of double stem nodes is 98%, and the standard deviation is less than 1.7 mm. The accuracy of simultaneous identification of the three stem nodes is 95%, and the standard deviation is less than 2.2 mm. Compared with the other methods introduced in this paper, the proposed method has higher recognition and accuracy.

RESUMO: Para resolver o problema que os nós do caule são difíceis de identificar no processo de corte automático de sementes de cana-de-açúcar, é proposto, neste artigo, um método para identificar os nós do colmo da cana-de-açúcar com base nos pontos extremos da função de projeção vertical. Em primeiro lugar, a fim de reduzir a influência da luz no processamento da imagem, a imagem de cor RGB foi convertida em imagem de cor HSI, e a imagem de componente S do espaço de cores HSI é extraída como um objeto de pesquisa. Em seguida, o método Otsu foi usado para binarizar o mapa do componente S, e a operação morfológica fechada foi usada para preencher os espaços da imagem binária, e a projeção horizontal da imagem binária foi usada para separar a cana de açúcar do fundo. Finalmente, a posição do caule de cana-de-açúcar foi preliminarmente determinada através da tomada contínua do derivado da função de projeção vertical da imagem binária, e a soma do valor pixel local da coluna de pixel suspeito foi comparada para determinar ainda mais o nódulo da cana-de-açúcar. Os resultados experimentais mostram que a taxa de reconhecimento do nó de haste única foi de 100%, o desvio padrão foi inferior a 1.1 mm. A precisão da identificação simultânea de nós de haste dupla foi de 98%, o desvio padrão foi menor que 1.7 mm. A precisão da identificação simultânea dos três nós de haste é de 95%, o desvio padrão foi inferior a 2.2 mm. Comparado com os outros métodos introduzidos neste artigo, o método proposto possui maior reconhecimento e precisão.

Extraction of navigation line based on improved grayscale factor in corn field / Obtenção de linhas de tráfego em lavoura de milho baseada no fator de escala de cinza melhorado

ABSTRACT: Focusing on the problem that corn plant in different growth periods is grayed out by known methods, the gray scale difference of different part is large or the soil discrimination degree is not high, the navigation path is low in accuracy and speed. This paper proposed a new method for extracting cornfield navigation baselines, which is used to control walking of agricultural robots. Design method included image segmentation, navigation point extraction, and navigation path fitting. Image segmentation is based on a new grayscale factor combined with median filtering, OSTU method and morphological operations to achieve the separation of crops and soil. The extraction of the navigation point is based on the binary image vertical projection map to obtain the region of interest, and the navigation point coordinates are determined by calculating the relative center point of the white pixel points of the sampling line in the region of interest. The Hough transform is used to fit the navigation point obtained by the vertical projection map to determine the navigation path, and then the control parameters are obtained. The gray scale factor that is improved in this paper combined with the vertical projection map can extract the target ridge with an accuracy rate of 92%, and the accuracy of extracting the navigation line is more than 90%. When conducting navigation tracking experiments in corn field, the maximum error is 5cm.

RESUMO: Depois de usar o método conhecido como escala de cinza para plantas de milho, a diferença de escala de cinza entre diferentes partes da planta é grande ou a diferenciação do solo não é alta, a precisão do trajeto de navegação é baixa e a velocidade é lenta. Neste trabalho foi proposto um novo método de extração da linha de referência de navegação para campos de milho, que é usado para controlar a caminhada de robôs agrícolas. Os métodos de projeto incluem: segmentação de imagem, extração de ponto de navegação e encaixe de linha de navegação. A segmentação por imagem é baseada na separação de culturas e solos com base no novo fator de escala de cinza combinado com a filtragem mediana, método de Otsu e operação morfológica. A extração de pontos de navegação é baseada em um mapa de projeção vertical de imagem de dois valores para obter a área de interesse, e as coordenadas do ponto de navegação são determinadas por cálculo do ponto central relativo no pixel branco da linha amostral na área de interesse. O fator de escala de cinza melhorado nesta pesquisa irá extrair o centro da entre linha de plantio alvo com uma taxa de precisão de 92%. A precisão de extração da linha de navegação é mais de 90%. O erro máximo foi de 5cm quando o experimento de rastreamento de navegação em tempo foi é realizado em campos de milho.

Application of economic plant for remediation of cadmium contaminated soils: Three mulberry (Moms alba L.) varieties cultivated in two polluted fields.

In order to study the role of mulberry (Moms alba L) as an economic crop for remediation of cadmium (Cd) contaminated soil, the transport of Cd from mulberry to silkworm were investigated. Three varieties of mulberry (Yuesang-11, Nongsang-14, and Qiangsang-1) with three planting densities were cultivated in two heavy metal-contaminated fields named Dongkou in Shaoyang city and Linxiang in Yueyang city in Hunan province respectively. The both field soils were contaminated by heavy metals, especially by Cd. The potential risks of heavy metals in Linxiang's soil were higher than those in Dongkou's because of higher concentrations of Cd. Since the promotion of Cd concentrations in aerial parts (stem, branch and leaf) resulted from the increase of planting density, the method of high planting density is beneficial to improve the efficiency of the remediation of Cd contaminated soil. The percentages of average Cd contents of mulberry in Dongkou accounted for 44%, 20%, 18% and 16% in roots, stems, branches and leaves respectively, while the Cd contents were 38%, 27%, 19% and 16% distributed in roots, stems, branches and leaves respectively. Mulberry leaves from contaminated soils was applied in food source of silkworms in this study. Although there is Cd uptake occurred in silkworm growth and its products (cocoons and chrysalis), Cd contents in cocoons are lower than the national standard (100 µg*kg-1) for textile industry of China. Therefore, mulberry can be regarded as an economical crop to control soil contamination with Cd.

Subcellular distribution and chemical forms of cadmium in Morus alba L.

Morus alba L. (mulberry) is a perennial woody tree and a species with great potential for Cd phyremediation owing to its large biomass and extensive root system. The mechanisms involved in Cd detoxification were investigated by analyzing the subcellular distribution and chemical forms of Cd in mulberry in the present study. These results indicated that 53.27-70.17% of Cd mulberry accumulated was stored in the root and only about 10% were in the leaves. Lots of the Cd was located in the cell wall of the mulberry root and in soluble fraction of the mulberry leaf. Moreover, in roots, the largest amount of Cd was in the form of undissolved Cd-phosphate. While in mulberry leaves and stems, most of the Cd was extracted by 2% Acetic acid and 0.6 M HCl, representing Cd-phosphate and Cd-oxalate. It could be concluded that the Cd combination with peptides and organo-ligands in vacuole of leaf or complexed with proteins or cellulose in the cell wall of root might be contributed to the tolerance of mulberry to Cd stress. The mulberry could be used to remediate the Cd polluted farmland soils.

Adsorption of Cd(II) by rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil originating from mulberry field under laboratory condition.

In this study, the adsorption behavior of Cd ions by rhizosphere soil (RS) and non-rhizosphere soil (NS) originated from mulberry field was investigated. The Langmuir, Freundlich and the Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) equations were used to evaluate the type and efficiency of Cd adsorption. The RS was characterized by lower pH but the higher content of soil organic matter and cation exchange capacity (CEC) as compared to NS. Also, the maximum adsorption of Cd2+ for RS (5.87 mg/g) was slightly bigger than that for NS (5.36 mg/g). In Freundlich isotherm, the Kf of the adsorption of Cd2+ to surface of the RS components was higher than that of the NS, indicating stronger attraction between Cd2+ and components of the RS. According to the D-R model, the adsorption of Cd2+ by both soils was dominated by ion exchange phenomena. These results indicated that mulberry roots modified physical and chemical properties of the RS under field conditions, which also affected the Cd sorption efficiency by soil components during laboratory experiments. Current knowledge of the Cd2+ sorption processes in the rhizosphere of mulberry may be important if these trees are planted for use in phytoremediation of Cd contaminated soils.

[Brain structure analysis for patients with antisocial personality disorder by MRI].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the structural abnormalities of brain in patients with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) but without alcoholism and drug abuse. METHODS: Volunteers from Hunan Reformatory (n=36) and the matched healthy subjects (n=26) were examined by high-spatial resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Voxel-based morphometry and fractional anisotropy (FA) maps were generated for each subject to reveal structural abnormalities in patients with ASPD. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy controls, ASPD patients showed significantly higher gray matter volumes in the inferior parietal lobule (P≤0.001, uncorrected), white matter volumes in the precuneus (P≤0.001, uncorrected), FA in the left lingual gyrus, bilateral precuneus, right superior frontal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus (P≤0.01, uncorrected). CONCLUSION: Our results revealed the abnormal neuroanatomical features in ASPD patients, which might be related to the external behavioral traits in ASPD patients.

[Pathological mechanisms of chronic insomnia: Evidence from neuro-electrophysiology and neuroimaging research].

As a widely recognized public health problem as well as prevalent and challenging to modern society, chronic insomnia is involved in wide brain areas (such as prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus) and emotion-cognition neuro-circuit. It is closely related to the conditioned hyperarousal and the increased information process and/or the impaired inhibitory ability to withdraw from awaking state. Thus, some specific abnormal mode may exist in the emotion-cognition circuit, which is associated with abnormal cognition load, such as repeated retrieval/intrusion of aversive memories during night. Studies through the combination of multiple techniques including psychology, electrophysiology and neuroimaging methods are needed to further enhance the understanding of chronic insomnia.

[Pharmacological intervention of conditioned fear and its extinction].

Conditioned fear and its abnormal extinction are involved in the psychopathology of anxiety disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cognitive enhancing agents have been demonstrated to alter fear extinction in many animal research literatures. The present review has examined the pharmacological role of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glutamatergic, cholinergic, adrenergic, dopaminergic, and cannabinoid as well as compounds able to alter the epigenetic and neurotrophic mechanism in fear extinction, highlighting great hope for the future treatment of anxiety disorders with new agents based on the fear extinction.

Inhibition dysfunction in depression: event-related potentials during negative affective priming.

The study aimed to investigate whether depressed patients show impairment of valence-dependent inhibition and its neurophysiological correlates. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected from 18 patients with unipolar depression and 18 normal controls during an affective negative priming task. A less effective inhibition in patients was specific for negative information. These behavioral effects were paralleled by ERP differences. In addition to the overall reduced P2 amplitude for negative trials and the overall reduced late positive component (LPC) amplitude for positive and negative trials in patients, ERP differences in different conditions for each group were also found. The patients showed reduced central-parietal P2 amplitude and shorter LPC latency in response to negative experimental targets, whereas the controls showed larger left central P2 amplitude and delayed LPC latency in response to negative experimental targets. No such effects were found for positive targets. These results suggest that the inhibition dysfunction of negative affect influences the earlier attention allocation stage and the later evaluation stage in depressed patients.