Reduced body-image disturbance by body-image interventions is associated with neural-response changes in visual and social processing regions: a preliminary study.

Introduction: Body-image disturbance is a major factor in the development of eating disorders, especially among young women. There are two main components: perceptual disturbance, characterized by a discrepancy between perceived and actual body size, and affective disturbance, characterized by a discrepancy between perceived and ideal body size. Interventions targeting body-image disturbance ask individuals to describe their own body without using negative expressions when either viewing it in a mirror or imagining it. Despite the importance of reducing body-image disturbance, its neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here we investigated the changes in neural responses before and after an intervention. We hypothesized that neural responses correlated with the degree of body-image disturbance would also be related to its reduction, i.e., a reduction in perceptual and affective disturbances would be related to changes in attentional and socio-cognitive processing, respectively. Methods: Twenty-eight young adult women without known psychiatric disorders underwent a single 40-min intervention. Participants completed tasks before and after the intervention, in which they estimated their perceived and ideal body sizes using distorted silhouette images to measure body-image disturbance. We analyzed the behavioral and neural responses of participants during the tasks. Results: The intervention did not significantly reduce body-image disturbance. Analysis of individual differences showed distinct changes in neural responses for each type of disturbance. A decrease in perceptual disturbance was associated with bodily visuospatial processing: increased activation in the left superior parietal lobule, bilateral occipital gyri, and right cuneus. Reduced affective disturbance was associated with socio-cognitive processing; decreased activation in the right temporoparietal junction, and increased functional connectivity between the left extrastriate body area and the right precuneus. Discussion: We identified distinct neural mechanisms (bodily visuospatial and socio-cognitive processing) associated with the reduction in each component of body-image disturbance. Our results imply that different neural mechanisms are related to reduced perceptual disturbance and the expression thereof, whereas similar neural mechanisms are related to the reduction and expression of affective disturbance. Considering the small sample size of this study, our results should be regarded as preliminary.

Neural representation of a one-week delay in remembering information after production and self-generated elaboration encoding strategy.

Many studies have confirmed the memory enhancement effect of production, generation and elaboration which can be effective after only one encoding. It is also known that greater memory enhancement effects can be obtained by combining multiple memory strategies during encoding. This study aimed to investigate whether the combination of production and self-generated elaboration enhances memory performance compared with production or generation alone. A total of 23 undergraduate and graduate students participated in this study. In the functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis, we explored the neural representation of remembering information after production and self-generated elaboration strategy. We set four encoding strategy conditions: (1) Read Silent (read without production), (2) Read Aloud (only production), (3) Add Silent (self-generated elaboration without production), (4) Add Aloud (production and self-generated elaboration). The retrieval performance and brain activity while retrieving the learned sentences after a one-week delay were examined. The behavioral results showed that the highest memory performance was for sentences encoded in Add Aloud. The interaction between production and self-generated elaboration was statistically significant. These results suggest that the memory enhancement effect of combining production and self-generated elaboration is not a simple addition nor synergistic facilitation effect. The imaging results showed that the following areas were related to the retrieval of the target encoded in the add aloud condition: the area related to integration of internal and external information (precuneus), area related to information rich stimuli (lateral occipital lobe), area related to self-involvement and inference of others' feelings (MPFC), area related to seen imagery (retrosplenial region) and area related to adjustment of movement (cerebellum). These results suggest that with an encoding strategy that combines production and self-generated elaboration, integrated auditory input of vocalizations and generated images, visual images of the scene, self-relevance, inference of other's feeling, movement by moving mouth are stored with the target and enhanced memory performance of AA.

Mismatch negativity in patients with major depressive disorder: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Deficits of mismatch negativity (MMN), a general index of echoic memory function, have been documented in patients with schizophrenia. However, it remains controversial whether patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) demonstrate MMN defects compared with healthy controls (HC). METHODS: After screening 41 potential studies identified in PubMed and Medline, 13 studies consisting of 343 HC and 339 patients with MDD were included in the present meta-analysis. The effect sizes (Hedges's g) with a random-effect and inverse-variance weighted model were estimated for the MMN amplitudes and latencies. The effects of different deviant types (i.e., frequency and duration) and of different illness stages (i.e., acute and chronic) on MMN were also examined. RESULTS: We found that 1) MMN amplitudes (g = 1.273, p < 0.001) and latencies (g = 0.303, p = 0.027) to duration, but not frequency deviants, were significantly impaired in patients with MDD compared to HC; 2), acute patients exhibited lower MMN amplitudes (g = 1.735, p < 0.001) and prolonged MMN latencies (g = 0.461, p = 0.007) for the duration deviants compared to HC. Only the attenuated duration MMN amplitudes were detected in patients with chronic MDD (g = 0.822, p = 0.027); and 3) depressive symptoms did not significantly correlate with MMN responses. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with MDD demonstrated abnormal MMN responses to duration deviants compared to HC. SIGNIFICANCE: Duration MMN may constitute an electrophysiological indicator to differentiate HC from patients with MDD, particularly those in the acute stage.

Association of copper levels in the hair with gray matter volume, mean diffusivity, and cognitive functions.

Although copper plays a critical role in normal brain functions and development, it is known that excess copper causes toxicity. Here we investigated the associations of copper levels in the hair with regional gray matter volume (rGMV), mean diffusivity (MD), and cognitive differences in a study cohort of 924 healthy young adults. Our findings showed that high copper levels were associated mostly with low cognitive abilities (low scores on the intelligence test consisting of complex speed tasks, involving reasoning task, a complex arithmetic task, and a reading comprehension task) as well as lower reverse Stroop interference, high rGMV over widespread areas of the brain [mainly including the bilateral lateral and medial parietal cortices, medial temporal structures (amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus), middle cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, perisylvian areas, inferior temporal lobe, temporal pole, occipital lobes, and supplementary motor area], as well as high MD of the right substantia nigra and bilateral hippocampus, which are indicative of low density in brain tissues. These results suggest that copper levels are associated with mostly aberrant cognitive functions, greater rGMV in extensive areas, greater MD (which are indicative of low density in brain tissues) in subcortical structures in the healthy young adults, possibly reflecting copper's complex roles in neural mechanisms.

A Common CACNA1C Gene Risk Variant has Sex-Dependent Effects on Behavioral Traits and Brain Functional Activity.

Genome-wide association studies have suggested that allelic variations in the CACNA1C gene confer susceptibility to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder only in women. Here we investigated the sex-specific effects of the CACNA1C variant rs1024582 on psychiatry-related traits, brain activity during tasks and rest, and brain volume in 1207 normal male and female subjects. After correcting for multiple comparisons, there were significant interaction effects between sex and the minor allele of this polymorphism on the hostile behavior subscale scores of the Coronary-Prone Type Scale mediated by higher scores in female carriers of the minor allele. Imaging analyses revealed significant interaction effects between sex and the minor allele on fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and on brain activity during the 2-back task in areas of the right posterior cingulate cortex, right thalamus, and right hippocampus, which were all mediated by reduced activity in female carriers of the minor allele. Our results demonstrated that the rs1024582 risk variant of CACNA1C is associated with reduced activity in the frontolimbic regions at rest and during a working memory task as well as with greater hostility in females in the healthy population.

Mean diffusivity of basal ganglia and thalamus specifically associated with motivational states among mood states.

Previously, we proposed that the mean diffusivity (MD), a measure of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in areas of the dopaminergic system (MDDS), is associated with motivation. In this study, we tested if and how the motivational state is associated with MD in comparison with other mood states. We also tested the associations of these mood states with multiple cognitive functions. We examined these issues in 766 right-handed healthy young adults. We employed analyses of MD and a psychological measure of the profile of mood states (POMS) as well as multiple cognitive functions. We detected associations between the higher Vigor subscale of POMS and lower MD in the right globus pallidum, right putamen to right posterior insula, right caudate body, and right thalamus, and these associations were highly specific to the Vigor subscale. Similarly, the association of the motivational state with creativity measured by divergent thinking (CMDT) was rather specific and prominent compared with that of the other mood states and cognitive functions. In conclusion, when affective states are finely divided, only the motivational state is associated with MD in the areas related to the dopaminergic system, and psychological mechanisms that had been associated with dopaminergic system (CMDT). These results suggest that these mechanisms specifically contribute to the motivational state and not to the other states, such as depression and anxiety.

Postoperative hormonal therapy prevents recovery of neurological damage after surgery in patients with breast cancer.

Cancer survivors are exposed to several risk factors for cognitive dysfunction, such as general anesthesia, surgical trauma, and adjuvant therapies. In our recent study we showed that thalamic volume reduction and attentional dysfunction occurred shortly after surgery. Here, we examined the 6-month prognosis of the 20 patients with breast cancer who underwent surgery. Seven patients did not receive any adjuvant therapy after the surgery and 13 patients received a hormonal therapy after the surgery. We assessed their attentional functions, and thalamic volumes shortly after and 6 months after surgery. We found a significant group x time interaction in the attentional functions (p = 0.033) and the right thalamus (p < 0.05, small volume correction), suggesting the thalamic volume reduction and attentional dysfunction recovered in patients without adjuvant therapy. Our findings provide a better understanding of the potential role of hormonal therapy in relation to the cognitive dysfunction of cancer survivors.

Postoperative Structural Brain Changes and Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients with Breast Cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of the early response to surgery on brain structure and cognitive function in patients with breast cancer. It was hypothesized that the structure of the thalamus would change during the early response after surgery due to the effects of anesthesia and would represent one aspect of an intermediate phenotype of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). METHODS: We examined 32 postmenopausal females with breast cancer and 20 age-matched controls. We assessed their cognitive function (attention, memory, and executive function), and performed brain structural MRI 1.5 ± 0.5 days before and 5.6 ± 1.2 days after surgery. RESULTS: We found a significant interaction between regional grey matter volume (rGMV) in the thalamus (P < 0.05, familywise error (FWE), small volume correction (SVC)) and one attention domain subtest (P = 0.001, Bonferroni correction) after surgery in the patient group compared with the control group. Furthermore, the changes in attention were significantly associated with sevoflurane anesthetic dose (r2 = 0.247, ß = ‒0.471, P = 0.032) and marginally associated with rGMV changes in the thalamus (P = 0.07, FWE, SVC) in the Pt group. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that alterations in brain structure, particularly in the thalamus, may occur shortly after surgery and may be associated with attentional dysfunction. This early postoperative response to anesthesia may represent an intermediate phenotype of POCD. It was assumed that patients experiencing other risk factors of POCD, such as the severity of surgery, the occurrence of complications, and pre-existing cognitive impairments, would develop clinical POCD with broad and multiple types of cognitive dysfunction.

The impact of television viewing on brain structures: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.

Television (TV) viewing is known to affect children's verbal abilities and other physical, cognitive, and emotional development in psychological studies. However, the brain structural development associated with TV viewing has never been investigated. Here we examined cross-sectional correlations between the duration of TV viewing and regional gray/white matter volume (rGMV/rWMV) among 133 boys and 143 girls as well as correlations between the duration of TV viewing and longitudinal changes that occurred a few years later among 111 boys and 105 girls. After correcting for confounding factors, we found positive effects of TV viewing on rGMV of the frontopolar and medial prefrontal areas in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, positive effects of TV viewing on rGMV/rWMV of areas of the visual cortex in cross-sectional analyses, and positive effects of TV viewing on rGMV of the hypothalamus/septum and sensorimotor areas in longitudinal analyses. We also confirmed negative effects of TV viewing on verbal intelligence quotient (IQ) in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. These anatomical correlates may be linked to previously known effects of TV viewing on verbal competence, aggression, and physical activity. In particular, the present results showed effects of TV viewing on the frontopolar area of the brain, which has been associated with intellectual abilities.