Exploring the Role of Irrational Beliefs, Lifestyle Behaviors, and Educational Status in 10-Year Cardiovascular Disease Risk: the ATTICA Epidemiological Study.

BACKGROUND: Irrational beliefs, maladaptive emotions, and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors can adversely affect health status. However, limited research has examined the association between irrational beliefs and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between irrational beliefs and the 10-year CVD incidence among apparently healthy adults, considering the potential moderating or mediating role of particular social and lifestyle factors. METHODS: The ATTICA study is a population-based, prospective cohort (2002-2012), in which 853 participants without a history of CVD [453 men (aged 45 ± 13 years) and 400 women (aged 44 ± 18 years)] underwent psychological evaluations. Among other tools, participants completed the irrational beliefs inventory (IBI, range 0-88), a self-reported measure consistent with the Ellis model of psychological disturbance. Demographic characteristics, detailed medical history, dietary, and other lifestyle habits were also evaluated. Incidence of CVD (i.e., coronary heart disease, acute coronary syndromes, stroke, or other CVD) was defined according to the International Coding Diseases (ICD)-10 criteria. RESULTS: Mean IBI score was 53 ± 2 in men and 53 ± 3 in women (p = 0.88). IBI score was positively associated with 10-year CVD risk (hazard ratio 1.07, 95%CI 1.04, 1.13), in both men and women, and more prominently among those with less healthy dietary habits and lower education status; specifically, higher educational status leads to lower IBI score, and in conjunction they lead to lower 10-year CVD risk (HR for interaction 0.98, 95%CI 0.97, 0.99). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study underline the need to build new, holistic approaches in order to better understand the inter-relationships between irrational beliefs, lifestyle behaviors, social determinants, and CVD risk in individuals.

Early auditory-evoked potentials in body dysmorphic disorder: An ERP/sLORETA study.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by excessive preoccupation with imagined or slight physical defects in appearance. BDD is associated with cognitive impairments (attention, visual processing). Our study aims to evaluate the early neural responses (N100, P200) to prepulse inhibition (PPI) and prepulse facilitation (PPF), to investigate attentional processing of BDD in the auditory domain. Fifty-five adults took part: 30 BDD patients and 25 healthy controls. We compared their brain responses to PPI and PPF by analyzing global field power (GFP), event-related potentials (ERPs) and their respective sources. BDD exhibited reduced N100 amplitudes compared to healthy controls in response to the startle tone elicited by both PPI and PPF, potentially suggesting impaired allocation of attention. Interestingly, the lower the GFP at the N100, the higher the BDD severity. Source reconstruction analysis showed reduced activation for BDD during the N100 time window in PPI. Scalp responses and source activations in PPI were decreased overall compared to PPF, confirming the gating effect of PPI. We provided evidence that the N100 may serve as an electrophysiological marker of BDD, predicting its severity. Our study demonstrated the potential of using ERPs combined with behavioural PPI and PPF protocols to advance our understanding of BDD pathophysiology.

A novel optical non-intrusive method for measuring acoustic startle reflex in humans.

OBJECTIVE: The development of a new non-intrusive optical system for remotely measuring acoustic startle reflex (ASR) in humans. APPROACH: The eye reflex movement during an acoustic stimulation session is recorded through a high-speed digital camera. The eyes region is isolated by the rest of the face by an advanced pyramid-like feature detection algorithm, which greatly reduces the number of false positives. A separate Lucas-Kanade optical flow routine is designed for the eyeblink movement detection and the startle eyeblink reflex (SEBR) curve extraction. Image masking is implemented for the elimination of unwanted artifacts caused mainly by voluntary eye movement. The proposed system was tested along with a valid EMG system on a sample of 32 healthy randomly selected adults, and the results were compared in order to measure the system's degree of reliability. MAIN RESULTS: To assess the proposed method's validity the EMG data was used as a benchmark. The results showed strong correlation between EMG and Camera acquired results, which proves the validity of the proposed method. Furthermore, by comparing the response probability and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) for the two techniques, we proved that the proposed method can surpass the traditional EMG system in terms of accuracy and reliability. SIGNIFICANCE: The proposed technique presents a simple, robust and reliable non-intrusive means of measuring ASR in humans, with the potential of future implementation on various ASR psychophysiology experiments, such as the study of PPI.

Effect of frequency deviance direction on performance and mismatch negativity.

The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the auditory event-related potential is associated with automatic perceptual inference concerning changes in auditory stimulation. Recent studies have addressed the question whether performance and MMN is affected by the direction of frequency deviance. In the present study, the frequency MMN and performance is investigated during an auditory identification task. Specifically, we examined the effect of positive and negative differences between the present stimulus and the previous response frequencies on performance as well as on the characteristics of stimulus-locked ERPs and brain activation maps. The results show that frequency deviants creating mismatch conditions increase the likelihood of error commission. The decrease in performance achieves statistical significance in the case of positive frequency deviants. In the latter case, ERP amplitude values of the Fz electrode at 164 ms after stimulus onset are statistically larger for mismatch as opposed to no-mismatch condition. This corresponds to significance differences in the activation maps at Brodmann area 11, superior frontal gyrus, and the frontal lobe. The present findings revealed dissociations in behavioral and ERP responses in the processing of positive and negative frequency deviance, lending support to the notion that MMN is more sensitive to increments than to decrements in frequency.

Mismatch task conditions and error related ERPs.

BACKGROUND: The N200 component of event related potentials (ERPs) is considered an index of monitoring error related responses. The aim of the present work was to study the effect of mismatch conditions on the subjects' responses in an auditory identification task and their relation to the N200 of stimulus-locked ERPs. METHODS: An auditory identification task required to correctly map a horizontal slider onto an active frequency range by selecting a slider position that matched the stimulus tone in each trial. Fourteen healthy volunteers participated in the study and ERPs were recorded by 32 leads. RESULTS: Results showed that the subjects' erroneous responses were equally distributed within trials, but were dependent on mismatch conditions, generated by large differences between the frequencies of the tones of consecutive trials. Erroneous trials showed a significantly greater negativity within the time window of 164-191 ms after stimulus, located mainly at the Cz and Fz electrodes. The LORETA solution showed that maximum activations, as well as maximum differences, were localized mainly at the frontal lobe. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the fronto-central N200 component, conceived an index of "reorientation of attention", represents a correlate of an error signal, being produced when representation of the actual response and the required response are compared. Furthermore the magnitude of the amplitude of the N200 rests on the relation between the present and the previous stimulus.

Evidence of a posterior cingulate involvement (Brodmann area 31) in dyslexia: a study based on source localization algorithm of event-related potentials.

The study investigates the differences regarding the position of intracranial generators of P50 component of ERPs in 38 dyslexic children aged 11.47+/-2.12 years compared with their 19 healthy siblings aged 12.21+/-2.25. The dipoles were extracted by solving the inverse electromagnetic problem according to the recursively applied and projected multiple signal classification (RAP-MUSIC) algorithm approach. For improved localization of the main dipole the solutions were optimized using genetic algorithms. The statistical analysis revealed differences regarding the position of intracranial generators of low frequency of P50. Particularly, dyslexics showed main activity being located at posterior cingulate cortex (Brodmann's area 31) while controls exhibited main activity being located at retrosplenial cortex (Brodmann's area 30). These results may indicate a role for the posterior cingulate cortex in the pre-attentive processing operation of dyslexia beyond of its traditional function in terms of spatial attention and motor intention.

Changes in LORETA and conventional patterns of P600 after steroid treatment in multiple sclerosis patients.

OBJECTIVE: The P600 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting the 'rule-governed sequence of information processing', has been associated with multiple sclerosis (MS)-related cognition. The present study aimed at examining the effects of methylprednisolone treatment in MS patients on cognition as reflected by the low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) of the P600 as well as its conventional constituents (amplitudes and latencies) recorded during a working memory (WM) test. METHOD: A paired LORETA comparison was performed in the P600 component of ERPs elicited during a (WM) test in 18 MS patients suffering from the relapsing-remitting form, before and after 1 week treatment with methylprednisolone. The P600 component was also evaluated in 16 healthy controls matched to the patients on age and educational level. RESULTS: When pre- and post-treatment recordings of LORETA were compared all patients as a group showed significantly different patterns of current density activation located at right frontal lobe. The treatment was accompanied by an increase of the amplitude of P600 at the right frontoparietal area. In the post-treatment phase the patients exhibited significant improvement of the memory performance as compared to themselves before treatment. As a result both the P600 amplitudes and memory performance at post-treatment were closer to those exhibited by normal controls. CONCLUSION: These findings support the notion that steroid treatment in relapsing-remitting MS patients, may exert a beneficial effect in 'rule-governed sequence of information processing'.

Preattentive deficits in developmental disorders of scholastic skills.

Working memory deficiency has been implicated in developmental disorders of scholastic skills. The auditory P50 component of event-related potentials reflecting preattentive processing was investigated in 38 children with developmental disorders of scholastic skills and 19 sibling control children, as elicited during a working memory test. The P50 was evoked by two tones of low and high frequency (500 Hz and 3000 Hz). The group with developmental disorders of scholastic skills showed prolonged P50 latency induced by the low tone, located at the frontal area. The amplitude of P50 induced by the low tone exhibited significantly negative associations with both age and memory performance, whereas age and memory performance were associated positively. These findings indicate that preattentive processing deficits may be implicated not only in auditory cognition but also in developmental disorders of scholastic skills.

Psychophysiological differences in schizophrenics with and without delusional misidentification syndromes: a P300 study.

There is a debate on whether delusional misidentification syndromes (DMSs) and schizophrenia are distinct disorders. Information-processing deficits have been found in both. Since the P300 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) reflects attention and working memory (WM) mechanisms, the P300 elicited during a WM test was studied in schizophrenic patients with DMS in comparison to schizophrenic patients without DMS and controls. Nine schizophrenic patients with DMS, 11 without DMS and 11 healthy controls were tested with a computerized version of the digit span test of the Wechsler batteries. Auditory ERPs were measured during the anticipatory period of the test. P300 amplitude in prefrontal areas was found to be significantly reduced in schizophrenics without DMS and markedly less in DMS patients compared to controls. P300 latency in the central midline brain region was significantly prolonged in DMS patients compared to the other groups. Memory performance was significantly reduced in both patient groups as compared to healthy controls. The results may indicate abnormalities in both allocation of attentional resources and automatic orienting in schizophrenic patients with DSM. In contrast, even though schizophrenic patients without DMS exhibit partial similarities with patients suffering from DMS, they show excessive reduction of P300 amplitude located at the left frontal area. Future studies might clarify these issues.

Long-term abstinence syndrome in heroin addicts: indices of P300 alterations associated with a short memory task.

Attentional deficits have been implicated in the pathophysiology of opioid addicts. The P300 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) is considered as a manifestation of attentional operations. The authors' goal was the comparison of P300 elicited during a short memory test between subjects with prolonged heroin abstinence and current heroin users as well as healthy controls. The P300 component was evaluated during the anticipatory period of a short memory task in 20 patients characterized by a past history of opioid dependence (6 months abstinence), in 18 current heroin users and in 20 healthy comparison subjects, matched for age, sex and educational level. Abstinent heroin addicts exhibited significant reduction of P300 amplitude at central frontal region, relative to the other two groups. The findings are discussed in connection to the aim of identifying psychophysiological indices, addressing issues in opioid use disorders, and suggest that knowledge about cognitive operations, such as those reflected by P300 component, could provide further insight into psychophysiological mechanisms underlying the long-term abstinence state of heroin addicts.

Kallmann's syndrome and schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Kallmann's Syndrome is a heritable disorder characterized by the association of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and anosmia or hyposmia. A common pathogenesis for KS and schizophrenia had been proposed based on shared pathologies of these two disorders, although no such clinical associations have ever been reported. METHOD: We report a 35 year old man with schizophrenia and Kallmann's Syndrome. The patient presented with signs and symptoms of hypogonadism, severe hyposmia and normal endocrine functions of the anterior pituitary. Hyposmia has been attributed to the absence of the olfactory bulbs and tracts and atrophy of the olfactory gyri, but normal olfactory mucosa. The patient presented with paranoid schizophrenia with persecutory delusions, auditory hallucinations, thought disorder, depersonalization, and gradual but marked global deterioration. RESULTS: Psychiatric evaluation revealed an entirely different psychopathological and personality profile between the patient and the six other Kallmann patients studied. Cycle sequencing analysis revealed a normal sequence of all 14 exons of the KAL gene. In conclusion, based on the presented case, Kallmann's Syndrome and schizophrenia represent a rare clinical association rather than a syndrome with a common pathogenesis, which if present should be confined to the olfactory dysfunction.