Attachment Security and Cortical Activity Measured by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy During a Working Memory Task in Healthy Young Adults.

Introduction: Attachment style has been associated with socio-emotional outcomes, however little evidence suggests a possible association with executive functioning. Few studies have demonstrated that attachment style mediates working memory and learning relationships. We hypothesized that attachment style affects performance and cortical activity patterns of working memory. Methods: We compared working memory performance and cortical activity in securely and insecurely attached first-year college students (N=49) using three n-back task conditions. Cortical activity was recorded by functional near-infrared spectroscopy during these three conditions of the n-back task. Attachment style was assessed using the Relationship Scale Questionnaire, categorized into four groups. Results: Both study groups showed similar working memory performance. The cortical representation of working memory was different between the two groups. The securely attached group demonstrated higher activity in the right superior frontal and superior-medial frontal areas across all n-back conditions as well as in the right superior frontal cortex during the two-back and three-back conditions. The insecurely attached group displayed higher activity in the bilateral supplementary motor area and the left premotor area only during the three-back condition. Conclusion: These findings emphasize the potential influence of attachment style on the cortical representation of working memory. Different activity maps between the two groups may reflect varying cognitive strategies employed to achieve a comparable working memory performance. Moreover, these results suggest that each style may have a distinct strategy to achieve attachment-relevant and irrelevant neurocognitive tasks.

The Potential Role of POR*28 and CYP1A2*F Genetic Variations and Lifestyle Factors on Clozapine and N-DesmethylClozapine Plasma Levels in Schizophrenia Patients.

BACKGROUND: Despite its advantages over other antipsychotics, for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, clinical use of Clozapine (CLZ) is challenging by its narrow therapeutic index and potentially life-threatening dose-related adverse effects. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: As the potential role in CLZ metabolism is assigned to CYP1A2 enzyme and consequently Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR) their genetic variations might help to determine CLZ levels in schizophrenia patients. For this purpose, 112 schizophrenia patients receiving CLZ were included in the current study. Plasma CLZ and N-desmethylclozapine (DCLZ) levels were analyzed by using HPLC and genetic variations were identified with the PCR-RFLP method. RESULTS: The patients' CYP1A2 and POR genotypes seemed to not affect plasma CLZ and DCLZ levels whereas in the subgroup analysis, POR *28 genotype significantly influenced simple and adjusted plasma CLZ and DLCZ levels concerning smoking habit and caffeine consumption. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study highlight the importance of both genetic and non-genetic factors (smoking and caffeine consumption) for the individualization of the CLZ treatment. In addition to that, it suggests that the added utility of not only the CLZ metabolizing enzymes but also POR, which is crucial for proper CYP activity, to guide CLZ dosing might be useful for clinical decision-making.

Deep neural network to differentiate brain activity between patients with euthymic bipolar disorders and healthy controls during verbal fluency performance: A multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy study.

In this study, we aimed to differentiate between euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) patients and healthy controls (HC) based on frontal activity measured by fNIRS that were converted to spectrograms with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). And also, we investigated brain regions that cause this distinction. In total, 29 BD patients and 28 HCs were recruited. Their brain cortical activities were measured using fNIRS while performing letter versions of VFT. Each one of the 24 fNIRS channels was converted to a 2D spectrogram on which a CNN architecture was designed and utilized for classification. We found that our CNN algorithm using fNIRS activity during a VFT is able to differentiate subjects with BD from healthy controls with 90% accuracy, 80% sensitivity, and 100% specificity. Moreover, validation performance reached an AUC of 94%. From our individual channel analyses, we observed channels corresponding to the left inferior frontal gyrus (left-IFC), medial frontal cortex (MFC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), Broca area, and right premotor have considerable activity variation to distinguish patients from HC. fNIRS activity during VFT can be used as a potential marker to classify euthymic BD patients from HCs. Activity particularly in the MFC, left-IFC, Broca's area, and DLPFC have a considerable variation to distinguish patients from healthy controls.

Cortical activity measured by functional near infrared spectroscopy during a theory of mind task in subjects with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and healthy controls.

Theory of Mind (ToM) deficits interfere in social cognitive functioning in schizophrenia (SCZ) and are increasingly recognized to do so in bipolar disorder (BD), however their clinical and neurobiological correlates remain unclear. This study represents the first direct comparison of subjects with SCZ (N = 26), BD (N = 26) and healthy controls (N = 33) in cortical activity during the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (RMET) using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) with the control condition (CC) involving gender identification via the same stimuli. The three groups were compared with a comprehensive ToM battery and assessed in terms of the relationship of ToM performance with clinical symptoms, insight and functioning. The controls scored higher than the SCZ and BD groups in ToM assessments, with SCZ group showing the worse performance in terms of meta-representation and empathy. The SCZ group ToM scores inversely correlated with negative symptom severity and positively correlated with insight; BD group ToM scores negatively correlated with subclinical mania symptoms and projected functioning. Cortical activity was higher during the ToM condition compared to the CC in the pre-motor and supplementary-motor cortices, middle and superior temporal gyri, and the primary somatosensory cortex. Group x Condition interaction was detected whereby activity was higher during the ToM condition among controls with no detected difference between SCZ and BD groups. The results suggest that ToM is represented similarly in cortical activity in SCZ and BD compared to healthy controls pointing to possible neurobiological convergence of SCZ and BD in underlying impairments of social cognition.

Cortical activity during social acceptance and rejection task in social anxiety disorder: A controlled functional near infrared spectroscopy study.

BACKGROUND: The cognitive and emotional vulnerability of individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and their response to repeated experiences of social rejection and social acceptance are important factors for the emergence and maintenance of symptoms of the disorder. Functional neuroimaging studies of SAD reveal hyperactivity in regions involved in the fear circuit such as amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate, and prefrontal cortices (PFC) in response to human faces with negative emotions. Observation of brain activity, however, involving studies of responses to standardized human interaction of social acceptance and social rejection have been lacking. METHODS: We compared a group of index subjects with SAD (N = 22, mean age:26.3 ± 5.4, female/male: 7/15) (SADG) with a group of healthy controls (CG) (N = 21, mean age:28.7 ± 4.5, female/male: 14/7) in measures of cortical activity during standardized experiences of human interaction involving social acceptance (SA) and social rejection (SR) video-simulated handshaking tasks performed by real actors. In a third, control condition (CC), the subjects were expected to press a switch button in an equivalent space. Subjects with a concurrent mood episode were excluded and the severity of subclinical depressive symptoms was controlled. 52-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure cortical activity. RESULTS: Activity was higher in the SAD subjects compared to healthy controls, in particular in channels that project to middle and superior temporal gyri (STG), frontal eye fields (FEF) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in terms of both SA and SR conditions. Cortical activity during the CC was not different between the groups. Only in the SAD-group, activity in the pre-motor and supplementary motor cortices, inferior and middle temporal gyri and fronto-polar area was higher during the rejection condition than the other two conditions. Anxiety scores were correlated with activity in STG, DLPFC, FEF and premotor cortex, while avoidance scores were correlated with activity in STG and FEF. CONCLUSIONS: SA and SR are represented differently in terms of cortical activity in SAD subjects compared to healthy controls. Higher activity in both social conditions in SAD subjects compared to controls may imply biological sensitivity to these experiences and may underscore the importance of increased cortical activity during social interaction experiences as a putative mediator of vulnerability to SAD. Higher cortical activity in the SADG may possibly indicate stronger need for inhibitory control mechanisms and higher recruitment of theory of mind functions during social stress. Higher activity during the SR compared to the SA condition in the SAD subjects may also suggest distinct processing of social cues, whether they involve acceptance or rejection.

The relationship of cortical activity induced by pain stimulation with clinical and cognitive features of somatic symptom disorder: A controlled functional near infrared spectroscopy study.

OBJECTIVE: The neurobiological correlates of Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD) introduced in the DSM-5 has been the focus of a limited investigation. We aimed to examine the cortical response to painful stimuli and its relationship to symptom severity as well as cognitive and psychological characteristics in proposed models of somatoform disorders. METHODS: We measured hemodynamic responses by 52-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy. We compared the cortical response to painful stimuli in index patients with SSD (N = 21) versus age, and gender matched healthy control subjects (N = 21). We used brush stimulation as the control condition. We analyzed the relationship of cortical activity with SSD symptom severity as well as somatosensory amplification (SSA), alexithymia, dysfunctional illness behaviour, worry, and neuroticism. RESULTS: Patients with SSD had higher somatic symptom severity, SSA, alexithymia, neuroticism, illness-related worry, and behaviour. Somatic symptom severity was predicted by a model including SSA and subjective feeling of pain in the index patients. Activity in the left-angular and right-middle temporal gyri was higher in the SSD subjects than the controls during pain stimulation. Positive correlations were detected between mean pain threshold levels and left middle occipital gyrus activity, as well as between SSA-scores and right-angular gyrus activity during pain condition in the index patients with SSD. CONCLUSION: We present the first evidence that representation of pain in terms of cortical activity is different in subjects with SSD than healthy controls. SSA has functional neuroanatomic correlates and predicts symptom severity in SSD and therefore is involved as a valid intermediate phenotype in SSD pathophysiology.

Determination of Mirtazapine and Desmethyl Mirtazapine in Human Plasma by a New Validated HPLC Ultraviolet Method with a Simple and Reliable Extraction Method: Application to Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Study by 62 Real Patient Plasma.

Determination of mirtazapine (MRP) during psychopharmacotherapy in biological fluids is essential to achieve successful therapy, to avoid toxicity related to drug interactions, genetic variability, and poor compliance. A new, rapid, and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography method has been developed in human plasma for the determination of MRP and N-desmethylmirtazapine (NDM) that is an active metabolite. The separation was achieved on a reverse-phase C18 250 x 4.6 mm i.d., ODS-3 column using programmed gradient elution at 40 °C. 20 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 3.9), acetonitrile, and triethylamine (75.0:24.9:0.1, v/v/v) were used as mobile phase A. Mobile phase B consisted of absolute acetonitrile. Clozapine was used as an internal standard. The method showed linearity with good determination coefficients (r2≥0.9981) for each analyte. Intra-day and interday assay precisions (RSD%) were found less than 3.4 and 2.9 for MRP and NDM, respectively. The intra-day and interday accuracy (RE%) of the method were calculated between (-2.8) and 5.5. A new extraction method was used in the study and an excellent recovery (average) values for MRP and NDM (94.4%, 106.6%, respectively) was obtained. The method was specific and sensitive as the limit of detection (LOD) were 0.17 for MRP and 0.15 ng/mL for NDM. This method was applied properly to plasma samples taken from patients receiving MRI (n = 62) treated with 15-30 mg / day. The obtained and statistically evaluated plasma MRP and NDM levels which were 28.6 ± 13.8 and 12.3 ± 6.5 (mean ± SD). The described procedure is relatively simple, precise, and applicable for routine therapeutic drug monitoring especially in psychiatry clinics and toxicology reference laboratories.

The relationship between plasma levels of clozapine and N-desmethyclozapine as well as M1 receptor polymorphism with cognitive functioning and associated cortical activity in schizophrenia.

Studies that examined the effect of clozapine on cognitive functions in schizophrenia provided contradictory results. N-desmethylclozapine (NDMC) is the major metabolite of clozapine and have procognitive effects via agonistic activity in the M1 cholinergic receptors. The rs2067477 polymorphism in the M1 receptors may play role in cognitive profile in schizophrenia. We investigated the association of plasma clozapine (PClz), NDMC (PNdmc) levels and the rs2067477 polymorphism with cognitive functions and cortical activity measured by functional near infrared spectroscopy during the N-Back task in subjects with schizophrenia (N = 50) who are under antipsychotic monotherapy with clozapine. We found that PClz and PNdmc levels were negatively, PNdmc/PClz ratio was positively correlated with immediate recall score in the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. PNdmc/PClz ratio was positively correlated with cortical activity during the N-back task. M1 wild-type group (CC: wild-type) produced higher cortical activity than M1 non wild-type group (CA: heterozygote / AA: mutant) in cortical regions associated with working memory (WM). These results suggest that individual differences in clozapine's effect on short term episodic memory may be associated with PClz and PNdmc. Higher activity in the M1 wild-type group may indicate inefficient use of cortical resources and/or excessive use of certain cognitive strategies during WM performance.

The Association of CYP2D6*4 and POR*28 Polymorphisms on Mirtazapine Plasma Level in Subjects with Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety Disorders.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: The plasma level of mirtazapine (MIR) varies between individuals primarily depending on the differences in metabolism during pharmacotherapy. CYP2D6 takes the role as a major enzyme in MIR metabolism and POR enzyme donates an electron to CYP2D6 for its activity. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the genes encoding pharmacokinetic enzymes may cause changes in enzyme activity, leading to differences in metabolism of the drug. Our aim was to assess the influence of CYP2D6*4 and POR*28 polymorphisms on MIR plasma levels in Turkish psychiatric patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The association between genetic variations and plasma level of MIR was investigated on 54 patients. CYP2D6*4 and POR*28 polymorphisms were analysed using Polymerase Chain Reaction- Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and plasma MIR levels were measured using HPLC. RESULTS: Allele frequencies of CYP2D6*4 and POR*28 were 0.11 and 0.39, respectively in the study population. The results showed that CYP2D6*4 allele carriers have higher C/D MIR levels while POR*28 allele carriers have lower C/D MIR levels. Combined genotype analyses also revealed that individuals with CYP2D6*1/*1 - POR*28/*28 genotype have a statistically lower C/D MIR level (0.95 ng/ml/dose) when compared with individuals with CYP2D6*1/*1 - POR*1/*1 genotype (1.52 ng/ml/dose). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that CYP2D6*4 and POR*28 polymorphisms may have a potential in the explanation of differences in plasma levels in MIR treated psychiatric patients. A combination of these variations may be beneficial in increasing drug response and decreasing adverse drug reactions in MIR psychopharmacotherapy.

Attachment Style Predicts Cortical Activity in Temporoparietal Junction (TPJ): An fNIRS Study Using a Theory of Mind (ToM) Task in Healthy University Students.

Results of the behavioral studies suggest that attachment styles may have an enduring effect upon theory of mind (ToM). However biological underpinnings of this relationship are unclear. Here, we compared securely and insecurely attached first grade university students (N = 56) in terms of cortical activity measured by 52 channel Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the Reading the Mind from the Eyes Test (RMET). The control condition involved gender identification via the same stimuli. We found that the ToM condition evoked higher activity than the control condition particularly in the right hemisphere. We observed higher activity during the ToM condition relative to the control condition in the secure group (SG), whereas the overall cortical activity evoked by the two conditions was indistinguishable in the insecure group (ISG). Higher activity was observed in channels corresponding to right superior temporal and adjacent parietal cortices in the SG relative to the ISG during the ToM condition. Dismissive attachment scores were negatively correlated with activity in channels that correspond to right superior temporal cortex. These results suggest that attachment styles do have an effect on representation of ToM in terms of cortical activity in late adolescence. Particularly, dismissive attachment is represented by lower activity in the right superior temporal cortex during ToM, which might be related to weaker social need and habitual unwillingness for closeness among this group of adolescents.

A Novel Genotyping Method for Detection of the Muscarinic Receptor M1 Gene rs2067477 Polymorphism and Its Genotype/Allele Frequencies in a Turkish Population.

OBJECTIVES: Gene variation in the cholinergic muscarinic receptor 1 (CHRM1) has potential to become a candidate biomarker in the development of several disorders as well as drug response. In this study, a novel polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay was developed to determine the C to A single nucleotide polymorphism at position 267 in the CHRM1 gene. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A new reverse primer and a mismatched forward primer were designed to obtain 125 bp PCR products. The PCR products were then digested with the Hae III restriction enzyme to detect the rs2067477 polymorphism that comprises a C to A base change. The novel assay developed was tested in 51 Turkish schizophrenia patients. RESULTS: The genotyping assay was successfully performed in patients with schizophrenia in order to confirm the accuracy and validity of this method. The frequency of CC, CA, and AA genotypes was 72.5%, 25.5%, and 2%, respectively. On the basis of these findings, the allele frequency of C was 0.85 and the allele frequency of A was 0.15. CONCLUSION: This genotyping assay is practical for screening the CHRM1 C267A polymorphism in pharmacogenetic studies. The present polymorphism may be used as a candidate biomarker to determine genetic susceptibility to related diseases and may contribute to the implementation of individualized drug therapy for M1-related diseases.

Association between serotonin 2A receptor (HTR2A), serotonin transporter (SLC6A4) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene polymorphisms and citalopram/sertraline induced sexual dysfunction in MDD patients.

Sexual dysfunction (SD) is a troublesome adverse effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). A variety of mechanisms might be involved in the occurrence of SD but the exact mechanism is still not clear. Genetic variations among patients treated with SSRIs are strong determinants of intolerance and poor compliance. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between serotonin-2A receptor (HTR2A) gene -1438A/G and 102T/C polymorphisms, serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) 5-HTT-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) insertion/deletion variant and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene Val66Met polymorphisms and the occurrence of SD adverse effect in major depressive disorder patients treated with citalopram (CIT) or sertraline (SERT). The result from this investigation revealed that the -1438A/G and 102T/C polymorphisms appear to be associated with the SD induced by CIT. It was also demonstrated that patients receiving SERT, carrying T allele of HTR2A or L allele of 5-HTTLPR more likely to experience SD. Most important overall finding of the study is the combined effects of -1438A/G, 102T/C, and 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms. In a logistic regression model, the occurrence of SD increased with the number of risky alleles. As compared with subjects receiving SERT with few risky (≤2) alleles, those with had 5-6 alleles had an increased SD risk. After all, according to these findings, -1438A/G, 102T/C, and 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms could be considered as promising pharmacogenetic biomarkers in CIT/SERT treatment in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients to avoid the occurrence of SD.

Hyperparameter-tuned prediction of somatic symptom disorder using functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based dynamic functional connectivity.

OBJECTIVE: Somatic symptom disorder (SSD) is a reflection of medically unexplained physical symptoms that lead to distress and impairment in social and occupational functioning. SSD is phenomenologically diagnosed and its neurobiology remains unsolved. APPROACH: In this study, we performed hyper-parameter optimized classification to distinguish 19 persistent SSD patients and 21 healthy controls by utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy via performing two painful stimulation experiments, individual pain threshold (IND) and constant sub-threshold (SUB) that include conditions with different levels of pain (INDc and SUBc) and brush stimulation. We estimated a dynamic functional connectivity time series by using sliding window correlation method and extracted features from these time series for these conditions and different cortical regions. MAIN RESULTS: Our results showed that we found highest specificity (85%) with highest accuracy (82%) and 81% sensitivity using an SVM classifier by utilizing connections between right superior temporal-left angular gyri, right middle frontal (MFG)-left supramarginal gyri and right middle temporal-left middle frontal gyri from the INDc condition. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that fNIRS may distinguish subjects with SSD from healthy controls by applying pain in levels of individual pain-threshold and bilateral MFG, left inferior parietal and right temporal gyrus might be robust biomarkers to be considered for SSD neurobiology.

Prefrontal Activity Measured by Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy During Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Bipolar Disorder.

INTRODUCTION: Biographical research as well as some controlled studies point out to a relationship between bipolar disorder (BD) and creativity. Neurobiological underpinnings of this relationship are unclear. Although there is no consensus on the definition of creativity, Alternative uses Test (AuT) and Remote Association Test (RAT) are frequently used to measure convergent and divergent creativity. We aimed to examine prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the RAT and AuT tests in subjects with BD. METHODS: We measured PFC activity in subjects with remitted BD (N=31) and healthy control subjects (N=27) with fNIRS during divergent and convergent thinking tasks (AuT and RAT respectively). We were particularly interested in the antero-posterior dissociation of the activity within the PFC according to the two task domains. RESULTS: We found that the index subjects displayed lower performance than healthy controls during the AuT and the RAT. AuT and RAT were associated with different activities in the two groups. Anterior PFC (aPFC) activity was higher than posterior PFC (pPFC) activity during the RAT in the index group, and during the AuT in the control group. aPFC activity was negatively correlated with the RAT performance in the index group. CONCLUSION: Higher activity in the aPFC may be the functional neuro-anatomical correlate of low convergent creativity performance in BD.

The Relation Between Functional Anatomy of the Face and Threat Perception Evoked by Facial Expression of Anger in Schizophrenia.

INTRODUCTION: It is well known that patients with schizophrenia are more sensitive to negative rather than positive feelings. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the degree of explicitly perceived threat against facial expressions of anger. We were also interested in the association between perceived threat, and both the objective intensity of facial expression of anger and the functional anatomy of the perceived faces. METHOD: Forty-eight patients with schizophrenia and 51 healthy controls were enrolled. Participants were presented a total of 21 sequences of anger including six different face images, which were selected from The Cohn-Kanade AU-Coded Facial Expression Database with emotions gradually changing from neutral to peak expression of anger. We measured when [time to threat (TtT)] and to which degree [Total perception of threat (TPoT)] threat was perceived by participants. The relation between perceived threat with the involvement of functional anatomic units among the face stimuli was also investigated. RESULTS: TPoT was higher in the index compared to the control group. TtT was comparable in two groups and was associated with the severity of hallucinations among the index group. Total emotion intensity was lower in the sequences that evoked more threat in the index group. Functional contribution of the eyes and the upper lip to expression of anger were associated with TPoT among the index group. CONCLUSION: Schizophrenia subjects may be prone to perceive more threat in response to facial expression of anger. This proneness may be evident in response to less intense expression of anger, particularly via eyes and the upper lip.

The relationship between the serotonin 2A receptor gene -1438A/G and 102T/C polymorphisms and citalopram/sertraline-induced nausea in major depressed patients.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between the polymorphisms of -1438A/G and 102T/C in the 5-HT2A receptor (HTR2A) gene and nausea/vomiting as a side effect induced by sertraline (SERT) or citalopram (CIT) in patients with major depressive disorder. METHODS: A total of 128 patients were enrolled, 63 patients received CIT, whereas 65 patients were treated with SERT. Nausea/vomiting were assessed with the UKU Side-effects Rating Scale at baseline and at the end of the second and fourth weeks. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique was employed to determine genetic differences. RESULTS: We have found that, in the patients treated with CIT, there was a nominally significant difference in the genotypic distribution associated with -1438A/G polymorphism between patients with and without nausea (X2  = 6.15, p = 0.041). Moreover, logistic regression analysis revealed a significant association between nausea/vomiting as a side effect and -1438A/G polymorphism. That is, patients with the G allele were at a higher risk for developing nausea/vomiting (p = 0.044, odds ratio = 2.213). The 102T/C polymorphism in the HTR2A gene had no significant effect on the nausea/vomiting as a side effect among participants treated with either CIT or SERT. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests the association of the HTR2A gene -1438A/G polymorphism with nausea/vomiting as a side effect related to CIT treatment.

[Positive Symptoms and Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection in Childhood: The Moderating Roles of Socioeconomic Status and Gender]. / Pozitif Belirtiler ve Çocuklukta Algilanan Ebeveyn Kabul-Reddi: Sosyoekonomik Düzey ve Cinsiyetin Düzenleyici Rolü.

OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to investigate the moderating roles of socioeconomic status (SES) and gender in the relationship between the positive symptoms of patients with schizophrenia and their recollections of parental acceptance-rejection in childhood. METHOD: This study included 53 outpatients (20 females and 33 males) who were diagnosed with schizophrenia at the Ankara University and Ege University Faculty of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. Of the participants, 22.6% were from low SES families, 55.7% were from middle SES families, and 22.6% were from high SES families. The relationship between the participants' positive symptoms and recollections of parental acceptance-rejection in childhood were assessed by the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms and the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire/Control. RESULTS: Compared to schizophrenia patients from middle and high SES families, those from low SES families perceived their mothers and fathers as more cold, neglectful, rejecting, and less controlling in their childhood. Among the parental acceptance-rejection subscales, only maternal indifferences/neglect was related to the participants' positive symptoms. A three-way interaction (moderated moderation) analysis indicated that SES significantly moderated the effect of perceived maternal neglect on positive symptoms for female, but not male, patients with schizophrenia. CONCLUSION: The severity of positive symptoms of female patients with schizophrenia, especially those from low and middle SES families, may be reduced by examining recollections of maternal neglect in childhood and, if necessary, applying trauma or attachment-focused interventions.

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Time Perception and Reward Anticipation.

Findings suggest that the physiological mechanisms involved in the reward anticipation and time perception partially overlap. But the systematic investigation of a potential interaction between time and reward systems using neuroimaging is lacking. Eighteen healthy volunteers (all right-handed) participated in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment that employs a visual paradigm that consists monetary reward to assess whether the functional neural representations of time perception and reward prospection are shared or distinct. Subjects performed a time perception task in which observers had to extrapolate the velocity of an occluded moving object in "reward" vs. "no-reward" sessions during fMRI scanning. There were also "control condition" trials in which participants judged about the color tone change of the stimuli. Time perception showed a fronto-parietal (more extensive in the right) cingulate and peristriate cortical as well as cerebellar activity. On the other hand, reward anticipation activated anterior insular cortex, nucleus accumbens, caudate nucleus, thalamus, cerebellum, postcentral gyrus, and peristriate cortex. Interaction between the time perception and the reward prospect showed dorsolateral, orbitofrontal, medial prefrontal and caudate nucleus activity. Our findings suggest that a prefrontal-striatal circuit might integrate reward and timing systems of the brain.