Fear Network Unresponsiveness in Women with Anorexia Nervosa

Neurochemical alterations in women with borderline personality disorder and comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with structural and functional brain changes. Recent models and findings refer to alterations of glutamate and total N-acetylaspartate (tNAA) in this condition.Absolute quantities of tNAA, creatine, glutamate, glutamine, myoinositol and total choline were measured using 3 Tesla magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the left anterior cingulate cortex and the left cerebellum in 14 unmedicated women with BPD and comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 18 healthy women. Both groups were matched with respect to age, education and premorbid intelligence.In the anterior cingulate, we found significantly higher tNAA and glutamate…

Extraction of prefronto-amygdalar pathways by combining probability maps

Many recent studies reported altered functional connectivity within the frontolimbic circuitry in a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, functional connectivity must rely on structural connections. In this study we applied a novel probabilistic fiber tracking method to assess the structural connectivity between the amygdala and different prefrontal brain regions in vivo. Twenty healthy subjects were investigated with diffusion tensor imaging. Probabilistic fiber tracking was started from the amygdala and different prefrontal brain regions. Resulting probability maps were combined using an extended multiplication of probabilistic maps to identify the most probable anatomical pa…

Neuronal Correlates of Clinical Asymmetry in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is characterized by a symmetric hypokinetic syndrome with early falls and vertical supranuclear gaze palsy. However, clinically asymmetric manifestations occur, resembling idiopathic Parkinson disease or corticobasal degeneration. The aim of this study was to determine the neuronal correlates of patients suffering from PSP with a lateralized disease manifestation (hemi-PSP) in comparison to patients with symmetric clinical presentation (symPSP) and corticobasal degeneration.Twenty-three patients with PSP and 8 patients with corticobasal degeneration according to standard diagnostic criteria underwent F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET scans to assess disease…

Reduced interhemispheric structural connectivity between anterior cingulate cortices in borderline personality disorder

Functional and structural alterations of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a key region for emotional and cognitive processing, are associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, the interhemispheric structural connectivity between the left and right ACC and between other prefrontal regions in this condition is unknown. We acquired diffusion-tensor imaging data from 20 healthy women and 19 women with BPD and comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Interhemispheric structural connectivity between both sides of the ACC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortices and medial orbitofrontal cortices was assessed by a novel probabilistic diffusion tensor-based fiber tra…

Frontocingular Dysfunction in Bulimia Nervosa when Confronted with Disease-specific Stimuli

Objective Bulimia nervosa (BN) is characterized by dysregulation of impulse control, in other words, uncontrolled eating. Functional neuroimaging studies have been sparse and have used variable methodologies. Method Thirteen medication-free female BN patients and 13 female healthy controls were investigated by functional magnetic resonance imaging using a disease-specific food paradigm. Stimuli were rated after the scanning procedure. Results Bulimia nervosa patients showed increased fear ratings and a trend for increased disgust. Magnetic resonance imaging data of 10 BN patients could be analysed. Three BN patients had to be excluded from the analysis because of minimal blood oxygen level …

Neurobiological signature of intimacy in anorexia nervosa

Background Intimacy and psychosexual development represent core problems of anorexia nervosa (AN). Experiential and neurobiological evidence however is scarce. Material and methods Thirty-one female AN patients were compared with 35 non-patients (NP) and 22 recovered participants (REC) by using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants viewed pictures of couples in intimate relationships and control stimuli. Results AN patients experienced intimate stimuli with lower valence and dominance. AN showed decreased activation of parietal cortices. NP decreased the prefrontal cortex response, which AN patients did not. REC participants did not differ from NP on a behavioural level, thoug…