International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 2018
One of the most basic and person-specific affective responses to music is liking. The present inv... more One of the most basic and person-specific affective responses to music is liking. The present investigation sought to determine whether liking was preserved during spontaneous auditory imagery. To this purpose, we inserted two-second silent intervals into liked and disliked songs, a method known to automatically recreate a mental image of these songs. Neural correlates of musical preference were measured by high-density electroencephalography in twenty subjects who had to listen to a set of five pre-selected unknown songs the same number of times for two weeks. Time frequency analysis of the two most liked and the two most disliked songs confirmed the presence of neural responses related to liking. At the beginning of silent intervals (400-900 ms and 1000-1300 ms), significant differences in theta activity were originating from the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyrus. These two brain structures are known to work together to process various aspects of music and are also acti...
Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists, Jan 19, 2017
Several studies have demonstrated saccadic eye movement (SEM) abnormalities in Alzheimer's di... more Several studies have demonstrated saccadic eye movement (SEM) abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease (AD) when patients performed prosaccade (PS) and antisaccade (AS) tasks. Some studies have also showed that SEM abnormalities were correlated with dementia rating tests such as the Mini Mental State Evaluation (MMSE). Therefore, it has been suggested that SEMs could provide useful information for diagnosis. However, little is known about predictive saccades (PreS)-saccades triggered before or very quickly after stimuli appearance-and their relationships with cognition in AD. Here, we aimed to examine the relationships between our usual dementia screening tests and SEM parameters in PS, AS, and also PreS task. We compared SEMs in 20 patients suffering from AD and in 35 healthy older adults (OA) in PS, AS, and PreS task. All participants also completed a neuropsychological evaluation. We showed that AD patients had higher latency and latency variability regardless the tasks, and also...
Emotional dysregulation and impaired attachment are potential contributors to the development of ... more Emotional dysregulation and impaired attachment are potential contributors to the development of psychopathology in adolescence. This raises the question of whether oxytocin (OT), the paradigmatic "attachment hormone," may be beneficial in such contexts. Recent evidence suggests that intranasal administration of OT increases affiliative behavior, including trust and empathy. OT may also facilitate social reciprocity by attenuating the stress response to interpersonal conflict. To date, few studies have investigated the effects of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) on neurophysiological emotion regulation strategies in healthy adolescents, particularly during parent-adolescent interaction. To understand these mechanisms, our study will examine the effects of IN-OT on emotion regulation in adolescents during parent-adolescent stressful interactions, and on each adolescent's visual and neurophysiological strategies when visualizing attachment-related pictures. We hypothesize that IN-OT will influence psychophysiological outcomes under conditions of stress. We predict that IN-OT will momentarily increase feelings of safety and attenuate stress and hostile behavior during conflict situations. OT may also enhance attachment security by increasing comfort and proximity-seeking, and reducing neurophysiological hyperactivation. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of IN-OT on insecure adolescents by studying their behavior and discourse during a disagreement with one of their parents. Their neurophysiological responses to pictures eliciting attachment-related emotions and their visual exploration strategies will also be investigated. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel-group design, 60 healthy male adolescents classified as insecurely attached will receive 24 international units (IU) of IN-OT versus placebo (PB), 45 minutes before the experimental tasks. Each adolescent will then be invited to engage in an experimental conflict discussion with one of his parents. The conflict session will be videotaped and coded for verbal and non-verbal interaction behavior, using the Goal-Corrected Partnership in Adolescence Coding System (GPACS). Each adolescent will then be asked to visualize attachment-related pictures on a screen. Eye-tracking (ET) and neurophysiological responses, including electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR), will be recorded simultaneously and continuously during attachment-related picture viewing (Besançon Affective Picture Set-Adolescents, BAPS-Ado). Enrollment for the study was completed in May 2016. Data analysis commenced in July 2016. Study results will be submitted for publication in the winter of 2017. OT is a complex molecule with many facets that are not yet fully understood. This experimental protocol will increase scientific and clinical knowledge of emotion regulation skills in insecure adolescents by assessing the impact of IN-OT on parent-adolescent interaction and on the visual processing of attachment-related emotions. Positive results could lead to therapeutic uses of IN-OT to treat emotion dysregulation in adolescence.
High frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (hf-rTMS) improves language skills in... more High frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (hf-rTMS) improves language skills in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We report the use of hf-rTMS in a patient with logopenic primary progressive aphasia (LPPA) due to AD. hf-rTMS was applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of a LPPA patient. Cerebral perfusion, neuropsychological and linguistic performances were evaluated before and 1 month after hf-rTMS. The tolerance was good. Improvements on linguistic (fluency, naming, lesser paraphasia) and cognitive skills (Mini Mental State Examination, verbal memory free recall, speed processing) and cerebral perfusion were observed. hf-rTMS can be used in LPPA patients. A procognitive effect persisting several weeks after stimulation in LPPA patients was suggested and should therefore be evaluated in a clinical trial as an adjunctive therapeutic tool.
The vast majority of people experience musical imagery, the sensation of reliving a song in absen... more The vast majority of people experience musical imagery, the sensation of reliving a song in absence of any external stimulation. Internal perception of a song can be deliberate and effortful, but also may occur involuntarily and spontaneously. Moreover, musical imagery is also involuntarily used for automatically completing missing parts of music or lyrics from a familiar song. The aim of our study was to explore the onset of musical imagery dynamics that leads to the automatic completion of missing lyrics. High-density electroencephalography was used to record the cerebral activity of twenty healthy volunteers while they were passively listening to unfamiliar songs, very familiar songs, and songs previously listened to for two weeks. Silent gaps inserted into these songs elicited a series of neural activations encompassing perceptual, attentional and cognitive mechanisms (range 100-500ms). Familiarity and learning effects emerged as early as 100ms and lasted 400ms after silence occurred. Although participants reported more easily mentally imagining lyrics in familiar rather than passively learnt songs, the onset of neural mechanisms and the power spectrum underlying musical imagery were similar for both types of songs. This study offers new insights into the musical imagery dynamics evoked by gaps of silence and on the role of familiarity and learning processes in the generation of these dynamics. The automatic and effortless method presented here is a potentially useful tool to understand failure in the familiarity and learning processes of pathological populations.
Exposure to pollutant or toxic substances is known to induce adverse health effects but few studi... more Exposure to pollutant or toxic substances is known to induce adverse health effects but few studies have been devoted to study the impact on olfactory functioning although neuroreceptors in the nasal cavity are directly in contact with volatile molecules. Thus, this work was designed to evaluate in mice the potential modifications of the olfactory functioning during (1 month) and after (1 month) a prolonged toluene exposure at both sensitive/perceptive and cellular levels. Mice were exposed to 1000ppm of toluene for 5h/day, 5days/week for 4 weeks. Firstly, behavioral evaluation (T-maze test) to toluene sensitivity showed a constant decrease during all the 4 weeks of exposure (W1-W4) which continued during 2 weeks after the exposure (W5, W6). In contrast, during the last 2 weeks of the experiment (W7, W8), the sensitivity of mice to toluene went back to normal. Secondly, structural modifications, i.e. density of cells and thickness of olfactory epithelium were observed soon after the outset of exposure. The number of cells did not change at the beginning of exposure (W1, W2), decreased markedly later (W3, W4), increased significantly the first week of the recovery period (W5) and stayed stable during the following weeks (W6-W8). Concerning the thickness of neuroepithelium, the results at W1 showed a decrease followed by an increase suggesting an inflammatory process (W2, W3). In contrast, the results of W4 revealed an abrupt decrease of the thickness whereas the return to normal arose immediately at the outset of recovery period.
Chemical irritation in the human nasal cavity is poorly documented. In this field, an important i... more Chemical irritation in the human nasal cavity is poorly documented. In this field, an important issue concerns the differential responses produced by successive stimulation. Repeated identical chemical irritant stimuli can produce increases or decreases in responses (two phenomena known as self-sensitization or self-desensitization). In the same way, different molecules can interact and produce cross-sensitization or cross-desensitization. The aim of this study was to contribute to this question using two specific molecules, acetic acid (AA) and allyl isothiocyanate (AIC). As the self-sensitization and -desensitization for AIC is known, a first experiment in the present work investigated the response, acute effects and time course of sensitization or desensitization to acetic acid. A second experiment tested the responses of acetic acid after a previous stimulation with allyl isothiocyanate (mustard oil) and inversely with a short inter-stimulus interval (ISI of 45 s). A third exper...
Unconscious odor detection has been demonstrated but the mechanisms implied in this process have ... more Unconscious odor detection has been demonstrated but the mechanisms implied in this process have been poorly studied. In so far, most odorants activate both olfactory and trigeminal systems, it is relevant to explore how each system could be involved in the unconscious detection processes. This study used three methods to determine the detection thresholds for three odorants. The results showed
Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, Jan 5, 2014
This double-blind, sham-controlled trial investigated the effects of two daily tDCS sessions over... more This double-blind, sham-controlled trial investigated the effects of two daily tDCS sessions over a 5-day period in treatment-resistant depression. Twenty-four treatment-resistant depressed patients received two daily sessions of active or sham anodal tDCS to the left prefrontal cortex (2mA, 10 sessions over 1week). Depression severity, psychomotor retardation and cognitive function were assessed. Active tDCS was not significantly superior to sham tDCS on the HDRS at week 4, as well as on the MADRS and SRRS scales, and on neuropsychological tests. Response rates were not significantly higher with active tDCS. tDCS was well tolerated, with mild adverse events limited to transient scalp discomfort. tDCS did not induce clinically relevant antidepressant effect in active and sham stimulation groups. There was no impact on psychomotor and neuropsychological functioning. tDCS efficacy on specific symptom profiles in pharmacotherapy-resistant depression is limited. The use of optimized sti...
ABSTRACT La maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) est la plus fréquente des formes de démences dégénératives. ... more ABSTRACT La maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) est la plus fréquente des formes de démences dégénératives. Il existe actuellement différentes pistes thérapeutiques dont les traitements médicamenteux spécifiques utilisés pour ralentir la progression de la maladie. Ces médicaments ont démontré un effet symptomatique sur certains symptômes cognitifs et non cognitifs de la MA à court terme, mais les effets sur l’amélioration des fonctions cognitives ne sont que limités. Dans ce contexte, d’autres méthodes thérapeutiques sont actuellement en cours d’étude. Parmi celles-ci, la stimulation magnétique transcrânienne répétée (rTMS) pourrait se révéler intéressante. En effet, le traitement par la rTMS de patients souffrants de dépression ou atteints de la maladie de Parkinson montre une capacité à améliorer certaines fonctions cognitives. Dans la MA, les études sont rares et centrées sur l’évaluation ciblée de certaines fonctions cognitives. À l’heure actuelle, deux études de Cotelli et al. ont montré un effet favorable de la rTMS haute fréquence délivrée au cortex préfrontal dorsolatéral (CPFDL) droit ou gauche de patients atteints de MA lors d’une tâche cognitive, à savoir une tâche de dénomination d’une image représentant une action ou un objet. Aucune étude ne s’est encore intéressée à l’effet de la rTMS à long terme. Les auteurs présentent la revue de la littérature sur l’impact cognitif de la rTMS en illustrant leurs propos avec les premiers résultats d’une étude évaluant l’effet de la technique sur la cognition des patients atteints de MA. La stimulation magnétique transcrânienne semble une piste thérapeutique prometteuse dans la prise en charge de cette pathologie. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. Specific medications have demonstrated a symptomatic effect on some cognitive and noncognitive symptoms, but these effects remain limited. In this context, other therapeutic fields have to be studied. Among those, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) could represent a new approach. Cognitive effects of rTMS in patients with depression and Parkinson’s disease have been reported. A few studies have dealt specifically with the effects of rTMS on the cognitive ability of AD patients. These studies highlighted a positive effect of high-frequency rTMS applied on the right or left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in patients with probable AD during a naming task of an image representing an action or an object. We present a review of major cognitive effects of rTMS and report the effects of the use of this noninvasive procedure (rTMS) on the cognitive symptoms of an AD patient. To conclude, rTMS could be used as therapy, but a specific protocol for AD should be determined. Mots clésStimulation magnétique–Maladie d’Alzheimer–Fonctions cognitives KeywordsMagnetic stimulation–Alzheimer’s disease–Cognitive function
BackgroundThe prevention of the repetition of suicide attempts is an important feature of the car... more BackgroundThe prevention of the repetition of suicide attempts is an important feature of the care of attempters but current data fail to give actual predictors of repetition. The aim of this study was to characterize sociodemographic and psychopathological features and risk factors associated with future repetition of suicide attempts in two years. The study focused on differences between men and
The ability to develop successful long-term strategies in uncertain situations relies on complex ... more The ability to develop successful long-term strategies in uncertain situations relies on complex neural mechanisms. Although lesion studies have shown some of the mechanisms involved, it is still unknown why some healthy subjects are able to make the right decision whereas others are not. The aim of our study was to investigate neurophysiological differences underlying this ability to develop a successful strategy in a group of healthy subjects playing a monetary card game called the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). In this task, subjects have to win and earn money by choosing between four decks of cards, two were advantageous in the long term and two disadvantageous. Twenty healthy right-handed subjects performed the IGT while their cerebral activity was recorded by electroencephalography. Based on their behavioral performances, two groups of subjects could clearly be distinguished: one who selected the good decks and thus succeeded in developing a Favorable strategy (9 subjects) and one who remained Undecided (11 subjects). No neural difference was found between each group before the selection of a deck, but in both groups a greater negativity was found emerging from the right superior frontal gyrus 600 ms before a disadvantageous selection. During the processing of the feedback, an attenuation of the P200 and P300 waveforms was found for the Undecided group, and a P300 originating from the medial frontal gyrus was found in response to a loss only in the Favorable group. Our results suggest that undecided subjects are hyposensitive to the valence of the cards during gambling, which affects the feedback processing.
Emotional pictures are commonly used as visual stimuli in a number of research fields. Choosing r... more Emotional pictures are commonly used as visual stimuli in a number of research fields. Choosing relevant visual stimuli to induce emotion is fundamental in attachment and affective research. Attachment theory provides a theoretical basis for the understanding of emotional and relational problems, and is especially related to two specific emotions: distress and comfort. The lack of normalized visual stimuli soliciting these attachment-related emotions has led us to create and validate a new photographic database: the Besançon Affective Picture Set-Adolescents. This novel stimulus set is composed of 93 photographs, divided into four categories: distress, comfort, joy-complicity and neutral. A group of 140 adolescents rated the pictures with the Self-Assessment Manikin system, yielding three dimensions: valence, emotional arousal, and dominance. The pictures were also assessed, using a continuous scale, for different emotions (distress, hate, horror, comfort, complicity and joy). The ANOVAs for arousal and the Kruskal-Wallis tests for valence and dominance showed strong effects for category. However, for comfort and complicity, the dimensions of valence and dominance were not significantly different, while results for arousal showed no significant difference between complicity and distress. Our study provides a tool that allows researchers to select visual stimuli to investigate attachment-related emotion processing in adolescence. (M. Szymanska). Please cite this article as: Szymanska, M., et al., The Besançon Affective Picture Set-Adolescents (the BAPS-Ado): Development and validation. Psychiatry Research (2015), http://dx.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are a very popular and enjoyable leisur... more Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are a very popular and enjoyable leisure activity, and there is a lack of international validated instruments to assess excessive gaming. With the growing number of gamers worldwide, adverse effects (isolation, hospitalizations, excessive use, etc.) are observed in a minority of gamers, which is a concern for society and for the scientific community. In the present study, we focused on screening gamers at potential risk of MMORPG addiction. In this exploratory study, we focused on characteristics, online habits and problematic overuse in adult MMORPG gamers. In addition to socio-demographical data and gamer behavioral patterns, 3 different instruments for screening addiction were used in French MMORPG gamers recruited online over 10 consecutive months: the substance dependence criteria for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, fourth revised edition (DSM-IV-TR) that has been adapted for MMORPG (DAS), the q...
International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 2018
One of the most basic and person-specific affective responses to music is liking. The present inv... more One of the most basic and person-specific affective responses to music is liking. The present investigation sought to determine whether liking was preserved during spontaneous auditory imagery. To this purpose, we inserted two-second silent intervals into liked and disliked songs, a method known to automatically recreate a mental image of these songs. Neural correlates of musical preference were measured by high-density electroencephalography in twenty subjects who had to listen to a set of five pre-selected unknown songs the same number of times for two weeks. Time frequency analysis of the two most liked and the two most disliked songs confirmed the presence of neural responses related to liking. At the beginning of silent intervals (400-900 ms and 1000-1300 ms), significant differences in theta activity were originating from the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyrus. These two brain structures are known to work together to process various aspects of music and are also acti...
Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists, Jan 19, 2017
Several studies have demonstrated saccadic eye movement (SEM) abnormalities in Alzheimer's di... more Several studies have demonstrated saccadic eye movement (SEM) abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease (AD) when patients performed prosaccade (PS) and antisaccade (AS) tasks. Some studies have also showed that SEM abnormalities were correlated with dementia rating tests such as the Mini Mental State Evaluation (MMSE). Therefore, it has been suggested that SEMs could provide useful information for diagnosis. However, little is known about predictive saccades (PreS)-saccades triggered before or very quickly after stimuli appearance-and their relationships with cognition in AD. Here, we aimed to examine the relationships between our usual dementia screening tests and SEM parameters in PS, AS, and also PreS task. We compared SEMs in 20 patients suffering from AD and in 35 healthy older adults (OA) in PS, AS, and PreS task. All participants also completed a neuropsychological evaluation. We showed that AD patients had higher latency and latency variability regardless the tasks, and also...
Emotional dysregulation and impaired attachment are potential contributors to the development of ... more Emotional dysregulation and impaired attachment are potential contributors to the development of psychopathology in adolescence. This raises the question of whether oxytocin (OT), the paradigmatic "attachment hormone," may be beneficial in such contexts. Recent evidence suggests that intranasal administration of OT increases affiliative behavior, including trust and empathy. OT may also facilitate social reciprocity by attenuating the stress response to interpersonal conflict. To date, few studies have investigated the effects of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) on neurophysiological emotion regulation strategies in healthy adolescents, particularly during parent-adolescent interaction. To understand these mechanisms, our study will examine the effects of IN-OT on emotion regulation in adolescents during parent-adolescent stressful interactions, and on each adolescent's visual and neurophysiological strategies when visualizing attachment-related pictures. We hypothesize that IN-OT will influence psychophysiological outcomes under conditions of stress. We predict that IN-OT will momentarily increase feelings of safety and attenuate stress and hostile behavior during conflict situations. OT may also enhance attachment security by increasing comfort and proximity-seeking, and reducing neurophysiological hyperactivation. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of IN-OT on insecure adolescents by studying their behavior and discourse during a disagreement with one of their parents. Their neurophysiological responses to pictures eliciting attachment-related emotions and their visual exploration strategies will also be investigated. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel-group design, 60 healthy male adolescents classified as insecurely attached will receive 24 international units (IU) of IN-OT versus placebo (PB), 45 minutes before the experimental tasks. Each adolescent will then be invited to engage in an experimental conflict discussion with one of his parents. The conflict session will be videotaped and coded for verbal and non-verbal interaction behavior, using the Goal-Corrected Partnership in Adolescence Coding System (GPACS). Each adolescent will then be asked to visualize attachment-related pictures on a screen. Eye-tracking (ET) and neurophysiological responses, including electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR), will be recorded simultaneously and continuously during attachment-related picture viewing (Besançon Affective Picture Set-Adolescents, BAPS-Ado). Enrollment for the study was completed in May 2016. Data analysis commenced in July 2016. Study results will be submitted for publication in the winter of 2017. OT is a complex molecule with many facets that are not yet fully understood. This experimental protocol will increase scientific and clinical knowledge of emotion regulation skills in insecure adolescents by assessing the impact of IN-OT on parent-adolescent interaction and on the visual processing of attachment-related emotions. Positive results could lead to therapeutic uses of IN-OT to treat emotion dysregulation in adolescence.
High frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (hf-rTMS) improves language skills in... more High frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (hf-rTMS) improves language skills in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We report the use of hf-rTMS in a patient with logopenic primary progressive aphasia (LPPA) due to AD. hf-rTMS was applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of a LPPA patient. Cerebral perfusion, neuropsychological and linguistic performances were evaluated before and 1 month after hf-rTMS. The tolerance was good. Improvements on linguistic (fluency, naming, lesser paraphasia) and cognitive skills (Mini Mental State Examination, verbal memory free recall, speed processing) and cerebral perfusion were observed. hf-rTMS can be used in LPPA patients. A procognitive effect persisting several weeks after stimulation in LPPA patients was suggested and should therefore be evaluated in a clinical trial as an adjunctive therapeutic tool.
The vast majority of people experience musical imagery, the sensation of reliving a song in absen... more The vast majority of people experience musical imagery, the sensation of reliving a song in absence of any external stimulation. Internal perception of a song can be deliberate and effortful, but also may occur involuntarily and spontaneously. Moreover, musical imagery is also involuntarily used for automatically completing missing parts of music or lyrics from a familiar song. The aim of our study was to explore the onset of musical imagery dynamics that leads to the automatic completion of missing lyrics. High-density electroencephalography was used to record the cerebral activity of twenty healthy volunteers while they were passively listening to unfamiliar songs, very familiar songs, and songs previously listened to for two weeks. Silent gaps inserted into these songs elicited a series of neural activations encompassing perceptual, attentional and cognitive mechanisms (range 100-500ms). Familiarity and learning effects emerged as early as 100ms and lasted 400ms after silence occurred. Although participants reported more easily mentally imagining lyrics in familiar rather than passively learnt songs, the onset of neural mechanisms and the power spectrum underlying musical imagery were similar for both types of songs. This study offers new insights into the musical imagery dynamics evoked by gaps of silence and on the role of familiarity and learning processes in the generation of these dynamics. The automatic and effortless method presented here is a potentially useful tool to understand failure in the familiarity and learning processes of pathological populations.
Exposure to pollutant or toxic substances is known to induce adverse health effects but few studi... more Exposure to pollutant or toxic substances is known to induce adverse health effects but few studies have been devoted to study the impact on olfactory functioning although neuroreceptors in the nasal cavity are directly in contact with volatile molecules. Thus, this work was designed to evaluate in mice the potential modifications of the olfactory functioning during (1 month) and after (1 month) a prolonged toluene exposure at both sensitive/perceptive and cellular levels. Mice were exposed to 1000ppm of toluene for 5h/day, 5days/week for 4 weeks. Firstly, behavioral evaluation (T-maze test) to toluene sensitivity showed a constant decrease during all the 4 weeks of exposure (W1-W4) which continued during 2 weeks after the exposure (W5, W6). In contrast, during the last 2 weeks of the experiment (W7, W8), the sensitivity of mice to toluene went back to normal. Secondly, structural modifications, i.e. density of cells and thickness of olfactory epithelium were observed soon after the outset of exposure. The number of cells did not change at the beginning of exposure (W1, W2), decreased markedly later (W3, W4), increased significantly the first week of the recovery period (W5) and stayed stable during the following weeks (W6-W8). Concerning the thickness of neuroepithelium, the results at W1 showed a decrease followed by an increase suggesting an inflammatory process (W2, W3). In contrast, the results of W4 revealed an abrupt decrease of the thickness whereas the return to normal arose immediately at the outset of recovery period.
Chemical irritation in the human nasal cavity is poorly documented. In this field, an important i... more Chemical irritation in the human nasal cavity is poorly documented. In this field, an important issue concerns the differential responses produced by successive stimulation. Repeated identical chemical irritant stimuli can produce increases or decreases in responses (two phenomena known as self-sensitization or self-desensitization). In the same way, different molecules can interact and produce cross-sensitization or cross-desensitization. The aim of this study was to contribute to this question using two specific molecules, acetic acid (AA) and allyl isothiocyanate (AIC). As the self-sensitization and -desensitization for AIC is known, a first experiment in the present work investigated the response, acute effects and time course of sensitization or desensitization to acetic acid. A second experiment tested the responses of acetic acid after a previous stimulation with allyl isothiocyanate (mustard oil) and inversely with a short inter-stimulus interval (ISI of 45 s). A third exper...
Unconscious odor detection has been demonstrated but the mechanisms implied in this process have ... more Unconscious odor detection has been demonstrated but the mechanisms implied in this process have been poorly studied. In so far, most odorants activate both olfactory and trigeminal systems, it is relevant to explore how each system could be involved in the unconscious detection processes. This study used three methods to determine the detection thresholds for three odorants. The results showed
Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, Jan 5, 2014
This double-blind, sham-controlled trial investigated the effects of two daily tDCS sessions over... more This double-blind, sham-controlled trial investigated the effects of two daily tDCS sessions over a 5-day period in treatment-resistant depression. Twenty-four treatment-resistant depressed patients received two daily sessions of active or sham anodal tDCS to the left prefrontal cortex (2mA, 10 sessions over 1week). Depression severity, psychomotor retardation and cognitive function were assessed. Active tDCS was not significantly superior to sham tDCS on the HDRS at week 4, as well as on the MADRS and SRRS scales, and on neuropsychological tests. Response rates were not significantly higher with active tDCS. tDCS was well tolerated, with mild adverse events limited to transient scalp discomfort. tDCS did not induce clinically relevant antidepressant effect in active and sham stimulation groups. There was no impact on psychomotor and neuropsychological functioning. tDCS efficacy on specific symptom profiles in pharmacotherapy-resistant depression is limited. The use of optimized sti...
ABSTRACT La maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) est la plus fréquente des formes de démences dégénératives. ... more ABSTRACT La maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) est la plus fréquente des formes de démences dégénératives. Il existe actuellement différentes pistes thérapeutiques dont les traitements médicamenteux spécifiques utilisés pour ralentir la progression de la maladie. Ces médicaments ont démontré un effet symptomatique sur certains symptômes cognitifs et non cognitifs de la MA à court terme, mais les effets sur l’amélioration des fonctions cognitives ne sont que limités. Dans ce contexte, d’autres méthodes thérapeutiques sont actuellement en cours d’étude. Parmi celles-ci, la stimulation magnétique transcrânienne répétée (rTMS) pourrait se révéler intéressante. En effet, le traitement par la rTMS de patients souffrants de dépression ou atteints de la maladie de Parkinson montre une capacité à améliorer certaines fonctions cognitives. Dans la MA, les études sont rares et centrées sur l’évaluation ciblée de certaines fonctions cognitives. À l’heure actuelle, deux études de Cotelli et al. ont montré un effet favorable de la rTMS haute fréquence délivrée au cortex préfrontal dorsolatéral (CPFDL) droit ou gauche de patients atteints de MA lors d’une tâche cognitive, à savoir une tâche de dénomination d’une image représentant une action ou un objet. Aucune étude ne s’est encore intéressée à l’effet de la rTMS à long terme. Les auteurs présentent la revue de la littérature sur l’impact cognitif de la rTMS en illustrant leurs propos avec les premiers résultats d’une étude évaluant l’effet de la technique sur la cognition des patients atteints de MA. La stimulation magnétique transcrânienne semble une piste thérapeutique prometteuse dans la prise en charge de cette pathologie. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. Specific medications have demonstrated a symptomatic effect on some cognitive and noncognitive symptoms, but these effects remain limited. In this context, other therapeutic fields have to be studied. Among those, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) could represent a new approach. Cognitive effects of rTMS in patients with depression and Parkinson’s disease have been reported. A few studies have dealt specifically with the effects of rTMS on the cognitive ability of AD patients. These studies highlighted a positive effect of high-frequency rTMS applied on the right or left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in patients with probable AD during a naming task of an image representing an action or an object. We present a review of major cognitive effects of rTMS and report the effects of the use of this noninvasive procedure (rTMS) on the cognitive symptoms of an AD patient. To conclude, rTMS could be used as therapy, but a specific protocol for AD should be determined. Mots clésStimulation magnétique–Maladie d’Alzheimer–Fonctions cognitives KeywordsMagnetic stimulation–Alzheimer’s disease–Cognitive function
BackgroundThe prevention of the repetition of suicide attempts is an important feature of the car... more BackgroundThe prevention of the repetition of suicide attempts is an important feature of the care of attempters but current data fail to give actual predictors of repetition. The aim of this study was to characterize sociodemographic and psychopathological features and risk factors associated with future repetition of suicide attempts in two years. The study focused on differences between men and
The ability to develop successful long-term strategies in uncertain situations relies on complex ... more The ability to develop successful long-term strategies in uncertain situations relies on complex neural mechanisms. Although lesion studies have shown some of the mechanisms involved, it is still unknown why some healthy subjects are able to make the right decision whereas others are not. The aim of our study was to investigate neurophysiological differences underlying this ability to develop a successful strategy in a group of healthy subjects playing a monetary card game called the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). In this task, subjects have to win and earn money by choosing between four decks of cards, two were advantageous in the long term and two disadvantageous. Twenty healthy right-handed subjects performed the IGT while their cerebral activity was recorded by electroencephalography. Based on their behavioral performances, two groups of subjects could clearly be distinguished: one who selected the good decks and thus succeeded in developing a Favorable strategy (9 subjects) and one who remained Undecided (11 subjects). No neural difference was found between each group before the selection of a deck, but in both groups a greater negativity was found emerging from the right superior frontal gyrus 600 ms before a disadvantageous selection. During the processing of the feedback, an attenuation of the P200 and P300 waveforms was found for the Undecided group, and a P300 originating from the medial frontal gyrus was found in response to a loss only in the Favorable group. Our results suggest that undecided subjects are hyposensitive to the valence of the cards during gambling, which affects the feedback processing.
Emotional pictures are commonly used as visual stimuli in a number of research fields. Choosing r... more Emotional pictures are commonly used as visual stimuli in a number of research fields. Choosing relevant visual stimuli to induce emotion is fundamental in attachment and affective research. Attachment theory provides a theoretical basis for the understanding of emotional and relational problems, and is especially related to two specific emotions: distress and comfort. The lack of normalized visual stimuli soliciting these attachment-related emotions has led us to create and validate a new photographic database: the Besançon Affective Picture Set-Adolescents. This novel stimulus set is composed of 93 photographs, divided into four categories: distress, comfort, joy-complicity and neutral. A group of 140 adolescents rated the pictures with the Self-Assessment Manikin system, yielding three dimensions: valence, emotional arousal, and dominance. The pictures were also assessed, using a continuous scale, for different emotions (distress, hate, horror, comfort, complicity and joy). The ANOVAs for arousal and the Kruskal-Wallis tests for valence and dominance showed strong effects for category. However, for comfort and complicity, the dimensions of valence and dominance were not significantly different, while results for arousal showed no significant difference between complicity and distress. Our study provides a tool that allows researchers to select visual stimuli to investigate attachment-related emotion processing in adolescence. (M. Szymanska). Please cite this article as: Szymanska, M., et al., The Besançon Affective Picture Set-Adolescents (the BAPS-Ado): Development and validation. Psychiatry Research (2015), http://dx.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are a very popular and enjoyable leisur... more Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are a very popular and enjoyable leisure activity, and there is a lack of international validated instruments to assess excessive gaming. With the growing number of gamers worldwide, adverse effects (isolation, hospitalizations, excessive use, etc.) are observed in a minority of gamers, which is a concern for society and for the scientific community. In the present study, we focused on screening gamers at potential risk of MMORPG addiction. In this exploratory study, we focused on characteristics, online habits and problematic overuse in adult MMORPG gamers. In addition to socio-demographical data and gamer behavioral patterns, 3 different instruments for screening addiction were used in French MMORPG gamers recruited online over 10 consecutive months: the substance dependence criteria for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, fourth revised edition (DSM-IV-TR) that has been adapted for MMORPG (DAS), the q...
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Papers by Julie Monnin