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In the current study, the role of pre-ejection period (PEP) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was studied in the association between prior adversities and antisocial behavior in adolescence. PEP and RSA task reactivity and recovery to a public speaking task were assessed in adolescents from a longitudinal population-based study ( N = 624, M age = 16.14 years, 49.2% boys). Perinatal adversities were unrelated to antisocial behavior, but experiencing more stressful adversities between age 0 and 15 was associated with antisocial behavior at age 16 in boys with blunted PEP reactivity and smaller PEP differences from rest to recovery. Number of adversities between age 0 and 15 was associated with antisocial behavior in boys with blunted and girls with heightened RSA reactivity and larger PEP differences from rest to recovery. The association between prior adversities and antisocial behavior were small in effect size and depended upon sex and PEP and RSA reactivity and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Stroop-task related brain activity did not differ significantly between groups. • Activation in exposed group was closer to activation in older control group. • Task-related connectivity was similar across groups. • Results may reflect general brain aging and effects of prenatal famine exposure. • Research on prenatal famine may clarify its impact on late-life brain health. Poorer performance on the Stroop task has been reported after prenatal famine exposure at age 58, potentially indicating cognitive decline. We investigated whether brain activation during Stroop task performance at age 74 differed between individuals exposed to famine prenatally, individuals born before and individuals conceived after the famine. In the Dutch famine birth cohort, we performed a Stroop task fMRI study of individuals exposed (n = 22) or unexposed (born before (n = 18) or conceived after (n = 25)) to famine in early gestation. We studied group differences in task-related mean activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC). Additionally, we explored potential disconnectivity of the DLPFC using psychophysiological interaction analysis. We observed similar activation patterns in the DLPFC, ACC and PPC in individuals born before and individuals exposed to famine, while individuals conceived after famine had generally higher activation patterns. However, activation patterns were not significantly different between groups. Task-related decreases in connectivity were observed between left DLPFC-left PPC and right DLPFC-right PPC, but were not significantly different between groups. Although not statistically significant, the observed patterns of activation may reflect a combined effect of general brain aging and prenatal famine exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Cerebellar circuits are hypothesized to play a central role in the pathogenesis of essential tremor. Rhythmic finger tapping is known to strongly engage the cerebellar motor circuitry. We characterize cerebellar and, more specifically, dentate nucleus function, and neural correlates of cerebellar output in essential tremor during rhythmic finger tapping employing functional MRI. Methods Thirty-one propranolol-sensitive essential tremor patients with upper limb tremor and 29 healthy controls were measured. T2*-weighted EPI sequences were acquired. The task consisted of alternating rest and finger tapping blocks. A whole-brain and region-of-interest analysis was performed, the latter focusing on the cerebellar cortex, dentate nucleus and inferior olive nucleus. Activations were also related to tremor severity. Results In patients, dentate activation correlated positively with tremor severity as measured by the tremor rating scale part A. Patients had reduced activation in widespread cerebellar cortical regions, and additionally in the inferior olive nucleus, and parietal and frontal cortex, compared to controls. Conclusion The increase in dentate activation with tremor severity supports involvement of the dentate nucleus in essential tremor. Cortical and cerebellar changes during a motor timing task in essential tremor might point to widespread changes in cerebellar output in essential tremor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to examine brain activation patterns during verbal fluency performance in patients with progressive muscular atrophy (PMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response during letter and category fluency performance in 18 PMA patients, 21 ALS patients and 17 healthy control subjects, matched for age and education. fMRI results are reported at p < .05, Family Wise Error (FWE) corrected for multiple comparisons. We analyzed effects of performance, age related white matter changes (ARWMC) and regional brain volumes; all participants underwent neuropsychological investigation. Disease duration of patients with PMA (mean 26.0 months, SD 13.6) and ALS (22.2; SD 11.4) were comparable. PMA and ALS patients had mild to moderate disease severity and showed impaired letter fluency compared to controls. Between group analysis showed a main effect of group in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, Brodmann area 45) during letter fluency which was unaffected by performance, ARWMC and IFG volume: PMA patients showed lower activation than controls but higher than that of ALS patients (ALS < PMA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]