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Objective: Investigation of deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a last-resort treatment alternative to capsulotomy in treatment-refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Method: Prospective single-case based design with evaluation of DBS impact on emotions, behaviour, personality traits and executive function in three patients with OCD. Results: Two patients experienced sustained improvement of OCD symptoms with DBS. Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) dropped 12 points and 23 points to baseline and Y-BOCS self-rating scale (Y-BOCS-SRS) and Profile of Mood States (POMS) for depression and tension decreased with increasing stimulation amplitude. Total Maladjustment Score on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale reduced with 44 and 59% to baseline. Reduction in psychopathology was sustained under continuous stimulation. No deleterious impact of DBS on neuropsychological testing or personality traits measured on a self-rated personality inventory was detected. Conclusion: These preliminary findings demonstrate that DBS may have important therapeutic benefits on psychopathology in OCD. No harmful side-effects were detected during follow-up (33/33/39 months, respectively)

Behaviour. --- Brain. --- Depression. --- Design. --- Disorder. --- Emotion. --- Function. --- Investigation. --- Method. --- Mood. --- Obsessive-compulsive disorder. --- Obsessive-compulsive. --- Ocd. --- Personality. --- Psychopathology. --- Reduction. --- Stimulation. --- Treatment.

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The present study evaluated whether environmental enrichment-related effects on the development of stereotyped behavior in deer mice were associated with alterations in neurotrophin levels. Deer mice were reared in enriched or standard cage conditions for 60 days. The mice were then tested in automated photocell detectors and classified as either stereotypic or nonstereotypic. This testing paradigm yielded four behaviorally distinct groups: enriched stereotypic, enriched nonstereotypic, standard cage stereotypic, and standard cage nonstereotypic. The motor cortex, striatum, and hippocampus were dissected, and the levels of brain-derived neurotrophin factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor (NGF) in each brain region were analyzed using Promega ELISA kits. There were no differences in either NGF or BDNF in either the motor cortex or the hippocampus. In the striatum, the enriched nonstereotypic mice exhibited significantly more BDNF than the enriched stereotypic, the standard cage nonstereotypic, or the standard cage stereotypic mice. There were no differences in NGF in the striatum. These results provide evidence that the enrichment-related prevention of stereotyped behavior in deer mice is associated with increased BDNF in the striatum. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Bank voles. --- Behavior. --- Brain. --- Cage. --- Complex environment. --- Cortex. --- Deer mice,stereotypy,enriched,ngf,bdnf,elisa. --- Deer mice. --- Deer. --- Development. --- Elisa. --- Enriched. --- Enrichment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Frontal-cortex. --- Group. --- Growth. --- Hippocampus. --- Induced jumping stereotypy. --- Laboratory mice. --- Level. --- Mental-retardation. --- Messenger-rna. --- Mice. --- Ngf. --- Prevention. --- Rat-brain. --- Sex-differences. --- Stereotyped behavior. --- Stereotypic. --- Striatum.

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Post-weaning social isolation of rats produces psychological and physiological changes that are relevant to schizophrenia. Here, we report that long-term potentiation (LTP) in the CA1 to subiculum pathway is lower by 34%, (P<0.0001) in brain slices from isolates compared with those from socially housed rats. We also report that LTP in this pathway is NMDA receptor-dependent. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Abnormalities. --- Acoustic startle. --- Brain. --- Ca1. --- Cognitive impairment. --- Expression. --- Hippocampal-formation. --- Isolation. --- Long-term potentiation. --- Long-term. --- Ltp. --- Nmda receptor. --- Nucleus-accumbens. --- Physiological. --- Post weaning. --- Potentiation. --- Prepulse inhibition. --- Projections. --- Rat. --- Rats. --- Schizophrenia. --- Slices. --- Social isolation. --- Social-isolation. --- Social. --- Subfields. --- Subiculum. --- Time.

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Central administration of 15 ng interleukin (IL)-1 in the rat significantly enhanced conditioned fear memory assessed by a passive avoidance task, when retested at 24 and 48 h post-training. Pain threshold was unaffected by 15 ng IL-1 administration. IL-1 treatment also increased serum corticosterone. This increase in serum corticosterone was further enhanced in rats given both IL-1 and footshock. Furthermore, the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist mifepristone blocked IL-1-induced elevation in corticosterone and also attenuated the enhanced conditioned fear memory. Central administration of IL-1 significantly increased prostaglandin E2 and decreased the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 release from whole blood cultures; therefore this treatment appears to be effective in inducing an inflammatory response in both the periphery and the brain. The present study confirms that IL-1 can enhance conditioned fear memory, an effect which is correlated with changes in glucocorticoid function. This facilitation of defensive behaviour could reflect adaptive responses which may enhance survival during sickness.

Avoidance. --- Behaviour. --- Blood. --- Brain. --- Conditioned fear. --- Corticosterone. --- Cultures. --- Defensive. --- Fear. --- Function. --- Glucocorticoid. --- Glucocorticoids. --- Increase. --- Involvement. --- Memory. --- Pain. --- Passive avoidance. --- Prostaglandin. --- Rat. --- Rats. --- Receptor antagonist. --- Receptor. --- Release. --- Response. --- Responses. --- Serum. --- Survival. --- Task. --- Treatment.

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The mesocortical and mesolimbic dopaminergic (DAergic) pathways are activated by either aversive or rewarding stimuli. The functional tone of these DAergic neurons also increases during the execution of cognitive tasks. The present study was designed to examine the relationship between mesocortical and mesolimbic DAergic function and the expression of fear-related behaviours as compared with attention- and cognition-related mechanisms (e.g. coping strategies), in response to aversive conditions. To this aim, we used two psychogenetically selected rat lines, Roman high-avoidance (RHA/Verh) and Roman low-avoidance (RLA/Verh), which display drastically different emotion- and coping-related behaviours in response to stressors: RLA/Verh rats are 'reactive copers' and more fearful than RHA/Verh rats, which are 'proactive copers'. Brain dialysis experiments demonstrated that tail-pinch (TP) and the anxiogenic compounds pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) and ZK 93426 increased DA output in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFCX) of RHA/Verh but not RLA/Verh, rats. In contrast, in the shell compartment of the nucleus accumbens (NAC shell), TP caused a small increase in DA output only in RLA/Verh rats, whereas PTZ and ZK 93426 had no significant effect on either line. RHA/Verh rats displayed more robust and longer lasting coping activity and less frequent freezing and self-grooming episodes than did RLA/Verh rats after TP, PTZ or ZK 93426. This dissociation between fear-related behaviour and cortical DAergic activation argues against the view that the latter may be involved in the control of fear-like responses. We therefore propose that the activation of mesocortical DAergic projections by aversive stimuli underlies the cognitive mechanisms that are triggered in an attempt to gain control over the stressor.

Accumbens. --- Activation. --- Activity. --- Attention. --- Behaviour. --- Brain. --- Control. --- Coping strategies. --- Coping strategy. --- Coping. --- Cortex. --- Dopamine. --- Emotion. --- Experiment. --- Experiments. --- Expression. --- Function. --- Increase. --- Increases. --- Mechanisms. --- Medial prefrontal cortex. --- Neurons. --- Nucleus accumbens. --- Nucleus-accumbens. --- Nucleus. --- Pentylenetetrazol. --- Prefrontal cortex. --- Projections. --- Rat. --- Rats. --- Release. --- Response. --- Responses. --- Roman high-avoidance. --- Stimuli. --- Strategies. --- Strategy. --- Stressor. --- Stressors. --- Task. --- Tasks.