Review
Psychology
Nicola Mckern, Nicole Dargue, Naomi Sweller
Summary: This systematic review and meta-analysis examined differences in gesture frequency between autistic and neurotypical individuals. The results showed that autistic individuals produced significantly fewer total, deictic, and emblematic gestures compared to neurotypical individuals. However, the findings regarding iconic gestures were inconclusive. Factors such as measurement methods, age, observer familiarity, and task structure influenced the effect sizes. These findings have implications for profiling gesture use in diagnostic assessments for autism and highlight gaps in our understanding of differences in gesture production in autism.
PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Immunology
Ellen Ji, Danny Boerrigter, Helen Q. Cai, David Lloyd, Jason Bruggemann, Maryanne O'Donnell, Cherrie Galletly, Andrew Lloyd, Dennis Liu, Rhoshel Lenroot, Thomas W. Weickert, Cynthia Shannon Weickert
Summary: This study found that levels of complement factors, receptors, and regulators are significantly increased in patients with schizophrenia. Higher peripheral inflammation index scores are associated with reduced cortical thickness in the temporal lobe. These findings suggest that aberrant complement levels may play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND IMMUNITY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Laura Kanto, Minna Laakso, Kerttu Huttunen
Summary: This study compared the frequency of pointing in interactions between children with deaf parents and children with hearing parents. The frequency of pointing was significantly higher in interactions between deaf parents and children. This suggests that pointing is a fundamental element of parent-child interaction, influenced by language modality, gestural and linguistic features.
JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Fengmei Fan, Junchao Huang, Shuping Tan, Zhiren Wang, Yanli Li, Song Chen, Hui Li, Stephanie Hare, Xiaoming Du, Fude Yang, Baopeng Tian, Peter Kochunov, Yunlong Tan, L. Elliot Hong
Summary: Treatment resistance in schizophrenia is associated with reduced cortical thickness in specific brain regions. These regions include the right caudal middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal cortex, fusiform gyrus, pars opercularis of the inferior frontal cortex, and supramarginal cortex. The reductions in cortical thickness in these regions are significantly correlated with cognitive deficits. Moreover, cortical abnormalities in the right caudal middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal cortex, and pars opercularis of the inferior frontal cortex mediate the effects of cognitive deficits on treatment resistance.
PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Zheyi Zhou, Kangcheng Wang, Jinxiang Tang, Dongtao Wei, Li Song, Yadong Peng, Yixiao Fu, Jiang Qiu
Summary: Cortical thickness may be a critical biological feature in the diagnosis of adolescent psychiatric disorders. These findings might be helpful to establish an early prediction model for adolescents to better diagnose psychiatric disorders.
Article
Neuroimaging
Takashi Itahashi, Yoshihiro Noda, Yusuke Iwata, Ryosuke Tarumi, Sakiko Tsugawa, Eric Plitman, Shiori Honda, Fernando Caravaggio, Julia Kim, Karin Matsushita, Philip Gerretsen, Hiroyuki Uchida, Gary Remington, Masaru Mimura, Yuta Y. Aoki, Ariel Graff-Guerrero, Shinichiro Nakajima
Summary: Patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) and non-treatment-resistant schizophrenia (NTRS) can be differentiated from healthy controls based on cortical thickness analysis. The left planum temporale, left anterior insula/inferior frontal gyrus contributed to both NTRS and TRS classifiers. TRS presents unique cortical thickness features.
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
(2021)
Article
Education, Special
Ashley de Marchena, Casey J. Zampella, Zachary Dravis, Juhi Pandey, Stewart Mostofsky, Robert T. Schultz
Summary: This study tested the feasibility of a brief praxis assessment method for individuals with autism. The results showed that individuals with autism had significant difficulties in praxis, making more errors compared to typically developing individuals. The findings suggest that this shortened assessment method can effectively capture developmental issues in individuals with autism.
RESEARCH IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Social
Nevena Dimitrova, Seyda Ozcaliskan
Summary: The ability to produce and comprehend gestures is crucial for language development in typical children. Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often struggle with gesture production compared to typically developing (TD) children. This study aimed to investigate whether gesture production and comprehension follow similar patterns across ages and learners. The results suggest that there are similarities in gesture production and comprehension across different ages and between TD children and verbal children with ASD, indicating an integrated communication system formed by gesture production and comprehension.
JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Anastasia Pavlidou, Geoffrey Gorisse, Domna Banakou, Sebastian Walther
Summary: This study aims to use virtual reality as an alternative tool to objectively measure gesture performance accuracy in schizophrenia patients. Participants will be immersed in a virtual environment and their hand movements will be tracked in real-time to record and analyze gesture performance. The results may contribute to the gesture literature and offer new possibilities for therapeutic interventions using virtual reality technologies.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
F. MacGillivray, A. M. Bard, K. A. Cobb, L. Corah, K. K. Reyher, M. J. Green, W. Wapenaar
Summary: Effective communication is crucial for successful veterinary practice, and studying nonverbal communication between veterinarians and farmers can improve the quality of consultations. By analyzing video recordings, researchers can measure and understand the significance of nonverbal communication attributes, helping veterinarians become skilled nonverbal communicators and improve herd health.
JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Surgery
Ian M. Kratzke, Marcy E. Rosenbaum, Chase Cox, David W. Ollila, Muneera R. Kapadia
Summary: This study is a randomized clinical trial that investigates the impact of surgeons wearing clear masks versus standard covered masks on communication between surgeons and patients during surgical clinic encounters. The results show that patients prefer to see their surgeon's face, and surgeons who wore clear masks were perceived as better communicators with more empathy and trust.
Article
Psychiatry
Paola Dazzan, Andrew J. Lawrence, Antje A. T. S. Reinders, Alice Egerton, Neeltje E. M. van Haren, Kate Merritt, Gareth J. Barker, Rocio Perez-Iglesias, Kyra-Verena Sendt, Arsime Demjaha, Kie W. Nam, Iris E. Sommer, Christos Pantelis, W. Wolfgang Fleischhacker, Inge Winter van Rossum, Silvana Galderisi, Armida Mucci, Richard Drake, Shon Lewis, Mark Weiser, Covadonga M. Martinez Diaz-Caneja, Joost Janssen, Marina Diaz-Marsa, Roberto Rodriguez-Jimenez, Celso Arango, Lone Baandrup, Brian Broberg, Egill Rostrup, Bjorn H. Ebdrup, Birte Glenthoj, Rene S. Kahn, Philip McGuire
Summary: Patients with first-episode psychosis did not show regional brain alterations at illness onset that were associated with symptom remission, but displayed altered cortical gyrification organization when the illness became stable. During the study, some patients achieved symptomatic remission at Week 4, Week 22, and Week 74.
SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN
(2021)
Article
Psychiatry
Yanfang Zhou, Junchao Huang, Ping Zhang, Jinghui Tong, Fengmei Fan, Mengzhuang Gou, Yimin Cui, Xingguang Luo, Shuping Tan, Zhiren Wang, Wei Feng, Fude Yang, Baopeng Tian, Li Tian, Anya Savransky, Stephanie Hare, Meghann C. Ryan, Eric Goldwaser, Joshua Chiappelli, Shuo Chen, Peter Kochunov, Mark Kvarta, Yunlong Tan, L. Elliot Hong
Summary: Reduced cortical gray matter integrity and cognitive abilities are core deficits in schizophrenia. Higher allostatic load (AL), even in patients with normal weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels, is associated with structural and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Specific aspects of high AL should be targeted in early intervention strategies for reducing cortical thinning and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Marie-Luise Otte, Mike M. Schmitgen, Katharina M. Kubera, Nadine D. Wolf, Stefan Fritze, Lena S. Geiger, Heike Tost, Ulrich W. Seidl, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Dusan Hirjak, Robert C. Wolf
Summary: Insight into illness in schizophrenia patients is associated with distinct deviations in brain structure, especially in frontoparietal and subcortical regions. The study supports a multi-parametric neuronal model with both pre- and postnatal brain developmental factors impacting illness insight in patients with schizophrenia.
EUROPEAN ARCHIVES OF PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xiaoyu Wang, Julien Lefevre, Amine Bohi, Mariam Al Harrach, Mickael Dinomais, Francois Rousseau
Summary: The study investigated the effects of cortical growth, initial geometry, and initial cortical thickness on folding patterns, as well as proposed a new metric to quantify folds orientation. It was found that different factors have varying effects on the cortical structure, including changes in folds orientation and depth.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Editorial Material
Clinical Neurology
Sebastian Walther, Florian Weiss
Summary: For decades, catatonia was considered a subtype of schizophrenia. However, changes in psychiatric training and the use of antipsychotics led to a decrease in its recognition. The new status in ICD-11 is expected to improve the teaching, recognition, and treatment of catatonia in the future.
FORTSCHRITTE DER NEUROLOGIE PSYCHIATRIE
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Niluja Nadesalingam, Stephanie Lefebvre, Danai Alexaki, Daniel Baumann Gama, Florian Wuthrich, Alexandra Kyrou, Hassen Kerkeni, Roger Kalla, Sebastian Walther
Summary: In this study, using the RDoC framework, the researchers compared motor behavior, self-report, and physiology between patients with psychomotor slowing (PS) in schizophrenia, patients without PS, and healthy controls. The results showed that patients with PS had slower gait, lower activity levels, and slower finger movements compared to controls. Actigraphy and observer ratings were found to be effective in distinguishing PS patients from non-PS patients.
SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Tobias Bracht, Sebastian Walther, Sigrid Breit, Nicolas Mertse, Andrea Federspiel, Agnes Meyer, Leila M. Soravia, Roland Wiest, Niklaus Denier
Summary: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for depression, but it is unclear if the neuroplastic changes it induces are associated with treatment response. This study compared neuroplasticity between ECT-patients, TAU-responders (patients who responded to treatment as usual), and healthy controls, and found that ECT led to enlargements in hippocampal and amygdalar volumes and increased cerebral blood flow in the hippocampi, while TAU-responders exhibited increased cortical thickness.
TRANSLATIONAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Suheyla Cetin-Karayumak, Amanda E. E. Lyall, Maria A. A. Di Biase, Johanna Seitz-Holland, Fan Zhang, Sinead Kelly, Doron Elad, Godfrey Pearlson, Carol A. A. Tamminga, John A. A. Sweeney, Brett A. A. Clementz, David Schretlen, Katharina Stegmayer, Sebastian Walther, Jungsun Lee, Tim Crow, Anthony James, Aristotle Voineskos, Robert W. W. Buchanan, Philip R. R. Szeszko, Anil K. K. Malhotra, Matcheri Keshavan, Martha E. E. Shenton, Yogesh Rathi, Ofer Pasternak, Marek Kubicki
Summary: Studies using Free Water Imaging have consistently found increased extracellular free water in individuals with early psychosis, but the time course of these elevations and their relationship with illness duration have not been extensively studied. Our multi-site analysis of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging scans from individuals with schizophrenia at different illness stages and ages reveals that average whole brain free water is higher in individuals with schizophrenia across all ages, with the greatest values observed in early adulthood. Additionally, free water is negatively associated with illness duration.
MOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Lydia Maderthaner, Anastasia Pavlidou, Stephanie Lefebvre, Niluja Nadesalingam, Victoria Chapellier, Sofie von Kanel, Alexandra Kyrou, Danai Alexaki, Florian Wuthrich, Florian Weiss, Daniel Baumann-Gama, Roland Wiest, Werner Strik, Tilo Kircher, Sebastian Walther
Summary: This study investigated the neural correlates of formal thought disorder (FTD) in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders using 3T magnetic resonance imaging. The results showed distinct neural patterns for different dimensions of FTD, suggesting the need for specific treatment strategies and further mechanistic investigations on single-item levels.
SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Anastasia Pavlidou, Geoffrey Gorisse, Domna Banakou, Sebastian Walther
Summary: This study aims to use virtual reality as an alternative tool to objectively measure gesture performance accuracy in schizophrenia patients. Participants will be immersed in a virtual environment and their hand movements will be tracked in real-time to record and analyze gesture performance. The results may contribute to the gesture literature and offer new possibilities for therapeutic interventions using virtual reality technologies.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Igor Nenadic, Tina Meller, Ulrika Evermann, Julia-Katharina Pfarr, Andrea Federspiel, Sebastian Walther, Sarah Grezellschak, Ahmad Abu-Akel
Summary: Psychiatric disorders have high co-morbidity, including subclinical expressions of psychopathology. Traits associated with autism and schizophrenia were found to be related to changes in the structure and function of the hippocampus, particularly when there is interaction between different phenotype facets. These findings provide empirical evidence for considering the synergistic impact of different disease spectra on biological parameters in psychiatry.
MOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Matthias Liebrand, Michael Rebsamen, Akari Nakamura-Utsunomiya, Luisa von den Driesch, Patrick Kock, Julien Caccia, Christoph Hamann, Roland Wiest, Michael Kaess, Sebastian Walther, Sibylle Tschumi, Takeshi Y. Y. Hiyama, Jochen Kindler
Summary: This is the first report of a patient with adipsic hypernatremia, a rare autoimmune encephalitis, presenting with complex psychiatric symptomatology. The patient exhibited psychosis, catatonia, and a range of behavioral abnormalities. This case provides evidence for a causal link between adipsic hypernatremia and the development of a psychotic disorder, as well as highlighting a new form of autoimmune psychosis.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Neuroimaging
Niklaus Denier, Sebastian Walther, Sigrid Breit, Nicolas Mertse, Andrea Federspiel, Agnes Meyer, Leila M. Soravia, Meret Wallimann, Roland Wiest, Tobias Bracht
Summary: This study investigates the effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on the structure and function of the hippocampus, hippocampal pathways, and the default mode network (DMN) in patients with depression. The findings suggest that ECT induces changes in the structure and function of the hippocampus and DMN, which may contribute to clinical response in patients with depression.
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Nicole Gangl, Frauke Conring, Andrea Federspiel, Roland Wiest, Sebastian Walther, Katharina Stegmayer
Summary: Negative symptoms are a core component of schizophrenia and have a significant impact on community functioning and quality of life. This study investigated the neural correlates of negative symptoms using arterial spin labeling to measure resting-state cerebral blood flow. The results revealed specific brain regions associated with different negative symptom factors, highlighting the importance of motor areas for expression deficits and providing insights into the underlying pathophysiological pathways.
Meeting Abstract
Neurosciences
Sebastian Walther, Niluja Nadesalingam, Stephanie Lefebvre
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Meeting Abstract
Neurosciences
Florian Wuthrich, Stephanie Lefebvre, Tilo Kircher, Nina Alexander, Benjamin Straube, Igor Nenadic, Andreas Jansen, Frederike Stein, Katharina Brosch, Adrian Wroblewski, Ulrika Evermann, Florian Thomas-Odenthal, Paula Usemann, Stewart A. Shankman, Vijay A. Mittal, Sebastian Walther
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Meeting Abstract
Neurosciences
Katherine Damme, Teresa Vargas, Sebastian Walther, Stewart Shankman, Vijay Mittal
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Meeting Abstract
Neurosciences
James Glazer, McFarland Megan, Florian Wuethrich, Lilian Yanqing Li, Sebastian Walther, Vijay Mittal, Stewart Shankman
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Sigrid Breit, Agnes Meyer, Wolfgang Schmitt, Tobias Bracht, Sebastian Walther
Summary: ECT has been proven to be highly effective in the treatment of catatonia, achieving response rates of about 80 to 100%. This retrospective study analyzed data from 20 patients with catatonia who underwent ECT from 2008 to 2021. The results showed excellent response to ECT, particularly for motor inhibition symptoms such as stupor and mutism. The presence of grasp reflex was identified as a predictor of late response.
PHARMACOPSYCHIATRY
(2023)