Disabling behavioral inactivity is a prominent symptom of a number of psychiatric disorders, most notably, major depressive illness. The neurobiology of these inactive states is currently believed to involve alterations in central serotonergic, noradrenergic or dopaminergic neurotransmission as affected by various etiological and predisposing factors. Recent evidence suggests that there is anot...

The brain – computer interface (BCI) provides a communicational channel between human and machine. Most of these systems are based on brain activities. Brain Computer-Interfacing is a methodology that provides a way for communication with the outside environment using the brain thoughts. The success of this methodology depends on the selection of methods to process the brain signals in each pha...

Some people who repeatedly use stimulant drugs, such as amphetamine (AMPH), develop an AMPH-induced psychosis that is similar to paranoid schizophrenia. There has been, therefore, considerable interest in characterizing the effects of chronic stimulant drug treatment on brain and behavior in non-human animals, and in developing an animal model of AMPH psychosis. A review of this literature show...

Brain stimulation techniques are important in both basic and clinical studies. Majority of well-known brain stimulating techniques have low spatial resolution or entail invasive processes. Low intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) seems to be a proper candidate for dealing with such deficiencies. This review recapitulates studies which explored the effects of LIFU on brain str...

The topics treated in The brain and emotion include the definition, nature, and functions of emotion (Ch. 3); the neural bases of emotion (Ch. 4); reward, punishment, and emotion in brain design (Ch. 10); a theory of consciousness and its application to understanding emotion and pleasure (Ch. 9); and neural networks and emotion-related learning (Appendix). The approach is that emotions can be c...

Background: Individuals with social phobia are more likely to misinterpret ambiguous social situations as more threatening, i.e. they show an interpretive bias. This study investigated whether such a bias also exists in specific phobia. Methods: Individuals with spider phobia or social phobia, spider aficionados and non-phobic controls saw morphed stimuli that gradually transformed from a schem...

Background: Evidence of genetic association between the NRG1 (Neuregulin-1) gene and schizophrenia is now well-documented. Furthermore, several recent reports suggest association between schizophrenia and singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ERBB4, one of the receptors for Neuregulin-1. In this study, we have extended the previously published associations by investigating the involvement of...