TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gál, Bernadett I.
A1  - Kilencz, Tünde
A1  - Albert, Anita
A1  - Demeter, Ildikó
A1  - Hegedűs, Klára Mária
A1  - Janka, Zoltán
A1  - Csifcsák, Gábor
A1  - Álmos, Péter Z.
T1  - Mild Effect of Nalmefene on Alcoholic Cue-Induced Response Invigoration in Alcohol Use Disorder Without Accompanying Changes in Electrophysiological Signatures of Early Visual Processing and Executive Control
JF  - Frontiers in Pharmacology
N2  - Nalmefene is approved for as-needed pharmacological treatment in alcohol use disorder (AUD) by the European Medicines Agency. While the cellular effects of nalmefene have been thoroughly investigated, data are very limited on how this agent influences neural signals associated with inhibitory control and the visual analysis of environmental cues. This double-blind crossover study assessed the behavioral and neural effects of acute nalmefene administration in patients diagnosed with AUD. In experiment 1, we validated our experimental paradigm (electroencephalography combined with a modified Go/NoGo task using images of alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks as prime stimuli) in 20 healthy adults to ensure that our protocol is suitable for assessing the behavioral and neural aspects of executive control. In experiment 2, we recruited 19 patients with AUD, and in a double-blind crossover design, we investigated the effects of nalmefene versus placebo on task performance (response accuracy, the sensitivity index, and reaction times), visual responses to appetitive cues (occipital P1, N1, and P2 components), and electrophysiological markers of conflict detection and response inhibition (frontal N2 and P3 waveforms). Under placebo, patients produced faster reaction times to alcohol-primed Go stimuli, an effect that was weak despite being statistically significant. However, the effect of alcoholic cues on the speed of response initiation disappeared after receiving nalmefene. We found no placebo versus nalmefene difference regarding our patients’ ability to accurately inhibit responses to NoGo stimuli or for occipital and frontal event-related potentials. Our results suggest that nalmefene might be potent in reducing the vigor to act upon alcoholic cues in AUD patients, but this effect is most probably mediated via subcortical (rather than cortical) neural circuits.
KW  - nalmefene
KW  - alcohol use disorder
KW  - response inhibition
KW  - incentive salience
KW  - event-related potentials
KW  - Go/NoGo task
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-369182
VL  - 10
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schroeter, Matthias L.
A1  - Pawelke, Sarah
A1  - Bisenius, Sandrine
A1  - Kynast, Jana
A1  - Schuemberg, Katharina
A1  - Polyakova, Maryna
A1  - Anderl-Straub, Sarah
A1  - Danek, Adrian
A1  - Fassbender, Klaus
A1  - Jahn, Holger
A1  - Jessen, Frank
A1  - Kornhuber, Johannes
A1  - Lauer, Martin
A1  - Prudlo, Johannes
A1  - Schneider, Anja
A1  - Uttner, Ingo
A1  - Thöne-Otto, Angelika
A1  - Otto, Markus
A1  - Diehl-Schmid, Janine
T1  - A Modified Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test Predicts Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia Better Than Executive Function Tests
JF  - Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
N2  - Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is characterized by deep alterations in behavior and personality. Although revised diagnostic criteria agree for executive dysfunction as most characteristic, impairments in social cognition are also suggested. The study aimed at identifying those neuropsychological and behavioral parameters best discriminating between bvFTD and healthy controls. Eighty six patients were diagnosed with possible or probable bvFTD according to Rascovsky et al. (2011) and compared with 43 healthy age-matched controls. Neuropsychological performance was assessed with a modified Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), Stroop task, Trail Making Test (TMT), Hamasch-Five-Point Test (H5PT), and semantic and phonemic verbal fluency tasks. Behavior was assessed with the Apathy Evaluation Scale, Frontal Systems Behavioral Scale, and Bayer Activities of Daily Living Scale. Each test’s discriminatory power was investigated by Receiver Operating Characteristic curves calculating the area under the curve (AUC). bvFTD patients performed significantly worse than healthy controls in all neuropsychological tests. Discriminatory power (AUC) was highest in behavioral questionnaires, high in verbal fluency tasks and the RMET, and lower in executive function tests such as the Stroop task, TMT and H5PT. As fluency tasks depend on several cognitive functions, not only executive functions, results suggest that the RMET discriminated better between bvFTD and control subjects than other executive tests. Social cognition should be incorporated into diagnostic criteria for bvFTD in the future, such as in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, as already suggested in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM)-5.
KW  - behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia
KW  - diagnostic criteria
KW  - executive function
KW  - social cognition
KW  - theory of mind
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-234254
VL  - 10
ER  -