Functional imaging studies consistently find that emotional stimuli activate the posterior cingulate cortex, a region that appears to have memory-related functions. However, prior imaging studies have not controlled for non-emotional stimulus features that might activate this region by engaging memory processes unrelated to emotion. This study examined whether emotional words activated the posterior cingulate cortex when these potentially confounding factors were controlled. Sixty-four pleasant and 64 unpleasant words were matched with neutral words on non-emotional features known to influence memory. Eight subjects underwent block-designed functional magnetic resonance imaging scans while evaluating the valence of these words. The posterior cingulate cortex was significantly activated bilaterally during both unpleasant and pleasant compared to neutral words. The strongest activation peak with both unpleasant and pleasant words was observed in the left subgenual cingulate cortex. Anteromedial orbital and left inferior and middle frontal cortices were also activated by both pleasant and unpleasant words. Right amygdala and auditory cortex were activated only by unpleasant words, while left frontal pole was activated only by pleasant words. The results show that activation of the posterior cingulate cortex by emotional stimuli cannot be attributed to the memory-enhancing effects of non-emotional stimulus features. The findings are consistent with the suggestion that this region may mediate interactions of emotional and memory-related processes. The results also extend prior findings that evaluating emotional words consistently activates the subgenual cingulate cortex, and suggest a means of probing this region in patients with mood disorders.

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The effects of psychotropic medications, when present, are predominantly normalizing and thus do not seem to provide an alternative explanation for differences in volume, white matter tracts, or BOLD signal between BD participants and healthy subjects. However, the normalizing effects of medication could obfuscate differences between BD and healthy subjects, and thus might lead to type II errors.

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Collectively, these findings support previous studies suggesting heritability of frontostriatal structures among individuals with ADHD and suggest disruption in frontostriatal white matter tracts as one possible pathway to the disorder.

This study extends findings of fronto-striatal dysfunction to adults with ADHD and highlights the importance of frontostriatal and frontocerebellar circuitry in this disorder, providing evidence of an endophenotype for examining the genetics of ADHD.

Youth who experience interpersonal trauma and have posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) can exhibit difficulties in executive function and physiological hyperarousal. Response inhibition has been identified as a core component of executive function. In this study, we investigate the functional neuroanatomical correlates of response inhibition in youth with PTSS. Thirty right-handed medication-naïve youth between the ages of 10 and 16 years underwent a 3-Tesla Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan during a response-inhibition (Go/No-Go) task. Youth with PTSS (n = 16) were age and gender matched to a control group of healthy youth (n = 14). Between-groups analyses were conducted to identify brain regions of greater activation in the No/Go-Go contrasts. PTSS and control youth performed the task with similar accuracy and response times. Control subjects had greater middle frontal cortex activation when compared with PTSS subjects. PTSS subjects had greater medial frontal activation when compared with control subjects. A sub-group of youth with PTSS and a history of self-injurious behaviors demonstrated increased insula and orbitofrontal activation when compared with those PTSS youth with no self-injurious behaviors. Insula activation correlated positively with PTSS severity. Diminished middle frontal activity and enhanced medial frontal activity during response-inhibition tasks may represent underlying neurofunctional markers of PTSS.

Objective Behavioral and personality characteristics associated with excessive inhibition and disinhibition are observed in patients with eating disorders, but neural correlates of inhibitory control have not been examined in adolescents with these disorders. Methods Thirteen adolescents with binge eating and purging, i.e., bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa, binge-purge subtype ,14 with anorexia nervosa, restricting subtype, and 13 healthy controls performed a rapid jittered event related Go-NoGo task. FMRI images were collected using a 3T GE scanner and a spiral pulse sequence. A whole-brain 3-group ANOVA in SPM5 was used to identify significant activation associated with the Main Effect of Group, for the comparison of correct NoGo versus Go trials. The mean activation in these clusters was extracted for further comparisons in SPSS. Results The binge-purge group showed significantly greater activation than the healthy control group in the bilateral precentral gyri, anterior cingulate cortex, and middle and superior temporal gyri, and greater activation compared to both controls and anorexia nervosa restricting type group in the hypothalamus and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Within-group analysis found that only the anorexia nervosa, restricting group showed a positive correlation between percent correct on NoGo trials and activation in posterior visual and inferior parietal cortex regions. Conclusions The current study provides preliminary evidence that during adolescence, eating disorder subtypes may be distinguishable in terms of neural correlates of inhibitory control. This distinction is consistent with differences in behavioral impulsivity in these patient groups.