Malek Bajbouj

..Furthermore, measurement of motor cortical excitability may be a useful tool for investigating and monitoring inhibitory brain effects of different antidepressant stimulation techniques...

..Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a useful tool for investigating central cortical inhibitory mechanisms associated with GABAergic neurotransmission in psychiatric and neurological disorders...

..The results of this 2-year open-label trial suggest a clinical response and a comparatively benign adverse effect profile among patients with treatment-resistant depression...

..Furthermore, measurement of motor cortical excitability may be a useful tool for investigating and monitoring inhibitory brain effects of antidepressant stimulation techniques like rTMS...

..We interpret this finding as further indirect evidence for changes in inhibitory circuits in the course of ECT in patients with major depression...

..These results suggest that VNS is capable of changing motor cortical excitability in patients with depression...

..In this article we review their mechanisms of action and summarize efficacy and adverse effects...

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..These findings might serve as a starting point for future studies in which the value of this metabolite pattern for treatment response prediction should be investigated...

..Our results indicate that metabolic, state-dependent changes within the left DLPFC in major depressive disorder involve the glutamate system and can be reversed in a dose-dependent manner by rTMS...

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..In this study, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to assess the effects of chronic smoking on neuronal integrity of the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)...

..In this prospective, randomized, double-blind trial, we examined the efficacy and cognitive side effects of RULECT with three different (high dose) stimulus intensities (4×, 7× and 10× above the seizure threshold (ST))...

..Thus, this study aims to replicate previous findings and explore patterns of response in drug-free patients...

..Prospective rTMS studies are necessary to validate the predictive value of the derived model...

..However, effective stimulus dose can often be achieved only with high stimulus frequency, whereas the impact of increased stimulus frequency on antidepressant efficacy and cognitive adverse effects is not known...

..In this study, we addressed the question if a common BDNF missense variation (Val66Met) influences the risk for smoking behavior in otherwise healthy human volunteers...

..A similar profile of hypoactivation was observed in former smokers. CONCLUSION: For the first time, evidence is provided that dysfunctional activation of frontal lobe networks in smokers is also present in long term abstainers...

..BDNF serum concentrations have been shown to be decreased in patients with major depressive disorder and can be upregulated by several antidepressive treatment strategies including repetitive TMS...

..This study was conducted to investigate whether acute VNS has an influence on cerebral blood flow (CBF) in humans...

..Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are brain stimulation techniques used as therapeutic interventions in major depression...

..This review aims to summarize current research data on the mechanism of action, efficacy, and recent advances in ECT technique...

..It will further be discussed whether it is possible to obtain information about activity of deep brain structures like the hippocampal formation from scalp-recorded signals...

..f. = 2) in all subjects. Given the small effect of this 5-HTT polymorphism on behaviour in previous studies, a lack of significant genotype differences in these tests could be due to considerable individual variability in these measures...

..Because the NR3A is expressed in the human prefrontal cortex, we hypothesized that genetic variations of the NR3A subunit modulate prefrontal activation...

..Taken together, these results add to the concept of bipolar disorder as an illness involving disturbed hippocampal structural plasticity under the opposing influences of lithium and glucocorticoids...

..Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been shown to be involved in anxiety behaviour and the expression of conditioned fear in mice...

..However, the role of glutamate in related personality traits like sensation seeking has not been investigated in humans...

..In an exploratory study, we investigated the effects of VNS on auditory event-related potentials (ERP)...

..Our findings are the first to demonstrate a causal role of the right DLPFC in working memory for negative, withdrawal-related words and provide further support for a hemispheric lateralization of emotion processing...

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..The use of human-derived cells with neuron-like properties will prove useful for further studies on the cellular effects of rTMS...

..It was predicted that homozygous Met allele carriers have a lower frontal P300 amplitude...

..This stability of our repetitive measurements over 4 weeks suggests that this neurotrophin may be an intraindividually solid marker at least in human serum...

..This would be in line with the notion that attention deficits in schizophrenia involve an extended cortical network...

..The association to anxiety-related traits has not been investigated so far...

..However, little is known about its impact on emotional memory processing. Previous research demonstrated both memory-enhancing and memory-impairing oxytocinergic effects...

..The stronger dorsolateral prefrontal recruitment during emotional stimuli may reflect an arousal effect or higher cognitive effort due to interference with emotion...

..The results of the present study do not provide any evidence of an EMF effect on human cognition, but they underline the necessity to control for time of day...

..PI and TI were studied to explore whether dopaminergic neurotransmission or interhemispheric transfers are altered in schizophrenia...

..These results indicate that the compensatory NGF increase in the posterior cortex after partial cholinergic lesion of the basal forebrain is slightly impaired in old age...

..In this study we aimed to measure the CVR in vascular-risk free depressed individuals so as to evaluate the effect depression has on CVR and hence its role as a stroke risk factor...