Telling truth from lie in individual subjects with fast event-related fMRI

Deception is a clinically important behavior with poorly understood neurobiological correlates. Published functional MRI (fMRI) data on the brain activity during deception indicates that, on a multisubject group level, lie is distinguished from truth by increased prefrontal and parietal activity. These findings are theoretically important; however, their applied value will be determined by the accuracy of the discrimination between single deceptive and truthful responses in individual subjects. This study presents the first quantitative estimate of the accuracy of fMRI in conjunction with a formal forced-choice paradigm in detecting deception in individual subjects. We used a paradigm balancing the salience of the target cues to elicit deceptive and truthful responses and determined the accuracy of this model in the classification of single lie and truth events. The relative salience of the task cues affected the net activation associated with lie in the superior medial and inferolateral prefrontal cortices. Lie was discriminated from truth on a single-event level with an accuracy of 78%, while the predictive ability expressed as the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) was 85%. Our findings confirm that fMRI, in conjunction with a carefully controlled query procedure, could be used to detect deception in individual subjects. Salience of the task cues is a potential confounding factor in the fMRI pattern attributed to deception in forced choice deception paradigms.     

Determinants of response to a parent questionnaire about development and behaviour in 3 year olds: European multicentre study of congenital toxoplasmosis

Background  

We aimed to determine how response to a parent-completed postal questionnaire measuring development, behaviour, impairment, and parental concerns and anxiety, varies in different European centres.     

Maternal depression and the intergenerational transmission of religion

This study tests the hypothesis that maternal depression (major depressive disorder; MDD) decreases rates of the intergenerational transmission of religiosity from mother to offspring and attenuates the beneficial qualities of religiosity in offspring. Depression was assessed using semistructured clinical interviews; religiosity was assessed based upon the personal importance of religion, frequency of attendance at religious services, and religious denomination. Results suggest that (1) maternal depression attenuates the intergenerational transmission of religion; (2) in the presence of maternal depression, offspring were more likely to have MDD at 10-year follow-up when mother-offspring were concordant on religious importance; and (3) in the absence of maternal depression, offspring were less likely to have MDD at 10-year follow-up when mother-offspring were concordant on attendance. Thus, in the presence of maternal depression, transmission of religious attendance is no longer associated with decreased likelihood of offspring MDD, whereas transmission of religious importance is associated with increased likelihood of offspring depression.     

Quantification of facial expressions using high-dimensional shape transformations

We present a novel methodology for quantitative analysis of changes in facial display as the intensity of an emotion evolves from neutral to peak expression. The face is modeled as a combination of regions and their boundaries. An expression change in a face is characterized and quantified through a combination of non-rigid (elastic) deformations, i.e., expansions and contractions of these facial regions. After elastic interpolation, this yields a geometry-based high-dimensional 2D shape transformation, which is used to register regions defined on subjects (i.e., faces with expression) to those defined on the reference template face (a neutral face). This shape transformation produces a vector-valued deformation field and is used to define a scalar valued regional volumetric difference (RVD) function, which characterizes and quantifies the facial expression. The approach is applied to a standardized database consisting of single images of professional actors expressing emotions at predefined intensities. We perform a detailed analysis of the deformations generated and the regional volumetric differences computed for expressions. We were able to quantify subtle changes in expression that can distinguish the intended emotions. A model for the average expression of specific emotions was also constructed using the RVD maps. This method can be applied in basic and clinical investigations of facial affect and its neural substrates.     

MRI findings of myositis in Behçet disease

We report the magnetic resonance imaging findings in a case of localized myositis in a 23-year-old man with long-standing Behçet disease.     

Symptom and demographic profiles in first-episode schizophrenia

First-episode schizophrenia (FE-SZP) presents a diagnostic challenge because of symptomatic overlap between the various causes of psychosis. An early and accurate diagnosis is important for the implementation of appropriate treatment, for determining prognosis and for identifying research participants. In an effort to facilitate early diagnosis, we followed a group of first-episode psychosis patients with a presumptive diagnosis of schizophrenia who were subsequently diagnosed at 6-month follow-up with either schizophrenia (n=104) or other psychiatric diagnoses (n=19). The two groups-first-episode schizophrenia and first-episode non-schizophrenia-were compared on measures of demographics, symptoms, quality of life, premorbid adjustment and lateral dominance. Odds ratios were calculated for each variable and all significant variables were entered into a multivariate prediction model. The model showed that higher levels of anhedonia and hallucinations increased the odds of a final diagnosis of schizophrenia. This predictive model was validated in a smaller group of patients.     

Cognitive performance of male adolescents is lower than controls across psychiatric disorders: a population-based study

OBJECTIVE: Psychiatric patients, as well as humans or experimental animals with brain lesions, often concurrently manifest behavioral deviations and subtle cognitive impairments. This study tested the hypothesis that as a group, adolescents suffering from psychiatric disorders score worse on cognitive tests compared with controls. METHOD: As part of the assessment for eligibility to serve in the military, the entire, unselected population of 16-17-year old male Israelis undergo cognitive testing and screening for psychopathology by the Draft Board. We retrieved the cognitive test scores of 19 075 adolescents who were assigned any psychiatric diagnosis, and compared them with the scores of 243 507 adolescents without psychiatric diagnoses. RESULTS: Mean test scores of cases were significantly poorer then controls for all diagnostic groups, except for eating disorders. Effect sizes ranged from 0.3 to 1.6. CONCLUSION: As group, adolescent males with psychiatric disorders manifest at least subtle impairments in cognitive functioning.     

Neonatologists are using much less dexamethasone

Two historical cohorts (1993-1994 and 2001) of preterm infants ventilated for respiratory distress syndrome were compared. Dexamethasone administration fell from 22% to 6%. Chronic lung disease in survivors rose slightly from 13% to 17%, and mortality fell from 21% to 15% (other causes). The effect of restriction of dexamethasone use on chronic lung disease and mortality remains to be seen.     

Prescreening mammography by technologists: a preliminary assessment

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the ability of technologists to accurately classify screening mammograms as either showing negative findings or requiring follow-up. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In a prospective study, 33 technologists at a central facility and five satellite breast imaging facilities recorded whether mammograms obtained during 3019 examinations showed negative findings or findings that indicated that additional procedures were required. The technologists were not specifically trained for the experiment. The technologists' interpretations were compared with radiologists' interpretations. RESULTS: Technologists and radiologists agreed in 82% of the cases (77% negative findings and 5% requiring follow-up). Of the 175 cases recommended for follow-up by only the radiologists, 17 were ultimately biopsied and two were found to be malignant. CONCLUSION: Even without undergoing additional training, technologists can perform at reasonable levels of accuracy in classifying screening mammograms. The possibility of using technologists to group cases after the technologists have undergone training is an interesting concept that should be explored further.     

Optimal reference mammography: a comparison of mammograms obtained 1 and 2 years before the present examination

OBJECTIVE: We assessed and compared the benefit of using images acquired 1 year or 2 years previously during mammography interpretations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eleven radiologists and one resident reviewed 128 cases three times: once without prior mammograms for comparison, once with mammograms from the most recent (1 year) examination, and once with mammograms acquired 2 years previously. They were asked to determine whether the patient should be recalled for additional procedures. Performances under the three conditions were compared. RESULTS: Radiologists were significantly more accurate (p < 0.001) when comparison mammograms (obtained 1 or 2 years previously) were available. Although sensitivity was not significantly affected between the availability of mammograms from 1 or 2 years earlier (p > 0.10), the specificity was. Specificity using mammograms from the latest examination (obtained 1 year previously) as a reference was significantly better (p = 0.03) than specificity using mammograms obtained 2 years previously. CONCLUSION: Comparison mammograms are important for accurate diagnosis-in particular, for increasing specificity. The latest prior examination seems to be the optimal one for this purpose.