Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disabling heterogeneous psychiatric disorder characterized by poor affect regulation and impulse control, with a high reactivity and vulnerability to stress. It has been hypothesized that these patients may have a dysregulation of the neuroendocrine system.

The goal of this work is to systematically review the scientific knowledge regarding the role of the neuroendocrine system in the physiopathology of BPD.

The literature was reviewed by online searching using PubMed®. The authors selected scientific papers with the words “borderline personality disorder” and “neuroendocrine”/“endocrine” in the title and/or abstract, published in English.

There is scientific evidence for an enhanced cortisol release and HPA axis hyperactivity in BPD. The dexamethasone suppression test has been used in BPD, finding high rates of non-suppressors in that sample. There also seems to be a reduced volume of the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex, suggesting an involvement of those regions in the emotional disturbances in BPD. Symptoms of impulsivity, aggression and suicidal behavior seem to be strongly mediated by the serotonergic system. The available research suggests a serotoninergic dysfunction in BPD, with lower levels of serotonin in those patients.

There seems to be several neuroendocrine changes related to BPD, namely a hyperactivity of the HPA axis with stimulated cortisol release together with disturbances of the serotonergic system. Also some brain structural alterations in BPD are scientifically depicted. Further studies are needed to clarify the neurobiology of BPD improving both psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatment in these patients.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative brain disorder characterized by Bradykinesia, muscle rigidity and resting tremor. Non-motor symptoms like neuropsychiatric manifestations can also cause significant morbidity. Common medications used in anti-Parkinsonian treatment such as dopaminergic agonists, may help motor symptoms but can also cause or contribute to adverse behavioral manifestations. These include dementia, depression, anxiety, insomnia, psychosis and paraphilic disorders. There are sporadic reports of zoophilia in association with dopaminergic therapy.

Report of a clinical case of PD and zoophilia.

clinicians must be aware of paraphilic disorders, namely zoophilia, in patients with dopaminergic medication.

Search of the Pubmed database was conducted for articles published that had “zoophilia [All Fields] and Parkinson [All Fields]”, resulting in 3 eligible articles through October 2016. The patient's clinical records were also reviewed.

A 77-year-old man, living in a rural area and with a low educational background, with akinetic–rigid PD in an advanced stage and followed by neurology since 2003. His family physician sent him to a psychiatric assessment for hyper-sexuality with zoophilia. The psychiatrist found that these behaviors had begun a week after levodopa was increased along with the introduction of selegiline. The psychiatrist has introduced quetiapine with significant decrease of the hyper-sexuality and the end of zoophilic episodes.

Despite hyper-sexuality is found in just 2–6% of PD patients in connection with dopaminergic treatment. This case report emphasizes how crucial it is to evaluate PD patients’ sexuality as well as to explain these adverse effects to the families involved.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is considered an autoimmune inflammatory disease and it is the most common demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Although its aetiology remains unknown, it has been considered to be multifactorial. MS tends to be more commonly diagnosed in young Caucasian women. It has been described four clinical courses: relapsing-remitting MS, primary progressive MS, secondary progressive MS and progressive remitting MS based on the temporal sequence in which the symptoms arise. Clinic is also very different because it depends on the sites where the lesions occur. The most frequent signs and symptoms are motor and visual deficits, paraesthesia, gait ataxia, diplopia, dizziness and bladder dysfunction. Depressive symptomatology is also among the most common symptoms of MS.

Show the importance of depressive symptomatology in patients with MS.

Evaluation the connection between MS and depression.

Search for articles concerning MS and depression on Pubmed and Scielo databases from July 2014 through October 2016.

Psychiatric manifestations, and especially depressive symptoms, affect almost 40% of MS patients in remission, and about 90% of those in a flare-up. This may be due to the diagnosis itself, with its large amount of symptoms and its variable progression, but also due to side effects of therapy. It gives a major contribute to suicidality (7.5%) when compared to the general population.

A combined approach and treatment is in order to diminish the incapacity caused by both these illnesses in every single patient.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Major depressive disorder affecting more than 110 million people worldwide every year is a heterogeneous illness influenced by a variety of factors, including repeated stressful factors. Despite widely research during the past several decades, the pathophysiology and neurobiological mechanisms of depressive disorders remain unclear. Ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG), a midbrain nucleus, has been considered as an important part of the circuitry that involves in stress-induced depression-like behaviors. Dysregulation of glutamatergic neurotransmission in depressed patients suggests that glutamate-mediated excitatory system is critical involved in the depressive disorders.

It is still unclear that whether vlPAG involves in fear condition-elicited depression-like behavior.

We investigated the synaptic transmission in the vlPAG to examine whether vlPAG participates in fear-induced depression-like behavior in rats.

Depression-like behaviors, in the rats, were induced by learned helplessness procedure. The synaptic transmission was conducted by whole-cell patch-clamp recording in the rat brain slices containing periaqueductal gray.

Rats receiving learned helplessness procedure displayed high failure rate in the escapable foot-shock test compared to control group. Both amplitude and frequency of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents were significant reduced compared to control group, suggesting reduced presynaptic glutamate release and postsynaptic responses were involved in the learned helplessness procedure-induced depression behavior in rats.

Reduced glutamatergic transmission in the vlPAG contributes to learned helplessness procedure-induced depression-like behavior in rats through pre – and post-synaptic mechanisms.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

White matter is an anatomical bases of brain integration realization, it provides the connection between different cortex zones inside one hemisphere as well as other hemisphere. Hemispheric interaction research is basic aspect of brain integration activity problem. Not less important is the aspect related with the processes of IAI.

Evaluation of method by fixed set potential for neuropsychological research of inter-analyzer interaction.

Russian neurophysiologists confirmed the presents of nervous processes irradiation and considered it as fundamental mechanisms of the higher functions realization. IAI is a particular case of the irradiation.

Uznadze's fixed set method allows one to model “section of behavior”, which includes all general behavior mechanisms and provides a way to analyze complicated forms of activity. The central components of the set are related to different brain systems and analyzer's interactions. This is confirmed by the set irradiation experiments, performed by Uznadze's school and showed that the set forms in one sensory modality manifests in different.

Setting experiments by formation of fixed set are done at haptic sphere: two different in volume spheres are given into both respondents’ palms. Critical experiments are done at visual sphere: two equal in diameters circles are exhibited to respondent for comparison. The amount of illusion in visual modality is an index of IAI features.

The fixed set method acquires a special relevant at the modern stage of clinical psychology development, since the IAI research seems to be important in psychiatric and neurological diseases, related with brain integration disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Dependents of human behavior on the hemispheric interaction quality is extremely interesting question. The СС impairments are observed at schizophrenia, autism, Tourette syndrome, ADHD, etc. Difficulties in the sphere of emotional intelligence are typical at not only frontal zones disorders and right hemisphere of brain.

Analyze the emotional intelligence of the patients with CC pathologies.

Method for the recognition of facial expression (faces and gestures); Video test “estimation of another person emotional condition”; Survey for the estimation of emotional intelligence (EmIn); ten people with different CC pathologies participated.

Results of the person with the CC pathologies were different from normative indexes of the first two methods. They did not recognize the shown emotion: the sign of emotional expression was not identified, the gestures were not distinguished and three positive characteristics out of 24 suggested for the designation of emotion modality were used. The emotions of heroes from video test were recognized mistakenly. The indexes were normative for all scales of EmIn survey. However quite noticeable negative correlation of

“emotion control” and “interpersonal emotional intelligence” survey indexes with the index of emotional recognition video test was obtained.

Weak emotional tone, leading to incorrect estimation of the emotional sign, is observed at CC pathology. This doesn’t exclude the violation of face emotional expressions analyze criteria. The situational context does not help the another person condition recognition. The answers on the EmIn test questions are based on subjective visions of the patient about themselves, those witnesses about the criticism reduction.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

IAI does not only play a functional role but also has qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Biological significance of IAI consists in mobilization of some sensory functions and demobilization of others as a response to a stimulus signaling changes in the environment. This constitutes one of the manifestations of body's preparatory reactions for action in the forthcoming situation. It has been established that in patients with psychic pathology such preparation of the body systems is affected, which may manifest through changes in illusion frequency.

To apply Charpentier illusion to research IAI characteristics with the purpose of further detection of abnormalities in the sphere of intermodal interaction.

One of the IAI research methods, is illusion research, e.g. Charpentier illusion, since it is based on interaction between visual and proprioceptive analyzers. Changes in preparatory reaction in subjects with psychic pathology is characterized by decline in illusion frequency, patients in these conditions should evaluate stimuli more correctly than healthy participants. Pre-experimental research design included two subjects: with white matter pathology (patient G., male, 27, full agenesis of CC, based on MRI results) and with IDD (subject A., male, 30).

Research subjects demonstrated absence of illusions, which is indicative of functional weakness of IAI, which results in inconsistency of sensory systems and meaningless perception. IAI plays an important role in formation of human psyche by enabling the development of significant patterns underlying human cognitive activity.

Illusion research is relevant for clinical psychological diagnosis of diseases associated with integrative brain activity disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

To review the neuropsychiatric symptoms of Fahr's syndrome.

Fahr's Syndrome is a rare degenerative neuropsychiatric condition, characterized by bilateral and symmetrical calcifications of the basal ganglia. It can be associated with several metabolic, infectious or genetic conditions. It is clinically manifested by movement disorders, psychosis, cognitive impairment, mood disorders, personality dysfunction or obsessive-compulsive spectrum disturbances. First presentation can be psychiatric in approximately 40% of the cases. Cognitive dysfunction, mood disorders and psychosis are the most common presentations. In the present case, depression, dementia and movement disorders were the main clinical pictures. This report alerts for the significance of neuropsychiatric symptoms within this diagnosis, considering the multisystemic approach of the illness.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Alterations in reward processing are frequently reported in ADHD. One important factor that affects reward processing is the quality of reward, as social and monetary, rewards are processed by different neural networks. However, effect of reward type on reward processing in ADHD was not extensively studied.

We aimed to explore the effect of reward type (i.e., social or monetary) on different phases of reward processing and also to test the hypothesis that ADHD symptoms may be associated with a problem in processing of social rewards.

We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during a spatial attention paradigm in which cues heralded availability and type of the upcoming reward and feedbacks informed about the reward earned. Thirty-nine (19 males and 20 females) healthy individuals (age range: 19–27) participated in the study. ADHD symptoms were measured using ADHD self-report scale (ASRS).

The feedback related potentials, namely feedback related negativity (FRN), P200 and P300 amplitudes, were larger for social rewards compared to monetary rewards (Fig. 1). There was a consistent negative correlation between the hyperactivity subscale of ASRS and almost all feedback related ERPs. ERP amplitudes after social rewards were smaller for individuals with more hyperactivity.

Our findings suggest that hypo responsiveness to social rewards may be associated with hyperactivity. However, the results have to be confirmed with clinical populations.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The state regulation model postulates that ADHD performance difficulties result from failures to regulate activation states in response to changing environmental conditions – producing poor performance under sub-optimal conditions. Behavioral and electrophysiological studies involving the manipulation of event rate (ER) lend support to this idea.

In this preliminary study, we extended this investigation by comparing pupil dilation, an established marker of cognitive effort allocation, in individuals with ADHD, and controls, in response to varying ERs on a simple cognitive task.

Nineteen children with ADHD (age range: 8–14 years) and 21 controls (age range: 10–16 years) completed a target detection task under three different ERs (1300, 4000, and 8000 msec). Pupil dilation was monitored using an eye-tracker.

Our results show that for controls, pupil dilation to targets varied as a function of ER according to a “U” function – with fast and slow ERs inducing greater phasic dilation than the moderate ER. However, for children with ADHD the relationship was linear with dilation increasing as ER decreased.

The results provide the first pupillary evidence suggestive of effort allocation dysregulation in ADHD especially under fast event rate conditions. Future studies should explore interventions to overcome effort allocation problems.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Cortisol exerts effects on the brain via two different receptors, producing complex and sometimes opposite effects on the brain structures involved with the different cognitive functions.

To scrutinize the interrelationships between cortisol, cognition and dementia.

Review of the literature and new own findings.

Animal and clinical studies showed an association between increased cortisol and poorer overall cognitive performance, declarative memory, language, processing speed, executive functioning, spatial memory, as well as social memory. High cortisol may exhibit neurotoxic effects on the hippocampus, and exacerbate oxidative injury and amyloid β peptide toxicity. Increased CSF cortisol levels have been found in subjects with dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to control subjects with normal cognition. In MCI due to AD, high CSF cortisol may also predict a more rapid cognitive decline. Higher cortisol levels have been also observed in delirium. Increased cortisol levels interact with inflammatory mediators, neurotransmitters, and growth factors, and may mediate the effects of depression, stressful life events, and personality traits, sleep disturbances, and cardiovascular risk factor on cognitive performance and cognitive decline.

High cortisol levels may exert deleterious effects on cognition and exacerbate AD pathology. Further studies are needed to explore glucocorticoid-based interventions in the management of cognitive disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of executive difficulties due to a lack of the management of cognitive conflict, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility in this group of patients. If executive difficulties are at the basis of uncontrolled alimentary behavior, these will be present also after a dramatic weight loss and could led to a poor compliance of the patient after plastic surgery procedures.

We enrolled 21 consecutive post-bariatric patients. This clinical population was compared with a control group (n = 21) from the general population sharing the same clinical and demographic features. Psychiatric evaluation was performed. Executive difficulties were investigated through electroencephalography using the stroop task, sustained attention to response task, and task switching tests.

The patient group reported more frequently psychiatric disorders than control group. Patients had higher prevalence of lifetime major depression (58.3% vs. 14.3%), of lifetime panic disorder (36.1% vs. 4.8%) and generalized anxiety disorder (16.75% vs. 0%). Finally, patients were more frequently affected by body dismorphic disorder (chi2 = 8.867, P = .003). Electroencephalography confirmed the presence of executive difficulties sustained by a lack of the control of cognitive conflict and cognitive flexibility, and a difficulty of the inhibitory control in the patient group.

Electroencephalography confirmed for the first time the high prevalence of psychological/psychiatric problems in post-bariatric patients. Patients showing high values of executive difficulties will need a psychological/psychiatric support to sustain a positive outcome after post-bariatric plastic surgery.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The effect of the traumatic brain injury of mild severity (mTBI) on the cognitive functions influences on the educational activities of adolescents in school and the quality of life in general.

To study the violations and to track the dynamics of recovery higher mental functions (HMF), after mTBI in adolescents with neuropsychological syndrome in the range of up to one year.

The study is based on the original set of techniques designed by A.R. Luria. We focused on assessing the status of various components of the HMF. We also studied of the mental activity in its regulatory and dynamic aspects. Thirty-one patients with mTBI (mean age was 11.5 + 1.3) and 20 healthy subjects (mean age was 12 + 1.5) took part in the study.

Analysis of the results showed that violations of HMF in the acute period were represented by three types of syndromes. The leading place in each syndrome is occupied by deficiency symptoms of non-specific brain structures. Research of dynamics of recovery HMF demonstrated the symptoms related to deficiency of parietal-temporal-occipital area are reducing for the first month, as well as the symptoms of the anterior brain. After six months we observed the decrease all symptoms from cortical structures, but the symptoms persist in the form of fatigue, reduction the rate of mental activity, difficulty in concentration.

Application of neuropsychological approach (Luria school) to the diagnosis and recovery of deficit cognitive function allows to describe the symptoms and to identify their hierarchy in the structure of violations.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The existence of a frontotemporal dementia phenocopy (phFTD) syndrome remains controversial. Opinions differ on whether the phenocopy presentation represents the neuropsychological manifestation of a mid-life decompensation in vulnerable pre-morbid personalities or an indolent prodrome of behavioral-variant FTD (bvFTD). Literature on this topic is sparse and clinicians and patients have little guidance around prognosis and management.

To describe the demographic, neuropsychological and biomarker profiles of a case series of phFTD patients, attending the memory clinic and review relevant literature.

Retrospective review of all cases diagnosed with phFTD.

Eleven cases were identified (male = 9, female = 2). Mean age 55.8 years. Subjective complaints comprised memory and language difficulties. Collateral reports described apathy, aggression, impulsivity, disinhibition, hyperorality. Function was relatively preserved though motivation or supervision for higher-level tasks was sometimes required. All had non-neurodegenerative MRI and PET scans. Neuropsychological test (NPT) findings predominantly showed executive dysfunction and fluency impairment. A total of 3/11 had non-amnestic memory impairment. Follow-up imaging and NPT were invariably unchanged; 1/11 had a pre-morbid psychiatric diagnosis; 5/11 had unusual personality traits pre-morbidly. Major psychosocial stressors were documented in 7/11. Management consisted of psychosocial interventions to support function and interpersonal relationships.

The literature describes the phFTD syndrome as predominantly affecting males though we include 2 females who meet the criteria. In keeping with our findings, personality traits and psychosocial stressors may be more common in phFTD than bvFTD. More severe symptoms, memory impairment at presentation and C9ORF72 gene mutation may predict eventual progression. Those who do not progress have minimal long-term functional impairment though behavioral symptoms persist.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Changes in the electrical cerebral activity, especially in frontotemporal regions, have been described after using the Superficial Neurostimulation Application (SNSA) in upper and lower limbs. The use of this technique is associated with emotional equilibrium and predisposition for a positive mood. Its application clinically improves hostility and anxiety symptoms.

To compare the electrical changes observed after the use of SNSA with other techniques of mental concentration: Mindfulness (mental attention without judgment) and a technique based on the emission of a sound.

SNSA topology system: uses electricity through superficial electrodes placed on feet and hands and an electrode over the 7th cervical vertebra; Digital encephalogram; Faraday cage.

Mindfulness and SNSA techniques show similarities regarding the alpha rhythm's frequency in frontal regions (Figs. 1 and 2) compared to a different mental concentration technique (Fig. 3).

Further analysis would be required.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Forty-three-year-old male diagnosed with Klinefelter syndrome and showing radiological findings suggesting a demyelinating pathology who presents several psychiatric manifestations including megalomaniacal ideation, delusion, lack of impulse control and behavioral alterations.

Forty-three-year-old male diagnosed with Klinefelter syndrome at the age of 31, presenting several psychiatric pathologies since adolescence: delusions, megalomania, mood fluctuation, and high impulsiveness. The patient had a poor therapeutic response to anti-psychotic drugs and ECT. He was hospitalized up to 9 times, but the full control of the symptomatology was not achieved. During his last hospitalization, a MRI revealed lesions compatible with a demyelinating pathology.

A higher prevalence of schizophrenia spectrum disorders has been described among patients suffering from Klinefelter syndrome, which might explain the role of the X chromosome in the susceptibility to psychiatric disorders, particularly to psychosis. Furthermore, the brain structure alterations presented by patients suffering from Klinefelter syndrome are similar to those described among schizophrenic patients: small brain volume, lateral cerebral ventricular enlargement and reduced temporal gyrus, amygdala, insula and cingulate cortex. Patients suffering from multiple sclerosis are more prone to psychiatric disorders, such as mood swing, aggressiveness or psychosis, which are not concurrent with the physical progression of the disease, sometimes being its first manifestation. Even when being patchy and multifocal, demyelination seems to be concentrated in the frontal lobes, related to the cognitive and affective functions and the personality.

Both multiple sclerosis and Klinefelder syndrome may alter the brain structure, mainly in the frontal lobe, and predispose to psychiatric disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Although cannabis is very widespread worldwide, its brain toxicity is poorly understood. The neuroretina is an accessible extension of the brain and could be a relevant site for investigating neurotransmission abnormalities in neuropsychiatric disorders. The retina has a functional endocannabinoid system involved in the regulation of retinal neurotransmission. In animals, the modulation of this system led to retinal dysfunctions measured with the electroretinogram (ERG).

To assess whether the regular cannabis use could affect the neuroretinal function.

Assessments of the neuroretinal function in cannabis users compared with controls.

Recordings of pattern, flash and on-off ERG were performed in 55 cannabis users and 29 controls. The amplitude and implicit time of the following waves were evaluated: N95 (pattern); a – and b – (flash); a –, b- and d1 – (on-off).

Cannabis users showed a significant increase in implicit time of the waves N95 (P = 0.0001), a- (P = 0.029) and b – (P = 0.002) for the flash ERG and b – (P = 0.016) and d1 – (P = 0.027) for the on-off ERG, compared with controls. No significant difference was found between groups in terms of wave's amplitudes.

These results show a delay in the response of cones, bipolar and ganglion cells of the on and off pathways to constitute a delay of ≈ 6 ms in the transmission of information from the retina to the brain in cannabis users. Cannabis could disrupt the regulatory role of the cannabinoid system and impair retinal glutamatergic neurotransmission. The consequences on visual perception should be explored in future studies.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.