Effects of fermented blueberry liquid in high-fat diet-induced obese C57BL/6J mice / 한국영양학회지

PURPOSE: The objective of the present study was to determine whether fermentation can increase the protective effects of blueberry liquid in a high-fat diet-induced obese mice model. METHODS: Male C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat diet (HD, 60% fat, w/w,), HD supplemented with 10 ml/kg BW/day of blueberry liquid (BHD, blueberry high-fat diet), or HD supplemented with 10 ml/kg BW/day of fermented blueberry liquid (FBHD, fermented blueberry high-fat diet) for 10 weeks. RESULTS: There were significant decreases in the body, epididymal adipose tissue, and liver weights of blueberry-fed groups compared to HD, whereas there were no significant differences in food intake among the groups. Furthermore, blueberry liquid groups, especially fermented blueberry liquid, significantly attenuated the contents of hepatic triglycerides and total cholesterol induced by HD. Serum LDL-cholesterol was significantly lower in the BHD and FBHD-fed groups, whereas FBHD significantly increased the serum HDL-cholesterol level compared to the control. Concentrations of aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, and leptins in serum were also reduced by blueberry liquid supplementation. The mRNA expression of hepatic acetyl CoA carboxylase was significantly reduced in both the BHD and FBHD groups compared to HD. Furthermore, FBHD altered the mRNA expression level of hepatic lipolysis genes. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, these results suggest that blueberry, especially fermented blueberry liquid, may improve obesity-related abnormalities.

Greater Impairment in Negative Emotion Evaluation Ability in Patients with Paranoid Schizophrenia

To explore whether or not patients with schizophrenia display a more profound impairment of negative emotion processing, we assessed the implicit evaluation of positive and negative emotional stimuli. Twenty patients with schizophrenia (9 paranoid, 11 non-paranoid) and 22 normal controls were instructed to classify emotional pictures according to the intrinsic valence if the pictures were black and white. If the stimuli were color-filtered, participants were instructed to press the positive/negative response key according to the extrinsic valence (assigned valence of color). The error rates of the color-filtered stimuli were used as dependent measures. Normal controls made more errors on trials of the positive pictures when the correct response was the negative response key than when the correct response was the positive response key. The reverse was true on trials of the negative pictures. Patients with schizophrenia, especially paranoid schizophrenia, committed more errors in trials of the positive pictures when the correct response key was the negative response key. However, the reverse was not true on trials of the negative pictures. These findings suggest that patients with paranoid schizophrenia might suffer from an impaired ability to evaluate negative emotions and have a loosening of association within their negative emotional networks.

Greater Impairment in Negative Emotion Evaluation Ability in Patients with Paranoid Schizophrenia

To explore whether or not patients with schizophrenia display a more profound impairment of negative emotion processing, we assessed the implicit evaluation of positive and negative emotional stimuli. Twenty patients with schizophrenia (9 paranoid, 11 non-paranoid) and 22 normal controls were instructed to classify emotional pictures according to the intrinsic valence if the pictures were black and white. If the stimuli were color-filtered, participants were instructed to press the positive/negative response key according to the extrinsic valence (assigned valence of color). The error rates of the color-filtered stimuli were used as dependent measures. Normal controls made more errors on trials of the positive pictures when the correct response was the negative response key than when the correct response was the positive response key. The reverse was true on trials of the negative pictures. Patients with schizophrenia, especially paranoid schizophrenia, committed more errors in trials of the positive pictures when the correct response key was the negative response key. However, the reverse was not true on trials of the negative pictures. These findings suggest that patients with paranoid schizophrenia might suffer from an impaired ability to evaluate negative emotions and have a loosening of association within their negative emotional networks.

Emotional Responsivity to the Emotional Pictures: Distribution in an Evaluative Space / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the nature of emotional responsiveness in normal adults, we exam the emotional responses to emotional pictures in an evaluative space defined by arousal and valence. METHODS: Subjects were instructed to rate the arousal and valence that they experienced from the presentation of one of two sets of 60 emotional pictures. These two picture sets were comprised of 107 pictures: 101 selected from International Affective Pictures System and six pictures from our own collection. According to "evaluative space model", the authors set an evaluative space defined by the arousal scores as independent variable and the valence scores as dependent variable. In this evaluative space, one-hundred-and-seven pairs of coordinates representing respective emotional pictures were plotted. With regression analyses, the steepness of the regression lines on the plots with positive emotional responsiveness (n=51) and those with negative emotional responsiveness (n=56) were compared. RESULTS: In the evaluative space, the regression line of negative emotional responsiveness was significantly different from that of positive responsiveness. The slope of negative responsiviveness was significantly steeper than that of positive responsiveness. At a low arousal level, the absolute valence of a positive stimuli was larger than that of a negative picture. CONCLUSION: This finding indicates that the function of the negative affective responsiveness might be different from that of the positive responsitiveness. IAPS also seems applicable to Korean subjects.

Development of Korean Version of Schizotypal Ambivalence Scale(K-SAS) / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the reliability and validity of Korean version of schizotypal ambivalence scale, which was developed to measure ambivalence in schizotypy, a latent personality organization that provides the liability for the development of schizophrenia. METHODS: The psychometric properties of the K-SAS in a sample of 348 normal healthy controls were obtained. Subjects with various range of age and education level of male and female were included in order to investigate the correlation of these demographic variables with the scores of K-SAS. RESULTS: The internal consistency of the scale was 0.85 and split-half reliability was 0.84. The factor analysis revealed four factors which were labeled as ambivalence on identity, decision, love and outcome, respectively. There were significant main effects for age, gender, and education level. In other words, being older, male, and having more years of education had negative effects on the scale score (p<0.05). These main effects were also valid after the interaction between these demographic factors was excluded through ANCOVA. CONCLUSION: The Korean version of schizotypal ambivalence scale was a valid tool for measuring ambivalence in schizophrenia. It was found that being older, male, and having more years of education had negative effects on the scale score, and these effects should be considered when using this scale.

Development of Korean Version of Schizotypal Ambivalence Scale(K-SAS) / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the reliability and validity of Korean version of schizotypal ambivalence scale, which was developed to measure ambivalence in schizotypy, a latent personality organization that provides the liability for the development of schizophrenia. METHODS: The psychometric properties of the K-SAS in a sample of 348 normal healthy controls were obtained. Subjects with various range of age and education level of male and female were included in order to investigate the correlation of these demographic variables with the scores of K-SAS. RESULTS: The internal consistency of the scale was 0.85 and split-half reliability was 0.84. The factor analysis revealed four factors which were labeled as ambivalence on identity, decision, love and outcome, respectively. There were significant main effects for age, gender, and education level. In other words, being older, male, and having more years of education had negative effects on the scale score (p<0.05). These main effects were also valid after the interaction between these demographic factors was excluded through ANCOVA. CONCLUSION: The Korean version of schizotypal ambivalence scale was a valid tool for measuring ambivalence in schizophrenia. It was found that being older, male, and having more years of education had negative effects on the scale score, and these effects should be considered when using this scale.

Characteristics of Emotional Information Processing in Patients with Chronic Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Comparison with Schizophrenia and Healthy Controls / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) tends to take chronic course as schizophrenia. Researchers reported that OC patients had idiosyncratic sensitivity to threat-related information, while schizophrenic patients were reported to have affective blunting. We hypothesized that there might be a difference in emotional response between OCD and SPR in cronic phase. METHODS: Eight different emotional tasks were done by 25 healthy controls, 21 OCD patients and 25 SPR patients. Visual stimuli were made by pairing two words or pictures. Four kinds of emotional stimuli(positive, negative, combined and neutral) were presented to subjects through monitor and they were asked to report their subjective feelings by pushing mouse button. In the combined condition, a pair of positive words (or pictures) and negative words (or pictures) were presented simultaneously. The responses and response time were recorded and analyzed using SPSS 9.0 package. RESULTS: In the negative condition, OCD group didn't show any deficit compared to healthy group. But SPR group showed significantly lower appropriate response rate than healthy group. In the combined condition, OCD and healthy control group showed 'negativity bias' which SPR group didn't show. In the positive condition, however, OCD and SPR groups did show significantly lower appropriate response rate than healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that OCD patients may not have deficits in the processing of negative emotion even in the chronic phase but to have a specific deficit in positive emotion. This result supports the 'threat-relatedness hypothesis' on attentional bias of OCD.

Characteristics of 3-D Visuospatial-Motor Distracter Processing During Cognitive Task Performance in Schizophrenia / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: Abnormalities of cognitive responses to verbal and visual distracter in schizophrenia have been demonstrated in numerous studies but little is known about three dimensional visuospatial-motor distracter processing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the vulnerability of patients with schizophrenia to three dimensional visuospatial-motor distracter. METHODS: 14 patients with schizophrenia and 14 normal volunteers were assessed on three dimensional maze tasks requiring on working memory and reasoning ability in the virtual reality environment. Performances were compared according to with- or without-distracter conditions. RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia showed significantly lower performances than normal control group on cognitive flexibility, simple motor function or motor control and motor coordination, working memory span and delayed performance times. The performance index tended to be more deteriorated, but not significantly, in with-distracter condition than in without-distracter condition in schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with schizophrenia tend to be vulnerable to visuospatial-motor distracter which simulate the real world of three dimensional environment.