[Specificity of visual event-related potentials to subthreshold presentation of erotic pictures in pedophilia]. / Osobennosti zritel'nykh vyzvannykh potentsialov v usloviyakh podporogovogo pred"yavleniya izobrazhenii eroticheskogo soderzhaniya pri pedofilii.

OBJECTIVE: To study visual event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with presentation of erotic pictures in backward masking condition in order to investigate perception, attention and information processing underlying the initiation and maintenance of abnormal sexual behavior in pedophilia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Participants (58 males committed sexual offenses against children) were divided into the pedophilia group (n=38) and the control group without disorders of sexual preference (n=20). Three types of stimuli were used: neutral pictures of nature (S1), adult heterosexual erotic pictures (S2) and erotic pictures with children (S3). Posterior N1 (N140) and anterior N1 (N120) and P3 (P320) ERP components were included in analysis. RESULTS: In both groups, the perception of erotic stimuli was accompanied by a significant increase in the amplitude and prolongation of the latency of the N140 and P320 components (p<0.001). N140 changes were characterized by right-hemispheric bias in both groups, however, asymmetry was observed for amplitude in the control group, and for latency - in the pedophilia group; besides, reactivity to S3 stimuli was weaker than to S2 ones in the pedophilia group. N120 amplitude was elevated significantly in response to S2 stimuli in the control group, and no changes were found in the pedophilia group. Between-group differences were revealed for early negative components N140 and N120, which parameters were entered as predictors into classification model based on discriminant analysis. The obtained accuracy of model was 87.23%. CONCLUSION: The specificity of neurophysiological reactions to erotic pictures in pedophilic patients corroborates the concept of disease as general neurodevelopmental disorder.

[Neurophysiological differentiation of personality disorders]. / Neirofiziologicheskaya differentsiatsiya rasstroistv lichnosti.

OBJECTIVE: The neurophysiological objectification of intranosological differentiation of main clusters (schizoid/paranoid and hysterical/emotionally unstable) within the typology of personality disorders (PD), as well as the differentiation of schizoid/paranoid PD and schizophrenia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two groups of patients with PD participated in the study: PD1 - with schizoid/paranoid pattern (n=16), and PD2 - with hysterical/emotionally unstable pattern (n=18). The data were compared with the control group of healthy volunteers (n=86) and the group of schizophrenic patients (Sz, n=67). The analysis of four neurophysiological endophenotypes (measures of prepulse inhibition (PPI) of acoustic startle response and of P50 suppression, P300 amplitude, percentage of antisaccade errors) was carried out. RESULTS: The decrease of PPI and P50 suppression (measures of sensorimotor and sensory gating) relative to the control group was found both for Sz (p<0.01) and PD1 (p<0.05) groups. The highest P300 amplitude was observed in the control group, while the lowest values were observed in the Sz group (p<0.001); the values of PD1 and PD2 groups were intermediate. In all clinical groups percent of antisaccade errors was significantly higher compared to the control group (Sz - p<0.001; PD1 - p<0.05; PD2 - p<0.01). However, the level of the fronto-central cortical activation during antisaccade performance (estimated by contingent negative variation amplitude) was significantly reduced only in the Sz group (p<0.01), which is consistent with the concept of «hypofrontality¼ in schizophrenia. The changes associated with increased emotional reactivity were found in PD2 group only (P300 amplitude frontal maximum, asymmetry of error percent in antisaccade task). CONCLUSION: The study showed that two personality patterns in PD patients are related to the individual specificity of functional brain networks.

[Neurophysiological correlates of pedophilia: a study of EEG evoked oscillations]. / Neirofiziologicheskie korrelyaty pedofilii: issledovanie vyzvannykh ritmov EEG.

OBJECTIVE: To study the changes of evoked EEG oscillations in response to erotic visual stimuli to identify specific patterns in subjects with different variants of pedophilia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-eight right-handed male offenders who have committed sexual acts against children participated in the study. Seventeen subjects without paraphilic disorders were included in group 1, 17 subjects with heterosexual pedophilia were included in group 2, and 13 subjects with homosexual pedophilia were included in group 3. The stimuli were colored pictures of neutral, heterosexual normative, hetero- and homosexual pedophilic content shortly demonstrated with backward masking. Spectral power of delta, theta, alpha, and beta evoked oscillations (EO) was analyzed. Further, the number of significant changes of EO power in response to erotic stimuli relative to neutral ones was calculated, and topography changes of EO power in response to specific erotic pictures compared to neutral ones were analyzed for each group. RESULTS: The diminished number of significant reactions to specific stimuli was found in the pedophilia groups (18 and 4 in groups 2 and 3, respectively) in comparison with the group without paraphilia (25). The specific changes of EO power in response to specific erotic visual pictures were found for each group. Increased power of delta, theta and alpha EO in the 104-164 ms time window, and decreased power of alpha EO in the 344-920 ms time window were found in group 1. In group 2, specific stimulation elicited decline of delta and theta EO power, possibly related to impaired motivational and emotional aspects of erotic stimuli perception. The weak changes were found in group 3 - increased power of beta EO in the frontal area. CONCLUSION: The obtained frequency and spatial patterns of EO changes in response to erotic visual pictures are related to specificity of hetero- and homosexual pedophilia.

[A comparative study of the P300 wave and evoked theta-rhythm in schizophrenia and personality disorders]. / Sravnitel'noe issledovanie kharakteristik volny R300 i vyzvannogo teta-ritma pri shizofrenii i rasstroistvakh lichnosti.

OBJECTIVE: Amplitude and latency of evoked potential P300 are considered as major correlates of cognitive functions. At the same time the changes in the theta-band event-related oscillations that appears at the same time window as P300 wave are less studied. The purpose of this study was to provide the complex assessment and comparison of neurophysiological indices of cognitive processes in healthy people and patients with personality disorder, schizotypal disorder and schizophrenia with different levels of cognitive dysfunction. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The total number of participants was 124, including 44 healthy volunteers, 40 schizophrenic patients, 22 patients with personality disorder, 18 patients with schizotypal disorder. Patients were examined in standard two-stimulus oddball paradigm. The P300 amplitude and latency, and evoked theta-band power and coherence were identified for target and non-target stimuli. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The decrease in P300 amplitude, prolongation of P300 latency, and reduction in the evoked theta-band power and coherence were revealed in all groups of patients compared to healthy subjects. These changes were spatially generalized and the most pronounced in schizophrenic patients. In patients with personality and schizotypal disorders, the changes had a local character, and didn't differ significantly when the groups were compared. The results show the gradual cognitive decline as follows: healthy patients, patients with schizotypal disorder, patients with personality disorder, and patients with schizophrenia. Such cognitive decline might be in line with the reduction of critical and prognostic abilities.

[Oculomotor activity as an indicator of disturbances in perception and programming in patients with schizotypal disorder]. / Okulomotornaia aktivnost' kak pokazatel' narusheniia vospriiatiia i programmirovaniia u lits s shizotipicheskim rasstroistvom.

AIM: To consider the patterns of stimuli analysis and task execution in conditions of voluntary and involuntary attention in people with schizotypal disorder from the psychopathological and psychological points of view. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 40 subjects were examined including 16 patients diagnosed with schizotypal disorder, 13 with personality disorders and 11 without psychiatric pathology (controls). In the first part of the study, subjects looked upon various static images without any instructions, followed by a test with antisaccade task in vertical and horizontal directions; the last task duplicated the first, but the subjects were asked to remember the presented images as best as possible. RESULTS: In the group of patients with schizotypal disorder, an increase in average and maximum fixation variance, its greater variation between images, and a decrease in the scanpath length were found. These differences were associated with the intentional focus of attention and several indicators of the accomplish efficiency of the antisaccade task. CONCLUSION: The changes in fixative eye movements observed in individuals with schizotypal disorder indicate violations of information selectivity and construction of an image of future action. Assumptions about inadequacy of their perceptual strategy to the simultaneous one and the primacy of the sense-bearing (motivational) violations in the programming of saccadic activity were made.

Agrobacterial tumors interfere with nodulation and demonstrate the expression of nodulation-induced CLE genes in pea.

CLAVATA (CLV) system including CLV1-like kinase and CLE-peptides is the part of the AON (autoregulation of nodulation) that controls nodule number in legume plants. Moreover, CLV system plays a key role in meristems, where it regulates the expression of WOX genes in organizing centers. Recently, we found that WOX5 homolog in pea is also expressed in nodules and in tumors induced by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Based on this, we hypothesized that both nodules and agrobacterial tumors may be regulated by and may trigger the same components of AON, including the same WOX and CLV genes. Here, we found that pea plants with agrobacterial tumors induced prior to rhizobial inoculation had reduced the number of nodules. This effect was absent in pea sym29 mutant defective in CLV1-like kinase, the key component of AON. That suggests that agrobacterial tumors may produce a signal activating CLV1-like kinase and thereby decrease the nodule number. Since CLE peptides are known to act upstream of CLV1-like kinase, expression analysis of CLE genes has been performed both in developing nodules and tumors. Overall, 45 CLE genes were identified, and among them nine nodulation-induced CLEs were found in pea. In agrobacterial tumors, no expression of nodule-specific CLE genes the homologues of which inhibit nodulation in other legumes was observed. However, increased expression of two other nodulation-induced CLE genes was observed in agrobacterial tumors, suggesting that CLE genes are expressed in tumors that may still contribute to autoregulatory processes suppressing nodulation.

[Specificity of spatial organization of evoked EEG rhythms in patients with paranoid schizophrenia]. / Osobennosti prostranstvennoi organizatsii vyzvannykh ritmov ÉÉG u bol'nykh paranoidnoi shizofreniei.

AIM: The study aimed at analyzing the spatial patterns of evoked event-related oscillations in patients with paranoid schizophrenia and their relationship with clinical symptoms of disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Evoked delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma rhythms in response to target auditory stimulus in an oddball paradigm were studied in 21 schizophrenic patients and 22 healthy subjects. The independent spatial patterns were revealed within each of the frequency range using the principal component analysis. Each spatial pattern was characterized by the specificity of intra- and inter-hemispheric relations. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The schizophrenic patients were characterized by a decrease in the evoked activity in the theta range with the most pronounced changes in the frontal-central areas of the right hemisphere and parietal-occipital areas bilaterally. Associations of the evoked rhythms with PANSS positive and negative symptoms were identified. The study demonstrated the high functional significance of evoked EEG rhythms changes for neurophysiological characteristics of patients with paranoid schizophrenia.

[Clinical and psychological mechanisms involved in the formation of syndromes of delusional and overvalued constructions].

AIM: The identification of clinical-psychopathological and pathopsychological components involved in the formation of syndromes of delusional and overvalued constructions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Authors examined 93 subjects using experimental psychological techniques for detection of cognitive styles. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A specific combination of phenomenological disorders and cognitive style characteristics in different types of delusional (sensual, imaginative and interpretive) and delusion-like (overvalued) states has been singled out. It has been shown that a specific combination of different cognitive-motivational controllers of intellectual process underlies the mechanisms of these disorders. It is a basis for the formation of specific structures of pathological personal meanings with the dominance of imaginative or ideational patterns or deformations of the semantic significance of the stimuli.

[EEG frequency and regional properties in patients with paranoid schizophrenia: effects of positive and negative symptomatology prevalence].

OBJECTIVE: EEG changes in schizophrenic patients are caused by a multitude of factors related to clinical heterogeneity of the disease, current state of patients, and conducted therapy. EEG spectral analysis remains an actual methodical approach for the investigation of the neurophysiological mechanisms of the disease. The goal of the investigation was the study of frequency and regional EEG correlating with the intensity of productive and negative disorders. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Models of summary prevalence of positive/negative disorders and evidence of concrete clinical indices of the PANSS scale were used. Spectral characteristics of background EEG in the frequency range of 1-60 Hz were studied in 35 patients with paranoid schizophrenia free from psychoactive medication and in 19 healthy volunteers. RESULTS: It was established that the main index of negative symptomatology in summary assessment was diffuse increase of spectral power of gamma and delta ranges. Deficient states with the predominance of volitional disorders were characterized by a lateralized increase of spectral power of beta-gamma ranges in the left hemisphere, and of delta range - in frontal areas of this hemisphere. Positive symptomatology was noticeably less reflected in EEG changes than negative ones. CONCLUSION: An analysis of psychopathological symptom complexes revealed the significance of spatially structured EEG patterns in the beta range: for the delusion disturbances with psychic automatism phenomena - in frontal areas of the left hemisphere, and for the paranoid syndrome with primary interpretative delusion - in cortical areas of the right hemisphere.

[The endophenotype concept in the neurophysiological studies of schizophrenia].

The endophenotype concept is considered as theoretical basis for the study of pathobiological mechanisms of schizophrenia and for the development of the complex of instrumental diagnostic methods. The contemporary state of the problem and the most significant results of the study of three neurophysiological schizophrenia endophenotypes are presented in the review: P50 auditory evoked potential suppression, prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex and antisaccade task. The current understanding of the underlying neurophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms is described for each measure. The results of the association studies of neurophysiological endophenotypes with the relevant to schizophrenia genes' polymorphisms are laid down. High degree of independence of the considered endophenotypes is demonstrated. Taking into account the data on relatively low specificity of each endophenotype to schizophrenia compared to other mental disturbances the authors pay special attention to the model of multivariate endophenotype as a scientific and diagnostic tool.

Anisotropic swelling and mechanical behavior of composite bacterial cellulose-poly(acrylamide or acrylamide-sodium acrylate) hydrogels.

Bacterial cellulose-polyacrylamide (BC-PAAm) composite hydrogels are prepared by synthesis of PAAm networks inside the BC matrices. The behavior of these gels and of the ionic ones obtained via partial hydrolysis of BC-PAAm gels is studied under swelling and compressive deformation conditions. The dependences of the hydrogels' properties on the BC matrix preparation conditions, gel synthesis conditions and the BC content in the hydrogel compositions are studied. Two types of BC gel pellicle are used in the hydrogel synthesis, namely matrix pellicles subjected to pre-pressing (samples of series A) and those not subjected to any mechanical actions before synthesis (series B samples) containing about 99% water. The effect of anisotropic swelling of type A hydrogels is detected. The type B specimens swell isotropically. Both types of hydrogel exhibit substantial anisotropy of their mechanical properties, apparent in different shapes of compression stress-strain curves of samples cut out from the gel plates in various directions. Composite hydrogels show superb mechanical properties, including compression strength up to 10 MPa and the ability to withstand long-term cyclic stresses (up to 2000-6000 cycles) without substantial reduction of mechanical properties.

[Methodological aspects of polygraph testing in the course of judicial proceedings].

The authors discuss methodological aspects of polygraph examination during judicial proceedings as a forensic inquiry tool.

[On the necessity to develop a special list of medical criteria for the qualifying sign "mental disorder"].

The authors propose and discuss approaches to the expert evaluation of the severity of harm to the health in the form of mental disorder associated with the traumatic impact. The following qualifying signs of the degree of harm to the health included in the current legislation are considered in terms of forensic psychiatry: "life-threatening harm" (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, article 111) and "length/brevity of impairment of the health" (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, articles 112, 115). The well-grounded proposals of changes in the existing legislation envisage that the qualifying sign "permanent maladjustment" should be introduced into the corresponding legal innovations of the Criminal Code as useful for the forensic medical examination of victims with mental disorders. Substantive definition of such notions as "transient disadaptation", "permanent maladjustment" and degree of its manifestation (mild, moderate, severe) are given.

Ultrasoft x-ray Bremsstrahlung isochromatic spectra from 300-2000 eV electrons on Ar and Kr.

For the first time the bremsstrahlung effect was studied experimentally in the spectral region of 6.5-10 nm with 300-2000 eV electron scattering on Ar and Kr atoms. The isochromatic curves displayed maxima at electron energies of approximately = 0.7 keV (Ar) and approximately =1 keV (Kr); their positions are almost independent of the radiation wavelength in the range studied. These experimental data cannot be treated in the framework of theory based on the first Born approximation. A phenomenological modification of the quasiclassical (soft-photon) approximation is proposed which gives a qualitative treatment of data.

[Sex role identity in persons with paraphilias]. / Polorolevaia identichnost' u lits s parafiliiami.

Specificity of sexual role identity was studied in individuals with disorders of sexual drive with focus on the study of individual expression of sexual role signs and correlation between value-regulatory and standard-role components of sex self-consciousness in paraphilias. By means of modified psychologic projective methods, two groups who had committed criminal sex delicts were examined: a group with different variations of paraphilias (69 examinees), a group without any anomalies of sexual drives (57 examinees), a control group (65 healthy men). The data obtained about a divergence of value-regulatory and standard-role components of sexual role self-consciousness indicated disorder of the stage of forming of stable role self-identity at juvenile age and reflected difficulties in interiorization of male sex-role standards in individuals with the disorders of sex drive.

[Interhemispheric EEG coherence in men with abnormal sexual behavior]. / Mezhpolusharnaia kogerentnost' EEG u muzhchin s anomal'nym seksual'nym povedeniem.

Interhemispheric interactions were examined in individuals with abnormal sexual behaviour by means of method of evaluation of coherent EEG properties in symmetric points of two hemispheres in different levels of awakening and in elaboration of cognitive tests related with preferential activation of one of two hemispheres. It was determined that EEG of the individuals who had committed sexual deliquency and had the signs of paraphilia was characterized by diffuse elevation of the degree of interhemispheric coherence in alpha-activity in the state of both passive and active awakening and by its local elevation in theta-activity. The results obtained might testify to the disorders either in cortical-subcortical interactions and in the cortical processes and permitted to suppose the decrease of degree of functional hemispheric lateralization in persons with paraphilias.

[Monoamine metabolism in different forms of paraphilias]. / Obmen monoaminov pri razlichnykh formakh parafilii.

42 persons which commited crime sexual actions were examined in terms of clinical and neurochemical investigations. The sexual behaviours of 31 patients from this group were associated with sexual inclination pathology--with paraphilia. The patients were divided into 2 groups namely with compulsive form of paraphilia (13 individuals) and without compulsive disturbances (18 patients). Both free and conjugated forms of norepinephrine (NA), dopamine (DA), dihyroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) and dihyroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) were measured in serum and daily urine as well as serotonin concentration was estimated in blood plasma and platelets. The rate of 3H-serotonin uptake into platelets (Vmax) was also investigated. It was determined that Vmax, free and especially conjugated forms of NA, DA, DOPAC levels were significantly higher in patients with compulsive forms of paraphilia. It was supposed that monoamine mechanisms may be operated in psychopathological variations of the crime sexual behaviour.