White matter alterations related to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and COMT val158met polymorphism: children with valine homozygote attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder have altered white matter connectivity in the right cingulum (cingulate gyrus)
MEHMET EMİN ERDAL | ÖZLEM İZCİ AY
Introduction: In this article, the COMT gene val158met polymorphism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related differences in diffusion-tensor-imaging-measured white matter (WM) structure in children with ADHD and controls were investigated. Patients and methods: A total of 71 children diagnosed with ADHD and 24 controls aged 8–15 years were recruited. Using diffusion tensor imaging, COMT polymorphism and ADHD-related WM alterations were investigated, and any interaction effect between the COMT polymorphism and ADHD was also examined. The effects of age, sex, and estimated total IQ were controlled by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results: First, an interaction between the COMT val158met polymorphism and ADHD in the right (R) cingulum (cingulate gyrus) (CGC...
Tastes and retronasal odours evoke a shared flavour-specific neural code in the human insula
Veldhuizen Maria Geraldine
During food consumption, tastes combine with retronasal odours to form flavour, which leads to a link so robust that retronasal odours can elicit taste sensations without concurrent taste stimulation. However, the cortical integration of these parallel sensory signals remains unclear. Here, we combine a flavour-binding paradigm and functional neuroimaging to test whether retronasal odorants evoke encoding patterns in the insula similar to those of their paired tastants. Healthy participants attend a familiarisation session with congruent sweet and savoury flavours followed by two functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) sessions where they separately receive the constituent tastants and odorants. Multivariate pattern analysis reveal classification of retronasal odours within the insula,...