Brain and Behavior

To clarify the functional role of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for semantic processing with respect to semantic decision making compared to semantic processing per se, we used a linguistic task that involved either a binary decision process (i.e., semantic categorization; Experiment 1) or not (silently thinking about a word's meaning; Experiment 2). With the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we showed that the same left-lateralized temporo-frontal network including the IFG is recruited during lexical-semantic processing irrespective of linguistic task demands. The present findings give rise to the assumption that activation of the IFG in the semantic domain might be important for semantic processing in general and not only for semantic decision making.

fMRI in patients with schizophrenia was performed during a delay-discounting task. Patients compared with matched controls showed increased task-related activation in regions of the DMN and reduced activation in regions associated with executive, reward, and emotional networks.

Cholinergic innervation is extensive throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. We used the hypercholinergic B6eGFPChAT congenic mouse model, shown to overexpression the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT), and present data to suggest that modest increases in VAChT expression can have a significant effect on spontaneous locomotion, reaction to novel stimuli and the adaptation to novel environments.

This is a model of Parkinson's disease in rats recapitulating all of the molecular and cellular biomarkers associated with human disease including Lewy bodies.