1.
Neural bases of food perception: coordinate-based meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies in multiple modalities.
Huerta, CI, Sarkar, PR, Duong, TQ, Laird, AR, Fox, PT
Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.). 2014;(6):1439-46
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare the results of the three food-cue paradigms most commonly used for functional neuroimaging studies to determine: i) commonalities and differences in the neural response patterns by paradigm and ii) the relative robustness and reliability of responses to each paradigm. METHODS Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies using standardized stereotactic coordinates to report brain responses to food cues were identified using online databases. Studies were grouped by food-cue modality as: i) tastes (8 studies); ii) odors (8 studies); and, iii) images (11 studies). Activation likelihood estimation was used to identify statistically reliable regional responses within each stimulation paradigm. RESULTS Brain response distributions were distinctly different for the three stimulation modalities, corresponding to known differences in location of the respective primary and associative cortices. Visual stimulation induced the most robust and extensive responses. The left anterior insula was the only brain region reliably responding to all three stimulus categories. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest visual food-cue paradigm as promising candidate for imaging studies addressing the neural substrate of therapeutic interventions.
2.
Meta-analysis of association between obsessive-compulsive disorder and the 3' region of neuronal glutamate transporter gene SLC1A1.
Stewart, SE, Mayerfeld, C, Arnold, PD, Crane, JR, O'Dushlaine, C, Fagerness, JA, Yu, D, Scharf, JM, Chan, E, Kassam, F, et al
American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. 2013;(4):367-79
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Abstract
The neuronal glutamate transporter gene SLC1A1 is a candidate gene for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) based on linkage studies and convergent evidence implicating glutamate in OCD etiology. The 3' end of SLC1A1 is the only genomic region with consistently demonstrated OCD association, especially when analyzing male-only probands. However, specific allele associations have not been consistently replicated, and recent OCD genome-wide association and meta-analysis studies have not incorporated all previously associated SLC1A1 SNPs. To clarify the nature of association between SLC1A1 and OCD, pooled analysis was performed on all available relevant raw study data, comprising a final sample of 815 trios, 306 cases and 634 controls. This revealed weak association between OCD and one of nine tested SLC1A1 polymorphisms (rs301443; uncorrected P = 0.046; non-significant corrected P). Secondary analyses of male-affecteds only (N = 358 trios and 133 cases) demonstrated modest association between OCD and a different SNP (rs12682807; uncorrected P = 0.012; non-significant corrected P). Findings of this meta-analysis are consistent with the trend of previous candidate gene studies in psychiatry and do not clarify the putative role of SLC1A1 in OCD pathophysiology. Nonetheless, it may be important to further examine the potential associations demonstrated in this amalgamated sample, especially since the SNPs with modest associations were not included in the more highly powered recent GWAS or in a past meta-analysis including five SLC1A1 polymorphisms. This study underscores the need for much larger sample sizes in future genetic association studies and suggests that next-generation sequencing may be beneficial in examining the potential role of rare variants in OCD.