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Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by extreme underweight. Studies conducted with structural MRI found reductions in brain volumes in several areas, but results are mixed. Cortical thickness has shown in other samples specific correlations with BMI in different BMI ranges. In this study, we applied a well validated procedure implemented in Freesurfer software toolkit to investigate cortical thickness in a sample of 21 patients with AN and 18 healthy controls, focusing on group differences and on the relationship between BMI and cortical thickness. Cortical thickness was reduced in patients with AN, but group differences did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. The relationship between BMI and cortical thickness was significantly different in patients with AN compared to controls in the left superior parietal/occipital cortex and left post central cortex. These findings suggest that the relationship between cortical thickness and BMI in patients with AN with less than two years of illness duration significantly differs from that in controls and possible biological mechanisms that may explain this relationship are discussed., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) applied over the medial line of the scalp affects the subjective perception of continuous pain induced by means of electric stimulation. In addition, we wanted to identify the point of stimulation where this effect was maximum. Methods: Superficial electrical stimulation was used to induce continuous pain on the dominant hand. At the beginning of the experiment we reached a pain rating of 5 on an 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS; 0 = no pain and 10 = maximum tolerable pain) for each subject by setting individually the current intensity. The TMS (five pulses at increasing intensities) was applied on 5 equidistant points (one per session) over the medial line of the scalp in 13 healthy volunteers using a double-cone coil to stimulate underlying parts of the brain cortex. In every experimental session the painful stimulation lasted 45 minutes, during which pain and distress intensities NRS were recorded continuously. We calculated the effect of adaptation and the immediate effect of the TMS stimulation for all locations. Additionally, an ALE (Activation Likelihood Estimation) meta-analysis was performed to compare our results with the neuroimaging literature on subjective pain rating. Results: TMS stimulation temporarily decreased the pain ratings, and pain adaptation was suppressed when applying the TMS over the FCz site on the scalp. No effect was found for distress ratings. Conclusions: The present data suggest that the medial cortex in proximity of the cingulated gyrus has a causal role in adaptation mechanisms and in processing ongoing pain and subjective sensation of pain intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebellar agenesis is a rare disorder. We present the neurological and neuropsychological features of a patient with partial cerebellar agenesis (TZ), together with SPECT perfusion and fMRI activation during a finger tapping task. TZ shows only mild cerebellar signs, while neuropsychological testing discloses severe deficits in many domains, in accordance with the theorized role of the cerebellum in cognition. FMRI and SPECT demonstrate an activation and a symmetrical perfusion of the cerebellar remnants, that can be related to the residual cerebellar motor function. The left frontal and parieto-temporal cortex hypoperfusion can explain the severe cognitive impairment and could be linked to the abnormal cerebellar development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]