Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
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Neurosci Biobehav Rev · Jun 2015
ReviewGamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BD; BDO): A literature review with a focus on UK fatalities related to non-medical use.
Misuse of gamma hydroxybutrate (GHB) and gamma butyrolactone (GBL) has increased greatly since the early 1990s, being implicated in a rising number of deaths. This paper reviews knowledge on GHB and derivatives, and explores the largest series of deaths associated with their non-medical use. Descriptive analyses of cases associated with GHB/GBL and 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BD) use extracted from the UK's National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths database. ⋯ Post-mortem blood levels: mean 482 (range 0-6500; SD 758)mg/L. Results suggest significant caution is needed when ingesting GHB/GBL, particularly with alcohol, benzodiazepines, opiates, stimulants, and ketamine. More awareness is needed about risks associated with consumption.
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Neurosci Biobehav Rev · May 2015
ReviewSensing the body in chronic pain: a review of psychophysical studies implicating altered body representation.
There is growing evidence that chronic pain conditions can have an associated central pathology, involving both cortical reorganisation and an incongruence between expected and actual sensory-motor feedback. While such findings are primarily driven by the recent proliferation of neuroimaging studies, the psychophysical tasks that complement those investigations have received little attention. ⋯ We do so by examining three broad sensory systems that form the foundations of the sense of physical self in patients with common chronic pain disorders: (i) reweighting of proprioceptive information; (ii) altered sensitivity to exteroceptive stimuli; and, (iii) disturbed interoceptive awareness of the state of the body. Such findings present compelling evidence for a multisensory and multimodal approach to therapies for chronic pain disorders.
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Neurosci Biobehav Rev · Apr 2015
Review Comparative StudyComparison of operant escape and reflex tests of nociceptive sensitivity.
Testing of reflexes such as flexion/withdrawal or licking/guarding is well established as the standard for evaluating nociceptive sensitivity and its modulation in preclinical investigations of laboratory animals. Concerns about this approach have been dismissed for practical reasons - reflex testing requires no training of the animals; it is simple to instrument; and responses are characterized by observers as latencies or thresholds for evocation. ⋯ Numerous disparities between results for reflex and operant escape measures are described, but the results of operant testing are consistent with evidence from humans. Objective reasons are given for experimenters to choose between these and other methods of evaluating the nociceptive sensitivity of laboratory animals.
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Neurosci Biobehav Rev · Apr 2015
ReviewAssociative fear learning and perceptual discrimination: a perceptual pathway in the development of chronic pain.
Recent neuropsychological theories emphasize the influence of maladaptive learning and memory processes on pain perception. However, the precise relationship between these processes as well as the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood; especially the role of perceptual discrimination and its modulation by associative fear learning has received little attention so far. ⋯ In addition, clinical observations have revealed that in individuals with chronic pain perceptual discrimination is impaired, and that tactile discrimination training reduces pain. Based on these findings, we present a theoretical model of which the central tenet is that associative fear learning contributes to the development of chronic pain through impaired interoceptive and proprioceptive discrimination acuity.
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Researchers have recently begun to examine the neural basis of musical improvisation, one of the most complex forms of creative behavior. The emerging field of improvisation neuroscience has implications not only for the study of artistic expertise, but also for understanding the neural underpinnings of domain-general processes such as motor control and language production. This review synthesizes functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) studies of musical improvisation, including vocal and instrumental improvisation, with samples of jazz pianists, classical musicians, freestyle rap artists, and non-musicians. ⋯ Yet activation of cortical midline regions points to a role of spontaneous cognition characteristic of the default network. Together, such results may reflect cooperation between large-scale brain networks associated with cognitive control and spontaneous thought. The improvisation literature is integrated with Pressing's theoretical model, and discussed within the broader context of research on the brain basis of creative cognition.