Johanne Lévesque

Neurodezign · clinical

The main objective of this structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study was to investigate, using diffusion tensor imaging, whether a neurofeedback training (NFT) protocol designed to improve sustained attention might induce structural changes in white matter (WM) pathways, purportedly implicated in this cognitive ability. Another goal was to...

Introduction. Studies performed during the last decades suggest that neurofeedback (NF) training can effectively reduce symptomatology in children with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet questions remain concerning specific effects of NF training in ADHD children, because these studies did not use a randomized, placebo-controlled...

We sought to investigate the link between substance abuse and increased striatal gray matter densities (GMD) in schizophrenia, using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Increased striatal GMD were found in patients with schizophrenia and substance use disorder (n=12), but not schizophrenia only patients (n=11), compared to healthy volunteers (n=15).

An inability to self-regulate negative emotions appears to play a pivotal role in the genesis of major depressive disorder. This inability may be related to a dysfunction of the neural circuitry underlying emotional self-regulation. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study was conducted to test this hypothesis. Depressed individuals and con...

Two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments were undertaken to measure the effect of neurofeedback training (NFT), in AD/HD children, on the neural substrates of selective attention and response inhibition. Twenty unmedicated AD/HD children participated to these experiments. Fifteen children were randomly assigned to the Experiment...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder mainly characterized by impairments in cognitive functions. Functional neuroimaging studies carried out in individuals with AD/HD have shown abnormal functioning of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during tasks involving selective attention. In other respects, ther...

Emotional self-regulation plays a pivotal role in socialization and moral development. This capacity critically depends on the development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study was conducted to identify the neural circuitry underlying voluntary self-regulation of sadness in healthy girls (aged 8-10)...

During the last decade, the study of emotional self-regulation has blossomed in a variety of sub-disciplines belonging to either psychology (developmental, clinical) or the neurosciences (cognitive and affective). Consciousness, Emotional Self-Regulation and the Brain gives an overview of the current state of this relatively new scientific field. S...

Emotional development is indisputably one of the cornerstones of personality development during infancy. According to the differential emotions theory (DET), primary emotions are constituted of three distinct components: the neural-evaluative, the expressive, and the experiential. The DET further assumes that these three components are biologically...

The question of whether distinct or similar neural substrates underlie primary emotions has not been resolved yet. To address this issue, we used fMRI to scan professional actors during self-induced states of sadness and happiness. Results demonstrated that, relative to an emotionally Neutral state, both the Sad and the Happy states were associated...

Several functional neuroimaging studies have been carried out in healthy subjects to investigate the neural correlates of sadness. Importantly, there is little consistency among the results of these studies. Hypothesizing that individual differences may account for the discrepancies among these investigations, we conducted two functional magnetic r...

Background: The ability to voluntarily self-regulate negative emotion is essential to a healthy psyche. Indeed, a chronic incapacity to suppress negative emotion might be a key factor in the genesis of depression and anxiety. Regarding the neural underpinnings of emotional self-regulation, a recent functional neuroimaging study carried out by our...

Questions pertaining to the neurobiological effects of psychotherapy are now considered among the most topical in psychiatry. With respect to this issue, positron emission tomography (PET) findings indicate that cognitive and behavioral modifications, occurring in a psychotherapeutic context, can lead to regional brain metabolic changes in patients...

A fundamental question about the relationship between cognition and emotion concerns the neural substrate underlying emotional self-regulation. To address this issue, brain activation was measured in normal male subjects while they either responded in a normal manner to erotic film excerpts or voluntarily attempted to inhibit the sexual arousal ind...