Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe illness with a high mortality rate which mainly affects young women. Studies found a localized volume loss of the amygdala in patients with AN, a brain region responsible for affective responses. Patients with AN were found to have body image distortions, and suffer from the comorbid disorders depression, anxiety disorder, and obsession. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze a possible connection between comorbidities, body image disturbances, and the volume of the amygdala in patients with AN.

The ability to use numerical information in different contexts is a major goal of mathematics education. In health risk communication, outcomes of a medical condition are frequently expressed in probabilities. Difficulties to accurately represent probability information can result in unfavourable medical decisions. To support individuals with low-numeracy skills, pictographs such as graphs or icon arrays have been proposed to increase risk communication. The neurocognitive mechanism underlying the processing of health risk perception in individuals with low- and high-numeracy remain to be explored. To investigate the neural correlates of health risk perception, the brain responses of individuals with low- and high-numeracy were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In the health risk perception condition, participants were instructed to indicate how concerned they would be of having cancer, given an icon array in which the probability of developing cancer was displayed. In the number line condition the same icon arrays were presented and participants were instructed to indicate the absolute number of displayed black icons. Results of the study showed that the low-numeracy group was more accurate in the health risk condition compared to the high-numeracy group, which overestimated health risks. A comparison of brain activation between the groups demonstrated that the high-numeracy group expressed larger brain engagement during the health risk condition in regions that are commonly associated with conflict monitoring, decision-making and emotional processing. These results provide initial evidence that individuals with high-numeracy engage regions of the brain to a different extent compared to individuals with low-numeracy.

A positive view of oneself is important for a healthy lifestyle. Self-protection mechanisms such as suppressing negative self-related information help us to maintain a positive view of ourselves. This is of special relevance when, for instance, a negative test result threatens our positive self-view. To date, it is not clear which brain areas support self-protective mechanisms under self-threat. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study the participants (N = 46) received a (negative vs. positive) performance test feedback before entering the scanner. In the scanner, the participants were instructed to ascribe personality traits either to themselves or to a famous other. Our results showed that participants responded slower to negative self-related traits compared to positive self-related traits. High self-esteem individuals responded slower to negative traits compared to low self-esteem individuals following a self-threat. This indicates that high self-esteem individuals engage more in self-enhancing strategies after a threat by inhibiting negative self-related information more successfully than low self-esteem individuals. This behavioral pattern was mirrored in the fMRI data as dACC correlated positively with trait self-esteem. Generally, ACC activation was attenuated under threat when participants evaluated self-relevant traits and even more for negative self-related traits. We also found that activation in the ACC was negatively correlated with response times, indicating that greater activation of the ACC is linked to better access (faster response) to positive self-related traits and to impaired access (slower response) to negative self-related traits. These results confirm the ACC function as important in managing threatened self-worth but indicate differences in trait self-esteem levels. The fMRI analyses also revealed a decrease in activation within the left Hippocampus and the right thalamus under threat. This indicates that a down-regulation of activation in these regions might also serve as coping mechanism in dealing with self-threat.

OBJECTIVE Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe mental illness that mainly affects young females. Studies have found a reduction of the hippocampus-amygdala formation in people with AN, a brain region that is especially vulnerable to stress. In addition, patients with AN were found to perceive higher stress levels and to have more coping deficiencies than healthy controls. No prior study has considered a connection between stress, coping, and the hippocampal volume in AN. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to analyze the volume of hippocampal substructures, and its relation to stress and coping. METHOD We tested 21 females currently affected by AN and 21 age-matched normal controls (NC). Demographic and behavioral data were assessed. A magnetic resonance (MR) scanner was used to collect data reflecting volume of cortical structures. We performed comparisons between groups and calculated correlations between the hippocampal volume and coping strategies or stress. RESULTS The results showed a significant reduction of the hippocampal fimbria and a significant enlargement of the hippocampal fissure in patients with AN compared to the NC. In addition, patients with AN were found to report higher stress levels and to have more coping deficiencies than healthy controls. The hippocampal volume showed a trend-level association with stress in patients with AN. DISCUSSION In sum, our study provides the first-available evidence that perceived stress in patients with AN could be related to hippocampal volume. Our results may contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of AN and, therefore, help to improve the treatment.

Often we cannot resist emotional distraction, because emotions capture our attention. For example, in TV-commercials, tempting emotional voices add an emotional expression to a formerly neutral product. Here, we used a Stroop-like conflict paradigm as a tool to investigate whether emotional capture results in contextual integration of loose mental associations. Specifically, we tested whether the associatively connected meaning of an ignored auditory emotion with a non-emotional neutral visual target would yield a modulation of activation sensitive to emotional conflict in the brain. In an fMRI-study, nineteen participants detected the presence or absence of a little worm hidden in the picture of an apple, while ignoring a voice with an emotional sound of taste (delicious/disgusting). Our results indicate a modulation due to emotional conflict, pronounced most strongly when processing conflict in the context of disgust (conflict: disgust/no-worm vs. no conflict: disgust/worm). For conflict in the context of disgust, insula activity was increased, with activity correlating positively with reaction time in the conflict case. Conflict in the context of deliciousness resulted in increased amygdala activation, possibly due to the resulting "negative" emotion in incongruent versus congruent combinations. These results indicate that our associative stimulus-combinations showed a conflict-dependent modulation of activity in emotional brain areas. This shows that the emotional sounds were successfully contextually integrated with the loosely associated neutral pictures.

Behavioral research has revealed that some cognitive features may be similar between creative and psychotic/schizophrenic-like thoughts. In this study, we addressed the potential link between creativity and schizotypy at the level of the brain by investigating functional patterns of brain activity (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) during creative cognition in preselected groups with low versus high psychometrically determined schizotypy. Our findings revealed an association between the originality component of creativity and reduced deactivation of right parietal brain regions and the precuneus during creative cognition, congruent with the idea that more-creative people may include many more events/stimuli in their mental processes than do less-creative people. Similarly, the high-schizotypy group showed weaker deactivation of the right precuneus during creative cognition. The fact that originality and schizotypy show similar functional brain activity patterns during creative ideation (i.e., reduced deactivation of the right precuneus) strongly supports the contention that similar mental processes may be implicated in creativity and in psychosis proneness.

BACKGROUND: Recommended by current guidelines, red blood cell (RBC) temperature should not exceed 10°C during transport. Since warming is a generically three‐dimensional process that is not homogeneous, it is necessary to clarify the term “temperature during warming.” The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate laws and relations between surface, mean, and core temperature and the corresponding times when they exceed 10°C during warm‐up. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Time‐resolved three‐dimensional temperature distributions of 53 resuspended RBC units (mean volume, 253 ± 17 mL) were measured noninvasively by magnetic resonance thermometry. Warm‐up temperature maps were visualized and analyzed by dedicated software. RESULTS: Mean times when surface, mean, and core temperature exceeded 10°C were 16 ± 4, 24 ± 5, and 36 ± 7 minutes, respectively. Times strongly correlated with each other (r = 0.78‐0.95) and their variances mainly depended on RBC storage temperature and RBC pouch width (R 2 = 0.81‐0.89). Measured mean temperature time courses were well described by a lumped capacitive model of heat transfer with a sample width‐dependent time constant τ RBC = 56.3 ± 3.5 minutes (mean R 2 = 0.996). CONCLUSION: Times when RBC surface, mean, and core temperature exceed 10°C can be estimated from each other. Moreover RBC mean temperature can be calculated for arbitrary storage and ambient temperatures. Findings might serve as a helpful tool in RBC temperature monitoring.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an important diagnostic tool with an ongoing dynamic development towards application of increasing static magnetic flux densities and consequently, exposures to electromagnetic fields (EMF) of increasing radio frequencies (RF). This raises particular concern metallic implants could lead to excess tissue heating and consequently, to thermal tissue damage. In thorax surgery the intersected sternum is reconnected by metallic sutures (cerclages). To investigate whether patients with such implants can be accepted for MRI and whether there may be limitations with regard to static magnetic fields, by numerical anatomical and thermal modelling MRI induced tissue heating was assessed for magnetic flux densities 1.5 T, 3 T, 4 T and 7 T. Results show that overall tissue temperature increased with increasing RF EMF frequency. However, even for setting MRI exposure parameters at maximum permissible level partial body heating remained marginally affected and even at local level the additional contribution of the presence of the metallic cerclage remained below 1°C. This allows concluding that from a heating point of view metallic sutures as used to fix the sternum after thorax surgery are no contraindication for MRI with static magnetic flux densities up to 7 T.

Purpose: Temperature is a key measure in human red blood cell concentrate (RBC) quality control. A precise description of transient temperature distributions in RBC units removed from steady storage exposed to ambient temperature is at present unknown. Magnetic resonance thermometry was employed to visualize and analyse RBC warm up processes, to describe time courses of RBC mean, surface and core temperatures by an analytical model, and to determine and investigate corresponding model parameters.Methods: Warm-up processes of 47 RBC units stored at 1-6 degrees C and exposed to 21.25 degrees C ambient temperature were investigated by proton resonance frequency thermometry. Temperature distributions were visualized and analysed with dedicated software allowing derivation of RBC mean, surface and core temperature-time courses during warm up. Time-dependence of mean temperature was assumed to fulfil a lumped capacitive model of heat transfer. Time courses of relative surface and core temperature changes to ambient temperature were similarly assumed to follow shifted exponential decays characterized by a time constant and a relative time shift, respectively.Results: The lumped capacitive model of heat transfer and shifted exponential decays described time-dependence of mean, surface and core temperatures close to perfect (mean R-2 were 0.999 +/- 0.001, 0.996 +/- 0.004 and 0.998 +/- 0.002, respectively). Mean time constants were tau(mean) = 55.3 +/- 3.7 min, tau(surface) = 41.4 +/- 2.9 min and tau(core) = 76.8 +/- 7.1 min, mean relative time shifts were Delta(surface) = 0.07 +/- 0.02 and Delta(core) = 0.04 +/- 0.01. None of the constants correlated significantly with temperature differences between ambient and storage temperature.Conclusion: Lumped capacitive model of heat transfer and shifted exponential decays represent simple analytical formulas to describe transient mean, surface and core temperatures of RBC during warm up, which might be a helpful tool in RBC temperature monitoring and quality control. Independence of constants on differences between ambient and storage temperature suggests validity of models for arbitrary storage and ambient temperatures.

This fMRI study investigated brain activation during creative idea generation using a novel approach allowing spontaneous self-paced generation and expression of ideas. Specifically, we addressed the fundamental question of what brain processes are relevant for the generation of genuinely new creative ideas, in contrast to the mere recollection of old ideas from memory. In general, creative idea generation (i.e., divergent thinking) was associated with extended activations in the left prefrontal cortex and the right medial temporal lobe, and with deactivation of the right temporoparietal junction. The generation of new ideas, as opposed to the retrieval of old ideas, was associated with stronger activation in the left inferior parietal cortex which is known to be involved in mental simulation, imagining, and future thought. Moreover, brain activation in the orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus was found to increase as a function of the creativity (i.e., originality and appropriateness) of ideas pointing to the role of executive processes for overcoming dominant but uncreative responses. We conclude that the process of idea generation can be generally understood as a state of focused internally-directed attention involving controlled semantic retrieval. Moreover, left inferior parietal cortex and left prefrontal regions may subserve the flexible integration of previous knowledge for the construction of new and creative ideas.

Poster: ECR 2013 / C-1066 / Magnetic resonance thermometry derived solution for the problem to measure transient red blood cell temperature during transport by: Reiter1, U. Reiter1, T. Wagner1, N. Kozma1, J. Roland2, H. Schoellnast1, F. Ebner1, G. Lanzer1; 1Graz/AT, 2Erlangen/DE