<p> Engaging, maintaining, and treating patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) remains a significant challenge for clinicians, hypothesized explanations for which are thought to involve specific executive functioning impairments. The neuropsychological treatment paradigm Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT) represents the translation of neurocognitive research into practice, and is thought to remediate neuropsychological symptoms and associated maladaptive cognitive processes. Additionally, the etiological model of AN related to executive functioning provides a conceptual framework for this novel approach to treatment. This study identifies and examines such a model, in addition to CRT protocols. Methodology involved a comprehensive synthesis and critical analysis of the literature pertaining to these domains. A variety of promising findings attributed to CRT are discussed, including an increase in participant BMI, improved neuropsychological performance, reduced perseveration, increased capacity for global processing, decreased eating disorder and depressive symptomatology, increased motivation, and confidence in patients&rsquo; ability to change and begin subsequent therapies. Numerous important methodological limitations are also elucidated, as many studies utilized small sample sizes resulting in low statistical power and poor generalizability, neglected to identify or consider demographic and cultural variables, failed to assess general intelligence or reference the normative data used, did not identify or discuss potential cohort or practice effects, provided limited details influencing studies&rsquo; reproducibility, and introduced a variety of biases. Nevertheless, this groundwork illuminated promising results in the treatment of a diagnostically complex and challenging disorder. Accordingly, a number of suggested future directions and clinical applications are elaborated upon.</p>

<p> The anxiety-reducing properties of alcohol are thought to contribute to development of alcohol dependence, particularly among individuals with anxiety disorders. Remarkably little is known, however, about the neural circuitry underlying anxiolytic effects of alcohol in humans. In a sample of 72 healthy adults, we employed the novel MultiThreat Countdown (MTC) task to investigate the dose-dependent consequences of acute alcohol intoxication (BAL range: 0.061 - 0.145%) during anticipation of certain or uncertain threat, compared to placebo. Focal analyses of the central extended amygdala revealed significant activation during threat in the right, but not left, hemisphere for both the central nucleus [Ce] and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis [BST]. Increasing BALs were associated with decreasing activation in right BST and self-reported fear/anxiety levels during threat. This effect did not differ between certain and uncertain threat. These results build upon converging lines of evidence and suggest involvement of BST in alcohol-induced anxiolysis.</p><p>

This study investigated the origin of vasopressin-immunoreactive (AVP-ir) fibers in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) in the gerbil hypothalamus. The MPOA contains a sexually dimorphic area (SDA) that has a subgroup of cells--the SDA pars compacta (SDApc)--which is absent in females in Nissl-stained preparations. It was previously found that AVP-ir fibers were clustered in a sexually dimorphic manner in the region that houses the SDApc in males: the clusters were much larger in males than in females. This study tried to determine whether these AVP-ir fibers came from the AVP cell bodies in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), whose efferents to the SDA are sexually dimorphic, or from the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Animals in one group received cuts dorsolateral to the SDA and ventromedial to the BST, which would transect efferents from the BST. A second group of animals received cuts ventral to the SDA and immediately dorsal to the SCN, which would transect efferents from the SCN. Cuts dorsal to the SCN eliminated AVP-ir fibers to the medial SDA (mSDA) and the SDApc, whereas cuts ventromedial to the BST and dorsolateral to the SDA left intact the AVP-ir innervation of the MPOA. These results suggests that the mSDA and the SDApc receive their innervation from the SCN. In a second experiment, the retrograde tracer fluorogold was injected into the area of the SDApc of gerbils and stained sections of their brains immunocytochemically for AVP. These injections labeled AVP-ir cells in the SCN but not in the medial amygdaloid nucleus or the BST. These double-labeled cells confirm that the SCN is the most likely source of the sexually dimorphic AVP innervation of the SDA. The existence of a pathway from the SCN to the SDA might provide a neural substrate by which the SCN can organize reproductive processes into temporal patterns.