White matter microstructure alterations of the medial forebrain bundle in melancholic depression

BACKGROUND The medial forebrain bundle (MFB) is a key structure of the reward system and connects the ventral tegmental area (VTA) with the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC, lOFC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Previous diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies in major depressive disorder point to white matter alterations of regions which may be incorporated in the MFB. Therefore, it was the aim of our study to probe white matter integrity of the MFB using a DTI-based probabilistic fibre tracking approach. METHODS 22 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) (12 melancholic-MDD patients, 10 non-melancholic-MDD patients) and 21 healthy controls underwent DTI scans. We used a bilateral probabilistic fibre tracking approach to extract pathways between the VTA and NACC, mOFC, lOFC, dlPFC respectively. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) values were used to compare structural connectivity between groups. RESULTS Mean-FA did not differ between healthy controls and all MDD patients. Compared to healthy controls melancholic MDD-patients had reduced mean-FA in right VTA-lOFC and VTA-dlPFC connections. Furthermore, melancholic-MDD patients had lower mean-FA than non-melancholic MDD-patients in the right VTA-lOFC connection. Mean-FA of these pathways correlated negatively with depression scale rating scores. LIMITATIONS Due to the small sample size and heterogeneous age group comparisons between melancholic and non-melancholic MDD-patients should be regarded as preliminary. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that the melancholic subtype of MDD is characterized by white matter microstructure alterations of the MFB. White matter microstructure is associated with both depression severity and anhedonia.

Prostitúciós terek performativitása - szexmunkások és a nyilvános tér Magyarországon

Az állami intézmények tereket hoznak létre azáltal, hogy meghatározott területekre vonatkozóan szabályokat vagy normákat írnak elő. Az ott élő, tevékenykedő emberek használják e tereket, stratégiákat alkotnak, alkalmazkodnak a törvényekhez és piaci viszonyokhoz, kiskapukat keresnek, hogy megélhetésüket, túlélésüket biztosítsák. Eközben ők maguk is olyan tereket hoznak létre, amelyeket a társadalom szimbolikusan értékel vagy stigmatizál. De a terek maguk is alakítják az embereket, lehetőséget biztosítanak számukra, hogy alkalmazkodjanak a feltételekhez, amivel ugyanakkor megteremtik a társadalmi változások alapjait – akárhogyan is alakuljanak e változások. A médiában, a prostitúcióról szóló hírekben a főszereplők jellemzően háttérben maradnak, e tanulmány nekik szentel figyelmet. Ezzel egyidejűleg a szerző megkíséreli a magyarországi nyilvános tereken zajló prostitúciót Budapest, Pécs és Nyíregyháza legkülönfélébb terein megvizsgálni.

Who Is Afraid of School Choice?

This study uses survey data to investigate attitudes among Swiss voters to different models offering more freedom of choice in the educational system. There is a clear opposition to the use of taxpayer money to fund private schools, while free choice between public schools seems to appeal to a majority. The opinions appear to be based on a rational calculation of personal utility. For both types of choice, approval rates are lower for middle to high-income groups and individuals with a teaching qualification. Furthermore, residents of small to medium-sized towns are opposed to more school choice. On the support side, approval rates for private school choice are higher among parents of school-age children and residents in urban areas. The results also indicate differences between the country's language regions, attributable to intercultural differences in what people consider the role of the state.