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Evidence suggests that psychopathic individuals display difficulties to adapt their behavior in accordance with the demands of the environment and show altered performance monitoring. Studies investigating the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error-positivity (Pe) as electrophysiological markers of error monitoring reported contradictory results for this population. To explain these discrepancies, we hypothesized that psychopathy dimensions influence electrophysiological outcomes. We predicted that individuals with impulsive-antisocial features would display abnormal ERN compared to individuals with interpersonal-affective features. A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies investigating ERN and Pe components were conducted. A factorial analysis was undertaken to investigate the role of psychopathy dimensions on ERN and Pe. Compared to controls, psychopathic individuals (n = 940) showed a reduced ERN and Pe amplitude. The factorial analysis indicates a dissociation regarding the construct of psychopathy. The models reported that psychopathic individuals related specifically to the interpersonal-affective dimension displayed normal ERN component and efficient error-monitoring, while psychopathic individuals with a marked impulsive-antisocial dimension display a decreased ERN component and altered performance monitoring.

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Around the clinical situation of a patient presenting an acute and transient psychotic disorder, the importance of team work becomes evident. Nursing care is present in all phases of the patient's care, from admission to discharge, including in the isolation room and the electroconvulsive therapy sessions. Presence, support, reassurance as well as the bond with the family are cornerstones of the nursing care.

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Schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder associated with numerous etiological factors and pathophysiological pathways leading to multiple clinical outcomes. Compelling evidence suggests that deviations in neurodevelopmental processes are a major risk factor of schizophrenia. The identification of patients with high neurodevelopmental deviance is an important issue as it could help to identify homogeneous subgroups of patients with similar pathophysiological pathways, a key step to decipher the etiology of this complex condition. Several clinical arguments suggest that schizophrenia patients with Neurological Soft Signs (NSS)--ie, observable defects in motor coordination, motor integration, and sensory integration--would have high neurodevelopmental deviance. Based on the analysis of magnetic resonance imaging of 44 first-episode psychosis patients, we compared the cortex morphology, a marker of brain development, in patients with NSS vs patients with nonsignificant NSS. The cortex morphology was automatically assessed from three-dimensional global sulcal index (g-SI, the ratio between total sulcal area and outer cortex area) and regional sulcal indexes (r-SI, the ratio between the area of pooled labeled sulci and the total outer cortex area). Patients with NSS were found to have a lower g-SI in both hemispheres and a lower r-SI in left dorsolateral prefrontal and right lateral occipital cortices. Exploratory analyses revealed correlations between NSS dimensions and r-SI in distinct cortical areas, including dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortices, lateral temporal, occipital, superior parietal, and medial parieto-occipital cortices. These findings provide evidence of distinct neurodevelopmental pathways in patients with NSS as compared with patients with nonsignificant NSS.

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Sadness is considered by numerous authors to be a core symptom of depression. Currently, many arguments exist for its particular importance in depressed patients. Sadness makes up part of the various definitions of the depressive syndrome, even if its presence is not required for diagnosis. Furthermore, it is closely linked to the other depressive symptoms, and has prognostic value, in particular for remission. The recognition and measurement of sadness seem important for therapeutic evaluation, in clinical studies, and in depressed patients at an individual level. This paper presents a selective review of some of the various aspects of sadness as an integral part of depression, and an examination of its links with a disease which is a major health concern.

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The role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia has been highlighted by Andreasen's hypothesis of "cognitive dysmetria," which suggests a general dyscoordination of sensorimotor and mental processes. Studies in schizophrenic patients have brought observations supporting a cerebellar impairment: high prevalence of neurological soft signs, dyscoordination, abnormal posture and propioception, impaired eyeblink conditioning, impaired adaptation of the vestibular-ocular reflex or procedural learning tests, and lastly functional neuroimaging studies correlating poor cognitive performances with abnormal cerebellar activations. Despite those compelling evidences, there has been, to our knowledge, no recent review on the clinical, cognitive, and functional literature supporting the role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia. We conducted a Medline research focusing on cerebellar dysfunctions in schizophrenia. Emphasis was given to recent literature (after 1998). The picture arising from this review is heterogeneous. While in some domains, the role of the cerebellum seems clearly defined (ie, neurological soft signs, posture, or equilibrium), in other domains, the cerebellar contribution to schizophrenia seems limited or indirect (ie, cognition) if present at all (ie, affectivity). Functional models of the cerebellum are proposed as a background for interpreting these results.

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