We tested 17 alcoholics and 31 age-matched controls with dual-task, working memory paradigms. Interference tasks competed with verbal and spatial working memory tasks using DAPT low (three item) or high (six item) memory loads. Participants also underwent structural MRI to obtain volumes of nodes of the frontocerebellar system. On the verbal working memory task, both groups performed equally. On the spatial working memory with the high-load task, the alcoholic group was disproportionately more affected by the arithmetic distractor than

were controls. In alcoholics, volumes of the left thalamus and left cerebellar Crus I volumes were more robust predictors of performance in the spatial see more working memory task with the arithmetic distractor than the left frontal superior cortex. In controls, volumes of the right middle frontal gyrus and right cerebellar

Crus I were independent predictors over the left cerebellar Crus I, left thalamus, right superior parietal cortex, or left middle frontal gyrus of spatial working memory performance with tracking interference. The brain-behavior correlations suggest that alcoholics and controls relied on the integrity of certain nodes of corticocerebellar systems to perform these verbal and spatial working memory tasks, but that the specific pattern of relationships differed by group. The resulting brain structure-function patterns provide correlational support that components of this corticocerebellar system not typically related to normal performance in dual-task conditions may be available to augment otherwise dampened performance by alcoholics. Neuropsychopharmacology (2010) 35, 1868-1878; doi: 10.1038/npp.2010.56; published online 21 April 2010″
“Severe primary respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are characterized by bronchiolitis accompanied by wheezing. Controversy Selleck SCH772984 exists as to whether infants suffer from virus-induced lung pathology or from excessive immune responses. Furthermore,

detailed knowledge about the development of primary T-cell responses to viral infections in infants is lacking. We studied the dynamics of innate neutrophil and adaptive T-cell responses in peripheral blood in relation to theviral load and parameters of disease in infants admitted to the intensive care unit with severe RSV infection. Analysis of primary T-cell responses showed substantial CD8(+) T-cell activation, which peaked during convalescence. A strong neutrophil response, characterized by mobilization of bone marrow-derived neutrophil precursors, preceded the peak in T-cell activation. The kinetics of this neutrophil response followed the peak of clinical symptoms and the viral load with a 2- to 3-day delay. From the sequence of events, we conclude that CD8(+) T-cell responses, initiated during primary RSV infections, are unlikely to contribute to disease when it is most severe.