Analisis Metafora Konseptual "Rasa" Berasaskan Data Korpus dalam Kalangan Pesakit Kemurungan

Kajian ini meneliti fenomena kemurungan dalam kalangan pesakit MDD dari perspektif bahasa. Kajian kes yang menjadi reka bentuk kajian ini memfokuskan seorang pesakit MDD di Pusat Perubatan Universiti Malaya (PPUM). Kajian menggunakan Teori Metafora Konseptual (TMK) oleh Lakoff dan Johnson (1980), analisis metafora sistematik oleh Cameron et al. (2010) dan Prosedur Pengidentifikasian Metafora (PPM) oleh Kumpulan Pragglejaz (2007). Dengan membangunkan data korpus sendiri (DIY corpus), data lisan ditranskripsi untuk dianalisis secara mendalam. Kajian ini mendapati bahawa sebanyak 61% kata "rasa" yang ditemukan dalam data korpus menunjukkan rangkuman bahasa emosi dan perasaan seseorang. Kata "rasa" dalam data korpus dianalisis untuk melihat cara pesakit Major Depression Disorder (MDD) mengekspresikan emosi kesedihan, kekecewaan dan putus harapan yang disampaikan melalui ungkapan tersirat. Sebanyak 87% metafora linguistik mengkonseptualkan metafora kemurungan. Dapatan kajian juga menunjukkan bahawa bahasa Melayu mempunyai set metafora yang sama dengan kajian lepas apabila metafora kemurungan yang telah diidentifikasikan sangat relevan dengan pemetaan metafora konseptual yang sedia ada, iaitu KEMURUNGAN IALAH KEJATUHAN, KEMURUNGAN IALAH SIMPTOM FIZIKAL, KEMURUNGAN IALAH BENDA, KEMURUNGAN IALAH BEBAN, KEMURUNGAN IALAH ORGANISMA HIDUP, KEMURUNGAN IALAH PERJALANAN dan KEMURUNGAN IALAH PEPERANGAN. Gabungan metafora sistematik juga dapat membingkaikan pemikiran pesakit kemurungan dan masyarakat sekeliling sehingga membentuk satu set metafora sistematik, iaitu PERSEPSI PESAKIT MENTAL TERHADAP STIGMA MASYARAKAT IALAH PERSEPSI NEGATIF TERHADAP ISLAM.

Fat mass and obesity-associated protein regulates RNA methylation associated with depression-like behavior in mice

Post-transcriptional modifications of RNA, such as RNA methylation, can epigenetically regulate behavior, for instance learning and memory. However, it is unclear whether RNA methylation plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of major depression disorder (MDD). Here, we report that expression of the fat mass and obesity associated gene (FTO), an RNA demethylase, is downregulated in the hippocampus of patients with MDD and mouse models of depression. Suppressing Fto expression in the mouse hippocampus results in depression-like behaviors in adult mice, whereas overexpression of FTO expression leads to rescue of the depression-like phenotype. Epitranscriptomic profiling of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation in the hippocampus of Fto knockdown (KD), Fto knockout (cKO), and FTO-overexpressing (OE) mice allows us to identify adrenoceptor beta 2 (Adrb2) mRNA as a target of FTO. ADRB2 stimulation rescues the depression-like behaviors in mice and spine loss induced by hippocampal Fto deficiency, possibly via the modulation of hippocampal SIRT1 expression by c-MYC. Our findings suggest that FTO is a regulator of a mechanism underlying depression-like behavior in mice.

The Changes in Concentration of Cerebral Oxygenated Hemoglobin During Single Event-Related Japanese Shiritori Task in Patients With Major Depression Disorder: Comparison With Healthy Subjects

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have been reported to show cognitive impairments in attention, cognition control, and motivation. The purpose of this study is to compare and examine the characteristics of frontal and temporal cortical activity in outpatients with MDD during the word production task (Shiritori) using a single event-related Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) measurement method that was originally devised. The subjects were 29 MDD patients and 29 age matched healthy controls. In this task, one session consisted of two contrasting conditions (word production task, control condition), and all subjects alternated between these conditions. Each word was visually presented by a monitor for 0.3 s as an activation task and a fixed circle was presented for 12 s. In the activation task, subjects had to immediately generate a noun that starts with the last syllable of the presented word and they were required to say only creatures. From the data obtained at each measurement point during the 20 trials, and averaged waveform during activation task (20 trials) was calculated for each channel. During the word production task, the MDD patients showed significantly smaller activation than the controls in the prefrontal cortex area and inferior parietal area, especially in the left area. In addition, there was a significant negative correlation between Δoxy-Hb at the bilateral temporal lobe area and HAM-D total score in the MDD patients. These findings suggest that a single event-related NIRS measurement during Japanese shiritori tasks may be useful tool for evaluating psychophysiological indices in MDD patients, that relationship between activation and symptom may be of help in predicting functional outcome in patients.