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Epilepsy Res 2021 Mar 23;173:106621. Epub 2021 Mar 23.

Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, The First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Nanjing, 210002, China; Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing, 210002, China; State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 Thirteenth Street, Suite 2301, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA. Electronic address:

To investigate the morphological changes of cerebral cortex correlating with anti-seizure medication in Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes (CECTS), and their relationships with seizure control. This study included a total of 188 children, including 62 patients with CECTS taking anti-seizure drugs, 56 patients with drug-naive, and 70 healthy controls. A portion of cases were also followed-up for longitudinal analysis. Read More

Schizophr Res 2021 Apr 15;231:179-188. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Dept. of Radiological Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America; Dept. of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America; Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America. Electronic address:

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a chronic cognitive and behavioral disorder associated with abnormal cortical activity during information processing. Several brain structures associated with the seven performance domains evaluated using the MATRICS (Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia) Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) have shown cortical volume loss in first episode schizophrenia (FES) patients. However, the relationship between morphological organization and MCCB performance remains unclear. Read More

World Neurosurg 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital "St. Ivan Rilski", Sofia, Bulgaria.

Background: Awake craniotomy (AC) and direct electrical stimulation (DES) emerged together with epilepsy surgery more than 80 years ago. The goal of our study was to evaluate the benefits of awake surgery in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy due to focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) affecting eloquent areas.

Methods: Our material included 95 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy and FCD, who were operated on between January 2009 and December 2018. Read More

World Neurosurg 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Department of Neurological Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States; USC Neurorestoration Center, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA, United States; Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States.

Objective: Coherence between the hippocampus and other brain structures has been shown with the theta frequency (3-8 Hz). Cortical decreases in theta coherence are thought to reflect response accuracy efficiency. However, the role of theta coherence during conflict resolution is poorly understood in non-cortical areas. Read More

Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

ED Care, Denver, Colorado, USA.

Background: Adolescence is a critical period for development of personality but also psychopathology. Those processes may be specific to sex and brain reward circuits may have a role. Here we studied how reward processing and temperament associations differ across adolescent and adult females. Read More

Cereb Cortex 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.

Genetic, molecular, and physical forces together impact brain morphogenesis. The early impact of deficient midline crossing in agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (ACC) on prenatal human brain development and architecture is widely unknown. Here we analyze the changes of brain structure in 46 fetuses with ACC in vivo to identify their deviations from normal development. Read More

IEEE Trans Neural Netw Learn Syst 2021 Apr 19;PP. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Dropout is one of the most widely used methods to avoid overfitting neural networks. However, it rigidly and randomly activates neurons according to a fixed probability, which is not consistent with the activation mode of neurons in the human cerebral cortex. Inspired by gene theory and the activation mechanism of brain neurons, we propose a more intelligent adaptive dropout, in which a variational self-encoder (VAE) overlaps to an existing neural network to regularize its hidden neurons by adaptively setting activities to zero. Read More

IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2021 Apr 19;PP. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Objective: While understanding the interaction patterns among simultaneous recordings of spike trains from multiple neuronal units is a key topic in neuroscience, existing methods either do not consider the inherent point-process nature of spike trains or are based on parametric assumptions. This work presents an information-theoretic framework for the model-free, continuous-time estimation of both undirected (symmetric) and directed (Granger-causal) interactions between spike trains.

Methods: The framework computes the mutual information rate (MIR) and the transfer entropy rate (TER) for two point processes X and Y, showing that the MIR between X and Y can be decomposed as the sum of the TER along the directions X Y and Y X. Read More

Neurochem Res 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Pre-Clinical Research Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the crucial causative factors for progressive dementia. Neuropathologically, AD is characterized by the extracellular accumulation of amyloid beta plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles in cortical and limbic regions of the human brain. The circadian system is one of the many affected physiological processes in AD, the dysfunction of which may reflect in the irregularity of the sleep/wake cycle. Read More

Cell Mol Neurobiol 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA.

1p34.2p34.3 deletion syndrome is characterized by an increased risk for autism. Read More

Brain Struct Funct 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Neurosurgery, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.

Penfield's motor homunculus describes a caricaturised yet useful representation of the map of various body parts on the pre-central cortex. We propose a supplemental map of the clinically represented areas of human body in pre-central cortex and a novel subcortical corticospinal tract map. We believe this knowledge is essential for safe surgery in patients with eloquent brain lesions. Read More

J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Neuroendocrine Unit, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Hospital das Clinicas, University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil.

Context: Acromegaly can impair bone integrity, increasing the risk of vertebral fractures (VF).

Objective: To evaluate the impact of isolated GH/IGF-I hypersecretion on bone turnover markers,Wnt inhibitors, BMD, microarchitecture, bone strength and vertebral fractures in female patients with acromegaly (Acro), compared to healthy control group (HC).

Design, Setting, And Patients: Cross-sectional study including 83 premenopausal women without any pituitary deficiency:18 acromegaly in remission (AcroR), 12 in group with active acromegaly (AcroA) and 53 HC. Read More

J Intern Med 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

From the, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

J Neurochem 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is common and is associated with poor clinical outcome. Toll-like receptor (TLR) 3 and 4 have been implied in the development of POCD. The role of TLR2, a major brain TLR, in POCD is not clear. Read More

Schizophr Bull 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Neurogenetics, Max-Planck-Institute of Experimental Medicine, Goettingen, Germany.

The neuregulin 1 (NRG1) ErbB4 module is at the core of an "at risk" signaling pathway in schizophrenia. Several human studies suggest hyperstimulation of NRG1-ErbB4 signaling as a plausible pathomechanism; however, little is known about the significance of stage-, brain area-, or neural cell type-specific NRG1-ErbB4 hyperactivity for disease-relevant brain endophenotypes. To address these spatiotemporal aspects, we generated transgenic mice for Cre recombinase-mediated overexpression of cystein-rich domain (CRD) NRG1, the most prominent NRG1 isoform in the brain. Read More

Mult Scler 2021 Apr 19:13524585211008743. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Background: Thalamic atrophy is proposed to be a major predictor of disability progression in multiple sclerosis (MS), while thalamic function remains understudied.

Objectives: To study how thalamic functional connectivity (FC) is related to disability and thalamic or cortical network atrophy in two large MS cohorts.

Methods: Structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was obtained in 673 subjects from Amsterdam (MS:  = 332, healthy controls (HC):  = 96) and Graz (MS:  = 180, HC:  = 65) with comparable protocols, including disability measurements in MS (Expanded Disability Status Scale, EDSS). Read More

J Am Heart Assoc 2021 Apr 19:e018716. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Medicine Amager Hvidovre Hospital in Glostrup University of Copenhagen Glostrup Denmark.

Background Increased potassium intake lowers blood pressure in patients with hypertension, but increased potassium intake also elevates plasma concentrations of the blood pressure-raising hormone aldosterone. Besides its well-described renal effects, aldosterone is also believed to have vascular effects, acting through mineralocorticoid receptors present in endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells, although mineralocorticoid receptors-independent actions are also thought to be involved. Methods and Results To gain further insight into the effect of increased potassium intake and potassium-stimulated hyperaldosteronism on the human cardiovascular system, we conducted a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind crossover study in 25 healthy normotensive men, where 4 weeks treatment with a potassium supplement (90 mmol/day) was compared with 4 weeks on placebo. Read More

J Neurosurg Sci 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

University of Montpellier, CNRS UMR5203, INSERM U1191, Institute of Functional Genomics, Montpellier, France -

The frontal aslant tract (FAT) is an intralobar white matter fasciculus providing dense connections between the medial part of the superior frontal gyrus, in particular the pre-supplementary motor area (SMA) and the SMA proper, and the lateral part of the frontal lobe, especially the inferior frontal gyrus. Although this tract has been characterized belatedly, it has received important attention in recent years due notably to its increasingly evidenced role in the speech and language networks. As cerebral tumors frequently affect the frontal lobe, an improved knowledge of the functional anatomy of the FAT is mandatory to refine the way neurosurgeries are performed and to give the patients the best opportunities to recover after surgery. Read More

Proteomics 2021 Apr 19:e2000091. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Discipline of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Health, The University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Spectrin is a ubiquitous cytoskeletal protein that provides structural stability and supports membrane integrity. In erythrocytes, spectrin proteolysis leads to the biogenesis of plasma membrane extracellular vesicles (EVs). However, its role in non-erythroid or cancer-derived plasma membrane EVs biogenesis is unknown. Read More

Sleep 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Social, Organisational, and Differential Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.

Sleep is a fundamental physiological state that facilitates neural recovery during periods of attenuated sensory processing. On the other hand, mammalian sleep is also characterized by the interplay between periods of increased sleep depth and environmental alertness. Whereas the heterogeneity of microstates during non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep was extensively studied in the last decades, transient microstates during REM sleep received less attention. Read More

Graph Learn Med Imaging (2019) 2019 14;11849:120-129. Epub 2019 Nov 14.

School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

A large number of surface-based analyses on brain imaging data adopt some specific brain atlases to better assess structural and functional changes in one or more brain regions. In these analyses, it is necessary to obtain an anatomically correct surface parcellation scheme in an individual brain by referring to the given atlas. Traditional ways to accomplish this goal are through a designed surface-based registration or hand-crafted surface features, although both of them are time-consuming. Read More

IBRO Neurosci Rep 2021 Jun 27;10:186-190. Epub 2021 Mar 27.

Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 E Daniel St, Champaign, IL 61820, United States.

Apoptosis, programmed cell death, is a critical component of neurodevelopment occurring in temporal, spatial, and at times, sex-specific, patterns across the cortex during the early postnatal period. During this time, the brain is particularly susceptible to environmental influences that are often used in animal models of neurodevelopmental disorders. In the present study, the timing of peak cell death was assessed by the presence of pyknotic cells in the male and female rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a cortical region that in humans, is often involved in developmental disorders. Read More

Brain Multiphys 2020 Nov 3;1. Epub 2020 Sep 3.

Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

The rapid deformation of brain tissue in response to head impact can lead to traumatic brain injury. In vivo measurements of brain deformation during non-injurious head impacts are necessary to understand the underlying mechanisms of traumatic brain injury and compare to computational models of brain biomechanics. Using tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we obtained measurements of three-dimensional strain tensors that resulted from a mild head impact after neck rotation or neck extension. Read More

Cereb Cortex Commun 2021 28;2(2):tgab005. Epub 2021 Jan 28.

Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.

Substantial behavioral evidence implies the existence of separable working memory (WM) components for maintaining phonological and semantic information. In contrast, only a few studies have addressed the neural basis of phonological versus semantic WM using functional neuroimaging and none has used a lesion-symptom mapping (LSM) approach. Here, we address this gap, reporting a multivariate LSM study of phonological and semantic WM for 94 individuals at the acute stage of left hemisphere stroke. Read More

Brain Commun 2021 14;3(2):fcab040. Epub 2021 Mar 14.

Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany.

We present anatomy-based symptom-lesion mapping to assess the association between lesions of tracts in the extreme capsule and aphasia. The study cohort consisted of 123 patients with acute left-hemispheric stroke without a lesion of language-related cortical areas of the Stanford atlas of functional regions of interest. On templates generated through global fibre tractography, lesions of the extreme capsule and of the arcuate fascicle were quantified and correlated with the occurrence of aphasia (=18) as defined by the Token Test. Read More

Sleep Med X 2020 Dec 29;2:100025. Epub 2020 Aug 29.

Imperial College London, UK.

Background: Sleep disturbances are associated with worse cognitive and psychotic symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia. Growing literature reveals sleep spindle deficits in schizophrenia may be an endophenotype reflecting a dysfunctional thalamo-thalamic reticular nucleus-cortical circuit. Since thalamic functions link to cognitive, positive and negative symptoms, it is possible that sleep spindle activity is associated with these symptoms. Read More

JBMR Plus 2021 Apr 16;5(4):e10482. Epub 2021 Mar 16.

Department of Endocrinology Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) Puducherry India.

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common metabolic bone disease affecting 1% of the adult population. Patients with PHPT have reduced BMD, especially at the cortical bone. However, studies evaluating its impact on fracture risk have shown contradictory results. Read More

JBMR Plus 2021 Apr 3;5(4):e10477. Epub 2021 Mar 3.

Centre for Muscle Research, Department of Anatomy and Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences University of Melbourne Melbourne 3010 Australia.

The development of the musculoskeletal system and its maintenance depends on the reciprocal relationship between muscle and bone. The size of skeletal muscles and the forces generated during muscle contraction are potent sources of mechanical stress on the developing skeleton, and they shape bone structure during growth. This is particularly evident in hypermuscular global myostatin (Mstn)- mice, where larger muscles during development increase bone mass and alter bone shape. Read More

JBMR Plus 2021 Apr 5;5(4):e10473. Epub 2021 Mar 5.

Department of Biomedical Engineering Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis Indianapolis IN USA.

Micro-computed tomography is a critical assessment tool for bone-related preclinical research, especially in murine models. To expedite the scanning process, researchers often image multiple bones simultaneously; however, it is unknown if this impacts scan quality and alters the ability to detect differences between experimental groups. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of multibone scanning on detecting disease-induced changes in bone microarchitecture and mineral density by group scanning two murine models with known skeletal defects: the model of osteogenesis imperfecta and an adenine-induced model of chronic kidney disease. Read More

Neurobiol Stress 2021 May 1;14:100322. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Neurobiology Unit, Institute for Biotechnology and Biomedicine (BIOTECMED), Universitat de València, 46100, Spain.

The impact of stressful events is especially important during early life, because certain cortical regions, especially the prefrontal cortex (PFC), are still developing. Consequently, aversive experiences that occur during the peripubertal period can cause long-term alterations in neural connectivity, physiology and related behaviors. Although sex influences the stress response and women are more likely to develop stress-related psychiatric disorders, knowledge about the effects of stress on females is still limited. Read More