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Abstract: Stereotyped responses must be suppressed at certain times during daily life, which can be difficult for patients with lesions in the frontal cortices. Neuropsychologists have used the rock–paper–scissors (RPS) task to evaluate patients’ ability to suppress a stereotyped response. In this study, we measured functional magnetic resonance imaging signals to investigate how frontal cortex activities change corresponding to subjects’ performance as they tried to lose (successfully inhibiting the typical response to win) when presented with a gesture signifying rock, paper, or scissors. Performance rates ranged from 50% to 100%, and results indicated that activation in the bilateral anterior part of the prefrontal cortex increased parametrically corresponding to subjects’ successful performance. This result implies that the anterior prefrontal cortex plays a key role in the successful completion of a modified RPS task and may play a role in the suppression of stereotyped responses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Botulinum toxin, frequently used to manage focal limb spasticity, has been reported to affect both extrafusal and intrafusal fibers of the injected muscle. Since most studies have used spinal reflexes, it is difficult to isolate the intrafusal effects from extrafusal and central effects. In a paper by On et al. [7], both stretch and H-reflexes were used to examine the intrafusal effects of botulinum toxin injections. Revisiting the data from On et al. [7] presented a unique opportunity to describe a novel method of measuring the effect of botulinum toxin-A on muscle spindle activity in patients with spasticity. H-reflex, maximum M-wave, and Achilles tendon reflex were serially assessed in ten patients with stroke pre-, 2, 4, and 12 weeks post-botulinum. In order to assess the intrafusal effects, we subtracted the %change in H-reflex amplitude from baseline (representing extrafusal and central effects) from the %change in Achilles tendon reflex amplitude from baseline (representing intrafusal, extrafusal and central effects). Using this formula, our results suggest that botulinum induces significant chemodenervation of the intrafusal muscle fibers (33% decreases). Intrafusal effects were greatest at 2 weeks, but tapered off by 12 weeks post-botulinum (p <0.017). We found a significant positive correlation between the intrafusal effects of botulinum toxin and changes in modified Ashworth scale. Our method of assessing the effects of botulinum toxin shows significant effect on intrafusal fibers, which correlates with clinical manifestation of spasticity. Future studies need to investigate ways to maximize intrafusal effects and minimize extrafusal effects of botulinum therapy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Cage size and bedding material influence contextual fear extinction in male mice. • Cage size and bedding material influence contextual fear conditioning in female mice. • Cage size and bedding material influence contextual fear extinction in females. • Cage size and bedding material influence the spontaneous recovery of fear in females. Home cage condition influences the central nervous system of experimental animals. However, little is known about the effect of home cage size and bedding material on fear-related behaviors. Thus, in this study, the effects of home cage size (large or small) and/or bedding material (paper or wood) on acquisition, retrieval, extinction, and spontaneous recovery of contextual fear memory were investigated in both male and female mice. The present study demonstrated that males housed in small cages with wood bedding showed a low fear response during fear extinction when compared to males housed in small or large cages with paper bedding. In females, mice housed in small cages with wood bedding showed low fear response during fear conditioning and extinction when compared to mice housed in large cages with paper bedding. Moreover, small cages with wood bedding, but not small or large cages with paper bedding, prevented the spontaneous recovery of fear memory in females. Thus, home cage conditions, and particularly bedding material, influence contextual fear extinction and spontaneous recovery. This finding may help to obtain reproducibility of results by researchers and explain discrepancies of results among research groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal ( https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal ). This article has been retracted at the request of Neuroscience Letters has learned that text throughout this paper duplicates, or nearly duplicates, text in an earlier paper by others (Rusyniak DE, Kirk MA, May JD, Kao LW, Brizendine EJ, Welch JL, Cordell WH, Alonso RJ; Hyperbaric Oxygen in Acute Ischemic Stroke Trial Pilot Study, Stroke . 2003 Feb;34(2):571-4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background With the tremendous advances in the field of brain–computer interfaces (BCI), the literature in this field has grown exponentially; examination of highly cited articles is a tool that can help identify outstanding scientific studies and landmark papers. This study examined the characteristics of 100 highly cited BCI papers over the past 10 years. Methods The Web of Science was searched for highly cited papers related to BCI research published from 2006 to 2015. The top 100 highly cited articles were identified. The number of citations and countries, and the corresponding institutions, year of publication, study design, and research area were noted and analyzed. Results The 100 highly cited articles had a mean of 137.1(SE: 15.38) citations. These articles were published in 45 high-impact journals, and mostly in TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING ( n = 14). Of the 100 articles, 72 were original articles and the rest were review articles. These articles came from 15 countries, with the USA contributing most of the highly cited articles ( n = 52). Fifty-seven institutions produced these 100 highly cited articles, led by Duke University ( n = 7). Conclusions This study provides a historical perspective on the progress in the field of BCI, allows recognition of the most influential reports, and provides useful information that can indicate areas requiring further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The ability to think creatively and skills associated to humor are still present in older age. • Creativity and humor share common psychological and neurobiological processes. • Creativity supports older people to face daily problems and the changes prompted by aging, so contributing to personal well-being. • Humor assists people to re-interpret the meaning of life in late adulthood. In the paper the possible links between creative thinking and humor are sketched and their role in promoting well-being in the elderly is taken into account. The specific features of creative thinking in older people and its developmental trend in aging are outlined. The changes in humor which occur during aging are considered as well. The connections between creative thinking and humor are analysed, by highlighting the cognitive mechanisms which are shared and the alleged common neural underpinnings. The functions which creativity and humor can play to promote well-being in late adulthood are discussed. These functions refer to the way older people can interpret their own experience, interact and communicate with others, and face daily problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A nonlinear model is proposed to detect the attended instrument in polyphonic music. • The EEG and musical sources are mapped to a common embedding space, respectively. • For both duo and trio stimuli, high accuracies are achieved on short decision windows. • The proposed model can be easily extended to multi-speaker environments. Music-oriented auditory attention detection (AAD) aims at determining which instrument in polyphonic music a listener is paying attention to by analyzing the listener's electroencephalogram (EEG). However, the existing linear models cannot effectively mimic the nonlinearity of the human brain, resulting in limited performance. Thus, a nonlinear music-oriented AAD model is proposed in this paper. Firstly, an auditory feature and a musical feature are fused to represent musical sources precisely and comprehensively. Secondly, the EEG is enhanced if music stimuli are presented in stereo. Thirdly, a neural network architecture is constructed to capture nonlinear and dynamic interactions between the EEG and auditory stimuli. Finally, the musical source most similar to the EEG in the common embedding space is identified as the attended one. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms all baseline models. On 1-s decision windows, it reaches accuracies of 92.6% and 81.7% under mono duo and trio stimuli, respectively. Additionally, it can be easily extended to speech-oriented AAD. This work can open up new possibilities for studies on both brain neural activity decoding and music information retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We here describe a family with two sisters and one son affected by a PEO1 mutation. [•] The sisters had a clinical parkinsonism confirmed by FP-CIT SCAN. [•] The characteristics of parkinsonisms are fully described in the paper. [•] The paper provides a short review of the phenotypes of the parkinsonisms associated to PEO1 mutation described in the literature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Mirror neurons are a class of neurons in the ventral pre-motor cortex (area F5) and inferior parietal lobule (area PFG) that respond during the execution as well as the observation of goal-directed motor acts. These intriguing response properties stirred an intense debate in the scientific community with respect to the possible cognitive role of mirror neurons. The aim of the present review is to contribute to this debate by providing, in a single paper, an extended summary of 20 years of neurophysiological research on mirror neurons in the macaque. To this end, I provide a comprehensive description of the methodology and the main results of each paper about mirror neurons published since their first report in 1992. Particular care was devoted in reporting the different response characteristics and the percentages of neurons exhibiting them in relation to the total number of studied neurons. Furthermore, I also discuss recent results indicating that mirror neurons might not be confined to areas F5 and PFG and that “mirroring” might not be limited to action observation. Finally, I offer a unifying framework for many of the results discussed here by speculating that a potential functional role of mirror neurons might be, during action observation, to generalize from the particular grasping movement being observed to the “concept” of grasping. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• It is the first study to classify drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia patients from healthy controls with combined structural MRI, DTI and resting state-functional MRI data. • To reduce the feature dimension of multimodal data, sparse coding is applied for feature selection and multi-kernel support vector machine is applied for feature combination and classification. • The best classification performance was achieved when all modality data were combined, reaching an accuracy rate at above 84%. The accurate diagnosis in the early stage of schizophrenia (SZ) is of great importance yet remains challenging. The classification between SZ and control groups based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data using machine learning method could be helpful for SZ diagnosis. Increasing evidence showed that the combination of multimodal MRI data might further improve the classification performance However, medication effect has a profound influence on patients' anatomical and functional features and may reduce the classification efficiency. In this paper, we proposed a multimodal classification method to discriminate drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia patients from healthy controls (HCs) by a combined structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and resting state-functional MRI data. To reduce the feature dimension of multimodal data, we applied sparse coding (SC) for feature selection and multi-kernel support vector machine (SVM) for feature combination and classification. The best classification performance with the classification accuracy of 84.29% and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of 81.64% was achieved when all modality data were combined. Interestingly, the identified functional markers were mainly found in default mode network (DMN) and cerebellar connections, while the structural markers were within limbic system and prefrontal–thalamo–hippocampal circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• High proficiency learners adhered to the Post-lexical Model. • Low proficiency group presented a blurred tendency. • Different morphological types caused gradable priming effects. • Language proficiency and morphological types impact processing mechanisms. The relative sequence of morphological decomposition and whole-word recognition during morphologically complex word (MCW) processing has attracted much attention in recent years. However, most studies have only focused on inflected and derived words while disregarding compound words, and have mainly examined the differences between native speakers and L2 learners without addressing language proficiency levels. This paper investigates the language proficiency effect on L2 English learners' processing of all the three types of MCWs in a masked transposed letter priming paradigm. Results showed that the high proficiency learners adhered to the Post-lexical Model in general, while the low proficiency learners presented a blurred tendency due to their poor whole-word memory and overall processing efficiency. Different morphological types caused gradable priming effects with compounds on the top of the continuum. In sum, language proficiency as well as morphological types impacts L2 learners' MCW processing mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The metabolites of nicotine have not been studied adequately, with cotinine being the primary nicotine metabolite. • Planarians have been used to study the effects of nicotine and were used in the present study to investigate cotinine's effects. • Place learning or conditioned place preference is used to study the effects of drugs such as nicotine. • Nicotine will establish place learning and our data demonstrate for the first time that cotinine will establish place learning with planarians. • Our data suggest that cotinine may be contributing to nicotine's effects. While the psychoactive stimulant nicotine has been the subject of extensive research, considerably less attention has focused on other compounds found in either tobacco smoke or that are nicotine metabolites. Recent papers have suggested that some of the compounds in question may either alter nicotine's effects or have reinforcing properties themselves, although they would only be experienced after consumption of tobacco. The potential for these compounds to function as reinforcers or to potentiate the reinforcing properties of nicotine merits investigation. To pursue this line of inquiry, we examined cotinine in a planarian model of environmental place preference. In the present study, planarians demonstrated that the compound cotinine, which is present in tobacco smoke, and is also the principal nicotine metabolite, establishes a conditioned place preference. These data represent the first ever demonstration that cotinine will establish a conditioned place preference in planarians and possibly contribute to the addictive properties of nicotine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neuropathic pain phenotype is the consequence of functional and morphological reorganization of the PNS and CNS. This reorganization includes DRGs and the spinal cord, and extends to multiple supraspinal areas including the limbic and reward systems. Several recent papers show that acute manipulation of cortical and subcortical brain areas causally correlates with the cognitive, emotional and sensory components of neuropathic pain, yet mechanisms responsible for pain chronification remain largely unknown. Here we show that nucleus accumbens expression of ΔFos-B, a transcription factor that plays a critical role in addiction and in the brain response to stress, is reduced long term following peripheral neuropathic injury. Conversely, boosting ΔFos-B expression in the nucleus accumbens by viral transfection causes a significant and long-lasting improvement of the neuropathic allodynia. We suggest that ΔFos-B in the nucleus accumbens is a key modulator of long term gene expression leading to pain chronification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The anterior cingulate cortex (ACG.R) region and the thalamus region (THA.R) have shown increased functional connectivity compared with normal control, and the superior frontal gyrus (SFGmed.R) region has shown decreased functional connectivity. • The precuneus lobule (PCUN.L) region and posterior cingulate cortex (PCG.L) region of DMN have shown increased functional connectivity. • These results may suggest that MDD is associated with large-scale functional networks, rather than the portions of brain regions. Abstract Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a mental disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. Previous investigated the MDD has primarily focused on interpreting the abnormal functional connectivity of different brain regions, rather than entire brain networks. Although recent studies have found depression-related abnormalities functional connectivity of the brain networks, it is not clear the certain brain regions or the various functional networks as a whole are involved in the emotional dysregulation of depression. Moreover, abnormal functional connectivity regions are well replicated research, however, default mode network (DMN) and executive control network (ECN) haven't received adequately examined in MDD. To address the above issues, in this paper, we adopt sparse inverse covariance estimation (SICE) approach to investigate the functional connectivity both DMN and ECN. Our experimental results show functional connectivity of ECN have significantly changed in MDD, where the anterior cingulate cortex (ACG.R) region and the thalamus region (THA.R) have shown increased functional connectivity compared with normal control, the superior frontal gyrus (SFGmed.R) region has shown decreased functional connectivity. Moreover, the precuneus lobule (PCUN.L) region and posterior cingulate cortex (PCG.L) of DMN have shown increased functional connectivity. These results may suggest that MDD is associated with large-scale functional networks, rather than the portions of brain regions. These changed functional connectivity may provide more neuroimaging biomarker for MDD diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A new EEG-based BCI system is presented for decoding the movements of different fingers within the same hand. • The EEG signals were analyzed using a Quadratic time-frequency distribution, namely the Choi–Williams distribution (CWD). • A two-layer classification framework is developed to specify the moving finger along with movements performed by each finger within the same hand. • The experimental results indicate the capability of the proposed system to decode finger movements within the same hand. Abstract Decoding the movements of different fingers within the same hand can increase the control's dimensions of the electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) systems. This in turn enables the subjects who are using assistive devices to better perform various dexterous tasks. However, decoding the movements performed by different fingers within the same hand by analyzing the EEG signals is considered a challenging task. In this paper, we present a new EEG-based BCI system for decoding the movements of each finger within the same hand based on analyzing the EEG signals using a quadratic time-frequency distribution (QTFD), namely the Choi–William distribution (CWD). In particular, the CWD is employed to characterize the time-varying spectral components of the EEG signals and extract features that can capture movement-related information encapsulated within the EEG signals. The extracted CWD-based features are used to build a two-layer classification framework that decodes finger movements within the same hand. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated by recording the EEG signals for eighteen healthy subjects while performing twelve finger movements using their right hands. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed system to decode finger movements within the same hand of each subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a spontaneous, bursting neuronal activity which can not be altered by any stimulation in the periphery or voluntary actions or by cognitive tasks. An initial description of such units led to the conclusion that this activity was generated ectopically at the site of a previous or present impalement of a nerve fibre. The aim of the current study was to record a larger number of these units by using microneurography, in order to characterise their firing properties and particularly, see if any subtypes of units could be identified. In conclusion, this paper suggests that some of these discharges could be related to an injury of the nerve fibre, however most of them could not. Some hypothesis regarding the nature of these bursting activities are suggested. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Glial cells became reactive under neuropathic pain induced by chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve. • Betulinic acid alleviates neuropathic pain effectively by activating the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway. • Activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway attenuates glial cell activation as well as oxidative stress and inflammation responses under neuropathic pain condition. Neuropathic pain refers to a type of pain that arises from primary damage and dysfunction within the nervous system. Addressing this condition presents significant challenges and complexities. Betulinic acid (BA), known for its potent antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties, has garnered extensive attention; nevertheless, the impact upon neuropathic pain induced by CCI is still uncertain. This paper explores the analgesic effects concerning BA on mice experiencing neuropathic pain due to sciatic nerve injury. Throughout the experiment, mice with CCI received oral gavage of BA at dosages of 3, 10, and 30 mg/kg for consecutively 8 days from the 7th day post-surgery. To assess their responses, behavioral tests and sciatic functional index (SFI) evaluations were conducted on zeroth, seventh, eighth, tenth, twelveth and fourteenth day post-CCI. On day 14, histopathological examinations and measurements of biochemical markers were performed. Immunofluorescence techniques were employed to detect Nrf2 and glial cell activation, while the Western blot method was utilized to evaluate Nrf2/HO-1 protein levels and pro-inflammatory cytokine expression. The results elucidated that BA significantly alleviated hyperalgesia and allodynia, demonstrating a dose-dependent enhancement in sciatic nerve function and facilitating the recovery of sciatic nerve injury. Furthermore, BA prominently augmented the entire antioxidative capacity (T-AOC) and T-SOD levels, concomitantly reducing MDA concentrations. Notably, BA activated the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway, inhibited glial cell activation, and downregulation of the expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, specifically, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were observed. As such, this study provides a basis to support BA as a candidate drug for the treatment of neuropathic pain, attributing its analgesic effects to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and neuroprotective properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unimanual coordination is a vital component of everyday life and underpins successful engagement of many activities of daily living and physical activity participation. The ability to coordinate with environmental stimuli has been extensively studied in adults in a variety of situations. However, we know little about these processes in children and even less about how these processes change as age increases. This paper examines children’s performance in a rhythmic unimanual coordination task using a handheld pendulum. Participants (aged 6, 9 and 11 years) manipulated the pendulum at 3 frequencies (preferred frequency, +20% of preferred and −20% of preferred frequency) in coordination with 3 stimuli (Visual, Auditory and Visual-Auditory combined). Results showed that children’s coordination levels and movement variability improved with age, however still fell below those observed in adults. In addition children demonstrated preferences for visual stimuli or multisensory stimuli compared to auditory stimuli on their own Interestingly, children were found to demonstrate different movement amplitudes for −20%, preferred and +20% frequency conditions. In conclusion, children’s unimanual coordination levels were found to follow the typical maturation process and improve with age. Further to this, findings suggest the potential benefit of multisensory information for uni manual coordination in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was accepted for a long time that in mammals there is only retinofugal neuronal connection between the eye and the pineal body (PB). In our previous paper we described that nerve cells were present in hamster PB and these neurons could establish a reverse connection with the retina through a transsynaptic pathway. In adult albino rats neuronal perikarya were not found. In this present experiment it was examined whether the lack of these nerve cells in the PB of adult rats is the result of an apoptotic phenomenon or the lack of migration during the fetal period. Green fluorescence protein expressing pseudorabies virus, spreading only in retrograde direction, was injected into the vitreous body of rats at various postnatal ages. Virus labeled cell bodies were not observed in the PB of adult rats; however, labeling with gradually decreasing number of cells was present in animals aged 3–6, 13–14, 20, 35 and 41 postnatal days. Injection of virus, spreading in anterograde direction (expressing red fluorescence protein), into the PB of young prepubertal animals resulted in labeling in the retina. This observation indicates that the pinealo-retinal connection in prepubertal period is active. Immunostaining revealed that some of the labeled neuronal perikarya showed activated caspase-3 (an apoptotic marker) immunoreactivity. Our results clearly show that the neurons migrate to the PB and later, during the prepubertal period, they disappear. Caspase-3 immnoreactivity indicates that these cells die off by apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although first mentions about calcium disturbances in psychiatric diseases appeared more than 30 years ago, the most recent genomic and proteomic findings confirmed a significant role of Ca 2+ and Ca 2+ -regulated pathways in development of neuropathological processes, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Moreover, last decades have shown that due to multifactorial nature of both diseases, impairment in neuronal calcium homeostasis may depend not only on disturbed Ca 2+ entry system, but also on altered extrusion system. A pivotal role in Ca 2+ clearance mechanism is played by plasma membrane Ca 2+ -ATPase (PMCA), the enzyme responsible for returning the elevated levels of cytosolic Ca 2+ back to the resting state. In this paper we summarize the current knowledge about the role of PMCA in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia pathologies, as well as the contribution of several proteins that by interaction with PMCA modify signal transduction mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exercise preconditioning is a simple and effective way to prevent ischemia. This paper further provided the mechanism in hemodynamic aspects at the cellular level. To study the anti-apoptotic effects of fluid mechanics preconditioning, Cultured rats brain microvascular endothelial cells were given fluid intervention in a parallel plate flow chamber before oxygen glucose deprivation. It showed that fluid mechanics preconditioning could inhibit the apoptosis of endothelial cells, and this process might be mediated by the shear stress activation of Tie-2 on cells membrane surface and Bcl-2 on the mitochondria surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) plays an important role in mediating physiological response to stress and is thought to be involved in the development of various psychiatric disorders. In this paper, we compare the differences between the effect of intraperitoneal (i.p.) and intraarterial (i.a.) administration of the non-peptide CRH 1 antagonist CP-154,526 (CP) (10 and 20 mg/kg) on plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone levels (ACTH), heart rate, MAP, and c-Fos expression in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Intraperitoneal, but not i.a., injection of CP resulted in an increase in plasma ACTH (from 105 ± 13 to 278 ± 51 pg/ml after 20 mg/kg). This effect was accompanied by a dramatic increase in c-Fos expression in cells immunoreactive for CRH in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. When the drug was administered i.p., CP-induced activation of the HPA appears to mask the inhibitory effect of CP on stress-induced ACTH secretion, an effect which was readily apparent when the drug was given i.a. Intraperitoneal administration of CP also increased the baseline MAP which may account for previous reports that treatment with this drug attenuated the increases associated with stress. CP given by either route had no effect on baseline heart rate or stress-induced tachycardia. Thus, in all studies in which CP 154,526 is given, the route of delivery must be given careful consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years complexity of the brain structure in healthy and disordered subjects has been studied increasingly. But to the best of the authors’ knowledge, researchers so far have investigated the structural complexity only in the context of two restricted networks known as Small-World and Scale-free networks; whereas other aspects of the structural complexity of brain activities may be affected by aging and neurodegenerative disorders such as the Alzheimer’s disease and autism spectrum disorder. In this study, two general complexity metrics of graphs, Graph Index Complexity and Offdiagonal Complexity are proposed as general measures of complexity, not restricted to SWN only. They are adopted to measure the structural complexity of the weighted graphs instead of the common binary graphs. Fuzzy Synchronization Likelihood is applied to the EEGs and their sub-bands, as a functional connectivity metric of the brain, to construct the functional connectivity graphs. Two applications are used to evaluate the efficacy of the complexity measures: diagnosis of autism and aging, both based on EEG. It was discovered that the Graph Index Complexity of gamma band is discriminative in distinguishing autistic children from non-autistic children. Also, Offdiagonal Complexity of theta band in young subjects was observed to be significantly different than old subjects. This study shows that changes in the structure of functional connectivity of brain in disorders and different healthy states can be revealed by unrestricted metrics of graph complexity. While the applications presented in this paper are based on EEG, the approach is general and can be used with other modalities such as fMRI, MEG, etc. Further, it can be used to study every other neurological and psychiatric disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel technique for determination of the optimal feature combinations and, thereby, acquisition of the maximum classification performance for a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based brain-computer interface (BCI), is proposed. After obtaining motor-imagery and rest signals from the motor cortex, filtering is applied to remove the physiological noises. Six features (signal slope, signal mean, signal variance, signal peak, signal kurtosis and signal skewness) are then extracted from the oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO). Afterwards, the hybrid genetic algorithm (GA)-support vector machine (SVM) is applied in order to determine and classify 2- and 3-feature combinations across all subjects. The SVM classifier is applied to classify motor imagery versus rest. Moreover, four time windows (0–20 s, 0–10 s, 11–20 s and 6–15 s) are selected, and the hybrid GA-SVM is applied in order to extract the optimal 2- and 3-feature combinations. In the present study, the 11–20 s time window showed significantly higher classification accuracies – the minimum accuracy was 91% – than did the other time windows (p < 0.05). The proposed hybrid GA-SVM technique, by selecting optimal feature combinations for an fNIRS-based BCI, shows positive classification-performance-enhancing results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent lines of experimental evidence have indicated that saikosaponin A (SSA) – a bioactive ingredient of the medicinal plant, Bupleurum falcatum L. – suppressed alcohol, morphine, and cocaine self-administration in rats. The present paper was designed to assess whether the protective properties of SSA on addiction-related behaviors generalize to a hyperpalatable food such as a chocolate-flavored beverage (CFB). To this end, rats were initially trained to lever-respond for CFB [5% (w/v) Nesquik ® powder in water] under fixed ratio (FR) 10 (FR10) schedule of reinforcement. Once lever-responding reached stable levels, rats were treated acutely with two different dose ranges of SSA (0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg/kg; 0, 1, 2.5, and 5 mg/kg; i.p.) and exposed to the FR10 and progressive ratio (PR) schedules of reinforcement in four independent experiments. The effect of acutely administered SSA (0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg/kg; i.p.) on cue-induced reinstatement of seeking behavior for CFB was also assessed. Under the FR and PR schedules of reinforcement, treatment with SSA diminished lever-responding for CFB, amount of self-administered CFB, and breakpoint for CFB. All variables were virtually completely suppressed after treatment with 5 mg/kg SSA. Treatment with SSA also suppressed reinstatement of CFB-seeking behavior. No dose of SSA altered rat motor-performance, evaluated exposing all rats to an inverted screen test immediately after the self-administration session. These results demonstrate that acute treatment with SSA potently suppressed several addictive-like behaviors motivated by highly hedonic nourishment. These data extend to a highly rewarding natural stimulus the anti-addictive properties of SSA recently disclosed in rats self-administering alcohol, morphine, and cocaine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peroxisomes play a crucial role in normal neurological development as exemplified by the devastating neurological consequences of a defect in the biogenesis of peroxisomes as in Zellweger syndrome. The underlying basis for the important role of peroxisomes in neurological development resides in the fact that peroxisomes catalyze a number of physiological functions, notably involving the metabolism of different lipids. Indeed, peroxisomes catalyse the beta-oxidative breakdown of certain fatty acids including: (1.) the very long-chain fatty acids C22:0, C24:0, and C26:0; (2.) pristanic acid and (3.) the bile acid intermediates di- and trihydroxycholestanoic acid which cannot be oxidized in mitochondria. Furthermore, peroxisomes catalyze the synthesis of a particular type of lipids, i.e. ether-linked phospholipids, which are highly abundant in brain, especially in myelin. The current state of knowledge with respect to the metabolic role of peroxisomes will be described in this paper with particular emphasis on the role of peroxisomes in brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Haloperidol induces both conditioned catalepsy and increased spontaneous activity. • Type and time of testing determines the nature of the apparently opposed conditioned responses. • Changes in behaviour could be the result of conditioned changes in dopaminergic activity. Previous research has revealed a high degree of complexity of the conditioned response that appears after associating a context with the effects of the dopaminergic antagonist haloperidol. Specifically, when a drug-free test is performed in the presence of the context, conditioned catalepsy is observed. However, if the test is extended over time, the opposite effect occurs, namely, a conditioned increase in locomotor activity. In this paper, we present the results of an experiment with rats that received repeated administration of haloperidol or saline before or after exposure to the context. Next, a drug-free test was performed to evaluate catalepsy and spontaneous locomotor activity. The results revealed, on the one hand, the expected conditioned response of catalepsy for those animals that received the drug prior to context exposure during conditioning. However, for the same group, an analysis of locomotor activity for an extended period of ten minutes after registering catalepsy revealed an increase in general activity and more faster movements compared to the control groups. These results are interpreted considering the possible temporal dynamics of the conditioned response that could induce changes in dopaminergic transmission responsible for the observed changes in locomotor activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Several data indicate that hypothalamic fatty acid synthesis pathway plays an important role in the control of food intake and energy expenditure in rodents. However, the confirmation of its physiological relevance in regulation of feeding in human remains incomplete. For fatty acid synthesis pathway to function as regulator of energy balance in human hypothalamus, acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), fatty acid synthase (FAS) and other lipogenic enzymes activities must be present. The presence of FAS in human hypothalamic neurons has been shown by immunohistochemistry, but quantitative studies on FAS activity there has not been performed so far. There is no available data concerning ACC activity in human hypothalamus. Thus, we investigated ACC and FAS (as well as other lipogenic enzymes) activities in human hypothalamus of subjects who died in car accidents. The results presented in this paper indicate that ACC and FAS activities are present in human hypothalamus and that these activities are 2- to 3-fold lower than in rat hypothalamus. Moreover, our data presented in this paper indicate that other lipogenic enzymes activities are also present in human hypothalamus. The activity of FAS, ACC and other lipogenic enzymes in human hypothalamus suggests that fatty acid synthesis actively occurs there. Therefore, it is likely, that in human this pathway may be relevant to hypothalamic functioning as food intake and energy expenditure regulator, similarly as it was suggested in rodents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• This paper studies the diagnosis of fatal central nervous system malformations. • Ultrasound examination during pregnancy has a high detection rate for the diagnosis of fatal CNS malformations. • MRI has a higher diagnostic value for fatal CNS malformations. • (MRI can play an important role in supplementing and misdiagnosing cases for ultrasound. Fatal central nervous system (CNS) malformation is one of the most common congenital malformations, and is an important cause of infant mortality. Ultrasound diagnostic technology has the advantages of fast, safe, economic, convenient and real-time dynamic imaging, and it is the first choice for imaging diagnosis of the foetus. This paper studies the diagnosis of fatal central nervous system malformations based on prenatal Doppler ultrasound, and further accumulates clinical experience for prenatal diagnosis. 320 pregnant women who underwent prenatal diagnosis in our hospital from August 2017 to December 2018. Ultrasound showed abnormal fatal craniocerebral development and MRI examination of fatal cranial brain was performed on the same day or the next day. The PHILIPS IU22 colour Doppler ultrasound system was used to scan pregnant women. Ultrasound showed 320 cases of fatal craniocerebral abnormalities and MRI diagnosis on the same day or the next day, of which 122 cases were consistent with MRI results, accounting for 38%; 173 cases were supplemented with MRI diagnostic information, accounting for 54%; MRI corrected diagnostic information There were 16 cases, accounting for 5%; 9 cases were abnormal, but 3 cases were not revealed by MRI. Ultrasound examination during pregnancy has a high detection rate for the diagnosis of fatal CNS malformations. As the preferred imaging method for prenatal diagnosis, it is essential for timely and early screening of fatal malformations. MRI has a higher diagnostic value for fatal CNS malformations, and can play an important role in supplementing and misdiagnosing cases that have been missed by ultrasound. Therefore, in the prenatal diagnosis, attention should be paid to combining these two inspection methods, each taking its advantages and applying it to clinical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper reviews the pharmacogenetics of the serotonin reuptake inhibitors currently endorsed for the treatment of PTSD. • The focus is on genes implicated both in PTSD and the pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics of these medications. • It concludes with overview of emerging commercial platforms and directions for future pharmacogenetic research on PTSD. Progress in PTSD pharmacotherapy has lagged far behind that of other major mental illnesses. Unfortunately, due to the enormous costs and lengthy process involved in bringing drugs to market, delivering new treatments to patients with PTSD in the near future will remain a challenge. However, by capitalizing on recent advances in the pharmacogenetics of antidepressants, precision psychiatry approaches can be leveraged to optimize the delivery of currently-available medications in a fraction of the time and cost required to develop novel therapeutics. This paper provides a review of the pharmacogenetics of the four serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) that are currently endorsed for the treatment of PTSD (paroxetine, sertraline, fluoxetine and venlafaxine). It focuses on genes involved in SRI pharmacokinetics (including the liver enzyme genes CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 and blood-brain barrier-relevant gene ABCB1) as well as those implicated in both SRI pharmacodynamics and the pathophysiology of PTSD and related conditions (e.g., BDNF , FKBP5, HTR1A, HTR2A , TPH2). The review concludes with an overview of emerging commercial platforms for pharmacogenetic-guided prescription and a discussion of challenges and directions for future pharmacogenetic research on PTSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mechanisms involved in alleviating pain by use of TMS and iMCS have considerable amount of overlap. • Key regions which were impacted by TMS and/or iMCS consisted of the thalamus, striatum, PAG, RVM and dorsal horn. • Both functional and structural changes were observed to occur within these key regions after TMS and iMCS. • All key regions are known to be interconnected anatomically, providing a rational for further investigation. Experimental treatments for treating neuropathic pain include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and invasive electric motor cortex stimulation (iMCS) of the primary motor cortex (M1). Mechanisms of action of both methods, however, remain largely elusive. Within this paper, we focus on animal-based experiments in order to investigate the biological mechanisms that are involved in alleviating pain by use of TMS and/or iMCS. Therefore, this paper systematically reviewed the animal-based evidence on these mechanisms. Multiple online databases were systematically searched and retrieved articles were assessed using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Twenty-three suitable articles were included; six on TMS and seventeen on iMCS. In general, iMCS and TMS were found to impact the primary motor cortex structure and function in animals. Furthermore, structural and functional changes within the thalamus, striatum, periaqueductal grey, rostral ventromedial medulla and dorsal horn were reported to occur. Although widespread, all areas in which structural and functional changes occurred after TMS and iMCS have been found to be interconnected anatomically. This could provide a rationale for future investigations of treating neuropathic pain by use of neuromodulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Delta, theta, and alpha oscillations in switch trials reflect proactive control. • In reactive control, delta, alpha, and beta are related to sensorimotor function. • Theta, alpha, and gamma oscillations all predict behavioral switching costs. • Delta and theta connections are involved in the preparatory process. • Alpha and beta connections are involved in response inhibition. Flexible switching between different tasks is an important cognitive ability for humans and it is often studied using the task-switching paradigm. Although the neural mechanisms of task switching have been extensively explored in previous studies using event-related potentials techniques, the activity and process mechanisms of non-phase-locked electroencephalography (EEG) have rarely been revealed. For this reason, this paper discusses the processing of non-phase-locked EEG oscillations in task switching based on frequency-band delineation. First, the roles of each frequency band in local brain regions were summarized. In particular, during the proactive control process (the cue-stimulus interval), delta, theta, and alpha oscillations played more roles in the switch condition while beta played more roles in repeat task. In the reactive control process (post-target), delta, alpha, and beta are all related to sensorimotor function. Then, utilizing the functional connectivity (FC) method, delta connections in the frontotemporal regions and theta connections located in the parietal-to-occipital sites are involved in the preparatory period before task switching, while alpha connections located in the sensorimotor areas and beta connections located in the frontal-parietal cortex are involved in response inhibition. Finally, cross-frequency coupling (CFC) play an important role in working memory among different band oscillation. The present study shows that in addition to the processing mechanisms specific to each frequency band, there are some shared and interactive neural mechanism in task switching by using different analysis techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gait analysis plays an important role in maintaining the well-being of human mobility and health care, and is a valuable tool for obtaining quantitative information on motor deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD). In this paper, we propose a method to classify (diagnose) patients with PD and healthy control subjects using gait analysis via deterministic learning theory. The classification approach consists of two phases: a training phase and a classification phase. In the training phase, gait characteristics represented by the gait dynamics are derived from the vertical ground reaction forces under the usual and self-selected paces of the subjects. The gait dynamics underlying gait patterns of healthy controls and PD patients are locally accurately approximated by radial basis function (RBF) neural networks. The obtained knowledge of approximated gait dynamics is stored in constant RBF networks. The gait patterns of healthy controls and PD patients constitute a training set. In the classification phase, a bank of dynamical estimators is constructed for all the training gait patterns. Prior knowledge of gait dynamics represented by the constant RBF networks is embedded in the estimators. By comparing the set of estimators with a test gait pattern of a certain PD patient to be classified (diagnosed), a set of classification errors are generated. The average L 1 norms of the errors are taken as the classification measure between the dynamics of the training gait patterns and the dynamics of the test PD gait pattern according to the smallest error principle. When the gait patterns of 93 PD patients and 73 healthy controls are classified with five-fold cross-validation method, the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the results are 96.39%, 96.77% and 95.89%, respectively. Based on the results, it may be claimed that the features and the classifiers used in the present study could effectively separate the gait patterns between the groups of PD patients and healthy controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EEG signal has been widely used in emotion recognition. However, too many channels and extracted features are used in the current EEG-based emotion recognition methods, which lead to the complexity of these methods This paper studies on feature extraction on EEG-based emotion recognition model to overcome those disadvantages, and proposes an emotion recognition method based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and sample entropy. The proposed method first employs EMD strategy to decompose EEG signals only containing two channels into a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). The first 4 IMFs are selected to calculate corresponding sample entropies and then to form feature vectors. These vectors are fed into support vector machine classifier for training and testing. The average accuracy of the proposed method is 94.98% for binary-class tasks and the best accuracy achieves 93.20% for the multi-class task on DEAP database, respectively. The results indicate that the proposed method is more suitable for emotion recognition than several methods of comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus (DM) has been studied recently as a major cause of cognitive deficits, memory and neurodegenerative damage. Taurine and enriched environment have stood out for presenting neuroprotective and stimulating effects that deserve further study. In this paper, we examined the effects of taurine and enriched environment in the context of diabetes, evaluating effects on behaviour, memory, death and cellular activity. Eighty-eight Wistar rats were divided into 2 groups (E = enriched environment; C = standard housing). Some animals (24/group) underwent induction of diabetes, and within each group, some animals (half of diabetics (D) and half of non-diabetics (ND)/group) were treated for 30 days with taurine (T). Untreated animals received saline (S). In total, there were eight subgroups: DTC, DSC, NDTC, NDSC, DTE, DSE, NDTE and NDSE. During the experiment, short-term memory was evaluated. After 30th day of experiment, the animals were euthanized and was made removal of brains used to immunohistochemistry procedures for GFAP and cleaved caspase-3. As a result, we observed that animals treated with taurine showed better performance in behavioural and memory tasks, and the enriched environment had positive effects, especially in non-diabetic animals. Furthermore, taurine and enriched environment seemed to be able to interfere with neuronal apoptosis and loss of glial cells, and in some instances, these two factors seemed to have synergistic effects. From these data, taurine and enriched environment may have important neurostimulant and neuroprotective effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facial nucleus motoneurons innervating the facial expressive muscles are involved in a wide range of motor activities, however, the types of movement related neurons and their electrophysiological transformation after peripheral facial nerve injury haven’t been revealed. This study was designed to elucidate the types of facial nucleus motoneurons and their alterations of discharge parameters following peripheral facial nerve injury in vivo. Here we set up a rat model by implanting electrode arrays into the brainstem and recorded the electrophysiological signals of facial nucleus neurons in the intact rats for 5 days, then transected the trunk of facial nerve (TF), and continued the record for 4 weeks. At the 4th week post-surgery, the morphological changes of TFs were analyzed. In this paper, we described two types of putative facial nucleus motoneurons based on their electrophysiological properties and their firing frequency adaptation. Type I motoneurons ( n = 57.6%) were characterized by a sustained spike adaptation, Type II motoneurons ( n = 26.2%) were identified by a phasic fast spike firing. Facial palsy and synkinesia, caused by neurotmesis of TF, were accompanied by firing rates reduction and firing pattern alteration of motoneurons. Our findings suggest the presence of two types of facial nucleus motorneurons, and their response patterns after neurotmesis support the notion that the discharge pattern of motorneurons may play an important role in the facial nerve function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic variants of AKT1 have been shown to influence brain function of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, and in this paper our aim is to investigate the association between the three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (rs2498799; rs2494732; rs1130214) and PD in Han Chinese. 413 Han Chinese PD patients and 450 healthy age and gender-matched controls were genotyped using the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR–RFLP) method. Both the patient and control groups show similar genotype frequencies at the three loci: rs2498799, rs2494732 and rs1130214. We are able to identify a significant difference in the frequencies of genotype ( p = 0.019) and G allele (OR = 0.764, 95% CI = 0.587–0.995, p = 0.045) both at rs2498799 between the patient and control groups. Furthermore, the association of subjects with GG genotypes versus those with GA + AA genotype remain significant after adjusting for age in the Han Chinese female cohort (OR = 0.538, 95%CI = 0.345-0.841, p = 0.006), which is especially evident in the late-onset cohort (OR = 0.521, 95%CI = 0.309-0.877, p = 0.012). In contrast, allele frequencies at rs2494732 and rs1130214 were similar between patients and controls in all subgroup analyses. These results suggest that polymorphism of AKT1 locus is associated with risk of PD and that the G allele at rs2498799 may decrease the risk of PD in the North-eastern part of Han Chinese female population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After hypoxic-ischemic insult iron deposited in the brain catalyzes formation of reactive oxygen species. Newborn rats, showing reduced physiological body temperature and their hyperthermic counterparts injected with deferoxamine (DF), a chelator of iron, are protected both against iron-mediated neurotoxicity and against depletion of low-molecular antioxidants after perinatal asphyxia. Therefore, we decided to study the effects of DF on activity of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase—SOD, glutathione peroxidase—GPx and catalase—CAT) in the brain of rats exposed neonatally to a critical anoxia at body temperatures elevated to 39 °C. Perinatal anoxia under hyperthermic conditions intensified oxidative stress and depleted the pool of antioxidant enzymes. Both the depletion of antioxidants and lipid peroxidation were prevented by post-anoxic DF injection. The present paper evidenced that deferoxamine may act by recovering of SOD, GPx and CAT activity to reduce anoxia-induced oxidative stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mutations in Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) cause familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Previous papers showed that mutant SOD1 accumulates and undergoes misfolding in motor neurons and that the specific interaction of mutant SOD1 with derlin-1 leads to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR). Because evidence shows that mutant SOD1 expression also damages sensory neurons, we hypothesized that, similarly to motor neurons, the sensory neurons of ALS mouse model SOD1 G93A accumulate mutant/misfolded SOD1 and suffer from ER stress and UPR activation. Our results reveal that SOD1 G93A sensory neurons accumulate mutant/misfolded SOD1 but, surprisingly, do not suffer from ER stress and UPR activation. Moreover, the sensory neurons do not express detectable levels of the SOD1 interactor derlin-1. These results suggest a potential molecular mechanism underlying the differential vulnerability of motor and sensory neurons to mutant SOD1 toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]