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Introduction: Interprofessional education (IPE) offers a possible way to improve interprofessional collaboration and patient care. Current research addressing the effectiveness of IPE in dementia care is limited. A protocol is described for a systematic review to investigate the evidence for the influence of IPE on collaborative knowledge and skills; interprofessional practice and the delivery of dementia care. Methods and analysis: We will search the following electronic databases: PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, PsycINFO CINAHL, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), ERIC British Education Index (BEI) and the Healthcare Management Information Consortium (HMIC). Additional studies will be identified by manually searching relevant journals and the reference list of selected studies. The selection of the studies, data collection and quality appraisal will be performed independently by two reviewers. Data will be initially analysed through a narrative synthesis method. If a subset of data we analyse appears comparable, we will investigate the possibility of pooling such data via formal meta-analysis analytical techniques. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval will not be required as this is a protocol for a systematic review. This systematic review aims to establish the effectiveness of IPE programmes on collaborative professional practice and the delivery of care for people with dementia. The findings of this systematic review may also identify specific gaps in the evidence informing a future agenda for research, policy and practice. It will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Trial registration number: PROSPERO CRD42014015075. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differential effects of the rational and emotional components of advertising are examined.

The solution to the bioelectromagnetic inverse problem is discussed in terms of a generalized lead field expansion, extended to weights depending polynomially on the current strength. The expansion coefficients are obtained from the resulting system of equations which relate the lead field expansion to the data. The framework supports a family of algorithms which include the class of minimum norm solutions and those of weighted minimum norm, including FOCUSS (suitably modified to conform to requirements of rotational invariance). The weighted-minimum-norm family is discussed in some detail, making explicit the dependence (or independence) of the weighting scheme on the modulus of the unknown current density vector. For all but the linear case, and with a single power in the weight, a highly nonlinear system of equations results. These are analyzed and their solution reduced to tractable problems for a finite number of degrees of freedom. In the simplest magnetic field tomography (MFT) case, this is shown to possess expected properties for localized distributed sources. A sensitivity analysis supports this conclusion. Index Terms - Biomagnetic inverse problem, magnetic field tomography, magnetoencephalography.

Abstract: Purpose: The aim of present magnetoencephalography study was conducted to investigate how the cerebellum is involved in intracerebral activity immediately before conscious and voluntary teeth-clenching. Methods: We recorded the neuromagnetic signal immediately before teeth-clenching in five healthy subjects. A single trial consisted of self-paced teeth-clenching for 2s followed by a semi-randomized interval of 2–4s, and 25 trials were performed in a single session. Each subject performed a total of 125 trials over 5 sessions. The subjects also performed five control sessions without the teeth-clenching task. The subjects were asked to observe a visual cue providing task information. We used magnetic field tomography to obtain a tomographic reconstruction of brain activity for each time slice of the average signal for each subject and session. Activation of regions of interest by cerebellar neuron activity was computed from the magnetic field tomography result. Results: Cerebellar activation before the teeth-clenching task was identified in all five subjects: bilaterally in three, and unilaterally in two. The peak amplitudes for the left and right cerebellar hemispheres in the main session were significantly greater than those in the control session (P <0.01). Left and right cerebellar hemisphere activities were detected approximately 150ms after visual cue. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the cerebellum is involved in the signal pathway immediately before teeth-clenching. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We studied the spatiotemporal characteristics of cortical activity in early visual areas and the fusiform gyri (FG) by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG). Subjects performed a visual classification task, in which letters and visually similar pseudoletters were presented in different surrounds and under different task demands. The stimuli appeared in a cued half of the visual field (VF). We observed prestimulus effects on amplitudes in V1 and Cuneus relating to VF and task demands, suggesting a combination of active anticipation and specialized routing of activity in visual processing. Amplitudes in the right FG between 150 and 350 ms after stimulus onset reflected task demands, while those in the left FG between 300 and 400 ms showed selectivity for graphemes. The contrasting stimulus-evoked effects in the right and left FG show that the former area is sensitive to task demands irrespective of stimulus content, whereas the left FG is sensitive to stimulus content irrespectively of task demand. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses to faces presented centrally and peripherally. At the center, the left and right fusiform areas showed similar activation pattern (peaked at 80 and 130 ms), but with stronger activation in the right than left fusiform. In the periphery, relative to the image presentation side, the contralateral fusiform activated much earlier and stronger than the ipsilateral fusiform. When the images were presented in the upper visual field, contralateral fusiform and V1/V2 had their first peak activation at similar latency (65 ms). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Varenicline is considered one of the most effective treatment options for smoking cessation. Nonetheless, it is only modestly effective. A deeper comprehension of the effects of varenicline by means of the in-depth review of relevant fMRI studies may assist in paving the development of more targeted and effective treatments. Methodology: A search of PubMed and Google Scholar databases was conducted with the keywords "functional magnetic resonance imaging" or "fMRI", and "varenicline". All peer-reviewed articles regarding the assessment of smokers with fMRI while undergoing treatment with varenicline and meeting the predefined criteria were included. Results: Several studies utilizing different methodologies and targeting different aspects of brain function were identified. During nicotine withdrawal, decreased mesocorticolimbic activity and increased amygdala activity, as well as elevated amygdala-insula and insula-default-mode-network functional connectivity are alleviated by varenicline under specific testing conditions. However, other nicotine withdrawal-induced changes, including the decreased reward responsivity of the ventral striatum, the bilateral dorsal striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex are not influenced by varenicline suggesting a task-dependent divergence in neurocircuitry activation. Under satiety, varenicline treatment is associated with diminished cue-induced activation of the ventral striatum and medial orbitofrontal cortex concomitant with reduced cravings; during the resting state, varenicline induces activation of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and suppression of the right amygdala. Conclusions: The current review provides important clues with regard to the neurobiological mechanism of action of varenicline and highlights promising research opportunities regarding the development of more selective and effective treatments and predictive biomarkers for treatment efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, about a third of the total final energy demand of the industrial sector is used for the generation of low temperature heat below 100 °C which could be satisfied by commercially available solar thermal applications. Although the technological readiness level of solar thermal technologies is currently in high levels, the recent energy mix data of industrial countries with high solar irradiation levels reveal that this potential still remains untapped. The key objective of this work is to quantify this unexploited potential and assess the environmental impact of industrial solar thermal systems (ISTS). Under this context, cradle-to-use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted for the definition of the environmental performance of ISTS. A parametric analysis for the application of ISTS at selected European sites with diverse solar potential was also implemented to investigate the impact of solar potential on the life cycle performance of the systems. Taking into consideration the findings on the potential of carbon savings from the application of ISTS and in relevance to the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), scenarios of ISTS penetration and monetization into the industrial sector have also been developed. The findings of this work can be used by policy-makers as guidelines for the development of national strategic plans and financial incentives for the promotion of large-scale industrial solar thermal applications. The implementation of a parametric assessment on the environmental performance of ISTS for specific European geographical locations of diverse solar potential enabled the development of a ‘Life Cycle Produced to Consumed Energy’ Ratio, which indicated that applications located at lower latitudes (in the northern hemisphere) can achieve greater life cycle energy and carbon savings than ISTS applications found higher in latitude. In particular, large-scale ISTS applications were found to achieve energy and carbon savings ranging from 35 to 75 GJ and 2–5 tonnes of CO 2 per kWth, depending on the geographical location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex systems are typically represented by large ensembles of observations. Correlation matrices provide an efficient formal framework to extract information from such multivariate ensembles and identify in a quantifiable way patterns of activity that are reproducible with statistically significant frequency compared to a reference chance probability, usually provided by random matrices as fundamental reference. The character of the problem and especially the symmetries involved must guide the choice of random matrices to be used for the definition of a baseline reference. For standard correlation matrices this is the Wishart ensemble of symmetric random matrices. The real world complexity however often shows asymmetric information flows and therefore more general correlation matrices are required to adequately capture the asymmetry. Here we first summarize the relevant theoretical concepts. We then present some examples of human brain activity where asymmetric time-lagged correlations are evident and hence highlight the need for further theoretical developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We present the design of a low-cost system for recording galvanic skin conductance responses (SCRs) from humans in a magnetically shielded room (MSR) simultaneously to magnetoencephalography (MEG). Such a system was so far not available to the MEG community. Its availability is of utmost importance for neuroscience, since it will allow the concurrent assessment of the autonomic and central nervous system activity. The overall system design optimizes high signal to noise ratio (SNR) of SCRs and achieves minimal distortion of the MEG signal. Its development was based on a fiber-optic transformer, with voltage to optical transduction inside the MSR and demodulation outside the MSR. The system was calibrated and tested inside the MEG environment by using a 151-channel CTF whole head system (VSM MedTech Ltd.). MEG measurements were recorded simultaneously to SCRs from five healthy participants to test whether the developed system does not generate artifacts in the MEG data. Two measurements were performed for each participant; one without the system in the MSR, and one with the system in the MSR, connected to the participant and in operation. The data were analyzed using the time and frequency domains in separate statistical analysis. No significant differences were observed between the two sessions for any statistic index. Our results show that the system allows high quality simultaneous recordings of SCRs and MEG signals in the MSR, and can therefore be used as routine addendum to neuroscience experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study combines source analysis imaging data for early somatosensory processing and the probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps (PCMs). Human somatosensory evoked fields (SEFs) were recorded by stimulating left and right median nerves. Filtering the recorded responses in different frequency ranges identified the most responsive frequency band. The short-latency averaged SEFs were analyzed using a single equivalent current dipole (ECD) model and magnetic field tomography (MFT). The identified foci of activity were superimposed with PCMs. Two major components of opposite polarity were prominent around 21 and 31ms. A weak component around 25ms was also identified. For the most responsive frequency band (50–150Hz) ECD and MFT revealed one focal source at the contralateral Brodmann area 3b (BA3b) at the peak of N20. The component ~25ms was localised in Brodmann area 1 (BA1) in 50–150Hz. By using ECD, focal generators around 28–30ms located initially in BA3b and 2ms later to BA1. MFT also revealed two focal sources — one in BA3b and one in BA1 for these latencies. Our results provide direct evidence that the earliest cortical response after median nerve stimulation is generated within the contralateral BA3b. BA1 activation few milliseconds later indicates a serial mode of somatosensory processing within cytoarchitectonic SI subdivisions. Analysis of non-invasive magnetoencephalography (MEG) data and the use of PCMs allow unambiguous and quantitative (probabilistic) interpretation of cytoarchitectonic identity of activated areas following median nerve stimulation, even with the simple ECD model, but only when the model fits the data extremely well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: ECG Derived Respiration (EDR) are a set of methods used for extracting the breathing rate from the Electrocardiogram (ECG). Recent studies revealed a tight connection between breathing rate and more specifically the breathing patterns during sleep and several related pathologies. Yet, while breathing rate and more specifically the breathing pattern is recognised as a vital sign it is less employed than Electroencephalography (EEG) and heart rate in sleep and polysomnography studies. Methods: This study utilised open-access data from the ISRUC sleep database to test a novel spectral-based EDR technique (scEDR). In contrast to previous approaches, the novel method emphasizes spectral continuity and not only the power of the different spectral peaks. scEDR is then compared against a more widely used spectral EDR method that selects the frequency with the highest power as the respiratory frequency (Max Power EDR). Results: scEDR yielded improved performance against the more widely used Max Power EDR in terms of accuracy across all sleep stages and the whole sleep. This study further explores the breathing rate across sleep stages, providing evidence in support of a putative sleep stage "REM0" which was previously proposed based on analysis of the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) but not yet widely discussed. Most importantly, this study observes that the frequency distribution of the heart rate during REM0 is closer to REM than other NREM periods even though most of REM0 was previously classified as NREM sleep by sleep experts following either the original or revised sleep staging criteria. Discussion: Based on the results of the analysis, this study proposes scEDR as a potential low-cost and non-invasive method for extracting the breathing rate using the heart rate during sleep with further studies required to validate its accuracy in awake subjects. In this study, the autonomic balance across different sleep stages, including REM0, was examined using HRV as a metric. The results suggest that sympathetic activity decreases as sleep progresses to NREM3 until it reaches a level similar to the awake state in REM through a transition from REM0., Competing Interests: Authors GO, CK, and AAI were employed by AAI Scientific Cultural Services Ltd. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Orphanides, Karittevlis, Alsadder and Ioannides.)

Competing Interests: Funding Support and Author Disclosures The authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.

Introduction: One of the primary motivations for studying the human brain is to comprehend how external sensory input is processed and ultimately perceived by the brain. A good understanding of these processes can promote the identification of biomarkers for the diagnosis of various neurological disorders; it can also provide ways of evaluating therapeutic techniques. In this work, we seek the minimal requirements for identifying key stages of activity in the brain elicited by median nerve stimulation., Methods: We have used a priori knowledge and applied a simple, linear, spatial filter on the electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography signals to identify the early responses in the thalamus and cortex evoked by short electrical stimulation of the median nerve at the wrist. The spatial filter is defined first from the average EEG and MEG signals and then refined using consistency selection rules across ST. The refined spatial filter is then applied to extract the timecourses of each ST in each targeted generator. These ST timecourses are studied through clustering to quantify the ST variability. The nature of ST connectivity between thalamic and cortical generators is then studied within each identified cluster using linear and non-linear algorithms with time delays to extract linked and directional activities. A novel combination of linear and non-linear methods provides in addition discrimination of influences as excitatory or inhibitory., Results: Our method identifies two key aspects of the evoked response. Firstly, the early onset of activity in the thalamus and the somatosensory cortex, known as the P14 and P20 in EEG and the second M20 for MEG. Secondly, good estimates are obtained for the early timecourse of activity from these two areas. The results confirm the existence of variability in ST brain activations and reveal distinct and novel patterns of connectivity in different clusters., Discussion: It has been demonstrated that we can extract new insights into stimulus processing without the use of computationally costly source reconstruction techniques which require assumptions and detailed modeling of the brain. Our methodology, thanks to its simplicity and minimal computational requirements, has the potential for real-time applications such as in neurofeedback systems and brain-computer interfaces., Competing Interests: CK, GO, and AI are employed by AAI Scientific Cultural Services Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Karittevlis, Papadopoulos, Lima, Orphanides, Tiwari, Antonakakis, Papadopoulou Lesta and Ioannides.)

High amplitude electroencephalogram (EEG) events, like unitary K-complex (KC), are used to partition sleep into stages and hence define the hypnogram, a key instrument of sleep medicine. Throughout sleep the heart rate (HR) changes, often as a steady HR increase leading to a peak, what is known as a heart rate surge (HRS). The hypnogram is often unavailable when most needed, when sleep is disturbed and the graphoelements lose their identity. The hypnogram is also difficult to define during normal sleep, particularly at the start of sleep and the periods that precede and follow rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Here, we use objective quantitative criteria that group together periods that cannot be assigned to a conventional sleep stage into what we call REM0 periods, with the presence of a HRS one of their defining properties. Extended REM0 periods are characterized by highly regular sequences of HRS that generate an infra-low oscillation around 0.05 Hz. During these regular sequence of HRS, and just before each HRS event, we find avalanches of high amplitude events for each one of the mass electrophysiological signals, i.e. related to eye movement, the motor system and the general neural activity. The most prominent features of long REM0 periods are sequences of three to five KCs which we label multiple K-complexes (KCm). Regarding HRS, a clear dissociation is demonstrated between the presence or absence of high gamma band spectral power (55-95 Hz) of the two types of KCm events: KCm events with strong high frequencies (KCmWSHF) cluster just before the peak of HRS, while KCm between HRS show no increase in high gamma band (KCmNOHF). Tomographic estimates of activity from magnetoencephalography (MEG) in pre-KC periods (single and multiple) showed common increases in the cholinergic Nucleus Basalis of Meynert in the alpha band. The direct contrast of KCmWSHF with KCmNOHF showed increases in all subjects in the high sigma band in the base of the pons and in three subjects in both the delta and high gamma bands in the medial Pontine Reticular Formation (mPRF), the putative Long Lead Initial pulse (LLIP) for Ponto-Geniculo-Occipital (PGO) waves., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Both authors were employed by the company AAI Scientific Cultural Services Ltd (GO on a part-time basis)., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

In recent years, parallel developments in disparate disciplines have focused on what has come to be termed connectivity ; a concept used in understanding and describing complex systems. Conceptualisations and operationalisations of connectivity have evolved largely within their disciplinary boundaries, yet similarities in this concept and its application among disciplines are evident. However, any implementation of the concept of connectivity carries with it both ontological and epistemological constraints, which leads us to ask if there is one type or set of approach(es) to connectivity that might be applied to all disciplines. In this review we explore four ontological and epistemological challenges in using connectivity to understand complex systems from the standpoint of widely different disciplines. These are: (i) defining the fundamental unit for the study of connectivity; (ii) separating structural connectivity from functional connectivity; (iii) understanding emergent behaviour; and (iv) measuring connectivity. We draw upon discipline-specific insights from Computational Neuroscience, Ecology, Geomorphology, Neuroscience, Social Network Science and Systems Biology to explore the use of connectivity among these disciplines. We evaluate how a connectivity-based approach has generated new understanding of structural-functional relationships that characterise complex systems and propose a 'common toolbox' underpinned by network-based approaches that can advance connectivity studies by overcoming existing constraints., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The cerebellum participates in emotion-related neural circuits formed by different cortical and subcortical areas, which sub-serve arousal and valence. Recent neuroimaging studies have shown a functional specificity of cerebellar lobules in the processing of emotional stimuli. However, little is known about the temporal component of this process. The goal of the current study is to assess the spatiotemporal profile of neural responses within the cerebellum during the processing of arousal and valence. We hypothesized that the excitation and timing of distinct cerebellar lobules is influenced by the emotional content of the stimuli. By using magnetoencephalography, we recorded magnetic fields from twelve healthy human individuals while passively viewing affective pictures rated along arousal and valence. By using a beamformer, we localized gamma-band activity in the cerebellum across time and we related the foci of activity to the anatomical organization of the cerebellum. Successive cerebellar activations were observed within distinct lobules starting ~160ms after the stimuli onset. Arousal was processed within both vermal (VI and VIIIa) and hemispheric (left Crus II) lobules. Valence (left VI) and its interaction (left V and left Crus I) with arousal were processed only within hemispheric lobules. Arousal processing was identified first at early latencies (160ms) and was long-lived (until 980ms). In contrast, the processing of valence and its interaction to arousal was short lived at later stages (420-530ms and 570-640ms respectively). Our findings provide for the first time evidence that distinct cerebellar lobules process arousal, valence, and their interaction in a parallel yet temporally hierarchical manner determined by the emotional content of the stimuli., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

It is widely accepted that the amygdala plays a crucial role in the processing of emotions. The precise nature of its involvement is however unclear. We hypothesized that ambivalent findings from neuroimaging studies that report amygdala's activity in emotions, are due to distinct functional specificity of amygdala's sub-divisions and specifically to differential reactivity to arousal and valence. The goal of the present study is to characterize the amygdala response to affective stimuli by disentangling the contributions of arousal and valence. Our hypothesis was prompted by recent reports claiming anatomical sub-divisions of amygdala based on cytoarchitecture and the functional maps obtained from diverse behavioral, emotional, and physiological stimulation. We measured magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings from 12 healthy individuals passively exposed to affective stimuli from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) collection using a 2 (Valence levels)× 2 (Arousal levels) design. Source power was estimated using a beamformer technique with the activations referring to the amygdala sub-divisions defined through probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps. Right laterobasal amygdala activity was found to mediate negative valence (elicited by unpleasant stimuli) while left centromedial activity was characterized by an interaction of valence by arousal (arousing pleasant stimuli). We did not find a main effect for amygdala activations in any of its sub-divisions for arousal modulation. To the best of our knowledge, our findings from non-invasive MEG data indicate for the first time, a distinct functional specificity of amygdala anatomical sub-divisions in the emotional processing., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The spatiotemporal profiles of visual processing are normally distributed in two temporal phases, each lasting about 100 ms. Within each phase, cortical processing begins in V1 and traverses the visual cortical hierarchy. However, the causal role of V1 in starting each of these two phases is unknown. Here we used magnetoencephalography to study the spatiotemporal profiles of visual processing and the causal contribution of V1 in three neurologically intact participants and in a rare patient (GY) with unilateral destruction of V1, in whom residual visual functions mediated by the extra-geniculostriate pathways have been reported. In healthy subjects, visual processing in the first 200 ms post-stimulus onset proceeded in the two usual phases. Normally perceived stimuli in the left hemifield of GY elicited a spatiotemporal profile in the intact right hemisphere that closely matched that of healthy subjects. However, stimuli presented in the cortically blind hemifield produced no detectable response during the first phase of processing, indicating that the responses in extrastriate visual areas during this phase are determined by the feedforward progression of activity initiated in V1. The first responses occurred during the second processing phase, in the ipsilesional high-level visual areas. The activity then spread forward toward higher-level areas and backward toward lower-level areas. However, in contrast to responses in the intact hemisphere, the back-propagated activity in the early visual cortex did not exhibit the classic retinotopic organization and did not have well-defined response peaks., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Different attention types select and focus brain resources on relevant sensory information. However, key questions remain unresolved: when and where cortical visual processing is first modulated by different types of attention? How do such modulatory effects spread thereafter? Here, we address these issues for spatial and category-specific types of attention using magnetoencephalography (MEG). First we identified the dynamics of visual attention-independent sensory processing to serve as a baseline framework for the attentional modulations of interest. We found that visual information is processed through the entire hierarchy of visual areas in at least two phases, in the 40-130 ms and 130-230 ms periods respectively. Spatial attention modulations were identified from the beginning of the initial stimulus-evoked response in the primary visual cortex ~70 ms post-stimulus. Category-specific attention modulated face processing beginning from the first face-specific response in high-level object-related areas ~100 ms post-stimulus, substantially earlier than previously reported for face-directed attention. Thus both attention types modulated responses during the first processing phase, beginning at the earliest brain area capable of coding the attentional target. Thereafter attentional effects propagated through the visual cortex together with the stimulus-evoked activity. Category-specific attention did not affect the first-phase responses in low-level strongly retinotopic visual areas, while the second-phase responses were enhanced when the stimulus was the response target and reduced when it was a distractor. Responses during both phases in high-level object-related areas were enhanced by category-specific attention independent of their target/distractor status. Spatial attention effects were stronger in low-level areas, whereas category-specific attention effects were stronger in high-level object-related areas., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)