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Introduction Total elbow arthroplasty (TEA) is an increasingly popular surgical option for many debilitating conditions of the elbow. There currently exists a paucity of literature regarding patient and hospital factors that lead to inferior outcomes following TEA. The purpose of this study is to identify independent predictors of increased complication and revision rates following TEA. Methods The National Readmissions Database (NRD) was queried from 2011 to 2018 to identify all cases of TEA (n = 8932). Relevant patient demographic factors, comorbidities, and hospital characteristics were identified and run in a univariate binomial logistic regression model. All significant variables were included in a multivariate binomial logistic regression model for data analysis. Results Independent predictors of increased complication rates included age, female sex, Medicare and Medicaid payer status, medium bed-sized center, and 18 of 34 medical comorbidities (all P

Study Objectives: Healthy aging and many disorders show reduced sleep-dependent memory consolidation and corresponding alterations in non-rapid eye movement sleep oscillations. Yet sleep physiology remains a relatively neglected target for improving memory. We evaluated the effects of closed-loop auditory stimulation during sleep (CLASS) on slow oscillations (SOs), sleep spindles, and their coupling, all in relation to motor procedural memory consolidation., Methods: Twenty healthy young adults had two afternoon naps: one with auditory stimulation during SO upstates and another with no stimulation. Twelve returned for a third nap with stimulation at variable times in relation to SO upstates. In all sessions, participants trained on the motor sequence task prior to napping and were tested afterward., Results: Relative to epochs with no stimulation, upstate stimuli disrupted sleep and evoked SOs, spindles, and SO-coupled spindles. Stimuli that successfully evoked oscillations were delivered closer to the peak of the SO upstate and when spindle power was lower than stimuli that failed to evoke oscillations. Across conditions, participants showed similar significant post-nap performance improvement that correlated with the density of SO-coupled spindles., Conclusions: Despite its strong effects on sleep physiology, CLASS failed to enhance motor procedural memory. Our findings suggest methods to overcome this failure, including better sound calibration to preserve sleep continuity and the use of real-time predictive algorithms to more precisely target SO upstates and to avoid disrupting endogenous SO-coupled spindles and their mnemonic function. They motivate continued development of CLASS as an intervention to manipulate sleep oscillatory dynamics and improve memory., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Continuous spike and wave of sleep with encephalopathy (CSWS) is a rare and severe developmental electroclinical epileptic encephalopathy characterized by seizures, abundant sleep activated interictal epileptiform discharges, and cognitive regression or deceleration of expected cognitive growth. The cause of the cognitive symptoms is unknown, and efforts to link epileptiform activity to cognitive function have been unrevealing. Converging lines of evidence implicate thalamocortical circuits in these disorders. Sleep spindles are generated and propagated by the same thalamocortical circuits that can generate spikes and, in healthy sleep, support memory consolidation. As such, sleep spindle deficits may provide a physiologically relevant mechanistic biomarker for cognitive dysfunction in epileptic encephalopathies., Case Presentation: We describe the longitudinal course of a child with CSWS with initial cognitive regression followed by dramatic cognitive improvement after treatment. Using validated automated detection algorithms, we analyzed electroencephalograms for epileptiform discharges and sleep spindles alongside contemporaneous neuropsychological evaluations over the course of the patient's disease. We found that sleep spindles increased dramatically with high-dose diazepam treatment, corresponding with marked improvements in cognitive performance. We also found that the sleep spindle rate was anticorrelated to spike rate, consistent with a competitively shared underlying thalamocortical circuitry., Conclusions: Epileptic encephalopathies are challenging electroclinical syndromes characterized by combined seizures and a deceleration or regression in cognitive skills over childhood. This report identifies thalamocortical circuit dysfunction in a case of epileptic encephalopathy and motivates future investigations of sleep spindles as a biomarker of cognitive function and a potential therapeutic target in this challenging disease., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Recent studies suggest that speech, solid feeding, and sleep difficulties may be linked to restricted tongue function. Children with tongue restrictions and speech, feeding, and sleep issues underwent lingual frenectomies with a CO 2 laser, paired with myofunctional exercises. Questionnaires were completed before, 1 week after, and 1 month following treatment. Thirty-seven patients participated in the study (mean age 4.2 years [range 13 months to 12 years]). Overall, speech improved in 89%, solid feeding improved in 83%, and sleep improved in 83% of patients as reported by parents. Fifty percent (8/16) of speech-delayed children said new words after the procedure ( P = .008), 76% (16/21) of slow eaters ate more rapidly ( P < .001), and 72% (23/32) of restless sleepers slept less restlessly ( P < .001). After tongue-tie releases paired with exercises, most children experience functional improvements in speech, feeding, and sleep. Providers should screen for oral restrictions in children and refer for treatment when functions are impaired.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) utilizing signals acquired with intracortical implants have achieved successful high-dimensional robotic device control useful for completing daily tasks. However, the substantial amount of medical and surgical expertise required to correctly implant and operate these systems significantly limits their use beyond a few clinical cases. A noninvasive counterpart requiring less intervention that can provide high-quality control would profoundly impact the integration of BCIs into the clinical and home setting. Here, we present and validate a noninvasive framework utilizing electroencephalography (EEG) to achieve the neural control of a robotic device for continuous random target tracking. This framework addresses and improves upon both the "brain" and "computer" components by respectively increasing user engagement through a continuous pursuit task and associated training paradigm, and the spatial resolution of noninvasive neural data through EEG source imaging. In all, our unique framework enhanced BCI learning by nearly 60% for traditional center-out tasks and by over 500% in the more realistic continuous pursuit task. We further demonstrated an additional enhancement in BCI control of almost 10% by using online noninvasive neuroimaging. Finally, this framework was deployed in a physical task, demonstrating a near seamless transition from the control of an unconstrained virtual cursor to the real-time control of a robotic arm. Such combined advances in the quality of neural decoding and the practical utility of noninvasive robotic arm control will have major implications on the eventual development and implementation of neurorobotics by means of noninvasive BCI., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: There are no competing interests with any of the authors.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to affect motor and cognitive task performance and learning when applied to brain areas involved in the task. Targeted stimulation has also been found to alter connectivity within the stimulated hemisphere during rest. However, the connectivity effect of the interaction of endogenous task specific activity and targeted stimulation is unclear. This study examined the aftereffects of concurrent anodal high-definition tDCS over the left sensorimotor cortex with motor network connectivity during a one-dimensional EEG based sensorimotor rhythm brain-computer interface (SMR-BCI) task. Directed connectivity following anodal tDCS illustrates altered connections bilaterally between frontal and parietal regions, and these alterations occur in a task specific manner; connections between similar cortical regions are altered differentially during left and right imagination trials. During right-hand imagination following anodal tDCS, there was an increase in outflow from the left premotor cortex (PMC) to multiple regions bilaterally in the motor network and increased inflow to the stimulated sensorimotor cortex from the ipsilateral PMC and contralateral sensorimotor cortex. During left-hand imagination following anodal tDCS, there was increased outflow from the stimulated sensorimotor cortex to regions across the motor network. Significant correlations between connectivity and the behavioral measures of total correct trials and time-to-hit (TTH) correct trials were also found, specifically that the input to the left PMC correlated with decreased right hand imagination performance and that flow from the ipsilateral posterior parietal cortex (PPC) to midline sensorimotor cortex correlated with improved performance for both right and left hand imagination. These results indicate that tDCS interacts with task-specific endogenous activity to alter directed connectivity during SMR-BCI. In order to predict and maximize the targeted effect of tDCS, the interaction of stimulation with the dynamics of endogenous activity needs to be examined comprehensively and understood.

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been used to alter the excitability of neurons within the cerebral cortex. Improvements in motor learning have been found in multiple studies when tDCS was applied to the motor cortex before or during task learning. The motor cortex is also active during the performance of motor imagination, a cognitive task during which a person imagines, but does not execute, a movement. Motor imagery can be used with noninvasive brain computer interfaces (BCIs) to control virtual objects in up to three dimensions, but to master control of such devices requires long training times., Objective: To evaluate the effect of high-definition tDCS on the performance and underlying electrophysiology of motor imagery based BCI., Methods: We utilize high-definition tDCS to investigate the effect of stimulation on motor imagery-based BCI performance across and within sessions over multiple training days., Results: We report a decreased time-to-hit with anodal stimulation both within and across sessions. We also found differing electrophysiological changes of the stimulated sensorimotor cortex during online BCI task performance for left vs. right trials. Cathodal stimulation led to a decrease in alpha and beta band power during task performance compared to sham stimulation for right hand imagination trials., Conclusion: These results suggest that unilateral tDCS over the sensorimotor motor cortex differentially affects cortical areas based on task specific neural activation., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been used to affect the excitability of neurons within the cerebral cortex. Improvements in motor learning have been found in multiple studies when tDCS was applied to the motor cortex during or before task learning is performed. The application of tDCS to motor imagery, a cognitive task showing activation in similar areas to motor execution, has resulted in differing effects based on the amplitude and duration of stimulation. We utilize high definition tDCS, a more spatially localized version of tDCS, to investigate the effect of anodal stimulation on human motor imagery performance. In parallel, we model this stimulation using a finite element model to calculate stimulation area and electrical field amplitude within the brain in the motor cortex and non-stimulated frontal and parietal regions. Overall, we found a delayed increase in resting baseline power 30 minutes post stimulation in both the right and left sensorimotor cortices which resulted in an increase in event-related desynchronization.

This paper describes a fast direct algorithm for obtaining least-squares phase estimates from arrays of noisy phase differences. The algorithm uses the fast Fourier transform to diagonalize and decouple the system of equations which results from the application of the least-squares criterion. It is accurate and stable, and is perhaps an order of magnitude faster than the best iterative method. The effectiveness of the algorithm has been demonstrated by using it in connection with the Knox-Thompson speckle-imaging procedure to restore an optical object perturbed by simulated atmospheric turbulence. Representative results are discussed in the paper.

This paper proposes a unified image-processing and viewing system as a viewing station and initially as the central file server in a unified digital image distribution and processing network, linking various digital image sources through a high speed data link and a common image format. The network allows for viewing and processing of all images produced within the complex and for locating viewing stations in any number of convenient areas. The system proposed can be slowly expanded to include all the digital images produced within the department of institution.

Computed tomography scanners may be used to make anatomic size measurement; however, manipulating the viewer controls (especially the window center) can have a significant influence on the apparent size of structures in the image. A special phantom was constructed to study the effect of window center adjustments on the apparent size of lone cylindrical objects (no variation within slice thickness) and also for spherical objects (maximum variation within slice thickness). Using this phantom, the authors were able to identify several commonly encountered situations in which both the apparent size and CT numbers may be seriously in error. It was found that for cylindrical objects larger than about one transverse resolution element and aligned with the scanner axis, CT numbers may be determined accurately; however, the apparent diameter changes by several millimeters as the window center setting is changed. CT numbers for spheres are inaccurate when the diameter is comparable to or less than the slice thickness and, as a result, diameters of spheres cannot be measured accurately with fixed window center settings. Diameters of spheres can be measured accurately (+/- 1 mm) if the sphere is centered in the slice and the full width at half maximum of the CT number profile is used.