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2D semiconductors offer a promising platform for the realization of compact and CMOS-compatible optoelectronic components. Here, the authors report the realization of light-emitting diodes based on 2D WSe2 integrated with a planar cavity, showing the electrical control of the emission angle and polarization at room temperature.

This article examines the phenomenon of family secrets from a systemic-relational perspective, starting from the observations by Karpel and other authors, with the aim of providing a classification system for different types of such secrets, and identifying potential and common adverse consequences within the family system, arising from the emergence of symptoms in an individual family member. Through empirical knowledge and clinical practice, some clinical cases are analysed to illustrate the four major types of family secrets, constituting distinct taxonomic clusters, which can be further divided into several subgroups. The final part of the article illustrates an innovative psychotherapeutic technique, which could be described as a 3D (three-dimensional) approach and investigates and addresses family secrets through the use of metaphors.

The practice of sport, intended not just as a physical activity performed exclusively for athletic competition, represents a key element for growth on an emotional and social level. Practicing sports can help to enhance one’s self- and body awareness through multidimensional dynamic and ludic activity. In this context, sport becomes an educational and training tool, and is often a forerunner of social change. Sports practice combining physical activity with recreational activity, can, in fact, promote health and longevity, as well as physical and psychological wellbeing. As highlighted by the European Union, sport is also a source of social inclusion, and an excellent tool for the integration of minorities and groups at risk of social exclusion.

Working memory (WM) is the cognitive ability to store and manipulate information necessary for ongoing tasks. Although frontoparietal areas are involved in the retention of visually presented information, oscillatory neural activity differs for temporal and spatial WM processing. In this study, we corroborated previous findings describing the modulation of neural oscillations and expanded our investigation to the network organization underlying the cognitive processing of temporal and spatial information. We utilized MEG recordings during a Sternberg visual WM task. The spectral oscillatory activity in the maintenance phase revealed increased frontal theta (4-8 Hz) and parietal beta (13-30 Hz) in the temporal condition. Source level coherence analysis delineated the prominent role of parietal areas in all frequency bands during the maintenance of temporal information, whereas frontal and central areas showed major contributions in theta and beta ranges during the maintenance of spatial information. Our study revealed distinct spectral profiles of neural oscillations for separate cognitive subdomains of WM processing. The delineation of specific functional networks might have important implications for clinical applications, enabling the development of stimulation protocols targeting cognitive disabilities associated with WM impairments., (© 2023 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)

Our brains extract structure from the environment and form predictions given past experience. Predictive circuits have been identified in wide-spread cortical regions. However, the contribution of medial temporal structures in predictions remains under-explored. The hippocampus underlies sequence detection and is sensitive to novel stimuli, sufficient to gain access to memory, while the amygdala to novelty. Yet, their electrophysiological profiles in detecting predictable and unpredictable deviant auditory events remain unknown. Here, we hypothesized that the hippocampus would be sensitive to predictability, while the amygdala to unexpected deviance. We presented epileptic patients undergoing presurgical monitoring with standard and deviant sounds, in predictable or unpredictable contexts. Onsets of auditory responses and unpredictable deviance effects were detected earlier in the temporal cortex compared with the amygdala and hippocampus. Deviance effects in 1-20 Hz local field potentials were detected in the lateral temporal cortex, irrespective of predictability. The amygdala showed stronger deviance in the unpredictable context. Low-frequency deviance responses in the hippocampus (1-8 Hz) were observed in the predictable but not in the unpredictable context. Our results reveal a distributed network underlying the generation of auditory predictions and suggest that the neural basis of sensory predictions and prediction error signals needs to be extended., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permission@oup.com.)

We evaluate whether interictal spikes, epileptiform HFOs and their co-occurrence (Spike + HFO) were included in the resection area with respect to seizure outcome. We also characterise the relationship between high frequency oscillations (HFOs) and propagating spikes. We analysed intracranial EEG of 20 patients that underwent resective epilepsy surgery. The co-occurrence of ripples and fast ripples was considered an HFO event; the co-occurrence of an interictal spike and HFO was considered a Spike + HFO event. HFO distribution and spike onset were compared in cases of spike propagation. Accuracy in predicting seizure outcome was 85% for HFO, 60% for Spikes, and 79% for Spike + HFO. Sensitivity was 57% for HFO, 71% for Spikes and 67% for Spikes + HFO. Specificity was 100% for HFO, 54% for Spikes and 85% for Spikes + HFO. In 2/2 patients with spike propagation, the spike onset included the HFO area. Combining interictal spikes with HFO had comparable accuracy to HFO. In patients with propagating spikes, HFO rate was maximal at the onset of spike propagation., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objective: We aimed to investigate (1) whether an automated detector can capture scalp high-frequency oscillations (HFO) in neonates and (2) whether scalp HFO rates can differentiate neonates with seizures from healthy neonates., Methods: We considered 20 neonates with EEG-confirmed seizures and four healthy neonates. We applied a previously validated automated HFO detector to determine scalp HFO rates in quiet sleep., Results: Etiology in neonates with seizures included hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in 11 cases, structural vascular lesions in 6, and genetic causes in 3. The HFO rates were significantly higher in neonates with seizures (0.098 ± 0.091 HFO/min) than in healthy neonates (0.038 ± 0.025 HFO/min; P = 0.02) with a Hedge's g value of 0.68 indicating a medium effect size. The HFO rate of 0.1 HFO/min/ch yielded the highest Youden index in discriminating neonates with seizures from healthy neonates. In neonates with seizures, etiology, status epilepticus, EEG background activity, and seizure patterns did not significantly impact HFO rates., Significance: Neonatal scalp HFO can be detected automatically and differentiate neonates with seizures from healthy neonates. Our observations have significant implications for neuromonitoring in neonates. This is the first step in establishing neonatal HFO as a biomarker for neonatal seizures., (© 2023 The Authors. Epilepsia Open published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International League Against Epilepsy.)

Anxiety has been linked to altered belief formation and uncertainty estimation, impacting learning. Identifying the neural processes underlying these changes is important for understanding brain pathology. Here, we show that oscillatory activity in the medial prefrontal, anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex (mPFC, ACC, OFC) explains anxiety-related learning alterations. In a magnetoencephalography experiment, two groups of human participants pre-screened with high and low trait anxiety (HTA, LTA: 39) performed a probabilistic reward-based learning task. HTA undermined learning through an overestimation of volatility, leading to faster belief updating, more stochastic decisions and pronounced lose-shift tendencies. On a neural level, we observed increased gamma activity in the ACC, dmPFC, and OFC during encoding of precision-weighted prediction errors in HTA, accompanied by suppressed ACC alpha/beta activity. Our findings support the association between altered learning and belief updating in anxiety and changes in gamma and alpha/beta activity in the ACC, dmPFC, and OFC., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The reliable identification of the irritative zone (IZ) is a prerequisite for the correct clinical evaluation of medically refractory patients affected by epilepsy. Given the complexity of MEG data, visual analysis of epileptiform neurophysiological activity is highly time consuming and might leave clinically relevant information undetected. We recorded and analyzed the interictal activity from seven patients affected by epilepsy (Vectorview Neuromag), who successfully underwent epilepsy surgery (Engel > = II). We visually marked and localized characteristic epileptiform activity (VIS). We implemented a two-stage pipeline for the detection of interictal spikes and the delineation of the IZ. First, we detected candidate events from peaky ICA components, and then clustered events around spatio-temporal patterns identified by convolutional sparse coding. We used the average of clustered events to create IZ maps computed at the amplitude peak (PEAK), and at the 50% of the peak ascending slope (SLOPE). We validated our approach by computing the distance of the estimated IZ (VIS, SLOPE and PEAK) from the border of the surgically resected area (RA). We identified 25 spatiotemporal patterns mimicking the underlying interictal activity (3.6 clusters/patient). Each cluster was populated on average by 22.1 [15.0-31.0] spikes. The predicted IZ maps had an average distance from the resection margin of 8.4 ± 9.3 mm for visual analysis, 12.0 ± 16.5 mm for SLOPE and 22.7 ±. 16.4 mm for PEAK. The consideration of the source spread at the ascending slope provided an IZ closer to RA and resembled the analysis of an expert observer. We validated here the performance of a data-driven approach for the automated detection of interictal spikes and delineation of the IZ. This computational framework provides the basis for reproducible and bias-free analysis of MEG recordings in epilepsy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

High-frequency oscillations (HFO) are a promising biomarker for the identification of epileptogenic tissue. While HFO rates have been shown to predict seizure outcome, it is not yet clear whether their morphological features might improve this prediction. We validated HFO rates against seizure outcome and delineated the distribution of HFO morphological features. We collected stereo-EEG recordings from 20 patients (231 electrodes; 1,943 contacts). We computed HFO rates (the co-occurrence of ripples and fast ripples) through a validated automated detector during non-rapid eye movement sleep. Applying machine learning, we delineated HFO morphological features within and outside epileptogenic tissue across mesial temporal lobe (MTL) and Neocortex. HFO rates predicted seizure outcome with 85% accuracy, 79% specificity, 100% sensitivity, 100% negative predictive value, and 67% positive predictive value. The analysis of HFO features showed larger amplitude in the epileptogenic tissue, similar morphology for epileptogenic HFO in MTL and Neocortex, and larger amplitude for physiological HFO in MTL. We confirmed HFO rates as a reliable biomarker for epilepsy surgery and characterized the potential clinical relevance of HFO morphological features. Our results support the prospective use of HFO in epilepsy surgery and contribute to the anatomical mapping of HFO morphology., 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., (Copyright © 2022 Karpychev, Balatskaya, Utyashev, Pedyash, Zuev, Dragoy and Fedele.)

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are monoclonal antibodies that activate the immune system, aiming at enhancing antitumor immunity. ICIs have shown great promise in the treatment of several advanced malignancies. However, therapy with these immunomodulatory antibodies may lead to a wide spectrum of immune-related adverse events in any organ and any tissue. Cardiologic immune-related events include pericarditis, pericardial effusion, various types of arrhythmias including the occurrence of complete atrioventricular block, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and myocarditis. Although relatively rare, myocarditis is associated with a very high reported mortality in comparison to other adverse events. Myocarditis often presents significant diagnostic complexity and may be under-recognized. When confronted with an unexpected change in the clinical picture, the physician must differentiate between immune-related adverse events, cancer worsening, or other causes unrelated to the cancer or its therapy. However, this is not always easy. Therefore, with the increasing use of checkpoint inhibitors in cancer, all providers who care for patients with cancer should be made aware of this rare, but potentially fatal, cardiologic immune-related adverse event, and able to recognize when prompt consultation with a cardiologist specialist is indicated. In this review, we evaluate currently available scientific evidence and discuss clinical manifestations and new potential approaches to the diagnosis and therapy of acute myocarditis induced by ICIs. Temporary or permanent discontinuation of the ICIs and high-dose steroids have been administered to treat myocarditis, but symptoms may worsen in some patients despite therapy.

We present an electrophysiological dataset collected from the amygdalae of nine participants attending a visual dynamic stimulation of emotional aversive content. The participants were patients affected by epilepsy who underwent preoperative invasive monitoring in the mesial temporal lobe. Participants were presented with dynamic visual sequences of fearful faces (aversive condition), interleaved with sequences of neutral landscapes (neutral condition). The dataset contains the simultaneous recording of intracranial EEG (iEEG) and neuronal spike times and waveforms, and localization information for iEEG electrodes. Participant characteristics and trial information are provided. We technically validated this dataset and provide here the spike sorting quality metrics and the spectra of iEEG signals. This dataset allows the investigation of amygdalar response to dynamic aversive stimuli at multiple spatial scales, from the macroscopic EEG to the neuronal firing in the human brain.

Aims: The inability to carry office visits was collateral damage caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Tele-health is a relatively new, and yet fundamental amid the current crisis, resource to bridge the gap between phisicians and patients., Methods and Results: We report our experience with telemedicine and describe the major events occured in our patients. 121 consecutive adult patients with arterial hypertension (F/M: 56/65; mean age: 66.8 years) were enrolled. 33 patients (27%) had also diabetes, 94 (78%) were also affected from dyslipidemia and 11 (9%) had CAD. They all referred to our ambulatory of hypertension, in most of case for several years. Given the impossibility to continue routine outpatient visits during lockdown, they were all phone called by three residents in order to detect their state of health or any events they could have experienced over this period. They were all asked about their own blood pressure values, the occurrence of new symptoms and of new-onset both cardiovascular and non cardiovascular events. We also followed a self-made preset form. 31 of them (26%) experienced cardiovascular symptoms/events during this period: 11 had hypertensive peaks, in one case associated with nausea and vomiting while 2 of them had hypotensive episodes; 10 had typical angina and/or dyspnoea while 4 had atypical angina; 6 had palpitations; 1 of them developed new onset atrial fibrillation resolved with pharmacologic cardioversion during hospitalization; 1 had syncope; 1 patient reported new onset peripheral oedema; 2 patients died during lockdown for non cardiovascular causes. 17 of them also developed non cardiovascular symptoms, 7 of whom were severe anxiety and/or panic attacks. Almost all patients had important lifestyle changes, in 15 cases (12.3%) associated with weight increase., Conclusion: The impossibility to access to routine outpatient visits during lockdown due to global pandemic of SARS-CoV2, has brought out the risk of underestimating consequences of chronic disease, in absence of appropriate Follow-up. Nevertheless, the two deaths we report were not related to cardiovascular disease. The risk is that both the missing of cardiovascular control visit and the extension of the waiting list, could provoke serious complications in patients suffering from chronic cardiovascular disease., (Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2020. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The amygdala is a central part of networks of brain regions underlying perception and cognition, in particular related to processing of emotionally salient stimuli. Invasive electrophysiological and hemodynamic measurements are commonly used to evaluate functions of the human amygdala, but a comprehensive understanding of their relation is still lacking. Here, we aimed at investigating the link between fast and slow frequency amygdalar oscillations, neuronal firing and hemodynamic responses. To this aim, we recorded intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), hemodynamic responses and single neuron activity from the amygdala of patients with epilepsy. Patients were presented with dynamic visual sequences of fearful faces (aversive condition), interleaved with sequences of neutral landscapes (neutral condition). Comparing responses to aversive versus neutral stimuli across participants, we observed enhanced high gamma power (HGP, >60 ​Hz) during the first 2 ​s of aversive sequence viewing, and reduced delta power (1-4 ​Hz) lasting up to 18 ​s. In 5 participants with implanted microwires, neuronal firing rates were enhanced following aversive stimuli, and exhibited positive correlation with HGP and hemodynamic responses. Our results show that high gamma power, neuronal firing and BOLD responses from the human amygdala are co-modulated. Our findings provide, for the first time, a comprehensive investigation of amygdalar responses to aversive stimuli, ranging from single-neuron spikes to local field potentials and hemodynamic responses., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We present an electrophysiological dataset recorded from nine subjects during a verbal working memory task. Subjects were epilepsy patients undergoing intracranial monitoring for the localization of epileptic seizures. Subjects performed a modified Sternberg task in which the encoding of memory items, maintenance, and recall were temporally separated. The dataset includes simultaneously recorded scalp EEG with the 10-20 system, intracranial EEG (iEEG) recorded with depth electrodes, waveforms and spike times of neurons recorded in the medial temporal lobe, and localization information on the depth electrodes. Subject characteristics and information on each trial (set size, match/mismatch, correct/incorrect, response, and response time) are given. For technical validation of data, we provide spike sorting quality metrics and the spectra of iEEG and scalp EEG signals. This dataset enables the investigation of working memory by providing simultaneous scalp EEG and iEEG recordings, which can be used for connectivity analysis, along with hard-to-obtain neuronal recordings from humans.