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The Brain Balance® (BB) programme has been examined in a centre-based setting, but not yet in a school setting. This pilot study assessed sensorimotor, behavioural and cognitive functioning of students aged 5-15 years with pre-existing developmental and academic challenges who attended three one-hour sessions/week of the BB programme on-site at school (n = 15). Non-participating students served as controls (CTLs; n = 11). Before the programme, BB participants were more likely than CTLs to achieve low scores on at least two of six Cambridge Brain Sciences (CBS) cognitive tests. After the programme, the number of these participants with low scores decreased, compared with CTLs. Following participation, the BB group also demonstrated diminished primitive reflexes and improvement in scores on the Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Teacher Rating Scale (VADTRS), and higher scores on sensorimotor tasks, compared with CTLs. Finally, BB participants tended to improve test accuracy and reaction times on six CBS cognitive tests (non-significant). These preliminary results show the potential efficacy of the BB programme in a school setting. Future studies will assess the programme in larger student populations. [Translation from Spanish by Pol Vilaseca Bou. Spanish Language Review by Mercè Rius. ]

The prelimbic region (PL) of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is implicated in the relapse of drug-seeking behavior. Optimal mPFC functioning relies on synaptic connections involving dendritic spines in pyramidal neurons, whereas prefrontal dysfunction resulting from elevated glucocorticoids, stress, aging, and mental illness are each linked to decreased apical dendritic branching and spine density in pyramidal neurons in these cortical fields. The fact that cocaine use induces activation of the stress-responsive hypothalamo-pituitaryadrenal axis raises the possibility that cocaine-related impairments in mPFC functioning may be manifested by similar changes in neuronal architecture in mPFC. Nevertheless, previous studies have generally identified increases, rather than decreases, in structural plasticity in mPFC after cocaine self-administration. Here, we use 3D imaging and analysis of dendritic spine morphometry to show that chronic cocaine self-administration leads to mild decreases of apical dendritic branching, prominent dendritic spine attrition in PL pyramidal neurons, and working memory deficits. Importantly, these impairments were largely accounted for in groups of rats that self-administered cocaine compared with yoked-cocaine- and saline-matched counterparts. Follow-up experiments failed to demonstrate any effects of either experimenter-administered cocaine or food self-administration on structural alterations in PL neurons. Finally, we verified that the cocaine self-administration group was distinguished by more protracted increases in adrenocortical activity compared with yoked-cocaine- and saline-matched controls. These studies suggest a mechanism whereby increased adrenocortical activity resulting from chronic cocaine self-administration may contribute to regressive prefrontal structural and functional plasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]