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Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder, characterized by deficits in emotion regulation, interpersonal dysfunctions, dissociation and impulsivity. Brain abnormalities have been generally explored; however, the specific contribution of different limbic structures to BPD symptomatology is not described. The aim of this study is to cover this gap, exploring functional and structural alterations of amygdala and insula and to highlight their contribution to neuropsychiatric symptoms. Twenty-eight BPD patients (23.7 ± 3.42 years; 6 M/22F) and twenty-eight matched healthy controls underwent a brain MR protocol (1.5 T, including a 3D T1-weighted sequence and resting-state fMRI) and a complete neuropsychiatric assessment. Volumetry, cortical thickness and functional connectivity of amygdala and insula were evaluated, along with correlations with the neuropsychiatric scales. BPD patients showed a lower cortical thickness of the left insula (p = 0.027) that negatively correlated with the Anger Rumination Scale (p = 0.019; r = − 0.450). A focused analysis on female patients showed a significant reduction of right amygdala volumes in BPD (p = 0.037), that correlate with Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (p = 0.031; r = − 0.415), Beck Depression Inventory (p = 0.009; r = − 0.50) and Ruminative Response Scale (p = 0.045; r = − 0.389). Reduced functional connectivity was found in BPD between amygdala and frontal pole, precuneus and temporal pole. This functional connectivity alterations correlated with Anger Rumination Scale (p = .009; r = − 0.491) and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (p = 0.020; r = − 0.447). Amygdala and insula are altered in BPD patients, and these two limbic structures are implicated in specific neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as difficulty in emotion regulation, depression, anger and depressive rumination.

Cognitive impairments are commonly observed in patients with multiple sclerosis and are associated with lower levels of quality of life. No consensus has been reached on how to tackle effectively cognitive decline in this clinical population non-pharmacologically. This exploratory case-control study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a hypothesis-based cognitive training designed to target multiple domains by promoting the synchronous co-activation of different brain areas and thereby improve cognition and induce changes in functional connectivity in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Forty-five patients (36 females and 9 males, mean age 44.62 +/- 8.80 years) with clinically stable relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis were assigned to either a standard cognitive training or to control groups (sham training and non-active control). The standard training included twenty sessions of computerized exercises involving various cognitive functions supported by distinct brain networks. The sham training was a modified version of the standard training that comprised the same exercises and number of sessions but with increased processing speed load. The non-active control group received no cognitive training. All patients underwent comprehensive neuropsychological and magnetic resonance imaging assessments at baseline and after 5 weeks. Cognitive and resting-state magnetic resonance imaging data were analyzed using repeated measures models. At reassessment, the standard training group showed significant cognitive improvements compared to both control groups in memory tasks not specifically targeted by the training: the Buschke Selective Reminding Test and the Semantic Fluency test. The standard training group showed reductions in functional connectivity of the salience network, in the anterior cingulate cortex, associated with improvements on the Buschke Selective Reminding Test. No changes were observed in the sham training group. These findings suggest that multi-domain training that stimulates multiple brain areas synchronously may improve cognition in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis if sufficient time to process training material is allowed. The associated reduction in functional connectivity of the salience network suggests that training-induced neuroplastic functional reorganization may be the mechanism supporting performance gains. This study was approved by the Regional Ethics Committee of Yorkshire and Humber (approval No. 12/YH/0474) on November 20, 2013.

For precision medicine to be implemented through the lens of in silico technology, it is imperative that biophysical research workflows offer insight into treatments that are specific to a particular illness and to a particular subject. The boundaries of precision medicine can be extended using multiscale, biophysics-centred workflows that consider the fundamental underpinnings of the constituents of cells and tissues and their dynamic environments. Utilising numerical techniques that can capture the broad spectrum of biological flows within complex, deformable and permeable organs and tissues is of paramount importance when considering the core prerequisites of any state-of-the-art precision medicine pipeline. In this work, a succinct breakdown of two precision medicine pipelines developed within two Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) projects are given. The first workflow is targeted on the trajectory of Alzheimer's Disease, and caters for novel hypothesis testing through a multicompartmental poroelastic model which is integrated with a high throughput imaging workflow and subject-specific blood flow variability model. The second workflow gives rise to the patient specific exploration of Aortic Dissections via a multi-scale and compliant model, harnessing imaging, computational fluid-dynamics (CFD) and dynamic boundary conditions. Results relating to the first workflow include some core outputs of the multiporoelastic modelling framework, and the representation of peri-arterial swelling and peri-venous drainage solution fields. The latter solution fields were statistically analysed for a cohort of thirty-five subjects (stratified with respect to disease status, gender and activity level). The second workflow allowed for a better understanding of complex aortic dissection cases utilising both a rigid-wall model informed by minimal and clinically common datasets as well as a moving-wall model informed by rich datasets. ispartof: Morphologie vol:103 issue:343 pages:148-160 ispartof: location:France status: published

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Computerized visual fields: generalized defect in RE (A) and pseudo-altitudinal defect in LE (B) (PPTX 226 kb)

Question Can training-induced changes be maintained long term and can they be extended to other related but untrained skills? Method We (i) measured the independent and combined contribution of intensive, 5-day cognitive training and brain stimulation applied to critical and control brain region using transcranial random noise stimulation, tRNS; (ii) tested whether any improvement in a trained cognitive skill transferred onto non-trained skills; and (iii) tested the possible long-term effects of any cognitive improvement. Participants were trained on a well-known, parametrically-designed numerosity discrimination task, requiring them to judge the most numerous of two sets i.e. the set containing more dots (see Fig. 1 ). Results • There was a significant improvement (on average about 18%) in performing a numerosity discrimination task following intensive and continuous repetition of the task. However, there was an even larger improvement (about 37%) when this repetition was accompanied by tRNS to brain areas that are critical for numerosity discrimination, i.e. the left and right parietal lobes. The improvement was much smaller when stimulation was not associated to cognitive training or when tRNS was applied to brain regions irrelevant for the trained task, i.e. the motor areas. • Improvements in numerosity discrimination following cognitive training combined to parietal tRNS were maintained up to 16 weeks post-training. In contrast, the other experimental conditions showed no such steadiness of learning. • When intense cognitive training was associated to parietal tRNS, improvement in number acuity transferred to the ability to discriminate other types of quantity, specifically time and space that are thought to share common neural and cognitive substrates with numerosity discrimination. There was no transfer to other cognitive skills such as face perception and arithmetic. Conclusions These results indicate that with a suitably chosen task and stimulation, cognitive training can cause large long-lasting enhancement of cognitive functions that are shared across associated tasks.

Si descrivono alcune tecniche di studio basate sull'impiego di traccianti, con particolare riferimento alle esperienze maturate dalla comunità scientifica studiando le quattro unità idrogeologiche pugliesi, prevalentemente costituite da acquiferi rocciosi di natura carbonatica. La sintetica descrizione delle procedure utilizzate è integrata dall'analisi dei principali risultati conseguite in alcune esperienze. Le metodologie di studio basate sull'uso dei traccianti si sono dimostrate utili al fine di caratterizzare l'età delle acque sotterranee e la mobilità delle stesse, le modalità di circolazione idrica sotterranea e il moto degli inquinanti. In particolare, le misure relative al contenuto in radon delle acque di falda hanno evidenziato che negli acquiferi pugliesi a maggiori concentrazioni di radon nelle acque sotterranee corrisponde una maggiore mobilità delle stesse. I traccianti radioattivi utili per lo studio delle correnti verticali sono risultati lo iodio-131 ed il bromo-82, mentre tra i traccianti stabili è stato utilizzato il cloruro di cadmio in soluzione alcolica, anche se, di recente, l'impiego dello ioduro di potassio come tracciante ha mostrato anch'esso buoni risultati. La misura della direzione dei deflussi sotterranei in un pozzo singolo ha consentito di accertare sia l'inversione della direzione di deflusso delle acque dolci di falda in prossimità della costa, a causa delle oscillazioni del livello del mare, sia la direzione del moto delle acque di mare di invasione continentale, che in condizioni di alta marea è orientato verso il continente e che si inverte con la bassa marea.