-
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 2022Although neural plasticity is now widely studied, there was a time when the idea of adult plasticity was antithetical to the mainstream. The essential stumbling block...
Although neural plasticity is now widely studied, there was a time when the idea of adult plasticity was antithetical to the mainstream. The essential stumbling block arose from the seminal experiments of Hubel and Wiesel who presented convincing evidence that there existed a critical period for plasticity during development after which the brain lost its ability to change in accordance to shifts in sensory input. Despite the zeitgeist that mature brain is relatively immutable to change, there were a number of examples of adult neural plasticity emerging in the scientific literature. Interestingly, some of the earliest of these studies involved visual plasticity in the adult cat. Even earlier, there were reports of what appeared to be functional reorganization in adult rat somatosensory thalamus after dorsal column lesions, a finding that was confirmed and extended with additional experimentation. To demonstrate that these findings reflected more than a response to central injury, and to gain greater control of the extent of the sensory loss, peripheral nerve injuries were used that eliminated ascending sensory information while leaving central pathways intact. Merzenich, Kaas, and colleagues used peripheral nerve transections to reveal unambiguous reorganization in primate somatosensory cortex. Moreover, these same researchers showed that this plasticity proceeded in no less than two stages, one immediate, and one more protracted. These findings were confirmed and extended to more expansive cortical deprivations, and further extended to the thalamus and brainstem. There then began a series of experiments to reveal the physiological, morphological and neurochemical mechanisms that permitted this plasticity. Ultimately, Mowery and colleagues conducted a series of experiments that carefully tracked the levels of expression of several subunits of glutamate (AMPA and NMDA) and GABA (GABAA and GABAB) receptor complexes in primate somatosensory cortex at several time points after peripheral nerve injury. These receptor subunit mapping experiments revealed that membrane expression levels came to reflect those seen in early phases of critical period development. This suggested that under conditions of prolonged sensory deprivation the adult cells were returning to critical period like plastic states, i.e., developmental recapitulation. Here we outline the heuristics that drive this phenomenon.
PubMed: 36762289
DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.1086680 -
Journal of Wrist Surgery Feb 2023As the popularity of wrist arthroscopy grows, it continues to prove useful in the treatment of ganglion cysts. Previous studies comparing an arthroscopic technique...
As the popularity of wrist arthroscopy grows, it continues to prove useful in the treatment of ganglion cysts. Previous studies comparing an arthroscopic technique to traditional open excision have demonstrated generally equivalent results regarding complications and cyst recurrence. However, this systematic review compares the two treatment methods not only regarding cyst recurrence but also regarding patient-centered outcomes. Additionally, new studies in the available literature may allow for further analysis. This systematic review identified 23 articles published between 2000 and 2021 that met inclusion criteria. Articles were assessed for quality, and reported cyst recurrence rates, patient satisfaction, patients' preoperative and postoperative pain, and complications associated with either open or arthroscopic excisions were pooled into open excision and arthroscopic excision groups for analysis. In total, 23 studies accounted for 1,670 cases. Pooled data for patient-centered outcomes indicated a significantly higher patient satisfaction rate (89.2 vs 85.6%, < 0.001) and higher reported pain relief (69.5 vs. 66.7%, = 0.011) associated with arthroscopic excision versus open excision. Recurrence rates were also significantly lower for the arthroscopic excision group (9.4 vs. 11.2%, < 0.001). Overall, the complication rate was significantly lower for arthroscopic excision (7.5 vs. 10.7%, < 0.001), but the complication profile distinctly differed between the two methods. Both arthroscopic and open excision of dorsal wrist ganglions are viable treatment options. However, the results of this meta-analysis suggest benefits associated with the arthroscopic technique in both patient-centered outcomes and in traditional, surgical outcomes. This may prove advantageous as wrist arthroscopy becomes more common.
PubMed: 36644727
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1749678 -
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2022The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the ongoing crisis in psychiatric and psychological care, contributing to what we have identified as . Psychotherapy is an...
BACKGROUND
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the ongoing crisis in psychiatric and psychological care, contributing to what we have identified as . Psychotherapy is an effective method for easing the psychological suffering experienced also by the various impacts of COVID-19. This treatment can be examined from a neurological perspective, through the application of brain imaging techniques. Specifically, the meta-analysis of imaging studies can aid in expanding researchers' understanding of the many beneficial applications of psychotherapy.
OBJECTIVES
We examined the functional brain changes accompanying different mental disorders with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), through a meta-analysis, and systematic review in order to better understand the general neural mechanism involved in psychotherapy and the potential neural difference between psychodynamic and non-psychodynamic approaches.
DATA SOURCES
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were employed for our systematic review and meta-analysis. We conducted a computer-based literature search, following the Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcomes (PICO) approach, to retrieve all published articles in English regarding the above-described topics from PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus, and Web of Science.
STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS
We combined terms related to psychotherapy and fMRI: ("psychotherapy" [All Fields] OR "psychotherapy" [MeSH Terms] OR "psychotherapy" [All Fields] OR "psychotherapies" [All Fields] OR "psychotherapy s" [All Fields]) AND ("magnetic resonance imaging" [MeSH Terms]) OR ("magnetic"[All Fields] AND "resonance"[All Fields] AND "imaging"[All Fields]) OR ("magnetic resonance imaging"[All Fields] OR "fmri"[All Fields]). We considered (1) whole brain fMRI studies; (2) studies in which participants have been involved in a clinical trial with psychotherapy sessions, with pre/post fMRI; (3) fMRI results presented in coordinate-based (x, y, and z) in MNI or Talairach space; (4) presence of neuropsychiatric patients. The exclusion criteria were: (1) systematic review or meta-analysis; (2) behavioral study; (3) single-case MRI or fMRI study; and (4) other imaging techniques (i.e., PET, SPECT) or EEG.
RESULTS
After duplicates removal and assessment of the content of each published study, we included 38 sources. The map including all studies that assessed longitudinal differences in brain activity showed two homogeneous clusters in the left inferior frontal gyrus, and caudally involving the anterior insular cortex ( < 0.0001, corr.). Similarly, studies that assessed psychotherapy-related longitudinal changes using emotional or cognitive tasks (TASK map) showed a left-sided homogeneity in the anterior insula ( < 0.000) extending to Broca's area of the inferior frontal gyrus ( < 0.0001) and the superior frontal gyrus ( < 0.0001). Studies that applied psychodynamic psychotherapy showed Family-Wise Error (FWE) cluster-corrected ( < 0.05) homogeneity values in the right superior and inferior frontal gyri, with a small cluster in the putamen. No FWE-corrected homogeneity foci were observed for Mindful- based and cognitive behavioral therapy psychotherapy. In both pre- and post-therapy results, studies showed two bilateral clusters in the dorsal anterior insulae ( = 0.00001 and = 0.00003, respectively) and involvement of the medial superior frontal gyrus ( = 0.0002).
LIMITATIONS
Subjective experiences, such as an individual's response to therapy, are intrinsically challenging to quantify as objective, factual realities. Brain changes observed both pre- and post-therapy could be related to other factors, not necessary to the specific treatment received. Therapeutic modalities and study designs are generally heterogeneous. Differences exist in sample characteristics, such as the specificity of the disorder and number and duration of sessions. Moreover, the sample size is relatively small, particularly due to the paucity of studies in this field and the little contribution of PDT.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS
All psychological interventions seem to influence the brain from a functional point of view, showing their efficacy from a neurological perspective. Frontal, prefrontal regions, insular cortex, superior and inferior frontal gyrus, and putamen seem involved in these neural changes, with the psychodynamic more linked to the latter three regions.
PubMed: 36644207
DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.1029256 -
Molecular Autism Jan 2023The long-described atypicalities of memory functioning experienced by people with autism have major implications for daily living, academic learning, as well as... (Review)
Review
The long-described atypicalities of memory functioning experienced by people with autism have major implications for daily living, academic learning, as well as cognitive remediation. Though behavioral studies have identified a robust profile of memory strengths and weaknesses in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), few works have attempted to establish a synthesis concerning their neural bases. In this systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies, we highlight functional brain asymmetries in three anatomical planes during memory processing between individuals with ASD and typical development. These asymmetries consist of greater activity of the left hemisphere than the right in ASD participants, of posterior brain regions-including hippocampus-rather than anterior ones, and presumably of the ventral (occipito-temporal) streams rather than the dorsal (occipito-parietal) ones. These functional alterations may be linked to atypical memory processes in ASD, including the pre-eminence of verbal over spatial information, impaired active maintenance in working memory, and preserved relational memory despite poor context processing in episodic memory.
Topics: Humans; Autistic Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Brain; Functional Neuroimaging; Brain Mapping
PubMed: 36627713
DOI: 10.1186/s13229-022-00525-2 -
Journal of Personalized Medicine Dec 2022In most dermatological pathologies, the phenomena observed on the skin are a reflection of internal disorders. In patients with associated acral involvement on the... (Review)
Review
In most dermatological pathologies, the phenomena observed on the skin are a reflection of internal disorders. In patients with associated acral involvement on the dorsal sides of the hands, this "vitiligo phenotype" may lead to the investigation of certain associated pathologies that sometimes have no obvious clinical impact. To assess the link between skin depigmentation and autoimmune pathologies, we conducted a systematic review involving article selection from the PubMed database. Patients with coexisting thyroid pathologies were found to have a predisposition for developing acral vitiligo and depigmentation of the wrists, and autoimmune thyroid pathologies appeared to be the only coexisting autoimmune or inflammatory diseases in vitiligo patients to show a pattern of distribution. The association of concomitant thyroid dysfunction with depigmentation of the hands was found to be so strong that the absence of depigmented macules on the hands may exclude the coexistence of an autoimmune thyroid pathology. Although the frequency of acral involvement in patients with vitiligo and autoimmune pathologies is higher, the mechanism by which thyroid dysfunction influences this distribution pattern remains incompletely elucidated and requires future studies.
PubMed: 36556267
DOI: 10.3390/jpm12122048 -
NeuroImage. Clinical 2022Patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) often show deficits in inhibitory control, which may underlie poor control over obsessions and compulsions. Several... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Inhibitory control in obsessive compulsive disorder: A systematic review and activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.
BACKGROUND
Patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) often show deficits in inhibitory control, which may underlie poor control over obsessions and compulsions. Several functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments utilizing a variety of tasks have investigated the neural correlates of inhibitory control in OCD. Evidence from existing meta-analyses suggests aberrant activation of regions in fronto-striatal circuits during inhibitory control. However, new fMRI articles have since been published, and a more rigorous methodology for neuroimaging meta-analyses is now available.
OBJECTIVES
First, to reevaluate the evidence for abnormal brain activation during performance of inhibitory control tasks in OCD while adhering to current best practices for meta-analyses, and second, to extend previous findings by separately assessing different subprocesses of inhibitory control.
METHOD
We systematically searched Web of Knowledge, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed and the functional BrainMap database for fMRI articles that compared activation during performance of inhibitory control tasks in patients with OCD and healthy control (HC) subjects. Thirty-five experiments from 21 articles met our criteria for inclusion. We first performed activation-likelihood-estimation meta-analyses to elucidate brain areas in which case-control activation differences converged across articles and tasks. We then aimed to extend previous work by separately evaluating experiments requiring inhibition of a prepotent response without execution of an alternative response (i.e., response inhibition) and experiments requiring inhibition of a prepotent response and execution of an alternative response (i.e., cognitive inhibition).
RESULTS
The 35 experiments included a total of 394 patients and 410 controls. We did not find evidence of abnormal brain activation in OCD during inhibitory control when pooling data from all experiments. Analysis restricted to cognitive inhibition experiments showed abnormal activation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC; P = .04, cluster-level familywise error-corrected, cluster volume of 824 mm). We did not have sufficient data to evaluate response inhibition experiments separately.
CONCLUSION
Findings of abnormal brain activation in OCD from different inhibitory control tasks do not appear to converge on the same brain regions, but the dACC may be implicated in abnormal cognitive inhibition. Our findings highlight a need for experiments that specifically target subprocesses of inhibitory control to achieve a more differentiated understanding of the neural correlates for impaired inhibitory control in OCD.
Topics: Humans; Likelihood Functions; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Brain Mapping; Brain
PubMed: 36451370
DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103268 -
Neurology(R) Neuroimmunology &... Jan 2023To clinically characterize post-immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) Hu antibody (Ab) neurologic disorders, we analyzed Hu-Ab-positive patients with neurologic...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
To clinically characterize post-immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) Hu antibody (Ab) neurologic disorders, we analyzed Hu-Ab-positive patients with neurologic immune-related adverse events (n-irAEs) and compared them with patients with other n-irAEs, ICI-naive patients with Hu-Ab paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes (PNSs) identified in the same study center, and those with Hu-Ab n-irAEs reported elsewhere.
METHODS
Patients whose samples were sent to the French reference center for a suspicion of n-irAE (2015-2021) were identified; those with a final diagnosis of n-irAE and Hu-Ab were included. Control groups included patients with a final diagnosis of n-irAE occurring during the same period as the patients included (2018-2021) but without Hu-Ab, and ICI-naive patients with Hu-Ab PNS diagnosed during the same period; a systematic review was performed to identify previous reports.
RESULTS
Eleven patients with Hu-Ab and n-irAEs were included (median age, 66 years, range 44-76 years; 73% men). Ten patients had small cell lung cancer, and 1 had lung adenocarcinoma. The median follow-up from onset was 3 months (range 0.5-18 months). Compared with those with other n-irAEs (n = 63), Hu-Ab-positive patients had more frequently co-occurring involvement of both central and peripheral nervous systems (36% vs 8%, = 0.02) and limbic (54% vs 14%, < 0.01), brainstem (27% vs 5%, = 0.02), and dorsal root ganglia (45% vs 5%, < 0.01) involvement. The proportion of patients with severe disability (modified Rankin Scale score >3) at diagnosis was higher among Hu-Ab n-irAEs (91% vs 52%, = 0.02). Patients with Hu-Ab had also poorer outcome (100% vs 28%, < 0.01) and higher mortality (91% vs 46%, < 0.01). There was no significant difference in terms of clinical features between Hu-Ab n-irAEs and ICI-naive Hu-Ab PNS (n = 92), but there was a poorer outcome (56/78, 71%, < 0.01) and higher mortality (26%, < 0.01) among the former. No significant difference was found between the patients reported herein and those in the literature.
DISCUSSION
The presence of Hu-Ab identifies a subgroup of n-irAEs that consistently reproduce the phenotypes of Hu-Ab-related PNS, supporting the hypothesis of ICI triggering or unmasking PNS. As these patients show high disability and mortality, further studies are required to investigate the underlying immunopathogenic mechanisms and to improve the outcome of Hu-Ab n-irAEs.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; Peripheral Nervous System; Antibodies, Antinuclear; Lung Neoplasms
PubMed: 36446613
DOI: 10.1212/NXI.0000000000200058 -
Current Psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) Nov 2022Increasing incidence of problem gambling has led to prioritizing the problem from the point of view of public health. Additionally, gambling disorder has been recently...
Increasing incidence of problem gambling has led to prioritizing the problem from the point of view of public health. Additionally, gambling disorder has been recently classified as a behavioral addiction, with implications for both its diagnosis and treatment. However, the shared neural substrate of addictions, to substances and behavioral, is still discussed. Thus, this systematic review aims to provide up-to-date knowledge from the past five years (2017-2022) concerning the neural correlates of gambling related stimuli (cue-reactivity) on the basis of a previous review (Brevers et al., Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience 18:718-729, 2019). A total of five studies were included in the review. Activation of brain areas related to memory, reward and executive functions could be the underlying mechanism of this behavioral addiction. Specifically, nucleus accumbens and striatum (ventral and dorsal), parahippocampal regions, the right amygdala and several prefrontal cortex regions have systematically been found more active in those subjects exposed to gambling-related cues. Also, the insula could play a pivotal role connecting these three systems in a highly integrated neural network with several implications for reward processing modulation, associative learning and top-down attentional regulation to improve saliency of addiction-related cues. These results are consistent with previous findings on other substance addictions, such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or cocaine. The study of neural reactivity to stimuli related to addiction could be useful as a biomarker of the severity of the disorder, the efficacy of the treatment, the risk of relapse, in addition to being an objective criterion to measure the effectiveness of prevention campaigns.
PubMed: 36373116
DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03915-0 -
International Journal of Environmental... Oct 2022The Feldenkrais Method (FM) is based on the learning of alternative movement patterns, carried out in an active and conscious way, which may have therapeutic effects.... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
The Feldenkrais Method (FM) is based on the learning of alternative movement patterns, carried out in an active and conscious way, which may have therapeutic effects. The objective of this systematic review is to identify the populations and conditions for which the FM can be used in physiotherapy and to determine the intervention modalities. Research in PubMed, Cochrane and PEDro databases was performed. The PEDro scale was employed to assess the methodological quality. Meta-analyses (MA) were performed whenever populations and outcome measures were comparable in at least two studies. Sixteen studies were included. In elderly people, in three of the four selected trials, the FM group significantly improved gait, balance, mobility and quality of life. The MA showed significant differences between interventions in the Timed-Up-and-Go test [Cohen's d = -1.14, 95% CI (-1.78, -0.49), = 0.0006]. FM significantly improved pain, functional balance, and perceived exertion in three trials performed on subjects with cervical, dorsal, or shoulder pain. FM demonstrated improvements in pain, disability, quality of life and interoceptive awareness in the three trials performed in subjects with chronic low back pain. In multiple sclerosis, an improvement in functional capacity was observed in the two selected studies. The MA showed no significant differences between groups in the Function ( = 0.97) and Control ( = 0.82) dimensions of the Multiple Sclerosis Self-Efficacy Scale. In Parkinson's disease, two studies showed significant effects on quality of life and functional tests. In conclusion, evidence shows that FM has therapeutic effects comparable to other physiotherapy techniques in patients with spine pain. In addition, improvements in mobility and balance were seen in the elderly and people with neurodegenerative diseases.
Topics: Humans; Aged; Postural Balance; Quality of Life; Time and Motion Studies; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Physical Therapy Modalities; Low Back Pain; Multiple Sclerosis
PubMed: 36360614
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192113734 -
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 2022Mindfulness affects human levels of experience by facilitating the immediate and impartial perception of phenomena, including sensory stimulation, emotions, and...
BACKGROUND
Mindfulness affects human levels of experience by facilitating the immediate and impartial perception of phenomena, including sensory stimulation, emotions, and thoughts. Mindfulness is now a focus of neuroimaging, since technical and methodological developments in magnetic resonance imaging have made it possible to observe subjects performing mindfulness tasks.
OBJECTIVE
We set out to describe the association between mental processes and characteristics of mindfulness, including their specific cerebral patterns, as shown in structural and functional neuroimaging studies.
METHODS
We searched the MEDLINE databank of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics PubMed using the keywords: "mindfulness," "focused attention (FA)," "open monitoring (OM)," "mind wandering," "emotional regulation," "magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)" and "default mode network (DMN)." This review extracted phenomenological experiences across populations with varying degrees of mindfulness training and correlated these experiences with structural and functional neuroimaging patterns. Our goal was to describe how mindful behavior was processed by the constituents of the default mode network during specific tasks.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Depending on the research paradigm employed to explore mindfulness, investigations of function that used fMRI exhibited distinct activation patterns and functional connectivities. Basic to mindfulness is a long-term process of learning to use meditation techniques. Meditators progress from voluntary control of emotions and subjective preferences to emotional regulation and impartial awareness of phenomena. As their ability to monitor perception and behavior, a metacognitive skill, improves, mindfulness increases self-specifying thoughts governed by the experiential phenomenological self and reduces self-relational thoughts of the narrative self. The degree of mindfulness (ratio of self-specifying to self-relational thoughts) may affect other mental processes, e.g., awareness, working memory, mind wandering and belief formation. Mindfulness prevents habituation and the constant assumptions associated with mindlessness. Self-specifying thinking during mindfulness and self-relational thinking in the narrative self relies on the default mode network. The main constituents of this network are the dorsal and medial prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex. These midline structures are antagonistic to self-specifying and self-relational processes, since the predominant process determines their differential involvement. Functional and brain volume changes indicate brain plasticity, mediated by mental training over the long-term.
PubMed: 36325155
DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.928522