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JAACAP Open Dec 2023A growing body of literature has focused on the neural mechanisms of depression. Our goal was to conduct a systematic review on the white matter microstructural...
OBJECTIVE
A growing body of literature has focused on the neural mechanisms of depression. Our goal was to conduct a systematic review on the white matter microstructural differences in adolescents with depressive disorders vs adolescents without depressive disorders.
METHOD
We searched PubMed and PsycINFO for publications on August 3, 2022 (original search conducted in July 2021). The review was registered on PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42021268200), and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. Eligible studies were original research papers comparing diffusion tensor/spectrum imaging findings in adolescents with vs without depression (originally ages 12-19 years, later expanded to 11-21 years). Studies were excluded if they focused on depression exclusively in the context of another condition, used only dimensional depressive symptom assessment(s), or used the same dataset as another included publication.
RESULTS
The search yielded 575 unique records, of which 14 full-text papers were included (824 adolescents with depression and 686 without depression). The following white matter regions showed significant differences in fractional anisotropy in at least 3 studies: uncinate fasciculus, cingulum, anterior corona radiata, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and corpus callosum (genu and body). Most studies reported decreased, rather than increased, fractional anisotropy in adolescents with depression. Limitations include the possibility for selective reporting bias and risk of imprecision, given the small sample sizes in some studies.
CONCLUSION
Our systematic review suggests aberrant white matter microstructure in limbic-cortical-striatal-thalamic circuits, and the corpus callosum, in adolescents with depression. Future research should focus on developmental trajectories in depression, identifying sources of heterogeneity and integrating findings across imaging modalities.
PubMed: 38576601
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaacop.2023.08.006 -
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2022Responsive neurostimulation is an evolving therapeutic option for patients with treatment-refractory epilepsy. Open-loop, continuous stimulation of the anterior thalamic... (Review)
Review
INTRODUCTION
Responsive neurostimulation is an evolving therapeutic option for patients with treatment-refractory epilepsy. Open-loop, continuous stimulation of the anterior thalamic nuclei is the only approved modality, yet chronic stimulation rarely induces complete seizure remission and is associated with neuropsychiatric adverse effects. Accounts of off-label responsive stimulation in thalamic nuclei describe significant improvements in patients who have failed multiple drug regimens, vagal nerve stimulation, and other invasive measures. This systematic review surveys the currently available data supporting the use of responsive thalamic neurostimulation in primary and secondary generalized, treatment-refractory epilepsy.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A systematic review was performed using the following combination of keywords and controlled vocabulary: ("Seizures"[Mesh] AND "Thalamus"[Mesh] AND "Deep Brain Stimulation"[Mesh]) OR (responsive neurostim* AND (thalamus[MeSH])) OR [responsive neurostimulation AND thalamus AND (epilepsy OR seizures)]. In addition, a search of the publications listed under the PubMed "cited by" tab was performed for all publications that passed title/abstract screening in addition to manually searching their reference lists.
RESULTS
Ten publications were identified describing a total of 29 subjects with a broad range of epilepsy disorders treated with closed-loop thalamic neurostimulation. The median age of subjects was 31 years old (range 10-65 years). Of the 29 subjects, 15 were stimulated in the anterior, 11 in the centromedian, and 3 in the pulvinar nuclei. Excluding 5 subjects who were treated for 1 month or less, median time on stimulation was 19 months (range 2.4-54 months). Of these subjects, 17/24 experienced greater than or equal to 50%, 11/24 least 75%, and 9/24 at least 90% reduction in seizures. Although a minority of patients did not exhibit significant clinical improvement by follow-up, there was a general trend of increasing treatment efficacy with longer periods on closed-loop thalamic stimulation.
CONCLUSION
The data supporting off-label closed-loop thalamic stimulation for refractory epilepsy is limited to 29 adult and pediatric patients, many of whom experienced significant improvement in seizure duration and frequency. This encouraging progress must be verified in larger studies.
PubMed: 35865353
DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.910345 -
Neurology International Jun 2022Background: Fabry disease (FD) is the second most common lysosomal storage disorder. This disorder affects multiple systems that include the cardiac, renal, and nervous... (Review)
Review
Background: Fabry disease (FD) is the second most common lysosomal storage disorder. This disorder affects multiple systems that include the cardiac, renal, and nervous system. The pulvinar sign (PS) is a relatively common sign seen in patients with FD. The PS is a bilateral, symmetrical pulvinar high signal relative to the signal intensity seen on unenhanced T1-weighted brain MR imaging. Methods: We conducted a systematic review with metanalysis to analyze the pool prevalence of the disorder. We used the Moose Guidelines and PRISMA Protocol for this systematic review and Robins 1 to access the BIAS of the study. To analyze the pool prevalence, we used “Open Meta-Analysis” software for analyzing the study. We used “Review Manager 5.4” to analyze the odds ratio between patients with and without the PS and patients with and without stroke among patients with FD. Results: We gather 12 studies from 2003 to 2021 for the analysis of this study. The pool prevalence of the study was 0.146 (0.076−0.217) (62/385 cases) with a 95% CI (0.0945−0.415) (p < 0.01). The prevalence was much higher in men (59 cases) than in women (3 cases). There was no relationship between the pulvinar sign and patients with stroke among patients with Fabry disease. Odds ratio 1.97 95% CI (0.35−11.21), p = 0.44; Tau2 = 0.77. There seems to be a correlation with renal failure (RF), but there were very few studies to conduct a metanalysis with RF. Conclusions: The prevalence of the PS among all studies was 23.9%; the prevalence of this sign is higher among males. We found that FD patients who had strokes did not have higher odds of presenting with the Pulvinar Sign than the FD patients who did not suffer a stroke. Patients with renal failure and FD seem to have a higher tendency to have the PS, but there were not enough studies to analyze that theory. Overall, we think the pulvinar sign has a poor prognostic value in patients with Fabry’s disease.
PubMed: 35736622
DOI: 10.3390/neurolint14020041 -
NeuroImage. Clinical 2019Various studies reported changes in grey matter volumes and modifications in functional connectivity of cortical and subcortical structures in patients suffering from... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
BACKGROUND
Various studies reported changes in grey matter volumes and modifications in functional connectivity of cortical and subcortical structures in patients suffering from trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and trigeminal neuropathic pain (TNP). This study meta-analyzed the concordant structural and functional changes in foci and provide further understanding of the anatomy and biology of TN/TNP.
METHODS
Relevant articles on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional MRI in TN/TNP, published before August 2018, were searched for on PubMed and Embase. Following exclusion of unsuitable studies, a meta-analysis was performed using activation likelihood estimation (ALE).
RESULTS
In total, 322 paper were identified, 11 of which could be included based on the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Eight papers, totaling 279 subjects, discussing structural changes and four papers, totaling 102 subjects, discussing functional changes were included (i.e., one paper investigated both structural and functional alterations). ALE analysis showed that in TN/TNP, grey matter decreases are found in the thalamus, (anterior) cingulate gyrus, bilateral striatum, the superior-, middle- and transverse temporal gyrus, subcallosal gyrus, the bilateral insular cortex, the pre- and postcental gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus bilaterally and the anterior cerebellar lobe. Grey matter increases were seen in the periaqueductal grey (PAG). Increased resting state functional organization was found within the bilateral middle- and superior frontal gyri, the (posterior) cingulate cortex and the thalamus/pulvinar.
CONCLUSIONS
Structural and functional changes meta-analyzed in this paper may contribute to elucidating the central pathophysiological mechanisms involved in TN/TNP. These results may be used as biomarkers to predict the response to medication and, ideally, in the future to offer personalized treatments.
Topics: Gray Matter; Humans; Neural Pathways; Neuralgia; Trigeminal Nerve; Trigeminal Nerve Diseases; Trigeminal Neuralgia
PubMed: 31698316
DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.102039 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Jul 2019Sexual arousal is a dynamical, highly coordinated neurophysiological process that is often induced by visual stimuli. Numerous studies have proposed that the cognitive... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Sexual arousal is a dynamical, highly coordinated neurophysiological process that is often induced by visual stimuli. Numerous studies have proposed that the cognitive processing stage of responding to sexual stimuli is the first stage, in which sex differences occur, and the divergence between men and women has been attributed to differences in the concerted activity of neural networks. The present comprehensive metaanalysis challenges this hypothesis and provides robust quantitative evidence that the neuronal circuitries activated by visual sexual stimuli are independent of biological sex. Sixty-one functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (1,850 individuals) that presented erotic visual stimuli to men and women of different sexual orientation were identified. Coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation was used to conduct metaanalyses. Sensitivity and clustering analyses of averaged neuronal response patterns were performed to investigate robustness of the findings. In contrast to neutral stimuli, sexual pictures and videos induce significant activations in brain regions, including insula, middle occipital, anterior cingulate and fusiform gyrus, amygdala, striatum, pulvinar, and substantia nigra. Cluster analysis suggests stimulus type as the most, and biological sex as the least, predictor for classification. Contrast analysis further shows no significant sex-specific differences within groups. Systematic review of sex differences in gray matter volume of brain regions associated with sexual arousal (3,723 adults) did not show any causal relationship between structural features and functional response to visual sexual stimuli. The neural basis of sexual arousal in humans is associated with sexual orientation yet, contrary to the widely accepted view, is not different between women and men.
Topics: Adult; Aphrodisiacs; Arousal; Brain; Emotions; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Sex Characteristics; Sexual Behavior
PubMed: 31308220
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1904975116 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Sep 2019There is growing interest in non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) as a novel treatment option for substance-use disorders (SUDs). Recent momentum stems from a...
There is growing interest in non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) as a novel treatment option for substance-use disorders (SUDs). Recent momentum stems from a foundation of preclinical neuroscience demonstrating links between neural circuits and drug consuming behavior, as well as recent FDA-approval of NIBS treatments for mental health disorders that share overlapping pathology with SUDs. As with any emerging field, enthusiasm must be tempered by reason; lessons learned from the past should be prudently applied to future therapies. Here, an international ensemble of experts provides an overview of the state of transcranial-electrical (tES) and transcranial-magnetic (TMS) stimulation applied in SUDs. This consensus paper provides a systematic literature review on published data - emphasizing the heterogeneity of methods and outcome measures while suggesting strategies to help bridge knowledge gaps. The goal of this effort is to provide the community with guidelines for best practices in tES/TMS SUD research. We hope this will accelerate the speed at which the community translates basic neuroscience into advanced neuromodulation tools for clinical practice in addiction medicine.
Topics: Addiction Medicine; Humans; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Substance-Related Disorders; Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
PubMed: 31271802
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.06.007 -
PloS One 2017We aimed to identify the consistent regions of gray matter volume (GMV) abnormalities in idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), and to study the difference of GMV... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to identify the consistent regions of gray matter volume (GMV) abnormalities in idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), and to study the difference of GMV abnormalities among IGE subsyndromes by applying activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis.
METHODS
A systematic review of VBM studies on GMV of patients with absence epilepsy (AE), juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), IGE and controls indexed in PubMed and ScienceDirect from January 1999 to June 2016 was conducted. A total of 12 IGE studies, including 7 JME and 3 AE studies, were selected. Meta-analysis was performed on these studies by using the pooled and within-subtypes analysis (www.brainmap.org). Based on the above results, between-subtypes contrast analysis was carried out to detect the abnormal GMV regions common in and unique to each subtype as well.
RESULTS
IGE demonstrated significant GMV increase in right ventral lateral nucleus (VL) and right medial frontal gyrus, and significant GMV decrease in bilateral pulvinar. For JME, significant GMV increase was seen in right medial frontal gyrus, right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), while significant GMV decrease was found in right pulvinar. In AE, the most significant GMV increase was found in right VL, and slight GMV reduction was seen in right medial dorsal nucleus, right subcallosal gyrus, left caudate and left precuneus. No overlapped and unique regions with significant GMV abnormalities were found between JME and AE.
SIGNIFICANCE
This meta-analysis demonstrated that thalamo-frontal network was a structure with significant GMV abnormality in IGE, and the IGE subsyndromes showed different GMV abnormal regions. These observations may provide instructions on the clinical diagnosis of IGE.
Topics: Epilepsy, Generalized; Female; Gray Matter; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Organ Size
PubMed: 28060866
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169076