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NeuroImage Jun 2024The prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression from its early stages is a research priority. In this context, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in AD has...
BACKGROUND
The prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression from its early stages is a research priority. In this context, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in AD has experienced a notable surge in recent years. However, existing investigations predominantly concentrate on distinguishing clinical phenotypes through cross-sectional approaches. This study aims to investigate the potential of modeling additional dimensions of the disease, such as variations in brain metabolism assessed via [F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), and utilize this information to identify patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who will progress to dementia (pMCI).
METHODS
We analyzed data from 1,617 participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) who had undergone at least one FDG-PET scan. We identified the brain regions with the most significant hypometabolism in AD and used Deep Learning (DL) models to predict future changes in brain metabolism. The best-performing model was then adapted under a multi-task learning framework to identify pMCI individuals. Finally, this model underwent further analysis using eXplainable AI (XAI) techniques.
RESULTS
Our results confirm a strong association between hypometabolism, disease progression, and cognitive decline. Furthermore, we demonstrated that integrating data on changes in brain metabolism during training enhanced the models' ability to detect pMCI individuals (sensitivity=88.4%, specificity=86.9%). Lastly, the application of XAI techniques enabled us to delve into the brain regions with the most significant impact on model predictions, highlighting the importance of the hippocampus, cingulate cortex, and some subcortical structures.
CONCLUSION
This study introduces a novel dimension to predictive modeling in AD, emphasizing the importance of projecting variations in brain metabolism under a multi-task learning paradigm.
PubMed: 38942101
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120695 -
Behavioural Brain Research Jun 2024The central route of streptozotocin (STZ) administration has been introduced as a rat model of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Curcumin was suggested to possess...
The central route of streptozotocin (STZ) administration has been introduced as a rat model of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Curcumin was suggested to possess possible neuroprotective effects, which may be profitable in AD. However, the low bioavailability of curcumin hinders its beneficial effects in clinical studies. Earlier studies suggested that a bovine serum albumin-based nanocurcumin, produces superior neuroprotective effects compared to natural curcumin. In the present study, the protective effect of nanocurcumin in rat model of central STZ induced memory impairment was assessed. In addition, due to the importance of the hippocampus in memory, the amounts of hippocampal active caspase-3, Akt, and CaMKII-α were evaluated. Adult male Wistar rats weighing 250-300g were used. STZ (icv) was injected during days 1 and 3 (3mg/kg in divided), and nanocurcumin or curcumin 50mg/kg/oral gavage was administered daily during days 4-14. Morris water maze training was performed on days 15-17, and the retention memory test was achieved on the 18th day. Following memory assessment, the rats were sacrificed and the hippocampi were used to assess caspase-3 cleavage, Akt, and CaMKII-α signaling. The findings revealed that nanocurcumin ingestion (but not natural curcumin) in the dose of 50mg/kg was capable to prevent the impairment of water maze learning and memory induced by central STZ. Molecular assessments indicated that STZ treatment increased the caspase-3 cleavage in the hippocampus while deactivating Akt and CaMKII-α. Nanocurcumin reduced caspase-3 cleavage to a non-significant level compared to control group and restored Akt and CaMKII-α within the hippocampus while natural curcumin exerted no significant effect. These findings might suggest that nanocurcumin can restore memory deficit, hippocampal apoptosis as well as Akt and CaMKII-α signaling disruption associated with brain insulin resistance.
PubMed: 38942084
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115129 -
Research in Developmental Disabilities Jun 2024Virtual Reality (VR) based diagnostic and therapeutic interventions have opened up new possibilities for addressing the challenges in identifying and treating... (Review)
Review
Effect of immersive virtual reality-based training on cognitive, social, and emotional skills in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
BACKGROUND
Virtual Reality (VR) based diagnostic and therapeutic interventions have opened up new possibilities for addressing the challenges in identifying and treating individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
AIM
To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials to investigate the impact of Immersive VR techniques on the cognitive, social, and emotional skills of under-18 children and adolescents with ASD.
METHODS AND PROCEDURES
Four databases were systematically searched as per "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses" guidelines and assessed six RCTs for further analysis. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the studies.
OUTCOMES
Pooled results favoured VR and reported significant differences between experimental and control groups concerning social skills (SMD:1.43; 95 % CI: 0.01-2.84; P: 0.05), emotional skills (SMD: 2.45; 95 % CI: 0.21-4.18; P: 0.03) and cognitive skills.
CONCLUSION
VR offers an array of benefits that make it a promising tool for children and adolescents with ASD to improve their cognitive, social and emotional skills in a safe and supportive setting. However, accessibility, affordability, customization, and cost are also significant aspects to consider when developing and implementing VR-based interventions for ASD.
PubMed: 38941690
DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2024.104771 -
Health Physics Aug 2024This research examines the cognitive frameworks used by HAZMAT technicians when responding to incidents involving Radiological Dispersal Devices (RDDs), which are...
This research examines the cognitive frameworks used by HAZMAT technicians when responding to incidents involving Radiological Dispersal Devices (RDDs), which are conventional explosive devices with radioactive materials incorporated. The objective is to introduce the Expected Mental Model State (EMMS) as a comprehensive evaluation tool for assessing and enhancing the expertise and situational awareness of emergency responders dealing with radiation crises. Through a series of expert focus group sessions using the well-established qualitative methodology of grounded theory, an Expected Mental Model State (EMMS) was developed. The methodology used an influence diagram architecture to conceptually capture and codify key areas relevant to effective emergency response. The research identifies fourteen EMMS key conceptual domains, further elaborated into 301 subtopics, providing a multi-dimensional structure for the proposed mental model framework. Three pivotal notions of mental model emerged within the EMMS framework: Knowledge Topology, Envisioning (Belief), and Response and Operability. These notions were found to align with previous theories of mental models and are vital for understanding how HAZMAT technicians conceptualize and respond to RDD incidents. The study emphasizes the critical role of mental models in enhancing preparedness and effective response strategies during radiation emergencies. The EMMS framework offers a versatile methodology that can be adapted across various kinds of emergency responders and high-risk situations, including the broader Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) spectrum. Using this EMMS framework to develop an EMMS Diagnostic Matrix can provide a roadmap for identifying areas for the development of specialized training modules that have the potential to significantly elevate both the quality and efficacy of responder training and preparation.
Topics: Humans; Radioactive Hazard Release; Emergency Responders; Models, Psychological; Disaster Planning
PubMed: 38941518
DOI: 10.1097/HP.0000000000001809 -
Medicine Jun 2024Taiwan is an aging society, and the number of people with dementia is rapidly increasing. Due to a decline in cognitive and physical function, older adults with dementia...
BACKGROUND
Taiwan is an aging society, and the number of people with dementia is rapidly increasing. Due to a decline in cognitive and physical function, older adults with dementia not only gradually lose the ability to complete daily living tasks on their own, but are also at a higher risk of falls and injurious falls. It is important to develop interventions that combine cognitive and exercise training for older adults with dementia to promote or maintain their cognitive and physical functions and reduce their risk of falls. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility and effect of cognitive-based board games and multi-component exercise interventions on cognitive function, physical fitness, and fall risk in older adults with dementia.
METHODS
This was a quasi-experimental study with a single-group pretest and post-test design. The study participants were 41 community-dwelling older adults with mild to moderate dementia. They received cognitive-based board games and multi-component exercise interventions once a week for 12 weeks. The interventions included 1 hour of exercise training and 1 hour of cognitive training. Scores for the Taiwan version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-T), physical fitness, and the St. Thomas Risk Assessment Tool for Falling Elderly Inpatients (STRATIFY) were measured as outcome indicators at baseline and after the 12-week period.
RESULTS
The overall MoCA-T score increased significantly (effect size = 0.402), with participants with mild dementia showing a greater increase (effect size = 0.522) than those with moderate dementia (effect size = 0.310). Participants' physical fitness performance improved. Female participants exhibited significant improvements in the 30-second chair stand test (effect size = 0.483) and 8-foot up-and-go test (effect size = 0.437). The fall risk score decreased by 0.05 points, the change was not significant.
CONCLUSION
The cognitive-based board game and multi-component exercise interventions used in this study are beneficial for improving cognitive function and physical fitness in older adults with dementia. These interventions are feasible and suitable for promotion among community-dwelling and institution-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment or dementia to delay the decline in cognitive and physical function.
Topics: Humans; Female; Male; Aged; Dementia; Feasibility Studies; Exercise Therapy; Accidental Falls; Aged, 80 and over; Taiwan; Cognition; Physical Fitness; Games, Recreational; Independent Living
PubMed: 38941425
DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000038640 -
PLOS Digital Health Jun 2024Traditional cognitive assessments in schizophrenia are time-consuming and necessitate specialized training, making routine evaluation challenging. To overcome these...
Traditional cognitive assessments in schizophrenia are time-consuming and necessitate specialized training, making routine evaluation challenging. To overcome these limitations, this study investigates the feasibility and advantages of utilizing smartphone-based assessments to capture both cognitive functioning and digital phenotyping data and compare these results to gold standard measures. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from 76 individuals with schizophrenia, who were recruited across three sites (one in Boston, two in India) was conducted. The open-source mindLAMP smartphone app captured digital phenotyping data and Trails A/B assessments of attention / memory for up to 12 months. The smartphone-cognitive tasks exhibited potential for normal distribution and these scores showed small but significant correlations with the results from the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia, especially the digital span and symbol coding tasks (r2 = 0.21). A small but significant correlation (r2 = 0.29) between smartphone-derived cognitive scores and health-related behaviors such as sleep duration patterns was observed. Smartphone-based cognitive assessments show promise as cross-cultural tools that can capture relevant data on momentary states among individuals with schizophrenia. Cognitive results related to sleep suggest functional applications to digital phenotyping data, and the potential of this multimodal data approach in research.
PubMed: 38941349
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000526 -
PloS One 2024To explore the application effect of the deep learning (DL) network model in the Internet of Things (IoT) database query and optimization. This study first analyzes the...
To explore the application effect of the deep learning (DL) network model in the Internet of Things (IoT) database query and optimization. This study first analyzes the architecture of IoT database queries, then explores the DL network model, and finally optimizes the DL network model through optimization strategies. The advantages of the optimized model in this study are verified through experiments. Experimental results show that the optimized model has higher efficiency than other models in the model training and parameter optimization stages. Especially when the data volume is 2000, the model training time and parameter optimization time of the optimized model are remarkably lower than that of the traditional model. In terms of resource consumption, the Central Processing Unit and Graphics Processing Unit usage and memory usage of all models have increased as the data volume rises. However, the optimized model exhibits better performance on energy consumption. In throughput analysis, the optimized model can maintain high transaction numbers and data volumes per second when handling large data requests, especially at 4000 data volumes, and its peak time processing capacity exceeds that of other models. Regarding latency, although the latency of all models increases with data volume, the optimized model performs better in database query response time and data processing latency. The results of this study not only reveal the optimized model's superior performance in processing IoT database queries and their optimization but also provide a valuable reference for IoT data processing and DL model optimization. These findings help to promote the application of DL technology in the IoT field, especially in the need to deal with large-scale data and require efficient processing scenarios, and offer a vital reference for the research and practice in related fields.
Topics: Deep Learning; Internet of Things; Databases, Factual; Neural Networks, Computer; Humans; Information Storage and Retrieval
PubMed: 38941309
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306291 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Jul 2024Coordination of goal-directed behavior depends on the brain's ability to recover the locations of relevant objects in the world. In humans, the visual system encodes the...
Coordination of goal-directed behavior depends on the brain's ability to recover the locations of relevant objects in the world. In humans, the visual system encodes the spatial organization of sensory inputs, but neurons in early visual areas map objects according to their retinal positions, rather than where they are in the world. How the brain computes world-referenced spatial information across eye movements has been widely researched and debated. Here, we tested whether shifts of covert attention are sufficiently precise in space and time to track an object's real-world location across eye movements. We found that observers' attentional selectivity is remarkably precise and is barely perturbed by the execution of saccades. Inspired by recent neurophysiological discoveries, we developed an observer model that rapidly estimates the real-world locations of objects and allocates attention within this reference frame. The model recapitulates the human data and provides a parsimonious explanation for previously reported phenomena in which observers allocate attention to task-irrelevant locations across eye movements. Our findings reveal that visual attention operates in real-world coordinates, which can be computed rapidly at the earliest stages of cortical processing.
Topics: Humans; Attention; Saccades; Adult; Male; Female; Visual Perception; Visual Fields; Models, Neurological; Photic Stimulation
PubMed: 38941277
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2316608121 -
Psychopharmacology Jun 2024Since the precise mechanisms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain unknown, effective treatment interventions have not yet been established. Impaired extinction...
RATIONALE
Since the precise mechanisms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain unknown, effective treatment interventions have not yet been established. Impaired extinction of fear memory (EFM) is one of the core symptoms of PTSD and is associated with stress-induced epigenetic change in gene expression.
OBJECTIVES
In this study, we examined whether the involvement of histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2) in EFM is mediated through brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in the hippocampus, and whether BIX01294, a selective G9a and GLP histone methyltransferase inhibitor, could be treatment for impaired EFM in an animal model of PTSD.
METHODS
The single prolonged stress (SPS) paradigm was used to model PTSD. We measured BDNF mRNA levels by RT-PCR, and H3K9me2 levels in the BDNF gene promoters by chromatin immunoprecipitation-qPCR. After undergoing contextual fear conditioning and hippocampal injection of BIX01294, male rats were subjected to extinction training and extinction testing and their freezing times and BDNF mRNA levels were measured.
RESULTS
Compared to sham rats, SPS rats showed decreased BDNF mRNA levels 2 h after extinction training, no significant changes in levels of global H3K9me2 prior to extinction training, and increased levels of H3K9me2 in BDNF gene promoter IV, but not in BDNF gene promoter I. Administration of BIX01294 ameliorated the decrease in BDNF mRNA levels 2 h after extinction training and subsequently alleviated impaired EFM in extinction tests in SPS rats.
CONCLUSION
We conclude that reduced hippocampal levels of BDNF mRNA due to increase in H3K9me2 levels may play a role in PTSD-associated EFM impairment, and BIX01294 could be a PTSD treatment option.
PubMed: 38940908
DOI: 10.1007/s00213-024-06640-7 -
Microbiology Spectrum Jun 2024Traditionally, successful vaccines rely on specific adaptive immunity by activating lymphocytes with an attenuated pathogen, or pathogen subunit, to elicit heightened...
UNLABELLED
Traditionally, successful vaccines rely on specific adaptive immunity by activating lymphocytes with an attenuated pathogen, or pathogen subunit, to elicit heightened responses upon subsequent exposures. However, recent work with and other pathogens has identified a role for "trained" monocytes in protection through memory-like but non-specific immunity. Here, we used an co-culture approach to study the potential role of trained macrophages, including lung alveolar macrophages, in immune responses to the Live Vaccine Strain (LVS) of is an intracellular bacterium that replicates within mammalian macrophages and causes respiratory as well as systemic disease. We vaccinated mice with LVS and then obtained lung alveolar macrophages, or derived macrophages from bone marrow. LVS infected and replicated comparably in both types of macrophages, whether naïve or from LVS-vaccinated mice. LVS-infected macrophages were then co-cultured with either naïve splenocytes, splenocytes from mice vaccinated intradermally, or splenocytes from mice vaccinated intravenously. For the first time, we show that immune (but not naïve) splenocytes controlled bacterial replication within alveolar macrophages, similar to previous results using bone marrow-derived macrophage. However, no differences in control of intramacrophage bacterial replication were found between co-cultures with naïve macrophages or macrophages from LVS-vaccinated mice; furthermore, nitric oxide levels and interferon-gamma production in supernatants were largely comparable across all conditions. Thus, in the context of co-cultures, the data do not support development of trained macrophages in bone marrow or lungs of mice vaccinated with LVS intradermally or intravenously.
IMPORTANCE
The discovery of non-specific "trained immunity" in monocytes has generated substantial excitement. However, to date, training has been studied with relatively few microbes (e.g., Bacille Calmette-Guérin, a live attenuated intracellular bacterium used as a vaccine) and microbial substances (e.g., LPS), and it remains unclear whether training during infection is common. We previously demonstrated that vaccination of mice with Live Vaccine Strain (LVS), another live attenuated intracellular bacterium, protected against challenge with the unrelated bacterium . The present study therefore tested whether LVS vaccination engenders trained macrophages that contributed to this protection. To do so, we used a previous co-culture approach with murine bone marrow-derived macrophages to expand and study lung alveolar macrophages. We demonstrated that alveolar macrophages can be productively infected and employed to characterize interactions with LVS-immune lymphocytes. However, we find no evidence that either bone marrow-derived or alveolar macrophages are trained by LVS vaccination.
PubMed: 38940590
DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00028-24