Association of language markers with future cognitive impairment and presence of limbic predominant age related TDP-43 encephalopathy.

Introduction: Accessible biomarkers for prediction of cognitive impairment and diagnosis of limbic predominant age related TDP-43 encephalopathy neuropathologic change (LATE-NC) are needed.

Methods: Written descriptions of the cookie-theft picture were produced by 134 participants of the Leisure World Cohort Study who subsequently joined the 90+ Study and underwent regular assessments and autopsy. We examined the relationships between linguistic markers and future cognitive impairment and the presence of neuropathologic changes.

Foreign language learning in older adults modifies the pattern of resting-state activity in the medial prefrontal cortex.

Background: Foreign language learning (FLL) enhances cognitive functions in older adults, improving memory, attention, and executive functions and potentially delaying cognitive decline. However, the neural mechanisms underlying FLL's benefit on cognition remain unclear, and current methods for studying changes in brain activity are often operator-dependent, potentially missing important effects. This highlights the need for using data-driven techniques.

Learning a Foreign Language in Older Adults Shapes the Functional Connectivity of Distinct Cerebellar Sub-Regions With Cortical Areas Rich in CB Receptor Expression.

Background: Foreign language learning (FLL) in older adults is a comprehensive cognitive enhancement tool that integrates linguistic, cognitive, and social components to stimulate neuroplasticity and promote brain reorganization to counteract age-related decline. While previous studies have investigated the impact of FLL on the cortical connectome, its effects on subcortical-cortical resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) remain unexplored. The present study focuses on the connectivity of the cerebellum, based on its involvement in learning and aging.

Hippocampus Functional Connectivity, Impulsivity, and Subsequent Substance Use.

Background: The hippocampus plays a critical role in memory and decision-making processes, with its resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) linked to various behavioral outcomes. This study investigates whether baseline brain-wide rsFC of the hippocampus mediates the relationship between impulsivity and subsequent substance use, specifically tobacco and marijuana use, in adolescents.

Methods: Data were drawn from the baseline wave of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.

Resting-State Sensory-Motor Connectivity between Hand and Mouth as a Neural Marker of Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Psychosocial Stress, Cognitive Difficulties, Impulsivity, Depression, and Substance Use in Children.

Background: The sensory-motor network is essential for integrating sensory input with motor function and higher-order cognition. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) within this network undergoes significant developmental changes, and disruptions in these connections have been linked to behavioral and psychiatric outcomes. However, the relationship between sensory-motor connectivity, early-life adversity, and later health behaviors remains understudied.

Socioeconomic Status, Trauma, Cognitive Function, Impulsivity, Reward Salience, and Future Substance Use: Role of Left Caudate Connectivity with the Cingulo-Opercular Network.

Background: While understanding how corticostriatal connectivity is associated with socioeconomic status (SES), trauma exposure, cognitive function, reward salience, impulsivity, and future substance use is essential to identifying neurobiological pathways that contribute to health disparities and behavioral outcomes, very few studies have tested the role of left caudate resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with the cingulo-opercular network as a proxy of corticostriatal connectivity in social, cognitive, and behavioral processes.

Objective: This study investigates the associations between left caudate-cingulo-opercular connectivity and multiple biopsychosocial domains, including low SES, high trauma exposure (financial and life events), cognitive function, reward salience, impulsivity, depression, and future substance use (tobacco and marijuana use).

Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data were analyzed to assess connectivity between the left caudate and the cingulo-opercular network.

Resting-State Functional Connectivity Between the Cingulo-Opercular and Default Mode Networks May Explain Socioeconomic Inequalities in Cognitive Development.

Background: The Cingulo-Opercular Network (CON) is a crucial executive control network involved in regulating actions and facilitating higher-order cognitive processes. Resting-state functional connectivity between the CON and the Default Mode Network (DMN) plays a vital role in cognitive regulation, enabling the transition between internally focused and externally directed tasks. This study investigates whether resting-state functional connectivity between the CON and DMN mediates the effects of social determinants, such as educational opportunities and family structure, on cognitive outcomes in youth.

Brain-Wide Resting-State Functional Connectivity Partially Mediates Socioeconomic Disparities in Children's Cardiometabolic Health.

Background: Although some neural mechanisms underlying socioeconomic status (SES) disparities are known, the role of brain-wide resting-state functional connectivity in these effects remains less understood.

Aim: This study aims to identify brain-wide resting-state functional connectivity signatures that may mediate the effects of SES on body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure in children, using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.

Methods: Data were drawn from the ABCD study, a large, diverse cohort of children aged 9-10.

Diminished Returns of Educational Attainment on Numeracy Score of Latino Populations: Insights from UAS Data.

Background: Educational attainment is a well-established social determinant of various domains of cognitive function across the lifespan. However, the theory of Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs) suggests that the health benefits of educational attainment tend to be weaker for ethnic minorities compared to non-Latino Whites. This phenomenon may reflect the impact of structural inequalities, social stratification, and historical disadvantage.

Intersectional Effects of Race and Educational Attainment on Memory Function of Middle-Aged and Older Adults With Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: High educational attainment may protect individuals, particularly middle-aged and older adults, against a wide range of health risks, including memory decline with age; however, this protection is less clear in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). In addition, this effect may differ across racial groups. According to the Marginalized-Related Diminished Return (MDR) theory, for example, the protective effect of high educational attainment on mental and physical health shows a weaker protective effect for racial minority groups, particularly Black people compared to White individuals.

Empathy and Impaired Socioemotional Self-Perception in Frontotemporal Dementia.

Objective: Impaired empathy is a core feature of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Patients with bvFTD are also prominently impaired in experiencing self-conscious emotions. The investigators explored whether impaired empathy in bvFTD, such as self-conscious emotions, may result from impaired self-consciousness in social situations (socioemotional self-perception).

Parental Education, Household Income, Race, and Children's Working Memory: Complexity of the Effects.

Considerable research has linked social determinants of health (SDoHs) such as race, parental education, and household income to school performance, and these effects may be in part due to working memory. However, a growing literature shows that these effects may be complex: while the effects of parental education may be diminished for Blacks than Whites, household income may explain such effects. Considering race as sociological rather than a biological construct (race as a proxy of racism) and built on Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs), this study explored complexities of the effects of SDoHs on children's working memory.

Not Race or Age but Their Interaction Predicts Pre-Adolescents' Inhibitory Control.

Background: African American pre-adolescents are at a higher risk of risky behaviors such as aggression, drug use, alcohol use, and subsequent poor outcomes compared to Caucasian pre-adolescents. All these high-risk behaviors are connected to low levels of inhibitory control (IC).

Aim: We used the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) data to compare Caucasian and African American pre-adolescents for the effect of age on pre-adolescents IC, a driver of high-risk behaviors.

Parental Human Capital and Adolescents' Executive Function: Immigrants' Diminished Returns.

Racial minorities, particularly non-Hispanic Blacks in the US, experience weaker effects of family socioeconomic position (SEP) on tangible outcomes, a pattern called Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs). These MDRs are frequently shown for the effects of family SEP on immigrant adolescents' school performance. As a result of these MDRs, immigrant adolescents from high SEP families show worse than expected cognitive outcomes, including but not limited to poor school performance.

Prefrontal Cortex Response to Threat: Race by Age Variation in 9-10 Year Old Children.

Background: Considerable research has suggested that race and age are two major determinants of brain development, including but not limited to development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs), however, suggests that race (as a proxy of racism) may interact with various determinants of human and brain development. Minimal knowledge, however, exists on whether age and race also interact on shaping PFC response to threat among American children.

A Web-Based Pharmacogenomics Search Tool for Precision Medicine in Perioperative Care.

Precision medicine represents an evolving approach to improve treatment efficacy by modifying it to individual patient's gene variation. Pharmacogenetics, an applicable branch of precision medicine, identifies patient's predisposing genotypes that alter the clinical outcome of the drug, hence preventing serious adverse drug reactions. Pharmacogenetics has been extensively applied to various fields of medicine, but in the field of anesthesiology and preoperative medicine, it has been unexploited.

African American Children's Diminished Returns of Subjective Family Socioeconomic Status on Fun Seeking.

Reward sensitivity (fun-seeking) is a risk factor for a wide range of high-risk behaviors. While high socioeconomic status (SES) is known to reduce reward sensitivity and associated high-risk behaviors, less is known about the differential effects of SES on reward sensitivity. It is plausible to expect weaker protective effects of family SES on reward sensitivity in racial minorities, a pattern called Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs).

Reward Responsiveness in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study: African Americans' Diminished Returns of Parental Education.

(1) Background: Reward responsiveness (RR) is a risk factor for high-risk behaviors such as aggressive behaviors and early sexual initiation, which are all reported to be higher in African American and low socioeconomic status adolescents. At the same time, parental education is one of the main drivers of reward responsiveness among adolescents. It is still unknown if some of this racial and economic gap is attributed to weaker effects of parental education for African Americans, a pattern also called minorities' diminished returns (MDRs).

Bipolar Disorder Among Patients Diagnosed With Frontotemporal Dementia.

Objective: Previous studies have documented manic and hypomanic symptoms in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), suggesting a relationship between bipolar disorder and bvFTD.

Methods: The investigators conducted a literature review as well as a review of the psychiatric histories of 137 patients with bvFTD, and patients with a prior diagnosis of bipolar disorder were identified. The clinical characteristics of patients' bipolar disorder diagnosis, family history, features of bvFTD, and results from fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), as well as autopsy findings, were evaluated.

Bilingualism Delays Expression of Alzheimer's Clinical Syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of bilingualism on the emergence of Alzheimer's clinical syndrome.

Background: Studies have proposed an increase in cognitive and neural reserve from the management and control of two languages, with a consequent delayed expression of dementia.

Methods: In a clinic with a large immigrant population, we identified 253 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) with intermediate or high evidence of AD pathophysiological process.

Impact of delayed treatment on exacerbations of multiple sclerosis among Puerto Rican patients.

Background: There are limited data on multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in underserved groups, including Puerto Rico. In this study, we analyzed the characteristic of MS symptoms and number of relapses in Puerto Rican patients. We then compare these characteristics with MS patients from the US.

Historical perspective of neurology in Iran.

Iran is an ancient country, known as the cradle of civilization. The history of medicine in Iran goes back to the existence of a human in this country, divided into three periods: pre-Islamic, medieval, and modern period. There are records of different neurologic terms from the early period, while Zoroastrian (religious) prescription was mainly used until the foundation of the first medical center (Gondishapur).