Progressive subcortical involvement as spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 advances.

Background And Objectives: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by heterogeneous motor and nonmotor manifestations. The progressive pattern of subcortical shape abnormalities and their associations with the clinical phenotypes in SCA3 remain unknown.

Methods: Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and FSL-FIRST were used to characterize the progressive patterns of the abnormalities in white matter microstructure and subcortical shape in four subgroups of SCA3 patients stratified based on disease duration (n = 56).

Combining functional, structural, and morphological networks for multimodal classification of developing autistic brains.

Accumulating neuroimaging evidence suggests that abnormal functional and structural brain connectivity plays a cardinal role in the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we constructed brain networks of functional, structural, and morphological connectivity using data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI), respectively. The neuroimaging data from a cohort of 50 individuals with ASD and 47 age-, gender- and handedness-matched TDC (age range: 5-18 years) were selected from the Autism Brain Image Data Exchange database.

Functional and distinct roles of Piezo2-mediated mechanotransduction in dental primary afferent neurons.

Piezo2, a mechanosensitive ion channel, serves as a crucial mechanotransducer in dental primary afferent (DPA) neurons and is potentially involved in hypersensitivity to mild mechanical irritations observed in dental patients. Given Piezo2's widespread expression across diverse subpopulations of DPA neurons, this study aimed to characterize the mechanosensory properties of Piezo2-expressing DPA neurons with a focus on distinct features of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) and neuropeptide profiles. Using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, we observed mechanically activated action potentials (APs) and classified AP waveforms based on the presence or absence of a hump during the repolarization phase.

Korean black ginseng extract alleviates Alzheimer's disease-related cognitive impairment by activating the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway and suppressing the p38 MAPK/NF-κB/STAT3 pathways and NLRP3 inflammasome via TLR2 and TLR4 modulation.

Background: Korean black ginseng, a specially processed ginseng through repeat steaming and drying, has various pharmacological effects. However, its role cognitive impairment remains unclear.

Purpose And Methods: This study examined whether Korean black ginseng extract (BGE; 50 and 100 mg/kg, orally, 18 weeks) may mitigate cognitive impairment in a 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Slow-paced breathing enhancing emotional control accompanied with the change of the ∼0.1 Hz heartbeat evoked EEG.

Cardiac interoception exhibits tight coupling with brain activity, deeply engaging in emotional behavior. However, the neural mechanisms underlying how heart activity influences brain emotional processing remain poorly understood. This study introduced the heartbeat oscillatory potential (HOP), a novel EEG-based index time-locked to ∼0.

Real-time fine finger motion decoding for transradial amputees with surface electromyography.

Advancements in human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are pivotal for enhancing rehabilitation technologies and improving the quality of life for individuals with limb loss. This paper presents a novel CNN-Transformer model for decoding continuous fine finger motions from surface electromyography (sEMG) signals by integrating the convolutional neural network (CNN) and Transformer architecture, focusing on applications for transradial amputees. This model leverages the strengths of both convolutional and Transformer architectures to effectively capture both local muscle activation patterns and global temporal dependencies within sEMG signals.

Advances in magnetic resonance imaging of the developing brain and its applications in pediatrics.

The human brain undergoes a complex and dynamic developmental process from birth through adolescence, driven by molecular and cellular mechanisms that shape its structure and function. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an essential non-invasive tool for studying pediatric brain development and detecting neurological disorders. However, pediatric neuroimaging presents unique challenges, including motion artifacts, small anatomical structures, and immature tissue properties, necessitating specialized MRI techniques.

The current approaches to modeling the brain ischemia-reperfusion and inflammation: from animal models toward vascularized and neuroimmune cerebral organoids.

For several decades, the modeling of brain diseases in experimental animals has remained one of the key components of studying the pathogenesis of central nervous system pathology and searching for new methods of prevention and therapy. In recent years, new approaches to modeling pathological conditions have been in active development; these approaches will not only reduce the number of animal studies but also allow us to take a step toward reproducing the human-specific mechanisms of brain pathology. In this review, we characterize the most common rodent models of cerebral ischemia and reperfusion, as well as neuroinflammation inherent to neurodegeneration (in particular, Parkinson's disease), which are reproduced .

NeuroScale: evolutional scale-based protein language models enable prediction of neuropeptides.

Background: Neuropeptides (NPs) are critical signaling molecules involved in various physiological and behavioral processes, including development, metabolism, and memory. They function within both the nervous and endocrine systems and have emerged as promising therapeutic targets for a range of diseases. Despite their significance, the accurate identification of NPs remains a challenge, necessitating the development of more effective computational approaches.

The history and future of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Since the discovery of resting-state functional connectivity in the human brain, this neuroimaging approach has revolutionized the study of neural architecture. Once considered noise, the functional significance of spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations across large-scale brain networks has now been investigated in more than 25,000 publications. In this Review, we provide a historical overview and thoughts regarding potential future directions for resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) research, highlighting the most informative analytic approaches that have been developed to reveal the brain's intrinsic spatiotemporal organization.

White matter dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease is associated with disease-related transcriptomic signatures.

While anatomical white matter (WM) alterations in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are well-established, functional WM dysregulation remains rarely investigated. The current study examines WM functional connectivity and network properties alterations in AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and further describes their spatially correlated genes. AD and MCI shared decreased functional connectivity, clustering coefficient, and local efficiency within WM regions involved in impaired sensory-motor, visual-spatial, language, or memory functions.

A Gaussian Mixture Model-Based Unsupervised Dendritic Artificial Visual System for Motion Direction Detection.

Motion perception is a fundamental function of biological visual systems, enabling organisms to navigate dynamic environments, detect threats, and track moving objects. Inspired by the mechanisms of biological motion processing, we propose an Unsupervised Artificial Visual System for motion direction detection. Unlike traditional supervised learning approaches, our model employs unsupervised learning to classify local motion direction detection neurons and group those with similar directional preferences to form macroscopic motion direction detection neurons.

A New Polymer-Coated Xenogeneic Extracellular Matrix to Prevent Postoperative Adhesion Readily Applicable in the Clinic.

Post-neurosurgical dura reconstruction is crucial for preventing CSF leakage and reducing infection risk. When primary closure is not possible, synthetic and semisynthetic dura substitutes are commonly used, but postoperative adhesions remain a major complication, particularly in reoperations for brain tumors and spinal surgeries. To address this, the use of initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) is investigated to create a polymer-coated dura substitute that minimizes adhesions.

Fusogenic lipid nanoparticles for rapid delivery of large therapeutic molecules to exosomes.

Exosomes, as cell-derived lipid nanoparticles, are promising drug carriers because they can traverse challenging physiological barriers such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB). However, a major obstacle in utilizing exosomes as drug carriers is loading large therapeutic molecules without compromising the structural integrity of embedded biomolecules. Here, we introduce a membrane fusion method utilizing fusogenic lipid nanoparticles, cubosomes, to load large molecules into exosomes in a non-destructive manner.

A comprehensive antigen-antibody complex database unlocking insights into interaction interface.

Antibodies are critical components of the vertebrate immune system and possess a wide array of biomedical applications. Elucidating the complex interactions between antibodies and antigens is an important step in drug development. However, the complex and vast nature of the data presents significant challenges in accurately identifying and comprehending these interactions.

A functional anatomical shift from the lateral frontal pole to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in emotion action control underpins elevated levels of anxiety: partial replication and generalization of Bramson ., 2023.

Background: Emotion control represents a promising intervention target for mental disorders. In a recent study Bramson et al. (2023) demonstrate a functional-anatomical shift from the lateral frontal pole (FPl) to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in anxious individuals during emotional action control.

Anterior-posterior systematic deficits of cortical thickness in early-onset schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental condition with alterations in both sensory and association cortical areas. These alterations have been reported to follow structural connectivity patterning, and to occur in a system-level fashion. Here we investigated whether pathological alterations of schizophrenia originate from an early disruption of cortical organization.

Brain structural and functional impairment network localization in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Background: Numerous neuroimaging studies investigating the neural substrates of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have yielded inconsistent findings, and growing evidence suggests that psychiatric disorders are more accurately localized to brain networks rather than discrete brain regions. We sought to identify brain network localization in OCD.

Methods: We initially examined brain locations of structural and functional alterations among patients with OCD and healthy controls using neuroimaging studies.

A retrospective analysis of vortioxetine utilization in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder in clinical practice.

Background: Treating depression in children and adolescents has always been a challenge in clinical pharmacotherapy. Vortioxetine, as a new type of antidepressant, is considered to have the potential for use in the treatment of depression in children and adolescents. This study aimed to evaluate the usage of vortioxetine and its efficacy and tolerability in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder in a real-world study.

Brain structural differences between fibromyalgia patients and healthy control subjects: a source-based morphometric study.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition that predominantly affects women. Evidence implies that FM is associated with dysfunction of the central nervous system (CNS). In this study, we investigated the structural differences between FM patients and healthy control (HC) subjects using a multivariate approach.

Hippocampal Sharp-Wave Ripples Decrease during Physical Actions Including Consummatory Behavior in Immobile Rodents.

Hippocampal sharp-wave ripples (SWRs) are intermittent, fast synchronous oscillations that play a pivotal role in memory formation. It has been well established that SWRs occur during "consummatory behaviors," e.g.

High Affinity Staining for Histological Immunoreactivity revealed phosphorylated tau within amyloid-cored plaques in the brain of AD model mice.

The historical pathology of the brain in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the amyloid cascade hypothesis, in which amyloid β protein accumulates in the extracellular parenchyma as senile plaque and triggers phosphorylation of microtubule-associated protein tau for forming neurofibrillary tangle in the human neurons. Whether these protein existences differed in the brain parenchyma, the relationship of these proteins of accumulation mechanisms is unknown. In the case of brain pathological analysis, the level of phosphorylation for tau has been decreased in the paraffin-embedded sections compared with biochemical analysis.

Projection-specific and reversible functional blockage in the association cortex of macaque monkeys.

The functional manipulation techniques based on optogenetics have been widely and effectively utilized in the rodent brain. However, the applications of these techniques to the macaque cerebral cortex, particularly those to the prefrontal cortex, have been limited due to the extensive size and complex functional organization of each prefrontal area. In this study, we developed projection-specific and reversible functional blockade methods applicable to areas of the macaque prefrontal cortex, based on chemogenetic techniques.

Revealing heterogeneity in mild cognitive impairment based on individualized structural covariance network.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a heterogeneous disorder with significant individual variabilities in clinical and biological features. Abnormal inter-regional structural covariance suggests disruption of the brain structural network in MCI. Most studies have examined group-level structural covariance alterations while ignoring individual-level differences.

Closed-eye intraocular pressure and eye movement monitoring via a stretchable bimodal contact lens.

Chronic ophthalmic diseases are multivariate, time-varying, and degenerative. Smart contact lenses have emerged as a scalable platform for noninvasive ocular signal detection and disease diagnosis. However, real-time monitoring and decoupling of multiple ocular parameters, particularly when the eyes are closed, remain challenging in clinical medicine.