Arousal and sustained attention fluctuate differently with respiration in younger and older adults.

Respiration is being increasingly recognised as both synchronising its dynamics with external events and modulating internal psychophysiological states. However, the extent to which these effects stem from a respiratory modulation of attention remains underexplored. Here, we leverage differing attentional strategies of younger (YA) and older adults (OA)-OA exhibited greater focus during a simple contrast change detection task-to examine their relationship with respiratory phase-locking behaviour.

Exploring the impact of gentle stroking touch on psychophysiological regulation of inhibitory control.

Touch has been shown to regulate emotions, stress responses, and physical pain. However, its impact on cognitive functions, such as inhibitory control, remains relatively understudied. In this experiment, we explored the effects of low-force, slow-moving touch-designed to optimally activate unmyelinated cutaneous low-threshold mechanoreceptor C-tactile (CT) afferents in human hairy skin-on inhibitory control and its psychophysiological correlates using the Stroop Task, a classic paradigm commonly employed to assess inhibitory control capacity.

Paced Breathing Associated With Pupil Diameter Oscillations at the Same Rate and Reduced Lapses in Attention.

A dynamical systems model proposes that respiratory, locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA), and cortical attentional systems interact, producing emergent states of attention. We tested a prediction that fixing respiratory pace (versus spontaneous respiration) stabilizes oscillations in pupil diameter (LC-NA proxy) and attentional state. Primary comparisons were between 'Instructed Breath' (IB) and 'No Instructed Breath' (NIB) groups.

Disentangling the Component Processes in Complex Planning Impairments Following Ventromedial Prefrontal Lesions.

Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in humans disrupts planning abilities in naturalistic settings. However, it is unknown which components of planning are affected in these patients, including selecting the relevant information, simulating future states, or evaluating between these states. To address this question, we leveraged computational paradigms to investigate the role of vmPFC in planning, using the board game task "Four-in-a-Row" (18 lesion patients, 9 female; 30 healthy control participants, 16 female) and the simpler "Two-Step" task measuring model-based reasoning (49 lesion patients, 27 female; 20 healthy control participants, 13 female).

Going 'meta': a systematic review of metacognition and functional neurological disorder.

In functional neurological disorder (FND), there is a fundamental disconnect between an apparently intact nervous system and the individuals' ability to consistently perform motor actions, perceive sensory signals and/or access effective cognition. Metacognition, the capacity to self-evaluate cognitive performance, appears highly relevant to FND pathophysiology. Poor metacognition is a potential mechanism via which abnormal models of self and the state of the world could arise and persist unchecked.

Neural bases of social deficits in ADHD: A systematic review. Does the Theory of Mind matter?

Introduction: The Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) causes serious interpersonal problems from childhood to adulthood, one of them being problematic social functioning. This phenomenon in ADHD should be associated with impairments in the Theory of Mind (ToM). Therefore, understanding the neural correlates of the ToM could be crucial for helping individuals with ADHD with their social functioning.

Tinnitus: A Dimensionally Segregated, yet Perceptually Integrated Heterogeneous Disorder.

Objectives: Tinnitus subtypes are proposed to lie on a continuum of different symptom dimensions rather than be categorical. However, there is no comprehensive empirical data showing this complex relationship between different tinnitus symptoms. The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence for the dimensional nature of tinnitus and how different auditory and non-auditory symptoms interact with each other through complex interactions.

C-reactive protein is related to a distinct set of alterations in resting-state functional connectivity contributing to a differential pathophysiology of major depressive disorder.

Background: Several studies in major depressive disorder (MDD) have found inflammation, especially C-reactive protein (CRP), to be consistently associated with MDD and network dysfunction. The aim was to investigate whether CRP is linked to a distinct set of resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) alterations.

Methods: For this reason, we investigated the effects of diagnosis and elevated blood plasma CRP levels on the RSFC in 63 participants (40 females, mean age 31.

Delta- and theta-band cortical tracking and phase-amplitude coupling to sung speech by infants.

The amplitude envelope of speech carries crucial low-frequency acoustic information that assists linguistic decoding at multiple time scales. Neurophysiological signals are known to track the amplitude envelope of adult-directed speech (ADS), particularly in the theta-band. Acoustic analysis of infant-directed speech (IDS) has revealed significantly greater modulation energy than ADS in an amplitude-modulation (AM) band centred on ∼2 Hz.

NRXN1α is associated with increased excitability in ASD iPSC-derived neurons.

Background: NRXN1 deletions are identified as one of major rare risk factors for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders. ASD has 30% co-morbidity with epilepsy, and the latter is associated with excessive neuronal firing. NRXN1 encodes hundreds of presynaptic neuro-adhesion proteins categorized as NRXN1α/β/γ.

Accurate Decoding of Imagined and Heard Melodies.

Music perception requires the human brain to process a variety of acoustic and music-related properties. Recent research used encoding models to tease apart and study the various cortical contributors to music perception. To do so, such approaches study temporal response functions that summarise the neural activity over several minutes of data.

Study protocol for the COvid-19 Toolbox for All IslaNd (CONTAIN) project: A cross-border analysis in Ireland to disentangle psychological, behavioural, media and governmental responses to COVID-19.

COVID-19 represents a serious challenge to governments and healthcare systems. In addition to testing/contact tracing, behavioural and social responses such as handwashing and social distancing or cocooning are effective tools for mitigating the spread of the disease. Psychological (e.

Derivation of four iPSC lines from a male ASD patient carrying a deletion in the middle coding region of NRXN1α gene (NUIGi039-A and NUIGi039-B) and a male sibling control (NUIGi040-A and NUIGi040-B).

NRXN1 deletions are commonly found in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric disorders. Derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from different diseases involving different deletion regions are essential, as NRXN1 may produce thousands of splicing variants. We report here the derivation of iPSCs from a sibling control and an ASD proband carrying de novo heterozygous deletions in the middle region of NRXN1, using a non-integrating Sendai viral kit.

Derivation of iPSC lines from two patients with autism spectrum disorder carrying NRXN1α deletion (NUIGi041-A, NUIG041-B; NUIGi045-A) and one sibling control (NUIGi042-A, NUIGi042-B).

NRXN1 encodes thousands of splicing variants categorized into long NRXN1α, short NRXN1β and extremely short NRXN1γ, which exert differential roles in neuronal excitation/inhibition. NRXN1α deletions are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric disorders. We derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from one sibling control and two ASD probands carrying NRXN1α, using non-integrating Sendai viral method.

Derivation of iPSC lines from three young healthy donors of Caucasian origin (NUIGi035-A; NUIGi036-A; NUIGi037-A).

The induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has offered an unprecedented opportunity for disease modelling and drug discovery. Here we used non-integrating Sendai viral method and derived iPSCs from three young healthy Caucasian donors. All iPSCs expressed pluripotency markers highly and could be differentiated into three germ lineages.

Associations between Hypertension, Treatment, and Cognitive Function in the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

Epidemiological studies have produced conflicting results regarding the associations between the use of different hypertensive drugs and cognition. Data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), a nationwide prospective longitudinal study of adults aged 50 or more years, was used to explore the associations between hypertensive status, categories of antihypertensive and cognitive function controlling for age, education, and other demographic and lifestyle factors. The study sample included 8173 participants.

Development of Proteomic Prediction Models for Transition to Psychotic Disorder in the Clinical High-Risk State and Psychotic Experiences in Adolescence.

Importance: Biomarkers that are predictive of outcomes in individuals at risk of psychosis would facilitate individualized prognosis and stratification strategies.

Objective: To investigate whether proteomic biomarkers may aid prediction of transition to psychotic disorder in the clinical high-risk (CHR) state and adolescent psychotic experiences (PEs) in the general population.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This diagnostic study comprised 2 case-control studies nested within the European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

The potential interruptive effect of tinnitus-related distress on attention.

The mechanism through which tinnitus affects attention is unclear. This study examines whether distress mediates the relationship(s) between tinnitus and sustained, selective and executive attentions as well as response inhibition. Eighteen participants with tinnitus and fifteen controls completed the Counting Stroop, Vigilance and Stop Signal tasks.

Derivation of two iPSC lines from a sporadic ASD patient (NUIGi033-A) and a paternal control (NUIGi034-A).

Hundreds of rare risk factors have been identified for ASD, however, the underlying causes for ~70% of sporadic cases are unknown. Sporadic ASD models are thus essential for validating phenotypic commonality and drug suitability to the majority of patients. Here, we derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from one sporadic ASD child and one paternal control, using non-integrating Sendai viral methods.

Potential Therapeutic Effect of Low Amplitude Burst Spinal Cord Stimulation on Pain.

Background: The SUNBURST Study, a USA-based controlled cross-over trial demonstrated that burst spinal cord stimulation was superior compared to tonic stimulation in suppressing chronic intractable pain. However, when on burst stimulation, participants preferred lower to higher amplitudes. This led to the hypothesis that lower burst amplitudes will correlate with lower pain scores while higher amplitudes will be associated with higher pain scores.