White matter microstructure, traumatic brain injury, and disruptive behavior disorders in girls and boys.

Introduction: Girls and boys presenting disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) display differences in white matter microstructure (WMM) relative to typically developing (TD) sex-matched peers. Boys with DBDs are at increased risk for traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), which are also known to impact WMM. This study aimed to disentangle associations of WMM with DBDs and TBIs.

Assessment of Oculomotor Functions as a Biomarker in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), or concussion, is a major public health problem, and ambiguity still exists regarding its diagnosis. While functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been identified as a helpful screening tool for concussion, its limited accessibility in clinical or field settings necessitates a more efficient alternative. Oculomotor function deficit is an often-reported pathology in mTBI.

Exploring oculomotor functions in a pilot study with healthy controls: Insights from eye-tracking and fMRI.

Eye-tracking techniques have gained widespread application in various fields including research on the visual system, neurosciences, psychology, and human-computer interaction, with emerging clinical implications. In this preliminary phase of our study, we introduce a pilot test of innovative virtual reality technology designed for tracking head and eye movements among healthy individuals. This tool was developed to assess the presence of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), given the frequent association of oculomotor function deficits with such injuries.

Production of co-speech gestures in the right hemisphere: Evidence from individuals with complete or anterior callosotomy.

Introduction: A right-hand preference for co-speech gestures in right-handed neurotypical individuals as well as the co-occurrence of speech and gesture has induced neuropsychological research to primarily target the left hemisphere when investigating co-speech gesture production. However, the substantial number of spontaneous left-hand gestures in right-handed individuals has, thus far, been unexplained. Recent studies in individuals with complete callosotomy and exclusive left hemisphere speech production show a reliable left-hand preference for co-speech gestures, indicating a right hemispheric generation.

Biomedical Research and Informatics Living Laboratory for Innovative Advances of New Technologies in Community Mobility Rehabilitation: Protocol for Evaluation and Rehabilitation of Mobility Across Continuums of Care.

Background: Rapid advances in technologies over the past 10 years have enabled large-scale biomedical and psychosocial rehabilitation research to improve the function and social integration of persons with physical impairments across the lifespan. The Biomedical Research and Informatics Living Laboratory for Innovative Advances of New Technologies (BRILLIANT) in community mobility rehabilitation aims to generate evidence-based research to improve rehabilitation for individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI).

Objective: This study aims to (1) identify the factors limiting or enhancing mobility in real-world community environments (public spaces, including the mall, home, and outdoors) and understand their complex interplay in individuals of all ages with ABI and (2) customize community environment mobility training by identifying, on a continuous basis, the specific rehabilitation strategies and interventions that patient subgroups benefit from most.

Multi-tract multi-symptom relationships in pediatric concussion.

Background: The heterogeneity of white matter damage and symptoms in concussion has been identified as a major obstacle to therapeutic innovation. In contrast, most diffusion MRI (dMRI) studies on concussion have traditionally relied on group-comparison approaches that average out heterogeneity. To leverage, rather than average out, concussion heterogeneity, we combined dMRI and multivariate statistics to characterize multi-tract multi-symptom relationships.

CARE frailty e-health scale: Association with incident adverse health outcomes and comparison with the Cardiovascular Health Study frailty scale in the NuAge cohort.

Background: This study examines and compares CARE and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) frailty states (i.e., robust, prefrail and frail) for their association with incident adverse health outcomes, including falls, depression, cognitive and functional decline, major neurocognitive disorders, hospitalization and mortality in community-dwelling older adults living in the province of Quebec (Canada).

Atypical resting state functional connectivity in mild traumatic brain injury.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate changes in three intrinsic functional connectivity networks (IFCNs; default mode network [DMN], salience network [SN], and task-positive network [TPN]) in individuals who had sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data were acquired from 27 mTBI patients with persistent postconcussive symptoms, along with 26 age- and sex-matched controls. These individuals were recruited from a Level-1 trauma center, at least 3 months after a traumatic episode.

A Prospective, Multicenter Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Translingual Neurostimulation Plus Physical Therapy for the Treatment of a Chronic Balance Deficit Due to Mild-to-Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objectives: Translingual neurostimulation (TLNS) studies indicate improved outcomes in neurodegenerative disease or spinal cord injury patients. This study was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of TLNS plus targeted physical therapy (PT) in people with a chronic balance deficit after mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury (mmTBI).

Materials And Methods: This international, multicenter, randomized study enrolled 122 participants with a chronic balance deficit who had undergone PT following an mmTBI and had plateaued in recovery.

Changes in peri-calcarine cortical thickness in blindsight.

Blindsight is the ability of patients with primary visual cortex (V1) damage to process information in their clinically blind visual field in the absence of conscious awareness. In addition to those with localized V1 lesions, some patients exhibiting this phenomenon have had a cerebral hemisphere removed or disconnected from the rest of the brain for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy (hemispherectomy). Research into the underlying neural substrates of blindsight has long implicated the intact visual cortex in maintaining residual vision and supporting visuo-guided responses to stimuli presented ipsilaterally within the blind visual field while operating outside the geniculo-striate pathway.

Structural abnormalities in thalamo-prefrontal tracks revealed by high angular resolution diffusion imaging predict working memory scores in concussed children.

Because of their high prevalence, heterogeneous clinical presentation, and wide-ranging sequelae, concussions are a challenging neurological condition, especially in children. Shearing forces transmitted across the brain during concussions often result in white matter damage. The neuropathological impact of concussions has been discerned from animal studies and includes inflammation, demyelination, and axonal loss.

A Prospective Study of Childhood Predictors of Traumatic Brain Injuries Sustained in Adolescence and Adulthood.

Objective: Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are sustained by approximately 17% of males in the general population, many of whom subsequently present mental disorders, cognitive, and physical problems. Little is known about predictors of TBIs and how to prevent them. The present study aimed to determine whether inattention-hyperactivity and/or all externalizing problems presented by boys at age 10 predict subsequent TBIs to age 34 after taking account of previous TBIs and family social status (FSS).

Impact of non-invasive brain stimulation on transcallosal modulation in mild traumatic brain injury: a multimodal pilot investigation.

: We combined performance on working memory (WM) tasks with diffusion (dMRI) and functional (fMRI) magnetic resonance imaging in young adults who had suffered a concussion to better understand the inter-hemispheric effects of unilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). : The article is presenting pilot data on 8 symptomatic patients with persistent post-concussion symptoms for over 6 months. They received 20 sessions of rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Evaluating task-based brain network activity in pediatric subjects with an mTBI: mechanisms of functional compensation are symptom-level dependent.

The diagnosis of a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) places large emphasis on patient-reported symptoms which has restricted our ability to evaluate patients. Task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging has the potential to act as an objective measurement of abnormal brain activity and inform clinical decision-making; however, there is little research evaluating pediatric subjects as a function of mTBI-related symptoms. The objective of this study was to evaluate the extent to which brain activity during a spatial navigation task is different between children with mTBI and a group of healthy controls (HCs) based on symptom reporting.

Functional reorganization of population receptive fields in a hemispherectomy patient with blindsight.

Blindsight refers to the ability of some patients with destruction of the primary visual cortex (V1) to respond to stimuli presented in their clinically blind visual field despite lack of visual awareness. Here we tested a rare and well-known patient with blindsight following hemispherectomy, DR, who has had the entire cortex in the right hemisphere removed, and in whom the right superior colliculus is the only post-chiasmatic visual structure remaining intact. Compared to more traditional cases of blindsight after damage confined to V1, the study of blindsight in hemispherectomy has offered the invaluable opportunity to examine directly two outstanding questions: the contribution of the intact hemisphere to visual processing without awareness, and the nature of plastic and compensatory changes in these remaining contralesional visual areas.

Noninvasive tongue stimulation combined with intensive cognitive and physical rehabilitation induces neuroplastic changes in patients with multiple sclerosis: A multimodal neuroimaging study.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients have central nervous system (CNS) lesions that may impede cognitive and sensorimotor function. Few rehabilitative therapies are available.

Objectives: The objective of this paper is to study effects of noninvasive tongue stimulation using the Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS™) combined with intensive cognitive and physical rehabilitation on working memory, gait, balance and concomitant changes in the brain.

Role of advanced neuroimaging, fluid biomarkers and genetic testing in the assessment of sport-related concussion: a systematic review.

Objective: To conduct a systematic review of published literature on advanced neuroimaging, fluid biomarkers and genetic testing in the assessment of sport-related concussion (SRC).

Data Sources: Computerised searches of Medline, PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PsycINFO, Scopus and Cochrane Library from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2016 were done. There were 3222 articles identified.

Development, implementation and assessment of a concussion education programme for high school student-athletes.

Although experts have noted that adolescent athletes should be educated about concussions to improve their safety, there is no agreement on the most effective strategy to disseminate concussion education. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement and assess a concussion education programme. More precisely, four interactive oral presentations were delivered to high school student-athletes (N = 35, M = 15.

Microstructural Integrity of Hippocampal Subregions Is Impaired after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) affects a large number of individuals and diffusion tensor imaging can be used to investigate microstructural integrity of brain tissue after mTBI. However, results have varied considerably between studies and gray matter (GM) integrity has been largely neglected in these investigations. Given impaired working memory processing after mTBI and its possible association with Alzheimer's disease, we investigated hippocampal integrity and parcellated this structure into five subregions: subiculum, cornu ammonis (CA) 1, CA 2/3, CA 4/dentate gyrus, and stratum radiatum/lacunosum-moleculare.

Cortical Thickness Changes and Their Relationship to Dual-Task Performance following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Youth.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common in youth, especially in those who participate in sport. Recent investigations from our group have shown that asymptomatic children and adolescents with mTBI continue to exhibit alterations in neural activity and cognitive performance compared with those without a history of mTBI. This is an intriguing finding, given that current return-to-learn and return-to-play protocols rely predominately on subjective symptom reports, which may not be sensitive enough to detect subtle injury-related changes.

The superior colliculus is sensitive to gestalt-like stimulus configuration in hemispherectomy patients.

Patients with cortical blindness following a lesion to the primary visual cortex (V1) may retain nonconscious visual abilities (blindsight). One intriguing, though largely unexplored question, is whether nonconscious vision in the blind hemifield of hemianopic patients can be sensitive to higher-order perceptual organization, and which V1-independent structure underlies such effect. To answer this question, we tested two rare hemianopic patients who had undergone hemispherectomy, and in whom the only post-chiasmatic visual structure left intact in the same side of the otherwise damaged hemisphere was the superior colliculus (SC).

The impact of symptomatic mild traumatic brain injury on complex everyday activities and the link with alterations in cerebral functioning: Exploratory case studies.

The objective of the study was to explore the neurophysiological correlates of altered functional independence using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potentials (ERP) after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The participants consisted of three individuals with symptomatic mTBI (3.9 ± 3.

Persistent Postconcussive Symptoms Are Accompanied by Decreased Functional Brain Oxygenation.

Diagnostic methods are considered a major concern in the determination of mild traumatic brain injury. The authors examined brain oxygenation patterns in subjects with severe and minor persistent postconcussive difficulties and a healthy control group during working memory tasks in prefrontal brain regions using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The results demonstrated decreased working memory performances among concussed subjects with severe postconcussive symptoms that were accompanied by decreased brain oxygenation patterns.