Stable Decoding from a Speech BCI Enables Control for an Individual with ALS without Recalibration for 3 Months.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can be used to control assistive devices by patients with neurological disorders like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that limit speech and movement. For assistive control, it is desirable for BCI systems to be accurate and reliable, preferably with minimal setup time. In this study, a participant with severe dysarthria due to ALS operates computer applications with six intuitive speech commands via a chronic electrocorticographic (ECoG) implant over the ventral sensorimotor cortex.

Lexicality-Modulated Influence of Auditory Cortex on Subthalamic Nucleus During Motor Planning for Speech.

Speech requires successful information transfer within cortical-basal ganglia loop circuits to produce the desired acoustic output. For this reason, up to 90% of Parkinson's disease patients experience impairments of speech articulation. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is highly effective in controlling the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, sometimes alongside speech improvement, but subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS can also lead to decreases in semantic and phonological fluency.

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Information Processing in the Human Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex.

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is a key node in the human salience network. It has been ascribed motor, pain-processing and affective functions. However, the dynamics of information flow in this complex region and how it responds to inputs remain unclear and are difficult to study using non-invasive electrophysiology.

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortices Differentially Lateralize Prediction Errors and Outcome Valence in a Decision-Making Task.

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is proposed to facilitate learning by signaling mismatches between the expected outcome of decisions and the actual outcomes in the form of prediction errors. The dACC is also proposed to discriminate outcome valence-whether a result has positive (either expected or desirable) or negative (either unexpected or undesirable) value. However, direct electrophysiological recordings from human dACC to validate these separate, but integrated, dimensions have not been previously performed.

Visualizing and quantifying Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in the hindbrain ventricle of zebrafish using confocal laser scanning microscopy.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonizes surfaces using a stepwise process that involves several phases, including attachment, production of exopolysaccharides, formation of microcolonies and the eventual development of biofilms. This process has been extensively characterized in vitro using both light and electron microscopic techniques. However, our ability to visualize this process in situ at the site of infection has been limited by the nature of the vertebrate models available.

Wnt ligand-dependent activation of the negative feedback regulator Nkd1.

Misregulation of Wnt signaling is at the root of many diseases, most notably colorectal cancer, and although we understand the activation of the pathway, we have a very poor understanding of the circumstances under which Wnt signaling turns itself off. There are numerous negative feedback regulators of Wnt signaling, but two stand out as constitutive and obligate Wnt-induced regulators: Axin2 and Nkd1. Whereas Axin2 behaves similarly to Axin in the destruction complex, Nkd1 is more enigmatic.