Surveillance tools for detection of recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma: An evidence-based review and recommendations.

Objective: Nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC) are tumors arising from epithelium of the nasopharynx. The 5-year survival rate of primary NPC is 80% with significant risks of recurrence. The objective here is to provide an evidence-based systemic review of the diagnostic value of different modalities in detecting local, regional, and distal recurrent NPC, as well as the associated costs with these modalities.

Treatment and outcomes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in a unique non-endemic population.

Objective: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is common in Southeast Asia. Due to the influx of immigrants from this region, the incidence in British Columbia is increasing. Current literature from non-endemic populations encompasses heterogeneous cohorts.

Misleading Focal Clinical, Neurophysiologic, and Imaging Features in 2 Children With Generalized Epilepsy Who Underwent Invasive Electroencephalographic (EEG) Monitoring.

Children and adults with genetic generalized epilepsy may have focal clinical seizure symptoms as well as electroencephalographic (EEG) findings. This may pose a diagnostic challenge to clinicians, especially when concomitant focal neuroimaging findings exist and the epilepsy is medically refractory. We sought to highlight the challenges that clinicians may face through the description of 2 children with suspected genetic generalized epilepsy who had both focal seizure symptoms and EEG/neuroimaging findings and underwent invasive EEG monitoring.

Altered beta-band functional connectivity may be related to 'performance slowing' in good outcome aneurysmal subarachnoid patients.

Recent evidence suggests that good neurological outcome in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) does not equate to good neuropsychological and cognitive outcome. These individuals continue to face cognitive difficulties in tasks involving mental flexibility, short-term memory and attention, resulting in decreased independence in daily living and reduced ability to return to work. In the current study, we examined the functional connectivity profiles using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in SAH patients, versus controls, during a visual short-term memory, 1-back, task.

Disconnected neuromagnetic networks in children born very preterm: Disconnected MEG networks in preterm children.

Many children born very preterm (≤32 weeks) experience significant cognitive difficulties, but the biological basis of such problems has not yet been determined. Functional MRI studies have implicated altered functional connectivity; however, little is known regarding the spatiotemporal organization of brain networks in this population. We provide the first examination of resting-state neuromagnetic connectivity mapped in brain space in school age children born very preterm.

Desynchronization of fronto-temporal networks during working memory processing in autism.

Background: Mounting evidence suggests that autism is a network disorder, characterized by atypical brain connectivity, especially in the context of high level cognitive processes such as working memory (WM). Accordingly, atypical WM processes have been related to the social and cognitive deficits observed in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Methods: We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate connectivity differences during a high memory load (2-back) WM task between 17 children with ASD and 20 age-, sex-, and IQ-matched controls.

Reduced beta band connectivity during number estimation in autism.

Recent evidence suggests that disruption of integrative processes in sensation and perception may play a critical role in cognitive and behavioural atypicalities characteristic of ASD. In line with this, ASD is associated with altered structural and functional brain connectivity and atypical patterns of inter-regional communication which have been proposed to contribute to cognitive difficulties prevalent in this group. The present MEG study used atlas-guided source space analysis of inter-regional phase synchronization in ASD participants, as well as matched typically developing controls, during a dot number estimation task.

Reduced beta connectivity during emotional face processing in adolescents with autism.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social cognition. The biological basis of deficits in social cognition in ASD, and their difficulty in processing emotional face information in particular, remains unclear. Atypical communication within and between brain regions has been reported in ASD.

Atypical resting synchrony in autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is increasingly understood to be associated with aberrant functional brain connectivity. Few studies, however, have described such atypical neural synchrony among specific brain regions. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to characterize alterations in functional connectivity in adolescents with ASD through source space analysis of phase synchrony.

Oscillations, networks, and their development: MEG connectivity changes with age.

Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) investigations of inter-regional amplitude correlations have yielded new insights into the organization and neurophysiology of resting-state networks (RSNs) first identified using fMRI. Inter-regional MEG amplitude correlations in adult RSNs have been shown to be most prominent in alpha and beta frequency ranges and to express strong congruence with RSN topologies found using fMRI. Despite such advances, little is known about how oscillatory connectivity in RSNs develops throughout childhood and adolescence.