Withdrawn: Bilateral versus ipsilesional cortico-subcortical activity patterns in stroke show hemispheric dependence.

Vidal AC, Banca P, Pascoal AG, Cordeiro G, Sargento-Freitas J, Gouveia A and Castelo-Branco M. Bilateral versus ipsilesional corticosubcortical activity patterns in stroke show hemispheric dependence. Int J Stroke.

Oscillatory motor patterning is impaired in neurofibromatosis type 1: a behavioural, EEG and fMRI study.

Background: Neurofibromatosis type1 (NF1) is associated with a broad range of behavioural deficits, and an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission has been postulated in this disorder. Inhibition is involved in the control of frequency and stability of motor rhythms. Therefore, we aimed to explore the link between behavioural motor control, brain rhythms and brain activity, as assessed by EEG and fMRI in NF1.

Beyond fractional anisotropy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: the value of mean, axial, and radial diffusivity and its correlation with electrophysiological conductivity changes.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the contribution of mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) in the detection of microstructural abnormalities in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and to evaluate the degree of agreement between structural and functional changes through concomitant diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and clinical assessment.

Methods: Fourteen patients with ALS and 11 healthy, age- and gender-matched controls were included. All participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging including DTI.

Virtual Travel Training for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Proof-of-Concept Interventional Study.

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and repetitive patterns of behavior, which can lead to deficits in adaptive behavior. In this study, a serious game was developed to train individuals with ASD for an important type of outdoor activity, which is the use of buses as a means of transportation.

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a serious game that defines a "safe environment" where the players became familiar with the process of taking a bus and to validate if it could be used effectively to teach bus-taking routines and adaptive procedures to individuals with ASD.

Stimulus dependent neural oscillatory patterns show reliable statistical identification of autism spectrum disorder in a face perceptual decision task.

Objective: Electroencephalographic biomarkers have been widely investigated in autism, in the search for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic outcome measures. Here we took advantage of the information available in temporal oscillatory patterns evoked by simple perceptual decisions to investigate whether stimulus dependent oscillatory signatures can be used as potential biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Methods: We studied an extensive set of stimuli (9 categories of faces) and performed data driven classification (Support vector machine, SVM) of ASD vs.

Processing of performance-matched visual object categories: faces and places are related to lower processing load in the frontoparietal executive network than other objects.

This study aimed to explore the differential role of the frontoparietal network in processing different visual object categories, matched for difficulty level, during a 1-back paradigm. To achieve this goal, we first mapped the effort-related frontoparietal saliency network, by contrasting activation elicited by face, object, place, body and verbal stimulus categories, which were matched for performance level, and speed of processing, with difficult scrambled stimuli. We then computed the weight of object predictors on that specific network, using an independent orthogonal analysis.

Endothelial Progenitor Cells influence acute and subacute stroke hemodynamics.

Background: Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) are a circulating stem cell population with in vivo capacity of promoting angiogenesis after ischemic events. Despite the promising preclinical data, their potential integration with reperfusion therapies and hemodynamic evolution of stroke patients is still unknown. Our aim was to determine the association of EPCs with acute, subacute and chronic hemodynamic features.

High-fat diet induces a neurometabolic state characterized by changes in glutamate and N-acetylaspartate pools associated with early glucose intolerance: An in vivo multimodal MRI study.

Background: Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disorder with a broad range of complications in the brain that depend on the conditions that precede its onset, such as obesity and metabolic syndromes. It has been suggested that neurotransmitter and metabolic perturbations may emerge even before the early stages of T2DM and that high-caloric intake could adversely influence the brain in such states. Notwithstanding, evidence for neurochemical and structural alterations in these conditions are still sparse and controversial.

The retinal ganglion cell layer predicts normal-appearing white matter tract integrity in multiple sclerosis: A combined diffusion tensor imaging and optical coherence tomography approach.

We investigated the relationship between retinal layers and normal-appearing white matter (WM) integrity in the brain of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), using a combined diffusion tensor imaging and high resolution optical coherence tomography approach. Fifty patients and 62 controls were recruited. The patients were divided into two groups according to presence (n = 18) or absence (n = 32) of optic neuritis.

Extraction, selection and comparison of features for an effective automated computer-aided diagnosis of Parkinson's disease based on [I]FP-CIT SPECT images.

Purpose: This work aimed to assess the potential of a set of features extracted from [I]FP-CIT SPECT brain images to be used in the computer-aided "in vivo" confirmation of dopaminergic degeneration and therefore to assist clinical decision to diagnose Parkinson's disease.

Methods: Seven features were computed from each brain hemisphere: five standard features related to uptake ratios on the striatum and two features related to the estimated volume and length of the striatal region with normal uptake. The features were tested on a dataset of 652 [I]FP-CIT SPECT brain images from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative.

Permutations of functional magnetic resonance imaging classification may not be normally distributed.

A fundamental question that often occurs in statistical tests is the normality of distributions. Countless distributions exist in science and life, but one distribution that is obtained via permutations, usually referred to as permutation distribution, is interesting. Although a permutation distribution should behave in accord with the central limit theorem, if both the independence condition and the identical distribution condition are fulfilled, no studies have corroborated this concurrence in functional magnetic resonance imaging data.

Occipital blood-brain barrier permeability is an independent predictor of visual outcome in type 2 diabetes, irrespective of the retinal barrier: A longitudinal study.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability in type 2 diabetic patients has been previously shown to be altered in certain brain regions such as the basal ganglia and the hippocampus. Because of the histological and functional similarities between the BBB) and the blood-retinal barrier (BRB), we aimed to investigate how the permeability of both barriers predicts visual outcome. We included 2 control groups (acute unilateral stroke patients, n = 9; type 2 diabetics without BRB leakage n = 10) and a case study group of type 2 diabetics with established BRB leakage (n = 17).

Endothelial progenitor cells enhance blood-brain barrier permeability in subacute stroke.

Objective: To study the association among endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), subacute blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, and clinical outcome after ischemic stroke, determining the micro RNAs of EPCs responsible for good clinical outcome.

Methods: We included consecutive patients with nonlacunar acute ischemic strokes in the territory of a middle cerebral artery and ages between 18 and 80 years. Clinical outcome was defined as modified Rankin Scale score at 3 months.

Medial Frontal Lobe Neurochemistry in Autism Spectrum Disorder is Marked by Reduced N-Acetylaspartate and Unchanged Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid and Glutamate + Glutamine Levels.

The nature of neurochemical changes in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains controversial. We compared medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurochemistry of twenty high-functioning children and adolescents with ASD without associated comorbidities and fourteen controls. We observed reduced total N-acetylaspartate (tNAA) and total creatine, increased Glx/tNAA but unchanged glutamate + glutamine (Glx) and unchanged absolute or relative gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA+) in the ASD group.

Radial asymmetries in population receptive field size and cortical magnification factor in early visual cortex.

Human visual cortex does not represent the whole visual field with the same detail. Changes in receptive field size, population receptive field (pRF) size and cortical magnification factor (CMF) with eccentricity are well established, and associated with changes in visual acuity with eccentricity. Visual acuity also changes across polar angle.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess neuroadaptation to multifocal intraocular lenses.

Purpose: To evaluate the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess neuroadaptation to multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs).

Setting: Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.

Design: Prospective case study.

The Use of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Stroke Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review.

Objectives: Stroke is a leading cause of disability. Alternative and more effective techniques for stroke rehabilitation have been sought to overcome limitations of conventional therapies. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) arises as a promising tool in this context.

Cortical functional topography of high-frequency gamma activity relates to perceptual decision: an Intracranial study.

High-frequency activity (HFA) is believed to subserve a functional role in cognition, but these patterns are often not accessible to scalp EEG recordings. Intracranial studies provide a unique opportunity to link the all-encompassing range of high-frequency patterns with holistic perception. We tested whether the functional topography of HFAs (up to 250Hz) is related to perceptual decision-making.

Correlated alpha activity with the facial expression processing network in a simultaneous EEG-fMRI experiment.

The relationship between EEG and fMRI data is poorly covered in the literature. Extensive work has been conducted in resting-state and epileptic activity, highlighting a negative correlation between the alpha power band of the EEG and the BOLD activity in the default-mode-network. The identification of an appropriate task-specific relationship between fMRI and EEG data for predefined regions-of-interest, would allow the transfer of interventional paradigms (such as BOLD-based neurofeedback sessions) from fMRI to EEG, enhancing its application range by lowering its costs and improving its flexibility.

An fMRI paradigm based on Williams inhibition test to study the neural substrates of attention and inhibitory control.

The purpose of this study is to present an fMRI paradigm, based on the Williams inhibition test (WIT), to study attentional and inhibitory control and their neuroanatomical substrates. We present an index of the validity of the proposed paradigm and test whether the experimental task discriminates the behavioral performances of healthy participants from those of individuals with acquired brain injury. Stroop and Simon tests present similarities with WIT, but this latter is more demanding.

Functional Neuroimaging in Obesity Research.

Functional neuroimaging is beginning to yield valuable insights into the neurobiological underpinnings of the effects of obesity on neural circuits. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) studies have been used to identify aberrant activation patterns in regions implicated in reward (e.g.

Testing the excitation/inhibition imbalance hypothesis in a mouse model of the autism spectrum disorder: in vivo neurospectroscopy and molecular evidence for regional phenotypes.

Background: Excitation/inhibition (E/I) imbalance remains a widely discussed hypothesis in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The presence of such an imbalance may potentially define a therapeutic target for the treatment of cognitive disabilities related to this pathology. Consequently, the study of monogenic disorders related to autism, such as neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), represents a promising approach to isolate mechanisms underlying ASD-related cognitive disabilities.

Structure-function correlations in Retinitis Pigmentosa patients with partially preserved vision: a voxel-based morphometry study.

Retinitis Pigmentosa is a group of hereditary retinal dystrophy disorders associated with progressive peripheral visual field loss. The impact of this retinal loss in cortical gray matter volume has not been addressed before in Retinitis Pigmentosa patients with low vision. Voxel-based morphometry was applied to study whole brain gray matter volume changes in 27 Retinitis Pigmentosa patients with partially preserved vision and 38 age- and gender-matched normally sighted controls to determine whether peripheral visual loss can lead to changes in gray matter volume.

Simulation in Medical School Education.

The Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI), Covilhã, Portugal in the medical degree course uses simulation in an integrated and comprehensive program as a pedagogical tool.