Virtual reality application matches the most established treatment for Mal de Debarquement Syndrome: A non-inferiority, randomized, open clinical trial.

Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS) is a debilitating neuro-otological disorder where individuals consistently feel self-motion, often triggered by motion like being on a boat (MT-MdDS). Due to the unknown pathophysiological mechanism, available treatment options for managing symptoms are limited. Our objective was to develop a virtual reality application (VRA) to simulate the full field optokinetic stimulation (OKS) booth and evaluate its efficacy compared to the standard treatment.

Efficacy of non-invasive brain stimulation and neuronavigation for major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are increasingly used for major depressive disorder (MDD). Most tDCS and rTMS studies target the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, either with or without neuronavigation. We examined the effect of rTMS and tDCS, and the added value of neuronavigation in the treatment of MDD.

Fibromyalgia in Pregnancy: Neuro-Endocrine Fluctuations Provide Insight into Pathophysiology and Neuromodulation Treatment.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain disorder with unclear pathophysiological mechanisms, which leads to challenges in patient management. In addition to pain, the disorder presents with a broad range of symptoms, such as sleep disruption, chronic fatigue, brain fog, depression, muscle stiffness, and migraine. FM has a considerable female prevalence, and it has been shown that symptoms are influenced by the menstrual cycle and periods of significant hormonal and immunological changes.

Intraclass Correlation in Paired Associative Stimulation and Metaplasticity.

Paired associative stimulation (PAS) is a widely used noninvasive brain stimulation protocol to assess neural plasticity. Its reproducibility, however, has been rarely tested and with mixed results. With two consecutive studies, we aimed to provide further tests and a more systematic assessment of PAS reproducibility.

Deep brain stimulation in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: A symptom provocation study in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an emerging therapy for treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and several targets for electrode implantation and contact selection have been proposed, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST). Selecting the active electrode contacts (patients typically have four to choose from in each hemisphere), and thus the main locus of stimulation, can be a taxing process. Here, we investigated whether contact selection based purely on their neuroanatomical position in the BST is a worthwhile approach.

Case Report: Initial Evidence of Safety and Efficacy of High Definition-Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in a Patient With Neuropathic Pain and Implanted Spinal Cord Stimulator.

Neuropathic pain (NP), often treatment-refractory, is one of the most debilitating conditions contributing to suffering and disability worldwide. Recently, non-invasive neuromodulation techniques, particularly repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have emerged as potential therapeutic alternatives due to their ability to alter cortical excitability of neural circuits. However, the magnetic field induced in rTMS may be unsafe for patients with an implanted electrode in the head or neck area while tDCS poses no theoretical risk of injury to these patients.

Determination of Current Flow Induced by Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Migraine: Potential for Optimization.

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for migraine involves the application of pulsatile stimulation through electrodes placed on the forehead to target the underlying trigeminal nerves. It is a simple, safe modality and has secured clinical approval in several markets including the European Union and the United States. Despite nearing almost 7 years of use (postclinical approval), the exact mechanism of action is not fully known.

Neurophysiological Effects of Trait Empathy in Music Listening.

The social cognitive basis of music processing has long been noted, and recent research has shown that trait empathy is linked to musical preferences and listening style. Does empathy modulate neural responses to musical sounds? We designed two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments to address this question. In Experiment 1, subjects listened to brief isolated musical timbres while being scanned.

EEG to Primary Rewards: Predictive Utility and Malleability by Brain Stimulation.

Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is thought to affect reward processing mechanisms, which may increase and decrease reward sensitivity. To test the ability of TBS to modulate response to strong primary rewards, participants hypersensitive to primary rewards were recruited. Twenty men and women with at least two opposite-sex, sexual partners in the last year received two forms of TBS.

Psychophysical and rTMS Evidence for the Presence of Motion Opponency in Human V5.

Background: Motion sensitive cells within macaque V5, but not V1, exhibit motion opponency whereby their firing is suppressed by motion in their anti-preferred direction. fMRI studies indicate the presence of motion opponent mechanisms in human V5.

Objective/hypothesis: We tested two hypotheses.

Double-Blind Sham-Controlled Crossover Trial of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Mal de Debarquement Syndrome.

Objective: To determine whether the chronic rocking dizziness that occurs in Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS) can be suppressed with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) beyond the treatment period.

Methods: We performed a prospective randomized double-blind sham controlled crossover trial of 5-days of rTMS utilizing high frequency (10 Hz) stimulation over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).

Results: Eight right-handed women (44.

Neuromodulation of group prejudice and religious belief.

People cleave to ideological convictions with greater intensity in the aftermath of threat. The posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) plays a key role in both detecting discrepancies between desired and current conditions and adjusting subsequent behavior to resolve such conflicts. Building on prior literature examining the role of the pMFC in shifts in relatively low-level decision processes, we demonstrate that the pMFC mediates adjustments in adherence to political and religious ideologies.

Early semantic and phonological effects on temporal- and muscle-specific motor resonance.

Previous studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) explored the relationships between linguistic processing and motor resonance, i.e. the activation of the motor system while perceiving others performing an action.

Neuroimaging of nonmotor features of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor symptoms that respond to dopaminergic therapy. However, there is increasing interest in nonmotor PD features such as hyposmia, sleep disorders, dementia, depression, and psychoses. We review neuroimaging studies in nonmotor symptoms of PD and the use of dopaminergic imaging to support screening of nonmotor symptoms for early PD.

Noninvasive brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease and dystonia.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are promising noninvasive cortical stimulation methods for adjunctive treatment of movement disorders. They avoid surgical risks and provide theoretical advantages of specific neural circuit neuromodulation. Neuromodulatory effects depend on extrinsic stimulation factors (cortical target, frequency, intensity, duration, number of sessions), intrinsic patient factors (disease process, individual variability and symptoms, state of medication treatment), and outcome measures.

The essential role of premotor cortex in speech perception.

Besides the involvement of superior temporal regions in processing complex speech sounds, evidence suggests that the motor system might also play a role [1-4]. This suggests that the hearer might perceive speech by simulating the articulatory gestures of the speaker [5, 6]. It is still an open question whether this simulation process is necessary for speech perception.

Correlation between motor and phosphene thresholds: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become a common tool for the brain mapping of a wide variety of cognitive functions. Because TMS over cortical regions of interest other than motor cortex often does not produce easily observable effects, the ability to calibrate TMS intensity for stimulation over nonmotor regions can be problematic. Previous studies reported no correlation between motor thresholds (MT) over the motor cortex and phosphene thresholds (PT) over the visual cortex.

Attractiveness of natural faces compared to computer constructed perfectly symmetrical faces.

Attractiveness of natural faces was compared to perfectly symmetrical faces constructed on the computer from digitized photographs, in order to assess the role of left-right symmetry in beauty assessment. Three different groups of participants viewed separate series of sequentially presented faces (natural faces, left-left, and right-right) and provided attractiveness ratings on a 5-point Likert scale. The results revealed statistically significant lower ratings for the computer constructed left-left and right-right compared to the natural faces.