White matter fibre density in the brain's inhibitory control network is associated with falling in low activity older adults.

Recent research has indicated that the relationship between age-related cognitive decline and falling may be mediated by the individual's capacity to quickly cancel or inhibit a motor response. This longitudinal investigation demonstrates that higher white matter fibre density in the motor inhibition network paired with low physical activity was associated with falling in elderly participants. We measured the density of white matter fibre tracts connecting key nodes in the inhibitory control network in a large sample (n = 414) of older adults.

Could Brain-Computer Interface Be a New Therapeutic Approach for Body Integrity Dysphoria?

Patients suffering from body integrity dysphoria (BID) desire to become disabled, arising from a mismatch between the desired body and the physical body. We focus here on the most common variant, characterized by the desire for amputation of a healthy limb. In most reported cases, amputation of the rejected limb entirely alleviates the distress of the condition and engenders substantial improvement in quality of life.

Challenges and Opportunities for the Future of Brain-Computer Interface in Neurorehabilitation.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide a unique technological solution to circumvent the damaged motor system. For neurorehabilitation, the BCI can be used to translate neural signals associated with movement intentions into tangible feedback for the patient, when they are unable to generate functional movement themselves. Clinical interest in BCI is growing rapidly, as it would facilitate rehabilitation to commence earlier following brain damage and provides options for patients who are unable to partake in traditional physical therapy.

Neuronal response variability as a product of divisive normalization; neurobiological implications at a macroscale level.

The occurrence of neuronal spikes recorded directly from sensory cortex is highly irregular within and between presentations of an invariant stimulus. The traditional solution has been to average responses across many trials. However, with this approach, response variability is downplayed as noise, so it is assumed that statistically controlling it will reveal the brain's true response to a stimulus.

Psychometrics of Disembodiment and Its Differential Modulation by Visuomotor and Visuotactile Mismatches.

Altered states of embodiment are fundamental to the scientific understanding of bodily self consciousness. The feeling of disembodiment during everyday activities is common to clinical conditions; however, the direct study of disembodiment in experimental setups is rare compared to the extensive investigation of illusory embodiment of an external object. Using mixed reality to modulate embodiment through temporally mismatching sensory signals from the own body, we assessed how such mismatches affect phenomenal and physiological aspects of embodiment and measured perceptual thresholds for these across multimodal signals.

Sorption of copper(II) and silver(I) by four bacterial exopolysaccharides.

Metal remediation was studied by the sorption of analytical grade copper Cu(II) and silver Ag(I) by four exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by marine bacteria. Colorimetric analysis showed that these EPS were composed of neutral sugars, uronic acids (>20 %), acetate, and sulfate (29 %). Metal sorption experiments were conducted in batch process.