Publications by authors named "Cyril Atkinson-Clement"
Article Synopsis
- Non-invasive neuromodulation, particularly transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS), holds potential for brain interventions but requires further understanding of its effects.
- The study involved 22 healthy volunteers to explore the temporal dynamics of FUS, comparing brain activity before and after stimulation in two different brain areas: the right inferior frontal cortex and the right thalamus.
- Results showed that FUS effects are time-sensitive and connected to brain areas related to the stimulation, with notable behavioral changes linked to the right inferior frontal cortex, influenced by the acoustic pressure applied during FUS.
Psychiatric symptoms are common in neurodevelopmental movement disorders, including some types of dystonia. However, research has mainly focused on motor manifestations and underlying circuits. Myoclonus-dystonia is a rare and homogeneous neurodevelopmental condition serving as an illustrative paradigm of childhood-onset dystonias, associated with psychiatric symptoms.
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- The tenth annual update for the F1000Research Tics collection reviews 2023 research on Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders.
- The update summarizes key findings and developments in the field over the past year.
- The authors encourage readers to contribute article suggestions and provide feedback to enhance future research.
Article Synopsis
- The study explores myoclonus dystonia caused by a variant in the SGCE gene, focusing on the microarchitectural brain abnormalities linked to this rare condition.
- Researchers compared the brain structures of 18 MYC/DYT-SGCE patients with 24 healthy volunteers using advanced imaging techniques to assess neurite organization.
- Results indicate that patients exhibited changes in cerebellar structure, with specific alterations correlating to the severity of dystonia, while no links were found between myoclonus severity and the microarchitectural measurements.
Article Synopsis
- * The podcast was offered as an optional module for medical students at Sorbonne University, and feedback was collected to assess its effectiveness in enhancing students' understanding of medical humanities.
- * Students reported a positive experience, feeling that the podcast increased their knowledge and shifted their perspectives on healthcare topics, highlighting the value of podcasts in medical education.
Article Synopsis
- Low-frequency transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) can influence brain function with high precision and deep target reach, but the duration and dynamics of its effects are not well understood.* -
- In a study with three monkeys, TUS was applied to specific brain areas, and resting-state fMRI scans were conducted to analyze changes in brain connectivity over time and between individuals.* -
- The findings revealed that TUS leads to varied functional connectivity changes, with six distinct time-courses of effects identified, and emphasized the importance of tracking brain changes over time and considering individual differences in responses to TUS.*
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how dysarthria affects speech in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PwPD) who speak either French or Portuguese, revealing more similarities than differences across languages.
- It involved 129 PwPD and 124 healthy controls who underwent clinical examinations and voice recordings, using algorithms to analyze acoustic variables that could distinguish between the groups and languages.
- Results showed that specific acoustic features could accurately differentiate speakers by language and effectively distinguish PwPD from controls, highlighting different significant acoustic measures for men and women.
Article Synopsis
- This study investigates the non-motor aspects of myoclonus dystonia, focusing on the sense of agency, which is how individuals perceive control over their actions, and how disruptions in this sense can affect movement disorders.* -
- The research compared 19 patients with myoclonus dystonia (stemming from a specific genetic variant) to 24 healthy participants, revealing that the patients had a significant impairment in their explicit sense of agency, while their implicit sense remained unaffected.* -
- Neuroimaging analyses showed structural and functional abnormalities in the cerebellum and its connectivity with the pre-supplementary motor area, suggesting these brain regions play a crucial role in the altered sense of agency in patients with my
Article Synopsis
- - This article is the ninth in a series focused on research related to Tourette syndrome, highlighting key findings from 2022.
- - The authors provide concise summaries of research reports they find particularly significant or intriguing regarding Tourette syndrome.
- - The goal is to keep readers informed about the latest advancements and insights in the field of Tourette syndrome research.
How does Tourette syndrome impact adolescents' daily living? A text mining study.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
December 2023
Article Synopsis
- Tourette syndrome primarily affects children and adolescents, yet its impact on their daily lives has not been thoroughly researched.
- A study involving 62 adolescents analyzed their experiences at school, home, and socially, focusing on which aspects of Tourette syndrome presented the most challenges and their future outlook.
- Key findings indicated that tic severity worsened school challenges, comorbidities impacted social interactions, and younger patients expressed more negative feelings about their futures, with social stigma being a recurring theme.
Article Synopsis
- - The text discusses key research reports from 2021 that focus on Tourette syndrome, highlighting findings that the authors find particularly significant or intriguing.
- - The authors are open to recommendations for articles and encourage readers to share their feedback on the discussed reports.
- - The summary aims to provide insights into the latest developments and research within the field of Tourette syndrome for a better understanding of the condition.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers used tractography to analyze brain connectivity in 58 TS patients compared to 35 healthy controls, revealing heightened connectivity in specific limbic areas, particularly the left medial subthalamic region.
- * The study found that abnormal connectivity with the insular cortex is linked to increased impulsivity and anxiety in TS patients, suggesting that these neurobiological factors contribute to the disorder's psychiatric symptoms.
Article Synopsis
- Tourette syndrome (TS) and its common comorbidities may lead to a greater likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors, but it’s uncertain if this translates into an overall greater attitude towards risk.
- A study involving 54 TS individuals and 32 healthy controls examined decision-making under risk and ambiguity, revealing that TS alone did not show specific risk-taking behavior or a connection with medication or tic severity.
- The presence of comorbidities, particularly obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, affected decision-making, suggesting that factors other than TS itself may contribute to risky behavior in real-life situations.
Article Synopsis
- The research from 2020 focuses on recent findings related to Tourette syndrome (TS).
- The authors highlight key reports that they believe offer significant insights or are particularly noteworthy.
- The summary emphasizes advancements in understanding TS and developments in treatment or management strategies.
Article Synopsis
- Parkinson's disease (PD) and subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) can cause cognitive changes, and this study aimed to explore STN-DBS's effects on conditional associative learning (CAL) in PD patients.
- Researchers compared two patient groups: those with STN-DBS (24 participants) and a control group without surgery (9 participants), assessing their performance on difficult and easier learning tasks both with STN-DBS On and Off for the operated group.
- Results indicate that STN-DBS may disrupt the efficiency of using corrective feedback during learning in PD patients, suggesting that STN stimulation impacts how patients learn through trial and error and feedback integration.
Article Synopsis
- Tourette disorder (TD) involves involuntary tics and challenges with inhibitory control, but traditional assessment methods may not accurately capture these deficits due to flawed assumptions in the race model used to measure stopping ability.
- *Recent research suggests that new metrics can better differentiate between proactive (pre-planned) and reactive (impulsive) inhibitory control in individuals with TD compared to healthy controls.
- *Findings show that adults with TD struggle with reactive control, specifically in delaying movement preparations, but are able to effectively manage proactive control, allowing them to postpone actions when needed.
Article Synopsis
- The study compares the effects of Levodopa (L) and subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) on cost-valuation in Parkinson's disease, specifically focusing on axial movements (vowel production) versus distal movements (hand squeezing).
- Results indicate that STN-DBS makes vowel production easier while it complicates performance when combined with L.
- The findings suggest that treatment effects on axial and distal movements can differ significantly, impacting patients' quality of life and impulsivity assessments.
Article Synopsis
- Reward sensitivity is a key factor in Tourette disorder, but the impact of delayed rewards has not been thoroughly studied, despite its relevance in various neuropsychiatric conditions.
- A study involving 54 Tourette patients and 31 healthy controls revealed a subgroup of patients who exhibited higher impulsivity and steeper reward discounting, indicating a greater burden of impulse-control issues.
- The research found that the pre-supplementary motor area plays a critical role in this delayed reward processing, with its connectivity to other brain regions affecting impulsivity levels and the severity of tics among patients.
Article Synopsis
- Hyperkinetic dysarthria, which often occurs with isolated dystonia, involves speech issues such as articulatory inaccuracy and prosodic imbalances, but remains under-researched.
- This study analyzed speech in 22 participants (11 with dystonia and 11 healthy controls) to provide initial data on perceptual and acoustic speech characteristics related to three of the main speech dimensions.
- Results indicated deficits in phonation and inconsistent prosodic features, further confirming the presence of phonatory stenosis and highlighting potential correlations between various speech parameters and clinical assessments.
Article Synopsis
- Tourette disorder (TD) is marked by motor and vocal tics and isn't mainly tied to impulsivity, though it often occurs with ADHD and impulse control issues.
- A study tested waiting motor impulsivity in adults with TD, revealing that unmedicated patients had higher impulsivity levels, which were linked to tic severity but not directly explained by it.
- The findings indicated that this waiting impulsivity was related to functional and structural brain changes, specifically involving the orbito-frontal cortex, caudate nucleus, and limbic areas.
Article Synopsis
- Myoclonus-dystonia (MD) is a neurological syndrome involving muscle jerks and dystonia, often linked to mental health issues, caused by dysfunction in specific brain pathways.
- A study using the Stop Signal Task examined the reactive and proactive inhibitory control in MD patients, comparing those with and without deep brain stimulation treatment to healthy controls.
- Findings revealed that unoperated MD patients had impaired proactive inhibition, while those with deep brain stimulation had issues with reactive inhibition, indicating different effects on inhibitory control depending on the treatment status.
Article Synopsis
- Verbal fluency (VF) in Parkinson's disease shows significant decline after subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) surgery, raising questions about whether this is due to the surgery itself or the immediate effects of stimulation.
- The study involved three groups: one assessed before and after surgery, one tested during active and inactive stimulation, and a control group that didn't undergo surgery, all completing various VF tasks.
- Results indicated that surgery negatively impacted VF tasks, reducing word generation and phonemic switching, while acute stimulation did not change overall word output but did affect semantic clustering.*