Impulse Control Disorders and Effort-Based Decision-Making in Parkinson's Disease Patients with Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation.

Background: Impulse control disorders (ICD) are common side effects of dopaminergic treatment in Parkinson's disease (PD). Whereas some studies show a reduction in ICD after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS), others report worsening of ICD or impulsivity.

Objective: The aim was to study ICD in the context of STN-DBS using an objective measure of decision-making.

Vertical neglect towards the lower space after bilateral parietal strokes - A case study.

While considerable knowledge has been acquired concerning the involvement of the parietal cortex in horizontal visuo-spatial attention, the understanding of its specific contribution to the vertical dimension remains limited. Here we present the exceptional case of a patient, who suffered from two consecutive ischemic strokes at the same location within the left and right Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA) territory, involving the superior parietal lobule, the supramarginal gyrus, and the angular gyrus. While the first left-hemispheric stroke led to a right-sided neglect, the consecutive stroke in the right hemisphere led to a left-sided neglect.

Severity-Dependent Interhemispheric White Matter Connectivity Predicts Poststroke Neglect Recovery.

Left-sided spatial neglect is a very common and challenging issue after right-hemispheric stroke, which strongly and negatively affects daily living behavior and recovery of stroke survivors. The mechanisms underlying recovery of spatial neglect remain controversial, particularly regarding the involvement of the intact, contralesional hemisphere, with potential contributions ranging from maladaptive to compensatory. In the present prospective, observational study, we assessed neglect severity in 54 right-hemispheric stroke patients (32 male; 22 female) at admission to and discharge from inpatient neurorehabilitation.

The Flow State Scale for Rehabilitation Tasks: A New Flow Experience Questionnaire for Stroke Patients.

Importance: Flow can be described as a subjective state that people report when they fully engage in an activity and experience pleasure, satisfaction, and enjoyment. Flow experiences are measured to determine the extent to which patients engage in therapy activities. Several flow questionnaires are used in neurorehabilitation.

Comparison of uni- and multimodal motion stimulation on visual neglect: A proof-of-concept study.

Spatial neglect is characterized by the failure to attend stimuli presented in the contralesional space. Typically, the visual modality is more severely impaired than the auditory one. This dissociation offers the possibility of cross-modal interactions, whereby auditory stimuli may have beneficial effects on the visual modality.

A case study of left visual neglect after right pontine lesion: pathophysiological evidence for the infratentorial involvement in human visual attention.

Hemispatial neglect, the inability to attend to the contralesional side of space, is the most common disturbance of visuospatial attention. Both hemispatial neglect and visuospatial attention are typically associated with extended cortical networks. Nevertheless, recent accounts challenge this so-called corticocentric view and postulate the participation of structures well beyond the telencephalic cortex, in particular advocating the role of the brainstem.

An item sorting heuristic to derive equivalent parallel test versions from multivariate items.

Parallel test versions require a comparable degree of difficulty and must capture the same characteristics using different items. This can become challenging when dealing with multivariate items, which are for example very common in language or image data. Here, we propose a heuristic to identify and select similar multivariate items for the generation of equivalent parallel test versions.

Improved gesturing in left-hemispheric stroke by right inferior parietal theta burst stimulation.

Objectives: Apraxia is a common syndrome of left hemispheric stroke. A parieto-premotor-prefrontal network has been associated with apraxia, in which the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL-L) plays a major role. We hypothesized that transcranial continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over the right inferior parietal lobe (IPL-R) improves gesturing by reducing its inhibition on the contralateral IPL in left hemispheric stroke patients.

Joint impact on attention, alertness and inhibition of lesions at a frontal white matter crossroad.

In everyday life, information from different cognitive domains-such as visuospatial attention, alertness and inhibition-needs to be integrated between different brain regions. Early models suggested that completely segregated brain networks control these three cognitive domains. However, more recent accounts, mainly based on neuroimaging data in healthy participants, indicate that different tasks lead to specific patterns of activation within the same, higher-order and 'multiple-demand' network.

Development and Validation of the Short-LIMOS for the Acute Stroke Unit-A Short Version of the Lucerne ICF-Based Multidisciplinary Observation Scale.

Introduction: At hospital stroke units, the time available to assess the patient's limitations in activities and participation is limited, although being essential for discharge planning. Till date, there is no quick-to-perform instrument available that captures the patient's actual performance during daily activities from a motor, cognitive, and communication perspective within the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework. Therefore, the aim was to develop and validate a shortened version of the Lucerne ICF-Based Multidisciplinary Observation Scale (Short-LIMOS) that observes the patient's performance across ICF-domains and is applicable in the context of an acute stroke unit.

Speed up discharge planning at the acute stroke unit: A development and external validation study for the early prediction of discharge home.

Background: To reduce healthcare costs, it has become increasingly important to shorten the length of stay in acute stroke units. The goal of this study was to develop and externally validate a decision tree model applicable < 48 h poststroke for discharge home from an acute stroke unit with a short length of stay, and to assess the inappropriate home discharge rate.

Methods: A prospective study including two samples of stroke patients admitted to an acute stroke unit.

Effects of Virtual Reality-Based Multimodal Audio-Tactile Cueing in Patients With Spatial Attention Deficits: Pilot Usability Study.

Background: Virtual reality (VR) devices are increasingly being used in medicine and other areas for a broad spectrum of applications. One of the possible applications of VR involves the creation of an environment manipulated in a way that helps patients with disturbances in the spatial allocation of visual attention (so-called hemispatial neglect). One approach to ameliorate neglect is to apply cross-modal cues (ie, cues in sensory modalities other than the visual one, eg, auditory and tactile) to guide visual attention toward the neglected space.

"Tricking the Brain" Using Immersive Virtual Reality: Modifying the Self-Perception Over Embodied Avatar Influences Motor Cortical Excitability and Action Initiation.

To offer engaging neurorehabilitation training to neurologic patients, motor tasks are often visualized in virtual reality (VR). Recently introduced head-mounted displays (HMDs) allow to realistically mimic the body of the user from a first-person perspective (i.e.

Visual Neglect after PICA Stroke-A Case Study.

After cerebellar stroke, cognition can be impaired, as described within the framework of the so-called Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome (CCAS). However, it remains unclear whether visual neglect can also be part of CCAS. We describe the case of a patient with a subacute cerebellar stroke after thrombosis of the left posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA), who showed a left-sided visual neglect, indicating that the cerebellum also has a modulatory function on visual attention.

Visual Neglect After an Isolated Lesion of the Superior Colliculus.

This case report describes an otherwise healthy young woman with a small abscess confined to the right superior colliculus.

Face Perception and Pareidolia Production in Patients With Parkinson's Disease.

In Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, visual misperceptions are a major problem within the non-motor symptoms. Pareidolia, i.e.

Development of a Search Task Using Immersive Virtual Reality: Proof-of-Concept Study.

Background: Serious games are gaining increasing importance in neurorehabilitation since they increase motivation and adherence to therapy, thereby potentially improving its outcome. The benefits of serious games, such as the possibility to implement adaptive feedback and the calculation of comparable performance measures, can be even further improved by using immersive virtual reality (iVR), allowing a more intuitive interaction with training devices and higher ecological validity.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a visual search task embedded in a serious game setting for iVR, including self-adapting difficulty scaling, thus being able to adjust to the needs and ability levels of different groups of individuals.

Spatial asymmetries ("pseudoneglect") in free visual exploration-modulation of age and relationship to line bisection.

When humans visually explore an image, they typically tend to start exploring its left side. This phenomenon, so-called pseudoneglect, is well known, but its time-course has only sparsely been studied. Furthermore, it is unclear whether age influences pseudoneglect, and the relationship between visuo-spatial attentional asymmetries in a free visual exploration task and a classical line bisection task has not been established.

Video-Oculography During Free Visual Exploration to Detect Right Spatial Neglect in Left-Hemispheric Stroke Patients With Aphasia: A Feasibility Study.

Spatial neglect has been shown to occur in 17-65% of patients after acute left-hemispheric stroke. One reason for this varying incidence values might be that left-hemispheric stroke is often accompanied by aphasia, which raises difficulties in assessing attention deficits with conventional neuropsychological tests entailing verbal instructions. Video-oculography during free visual exploration (FVE) requires only little understanding of simple non-verbal instruction and has been shown to be a sensitive and reliable tool to detect spatial neglect in patients with right-hemispheric stroke.

Beta Electroencephalographic Oscillation Is a Potential GABAergic Biomarker of Chronic Peripheral Neuropathic Pain.

This preliminary investigation aimed to assess beta (β) oscillation, a marker of the brain GABAergic signaling, as a potential objective pain marker, hence contributing at the same time to the mechanistic approach of pain management. This case-control observational study measured β electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillation in 12 right-handed adult male with chronic neuropathic pain and 10 matched controls (∼55 years). Participants were submitted to clinical evaluation (pain visual analog scale, Hospital Anxiety, and Depression scale) and a 24-min high-density EEG recording (BIOSEMI).

Anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus: where ventral and dorsal visual attention systems meet.

The clinical link between spatial and non-spatial attentional aspects in patients with hemispatial neglect is well known; in particular, an increase in alerting can transitorily help to allocate attention towards the contralesional side. In models of attention, this phenomenon is postulated to rely on an interaction between ventral and dorsal cortical networks, subtending non-spatial and spatial attentional aspects, respectively. However, the exact neural underpinnings of the interaction between these two networks are still poorly understood.

Development and evaluation of a new virtual reality-based audio-tactile cueing-system to guide visuo-spatial attention.

Spatial attention is an important feature for filtering everyday inputs. The direction of the attention can be guided by the use of visual, auditory or tactile stimuli. The literature regarding the effect of cueing spatial attention in visual search tasks consistently shows an improvement in accuracy and reaction time.

Test-Retest-Reliability of Video-Oculography During Free Visual Exploration in Right-Hemispheric Stroke Patients With Neglect.

The Mean gaze position during free visual exploration (FVE) is a sensitive tool to detect neglect in patients after a right-hemispheric stroke. Here we investigated the test-retest-reliability of mean gaze position during FVE in 23 patients with left-sided neglect after a first-ever sub-acute right-hemispheric stroke. We analyzed the reliability between different test sets administered within 11 days (test sets A and B, each including different images and their mirrored versions), and between repeated measures using the same test set administered three times within 2 days (test set C, including the same images and their mirrored versions).