Publications by authors named "Duncan Austin"

Aim: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are thought to exert a clinical effect through various mechanisms, including through alteration in synaptic plasticity. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation can induce temporary changes in synaptic excitability in cerebral cortex that resemble long-term potentiation and long-term depression that serve as a measure of synaptic plasticity in vivo. A version of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation called continuous theta burst stimulation can induce inhibition of cortical excitability that can be measured through a motor evoked potential.

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A biomarker of cognition in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that is independent from the response of people with MS (PwMS) to test questions would provide a more holistic assessment of cognitive decline. One suggested method involves event-related potentials (ERPs). This systematic review tried to answer five questions about the use of ERPs in distinguishing PwMS from controls: which stimulus modality, which experimental paradigm, which electrodes, and which ERP components are most discriminatory, and whether amplitude or latency is a better measure.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to investigate changes in synaptic plasticity in the human brain after ischemic stroke, focusing on the potential for enhanced recovery during early post-stroke weeks and months.
  • Researchers used continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) on the motor cortex of stroke survivors to measure synaptic plasticity by assessing changes in cortical excitability and motor-evoked potentials.
  • Findings indicated that cTBS effects were most significant shortly after the stroke in the contralesional hemisphere, suggesting that this period may be optimal for behavioral training to improve recovery outcomes.
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Background: Healthy gait dynamics are characterized by the presence of fractal, persistent stride-to-stride variations, which become more random with Parkinson's disease (PD). Rhythmic auditory stimulation with fractal beat-to-beat variations can change gait dynamics in people with PD toward more persistence.

Research Question: How does gait in people with PD change when synchronizing steps with fractal melodic metronomes with different step-to-beat ratios, and which stimulus do they prefer?

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 15 people with PD and 15 healthy older adults walked over-ground in three conditions: self-paced, paced by a fractal auditory stimulus with a 1:1 step-to-beat ratio ('metronome'), and fractal auditory stimulus with a 1:2 step-to-beat ratio ('music').

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. OnabotulinumtoxinA injections improve upper-limb spasticity after stroke, but their effect on arm function remains uncertain. .

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The temporal dynamics of stride-to-stride fluctuations in steady-state walking reveal important information about locomotor control and can be quantified using so-called fractal analyses, notably the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Gait dynamics are often collected during treadmill walking using 3-D motion capture to identify gait events from kinematic data. The sampling frequency of motion capture systems may impact the precision of event detection and consequently impact the quantification of stride-to-stride variability.

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Context:   Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) evaluate how patients describe symptoms as well as level of physical function or quality of life. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) Index is one of the most common PROs used to assess disability in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), yet the Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation (SANE) is a single-question instrument that may improve the efficiency associated with the measurement of patient function.

Objective:   To determine the associations between (1) SANE and the physical dysfunction subsection of the WOMAC index (WOMAC) before rehabilitation and after a 4-week therapeutic exercise intervention as well as (2) the percentage change in SANE and WOMAC in people with knee OA after 4 weeks of therapeutic exercise.

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The recent development of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has allowed the non-invasive assessment of cerebellar function in humans. Early studies showed that cerebellar activity, as reflected in the excitability of the dentate-thalamo-cortical pathway, can be assessed with paired stimulation of the cerebellum and the primary motor cortex (M1) (cerebellar inhibition of motor cortex, CBI). Following this, many attempts have been made, using techniques such as repetitive TMS and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), to modulate the activity of the cerebellum and the dentate-thalamo-cortical output, and measure their impact on M1 activity.

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