Publications by authors named "Erausquin G"

Importance: Emerging evidence suggests that severe acute respiratory syndrome, COVID-19, negatively impacts brain health, with clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showing a wide range of neurologic manifestations but no consistent pattern. Compared with 3 Tesla (3T) MRI, 7 Tesla (7T) MRI can detect more subtle injuries, including hippocampal subfield volume differences and additional standard biomarkers such as white matter lesions. 7T MRI could help with the interpretation of the various persistent post-acute and distal onset sequelae of COVID-19 infection.

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COVID-19's effects on the human brain reveal a multifactorial impact on cognition and the potential to inflict lasting neuronal damage. Type I interferon signaling, a pathway that represents our defense against pathogens, is primarily affected by COVID-19. Type I interferon signaling, however, is known to mediate cognitive dysfunction upon its dysregulation following synaptopathy, microgliosis and neuronal damage.

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Retrotransposons are viral-like DNA sequences that constitute approximately 41% of the human genome. Studies in mice, cultured cells, and human brain indicate that retrotransposons are activated in settings of tauopathy, including Alzheimer's disease, and causally drive neurodegeneration. The anti-retroviral medication 3TC (lamivudine), a nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor, limits retrotransposon activation and suppresses neurodegeneration in tau transgenic two mouse models of tauopathy, and in brain assembloids derived from patients with sporadic Alzheimer's disease.

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Genome-wide association studies of human personality have been carried out, but transcription of the whole genome has not been studied in relation to personality in humans. We collected genome-wide expression profiles of adults to characterize the regulation of expression and function in genes related to human personality. We devised an innovative multi-omic approach to network analysis to identify the key control elements and interactions in multi-modular networks.

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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurological disorder that affects dopaminergic neurons. The lack of understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of PD pathology makes treating it a challenge. Several pieces of evidence support the protective role of enriched environment (EE) and exercise on dopaminergic neurons.

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The human brain's resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides stable trait-like measures of differences in the perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning of individuals. The rsFC of the prefrontal cortex is hypothesized to mediate a person's rational self-government, as is also measured by personality, so we tested whether its connectivity networks account for vulnerability to psychosis and related personality configurations. Young adults were recruited as outpatients or controls from the same communities around psychiatric clinics.

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Epidemiological, clinical, and radiological studies have provided insights into the phenomenology and biological basis of cognitive impairment in COVID-19 survivors. Furthermore, its association with biomarkers associated with neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration supports the notion that it is a distinct aspect of LongCOVID syndrome with specific underlying biology. Accounting for the latter, translational studies on SARS-CoV-2's interactions with its hosts have provided evidence on type I interferon dysregulation, which is seen in neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.

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Article Synopsis
  • - COVID-19 has led to over 3.5 million deaths and more than 160 million infections, with many individuals experiencing neurological issues, including loss of smell, seizures, and strokes, which can lead to long-term cognitive and neuropsychiatric problems regardless of the severity of respiratory symptoms.
  • - The article explores potential links between COVID-19 and neurological symptoms, particularly focusing on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, while examining factors like inflammation and viral mechanisms that may cause such issues.
  • - A global research effort, the CNS SC2 consortium, is underway to standardize methods for studying the long-term effects of COVID-19 on brain health, with data collection occurring across multiple countries to improve overall understanding.
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Aphantasia has been described as the inability to voluntarily evoke mental images using the "mind's eye." We studied a congenital aphantasic subject using neuropsychological testsand 64 channel EEG recordings, in order to studycortical activity involved in perception and imagery evaluating event-related potentials(N170, P200, N250). The subject is in the normal range of the neuropsychological tests performed, except for specific imagery tests.

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We report a case of non-affective psychosis with a brief discussion of the phenomenology and its characterization and treatment by traditional Inka healers and eventually by Western-trained psychiatrists. Traditional Inka psychopathology provided empirical support for the transcultural stability of the Kraepelinian dichotomy.

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Creating residencies that produce psychiatrists who are skilled and interested in working in under resourced areas, especially in community and rural settings is challenging. State and private agency collaboration can be an effective approach to enhancing such training. These resources for education have the goals of improving access and services, addressing workforce shortages and improving physician retention.

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Background: Palliative care and hospice services are disproportionately underutilized by ethnic minority patients. Addressing barriers to utilization of these services is critical to reducing disparities. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a culturally adapted palliative care consultation service for Hispanics on end-of-life decisions, specifically likelihood of changing from full code to do-not-resuscitate (DNR) status during index admission for serious illness.

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The genetic basis for the emergence of creativity in modern humans remains a mystery despite sequencing the genomes of chimpanzees and Neanderthals, our closest hominid relatives. Data-driven methods allowed us to uncover networks of genes distinguishing the three major systems of modern human personality and adaptability: emotional reactivity, self-control, and self-awareness. Now we have identified which of these genes are present in chimpanzees and Neanderthals.

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Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms play an important role in diagnosing and clinical follow-up of cognitive impairment and dementia.

Objective: We investigated the relationship between neuropsychiatric symptoms, cognitive impairment, and dementia in Hispanics.

Methods: We included 529 participants (age ≥40 years) from the Maracaibo Aging Study with standardized neuropsychiatric assessments, including the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).

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Background: Very few studies have investigated the association between total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) and depressive symptoms in older Hispanics.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that high tHcy associates with depressive symptoms in older Hispanics.

Methods: A total of 1,418 participants .

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Introduction: The increasing evidence of SARS-CoV-2 impact on the central nervous system (CNS) raises key questions on its impact for risk of later life cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and other dementia.

Methods: The Alzheimer's Association and representatives from more than 30 countries-with technical guidance from the World Health Organization-have formed an international consortium to study the short-and long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 on the CNS-including the underlying biology that may contribute to AD and other dementias. This consortium will link teams from around the world covering more than 22 million COVID-19 cases to enroll two groups of individuals including people with disease, to be evaluated for follow-up evaluations at 6, 9, and 18 months, and people who are already enrolled in existing international research studies to add additional measures and markers of their underlying biology.

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Background: Small conductance, calcium-activated (SK3) potassium channels control the intrinsic excitability of dopaminergic neurons (DN) in the midbrain and modulate their susceptibility to toxic insults during development.

Methods: We evaluated the age-dependency of the neuroprotective effect of an SK3 agonist, 1-Ethyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzimidazol-2-one (1-EBIO), on Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) excitotoxicity to DN in ventral mesencephalon (VM) organotypic cultures.

Results: Most tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)+ neurons were also SK3+; SK3+/TH- cells (DN+) were common at each developmental stage but more prominently at day in vitro (DIV) 8.

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Background: Dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) impacts Hispanics disproportionately, with almost a twofold elevated risk of developing DAT, as well as earlier onset of the disease, than in non-Hispanic Whites. However, the role of main risk factors for DAT, such as APOE-ɛ4 and blood pressure (BP) levels, remains uncertain among Hispanics.

Objective: To investigate the association of APOE-ɛ4 and BP levels, measures with 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring, with incidence of DAT in an elderly cohort of Hispanics.

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Background: Motor abnormalities (MAs) are the primary manifestations of schizophrenia. However, the extent to which MAs are related to alterations of subcortical structures remains understudied.

Methods: We aimed to investigate the associations of MAs and basal ganglia abnormalities in first-episode psychosis (FEP) and healthy controls.

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Phylogenetic, developmental, and brain-imaging studies suggest that human personality is the integrated expression of three major systems of learning and memory that regulate (1) associative conditioning, (2) intentionality, and (3) self-awareness. We have uncovered largely disjoint sets of genes regulating these dissociable learning processes in different clusters of people with (1) unregulated temperament profiles (i.e.

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Social behavior is critical for relationship formation and is influenced by myriad environmental and individual factors. Basic and preclinical research typically relies on rodent models to identify the mechanisms that underlie behavior; however, it is important to use non-rodent models as well. A major objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis that biological sex and social experience modulate the expression of social behavior in the adult gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica), a non-traditional model.

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Background: We previously demonstrated that using a sensory substitution device (SSD) for one week, tactile stimulation results in faster activation of lateral occipital complex in blind children than in seeing controls.

Objective: We used long-term haptic tactile stimulation training with an SSD to test if it results in stable cross-modal reassignment of visual pathways after six months, to provide high level processing of tactile semantic content.

Methods: We enrolled 12 blind and 12 sighted children.

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