Brain activity and medical diagnosis: an EEG study.

Background: Despite new brain imaging techniques that have improved the study of the underlying processes of human decision-making, to the best of our knowledge, there have been very few studies that have attempted to investigate brain activity during medical diagnostic processing. We investigated brain electroencephalography (EEG) activity associated with diagnostic decision-making in the realm of veterinary medicine using X-rays as a fundamental auxiliary test. EEG signals were analysed using Principal Components (PCA) and Logistic Regression Analysis

Results: The principal component analysis revealed three patterns that accounted for 85% of the total variance in the EEG activity recorded while veterinary doctors read a clinical history, examined an X-ray image pertinent to a medical case, and selected among alternative diagnostic hypotheses.

The brain as a distributed intelligent processing system: an EEG study.

Background: Various neuroimaging studies, both structural and functional, have provided support for the proposal that a distributed brain network is likely to be the neural basis of intelligence. The theory of Distributed Intelligent Processing Systems (DIPS), first developed in the field of Artificial Intelligence, was proposed to adequately model distributed neural intelligent processing. In addition, the neural efficiency hypothesis suggests that individuals with higher intelligence display more focused cortical activation during cognitive performance, resulting in lower total brain activation when compared with individuals who have lower intelligence.

Neurodynamics of an election.

Variables influencing decision-making in real settings, as in the case of voting decisions, are uncontrollable and in many times even unknown to the experimenter. In this case, the experimenter has to study the intention to decide (vote) as close as possible in time to the moment of the real decision (election day). Here, we investigated the brain activity associated with the voting intention declared 1 week before the election day of the Brazilian Firearms Control Referendum about prohibiting the commerce of firearms.

Studying the satisfaction of patients on the outcome of an aesthetic dermatological filler treatment.

Background: Many factors contribute to extend productive life in the modern world. Competition makes people worry about physical appearance, mostly in respect to facial and skin aging. This has motivated new developments in cosmetic dermatology and the need of evaluating patient satisfaction with the new proposed treatments.

Mental retadation: a MRI study of 146 Brazilian children.

We report results of a magnetic ressonance imaging (MRI) study of 146 Brazilian children, whose intelligence quotient scored less than 70. 50% of MRI examinations did not exhibit any signal of structural lesion (N group), whereas a focal thinning at the junction of the body and splenium of the corpus callosum; ventricular asymmetry; periventricular leukomalacia; gliosis and arachnoid cysts were among the most frequent findings in the remaining of subjects (L group). Maternal stress and altered blood pressure were the most frequent findings in the pre-natal history of both N and L children.