Harnessing Brain Plasticity: The Therapeutic Power of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) and Theta Burst Stimulation (TBS) in Neurotransmitter Modulation, Receptor Dynamics, and Neuroimaging for Neurological Innovations.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) methods have become exciting techniques for altering brain activity and improving synaptic plasticity, earning recognition as valuable non-medicine treatments for a wide range of neurological disorders. Among these methods, repetitive TMS (rTMS) and theta-burst stimulation (TBS) show significant promise in improving outcomes for adults with complex neurological and neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, Parkinson's disease, etc. However, optimizing their effects remains a challenge due to variability in how patients respond and a limited understanding of how these techniques interact with crucial neurotransmitter systems.

Brain neurovascular coupling in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Correlations with disease progression and cognitive impairment.

Background And Purpose: 'Neurovascular coupling' (NVC) alterations, assessing the interplay between local cerebral perfusion and neural activity within a given brain region or network, may reflect neurovascular unit impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The aim was to explore NVC as a correlation between the functional connectivity and cerebral blood flow within the large-scale resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging brain networks in a sample of ALS patients compared to healthy controls (HCs).

Methods: Forty-eight ALS patients (30 males; mean age 60.

Semantic fMRI neurofeedback of emotions: from basic principles to clinical applications.

During fMRI neurofeedback participants learn to self-regulate activity in relevant brain areas and networks based on ongoing feedback extracted from measured responses in those regions. This closed-loop approach has been successfully applied to reduce symptoms in mood disorders such as depression by showing participants a thermometer-like display indicating the strength of activity in emotion-related brain areas. The hitherto employed conventional neurofeedback is, however, 'blind' with respect to emotional content, i.

Functional Connectome Controllability in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment after Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex.

: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has shown therapeutic effects in neurological patients by inducing neural plasticity. In this pilot study, we analyzed the modifying effects of high-frequency (HF-)rTMS applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using an advanced approach of functional connectome analysis based on network control theory (NCT). : Using local-to-global functional parcellation, average and modal controllability (AC/MC) were estimated for DLPFC nodes of prefrontal-lateral control networks (R/LH_Cont_PFCl_3/4) from a resting-state fMRI series acquired at three time points (T0 = baseline, T1 = T0 + 4 weeks, T2 = T1 + 20 weeks) in MCI patients receiving regular daily sessions of 10 Hz HF-rTMS ( = 10, 68.

Consensus of algorithms for lesion segmentation in brain MRI studies of multiple sclerosis.

Segmentation of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions on brain MRI scans is crucial for diagnosis, disease and treatment monitoring but is a time-consuming task. Despite several automated algorithms have been proposed, there is still no consensus on the most effective method. Here, we applied a consensus-based framework to improve lesion segmentation on T1-weighted and FLAIR scans.

Reliability of quantitative magnetic susceptibility imaging metrics for cerebral cortex and major subcortical structures.

Background And Purpose: Susceptibility estimates derived from quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) images for the cerebral cortex and major subcortical structures are variably reported in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies, as average of all ( ), absolute ( ), or positive- ( ) and negative-only ( ) susceptibility values using a region of interest (ROI) approach. This pilot study presents a reliability analysis of currently used ROI-QSM metrics and an alternative ROI-based approach to obtain voxel-weighted ROI-QSM metrics ( and ).

Methods: Ten healthy subjects underwent repeated (test-retest) 3-dimensional multi-echo gradient-echo (3DMEGE) 3 Tesla MRI measurements.

Brain perfusion changes in beta-thalassemia.

Background: Brain injury in hereditary hemoglobinopathies is commonly attributed to anemia-related relative hypoperfusion in terms of impaired oxygen blood supply. Supratentorial and infratentorial vascular watershed regions seem to be especially vulnerable, but data are very scarce.

Aims: We investigated a large beta-thalassemia sample with arterial spin labeling in order to characterize regional perfusion changes and their correlation with phenotype and anemia severity.

Altered domain-specific striatal functional connectivity in patients with Parkinson's disease and urinary symptoms.

Background: In this study, we aimed at investigating the possible association of urinary symptoms with whole-brain MRI resting-state functional connectivity (FC) alterations from distinct striatal subregions in a large cohort of early PD patients.

Methods: Seventy-nine drug-naive PD patients (45 PD-urinary/34 PD-urinary) and 38 healthy controls (HCs) were consecutively enrolled. Presence/absence of urinary symptoms were assessed by means of the Nonmotor Symptom Scale - domain 7.

Functional gradients reveal cortical hierarchy changes in multiple sclerosis.

Functional gradient (FG) analysis represents an increasingly popular methodological perspective for investigating brain hierarchical organization but whether and how network hierarchy changes concomitant with functional connectivity alterations in multiple sclerosis (MS) has remained elusive. Here, we analyzed FG components to uncover possible alterations in cortical hierarchy using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data acquired in 122 MS patients and 97 healthy control (HC) subjects. Cortical hierarchy was assessed by deriving regional FG scores from rs-fMRI connectivity matrices using a functional parcellation of the cerebral cortex.

Capability of Machine Learning Algorithms to Classify Safe and Unsafe Postures during Weight Lifting Tasks Using Inertial Sensors.

Occupational ergonomics aims to optimize the work environment and to enhance both productivity and worker well-being. Work-related exposure assessment, such as lifting loads, is a crucial aspect of this discipline, as it involves the evaluation of physical stressors and their impact on workers' health and safety, in order to prevent the development of musculoskeletal pathologies. In this study, we explore the feasibility of machine learning (ML) algorithms, fed with time- and frequency-domain features extracted from inertial signals (linear acceleration and angular velocity), to automatically and accurately discriminate safe and unsafe postures during weight lifting tasks.

Ambroxol as a disease-modifying treatment to reduce the risk of cognitive impairment in -associated Parkinson's disease: a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase II trial. The AMBITIOUS study protocol.

Background: Heterozygous mutations in the gene, encoding the lysosomal enzyme β-glucocerebrosidase (GCase), are the most frequent genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD). -related PD (GBA-PD) patients have higher risk of dementia and reduced survival than non-carriers. Preclinical studies and one open-label trial in humans demonstrated that the chaperone ambroxol (ABX) increases GCase levels and modulates α-synuclein levels in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

The impact of emotional valence and stimulus habituation on fMRI signal reliability during emotion generation.

Background: The emotional domain is often impaired across many neurological diseases, for this reason it represents a relevant target of rehabilitation interventions. Functional changes in neural activity related to treatment can be assessed with functional MRI (fMRI) using emotion-generation tasks in longitudinal settings. Previous studies demonstrated that within-subject fMRI signal reliability can be affected by several factors such as repetition suppression, type of task and brain anatomy.

Functional MRI activation of the nucleus tractus solitarius after taste stimuli at ultra-high field: a proof-of-concept single-subject study.

Using ultra-high field (7 Tesla) functional MRI (fMRI), we conducted the first functional neuroimaging study of the normal human brainstem specifically designed to examine neural signals in the Nucleus Tractus Solitarius (NTS) in response to all basic taste stimuli. NTS represents the first relay station along the mammalian taste processing pathway which originates at the taste buds in the oral cavity and passes through the thalamus before reaching the primary taste cortex in the brain. In our proof-of-concept study, we acquired data from one adult volunteer using fMRI at 1.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in Mild Cognitive Impairment: Effects on Cognitive Functions-A Systematic Review.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique also used as a non-pharmacological intervention against cognitive impairment. The purpose of the present review was to summarize what is currently known about the effectiveness of rTMS intervention on different cognitive domains in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to address potential neuromodulation approaches in combination with electroencephalography (EEG) and neuroimaging, especially functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this systematic review, we consulted three main databases (PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus), and Google Scholar was selected for the gray literature search.

Intrinsic brain functional connectivity predicts treatment-related motor complications in early Parkinson's disease patients.

Background: Treatment-related motor complications may develop progressively over the course of Parkinson's disease (PD).

Objective: We investigated intrinsic brain networks functional connectivity (FC) at baseline in a cohort of early PD patients which successively developed treatment-related motor complications over 4 years.

Methods: Baseline MRI images of 88 drug-naïve PD patients and 20 healthy controls were analyzed.

sEMG Spectral Analysis and Machine Learning Algorithms Are Able to Discriminate Biomechanical Risk Classes Associated with Manual Material Liftings.

Manual material handling and load lifting are activities that can cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders. For this reason, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health proposed an equation depending on the following parameters: intensity, duration, frequency, and geometric characteristics associated with the load lifting. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of several Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, fed with frequency-domain features extracted from electromyographic (EMG) signals of back muscles, to discriminate biomechanical risk classes defined by the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation.

Frequency and imaging correlates of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are intrinsic to Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and a spoonful of studies investigated their imaging correlates. Describe (I) the frequency and severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms in PSP and (II) their structural imaging correlates. Twenty-six PSP patients underwent Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and brain 3D T1-weighted MRI.

Cognitive, behavioral, and brain functional connectivity correlates of fatigue in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Introduction: Fatigue is defined as a symptom of exhaustion unexplained by drug effects or psychiatric disorders and comprises two main components (i.e., central or "mental" and peripheral or "physical" components), both influencing global disability in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Arterial spin labeling MRI applied to migraine: current insights and future perspectives.

Introduction: Advanced neuroimaging techniques have extensively contributed to elucidate the complex mechanisms underpinning the pathophysiology of migraine, a neurovascular disorder characterized by episodes of headache associated with a constellation of non-pain symptoms. The present manuscript, summarizing the most recent progresses of the arterial spin labelling (ASL) MRI techniques and the most significant findings from ASL studies conducted in migraine, is aimed to clarify how ASL investigations are contributing to the evolving insight on migraine pathophysiology and their putative role in migraine clinical setting. ASL techniques, allowing to quantitatively demonstrate changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) both during the attacks and in the course of interictal period, could represent the melting point between advanced neuroimaging investigations, conducted with pure scientific purposes, and conventional neuroimaging approaches, employed in the diagnostic decision-making processes.

Memory Phenotypes In Early, De Novo Parkinson's Disease Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background: Memory deficits in mild cognitive impairment related to Parkinson's disease (PD-MCI) are quite heterogeneous, and there is no general agreement on their genesis.

Objectives: To define memory phenotypes in de novo PD-MCI and their associations with motor and non-motor features and patients' quality of life.

Methods: From a sample of 183 early de novo patients with PD, cluster analysis was applied to neuropsychological measures of memory function of 82 patients with PD-MCI (44.

Iron and Ferroptosis More than a Suspect: Beyond the Most Common Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration for New Therapeutic Approaches to Cognitive Decline and Dementia.

Neurodegeneration is a multifactorial process that involves multiple mechanisms. Examples of neurodegenerative diseases are Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. These are progressive and irreversible pathologies, characterized by neuron vulnerability, loss of structure or function of neurons, and even neuron demise in the brain, leading to clinical, functional, and cognitive dysfunction and movement disorders.

Olfactory Loss and Brain Connectivity after COVID-19: Structural Follow-Up at One Year.

The structural connectivity from the primary olfactory cortex to the main secondary olfactory areas was previously reported as relatively increased in the medial orbitofrontal cortex in a cohort of 27 recently SARS-CoV-2-infected (COV+) subjects, of which 23/27 had clinically confirmed olfactory loss, compared to 18 control (COV-) normosmic subjects, who were not previously infected. To complement this finding, here we report the outcome of an identical high angular resolution diffusion MRI analysis on follow-up data sets collected in 18/27 COV+ subjects (10 males, mean age ± SD: 38.7 ± 8.