Electrophysiological and olfactometric evaluation of long-term COVID-19.

COVID-19 is a public health emergency with cases increasing globally. Its clinical manifestations range from asymptomatic and acute respiratory disease to multiple organ dysfunction syndromes and effects of COVID-19 in the long term. Interestingly, regardless of variant, all COVID-19 share impairment of the sense of smell and taste.

Cerebellar Direct Current Stimulation (ctDCS) in the Treatment of Huntington's Disease: A Pilot Study and a Short Review of the Literature.

In recent years, a growing body of literature has investigated the use of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques as a putative treatment in Huntington's Disease (HD). Our aim was to evaluate the effects of cerebellar transcranial Direct Current Simulation (ctDCS) on the motor outcome in patients affected by HD, encompassing at the same time the current knowledge about the effects of NIBS both on motor and non-motor dysfunctions in HD. Four patients (two females) were enrolled and underwent ctDCS (both anodal or sham, elapsed by at least 3 months: 2.

A case report of late-onset cerebellar ataxia associated with a rare p.R342W TGM6 (SCA35) mutation.

Background: Mutations in TGM6 gene, encoding for transglutaminase 6 (TG6), have been implicated in the pathogenesis of spinocerebellar ataxia type 35 (SCA35), a rare autosomal dominant disease marked by cerebellar degeneration and characterized by postural instability, incoordination of gait, features of cerebellar dysfunction and pyramidal signs.

Case Presentation: Here we report the case of an Italian patient with late-onset, slowly progressive cerebellar features, including gait ataxia, scanning speech and ocular dysmetria and pyramidal tract signs. Whole exome sequencing revealed the rare heterozygous c.

Interhemispheric Connectivity in Idiopathic Cervical Dystonia and Spinocerebellar Ataxias: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study.

Background And Rationale: Hyperkinetic movement disorders represent a heterogeneous group of diseases, different from a genetic and clinical perspective. In the past, neurophysiological approaches provided different, sometimes contradictory findings, pointing to an impaired cortical inhibition as a common electrophysiological marker. Our aim was to evaluate changes in interhemispheric communication in patients with idiopathic cervical dystonia (ICD) and spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs).

Pearl and pitfalls in brain functional analysis by event-related potentials: a narrative review by the Italian Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neuroscience Society on methodological limits and clinical reliability-part II.

This review focuses on new and/or less standardized event-related potentials methods, in order to improve their knowledge for future clinical applications. The olfactory event-related potentials (OERPs) assess the olfactory functions in time domain, with potential utility in anosmia and degenerative diseases. The transcranial magnetic stimulation-electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) could support the investigation of the intracerebral connections with very high temporal discrimination.

Antidepressant effect of vagal nerve stimulation in epilepsy patients: a systematic review.

Background: Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) is an effective palliative therapy in drug-resistant epileptic patients and is also approved as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression. Depression is a frequent comorbidity in epilepsy and it affects the quality of life of patients more than the seizure frequency itself. The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the available literature about the VNS effect on depressive symptoms in epileptic patients.

Pearls and pitfalls in brain functional analysis by event-related potentials: a narrative review by the Italian Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neuroscience Society on methodological limits and clinical reliability-part I.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are obtained from the electroencephalogram (EEG) or the magnetoencephalogram (MEG, event-related fields (ERF)), extracting the activity that is time-locked to an event. Despite the potential utility of ERP/ERF in cognitive domain, the clinical standardization of their use is presently undefined for most of procedures. The aim of the present review is to establish limits and reliability of ERP medical application, summarize main methodological issues, and present evidence of clinical application and future improvement.

Percutaneous Venous Angioplasty in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency: A Randomized Wait List Control Study.

Background: Venous percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (vPTA) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) have shown contradictory results. The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of the procedure in a randomized wait list control study.

Methods: 66 adults with neurologist-confirmed diagnosis of MS and sonographic diagnosis of CCSVI were allocated into vPTA-yes group (n = 31) or vPTA-not group (n = 35, control group).

Diaphragm ultrasonography in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a diagnostic tool to assess ventilatory dysfunction and disease severity.

Background: Respiratory failure represents an unavoidable step in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other motor neuron diseases (MND). The development of diaphragm ultrasonography (DUS) provides an alternative useful and risk-free tool to supply clinical, functional, and neurophysiological assessment of respiratory muscle weakness. Our aim was to evaluate if sonographic changes (thickness and echogenicity in the costal portion of the diaphragm, at rest and during respiratory movements) may be used in ALS patients to assess disease severity over time, to rule out any risk or discomfort due to traditional neurophysiological investigations.

Hypertension, seizures, and epilepsy: a review on pathophysiology and management.

Background: Epilepsy and hypertension are common chronic conditions, both showing high prevalence in older age groups. This review outlines current experimental and clinical evidence on both direct and indirect role of hypertension in epileptogenesis and discusses the principles of drug treatment in patients with hypertension and epilepsy.

Methods: We selected English-written articles on epilepsy, hypertension, stroke, and cerebrovascular disease until December, 2018.

"Hit the missing stimulus". A simultaneous EEG-fMRI study to localize the generators of endogenous ERPs in an omitted target paradigm.

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) occurring independently from any stimulus are purely endogenous (emitted potentials) and their neural generators can be unequivocally linked with cognitive processes. In the present study, the subjects performed two similar visual counting tasks: a standard two-stimulus oddball, and an omitted-target oddball task, characterized by the physical absence of the target stimulus. Our investigation aimed at localizing the neural sources of the scalp-recorded endogenous/emitted ERPs.

Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (ctDCS) Ameliorates Phantom Limb Pain and Non-painful Phantom Limb Sensations.

Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a disabling and intractable sensation arising in about 80% of patients after amputation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility to modulate nociceptive processing and pain perception with cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) in patients suffering from painful and non-painful phantom limb sensations. Fourteen upper limb amputees underwent ctDCS (anodal or sham, 2.

Three-Dimensional Echographic Evaluation of Carotid Artery Disease.

The introduction of three-dimensional echography (3D echo) in vascular field is not recent, but it still remains a seldom-used technique because of the costs of ultrasound probe and the need of dedicated laboratories. Therefore, despite significant prognostic implications, the high diagnostic accuracy in plaque definition, and the relative ease of use, 3D echo in vascular field is a niche technique. The purpose of this review is mainly clinical and intends to demonstrate the potential strength of a 3D approach, including technical aspects, in order to present to clinicians and imagers the appealing aspects of a noninvasive and radiation-free methodology with relevant diagnostic and prognostic correlates in the assessment of carotid atherosclerosis.

Holmes' or functional tremor?

Objective: Holmes tremor is a rare kind of hyperkinetic movement disorder, clinically characterized by irregular, monolateral, high-amplitude jerks, sharing a quite similar frequency with those observed in Parkinson's disease; its generation likely relies on a combined involvement of cerebello-thalamic and nigrostriatal pathways.

Methods: We report the case of a man with a combined resting-postural-kinetic tremor. Neuroimaging revealed an intracranial dermoid cyst at the right pontocerebellar angle with brainstem dislocation.

Unilateral Application of Cathodal tDCS Reduces Transcallosal Inhibition and Improves Visual Acuity in Amblyopic Patients.

Amblyopia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by visual acuity and contrast sensitivity loss, refractory to pharmacological and optical treatments in adulthood. In animals, the corpus callosum (CC) contributes to suppression of visual responses of the amblyopic eye. To investigate the role of interhemispheric pathways in amblyopic patients, we studied the response of the visual cortex to transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) applied over the primary visual area (V1) contralateral to the "lazy eye.

Cerebellar direct current stimulation modulates hand blink reflex: implications for defensive behavior in humans.

The cerebellum is involved in a wide number of integrative functions. We evaluated the role of cerebellum in peripersonal defensive behavior, as assessed by the so-called hand blink reflex (HBR), modulating cerebellar activity with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Healthy subjects underwent cerebellar (sham, anodal, and cathodal tcDCS) and motor cortex tDCS (anodal or cathodal; 20', 2 mA).

Neurophysiological Comparison Among Tonic, High Frequency, and Burst Spinal Cord Stimulation: Novel Insights Into Spinal and Brain Mechanisms of Action.

Rationale: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an effective option for neuropathic pain treatment. New technological developments, as high-frequency (HF) and theta burst stimulation (TBS), have shown promising results, although putative mechanisms of action still remain debated.

Methods: thirty patients with lower back pain were enrolled and underwent LF, HF, and TBS.

Defective chromatic and achromatic visual pathways in developmental dyslexia: Cues for an integrated intervention programme.

Purpose: As well as obtaining confirmation of the magnocellular system involvement in developmental dyslexia (DD); the aim was primarily to search for a possible involvement of the parvocellular system; and, furthermore, to complete the assessment of the visual chromatic axis by also analysing the koniocellular system.

Methods: Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in response to achromatic stimuli with low luminance contrast and low spatial frequency, and isoluminant red/green and blue/yellow stimuli with high spatial frequency were recorded in 10 dyslexic children and 10 age- and sex-matched, healthy subjects.

Results: Dyslexic children showed delayed VEPs to both achromatic stimuli (magnocellular-dorsal stream) and isoluminant red/green and blue/yellow stimuli (parvocellular-ventral and koniocellular streams).

Altered recovery from inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in subjects with photosensitive epilepsy.

Objective: To investigate functional changes underlying photosensitivity, we studied the response of the visual cortex to low-frequency, inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in drug-free patients with photosensitive seizures and healthy volunteers.

Methods: Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) triggered by grating stimuli of different contrasts were recorded in both hemispheres before and after transient functional inactivation of the occipital cortex of one side via low-frequency rTMS (0.5Hz for 20').

Olfactory phenotypic expression unveils human aging.

The mechanism of the natural aging of olfaction and its declinein the absence of any overt disease conditions remains unclear. Here, we investigated this mechanism through measurement of one of the parameters of olfactory function, the absolute threshold, in a healthy population from childhood to old age. The absolute olfactory threshold data were collected from an Italian observational study with 622 participants aged 5-105 years.

High Hypnotizability Impairs the Cerebellar Control of Pain.

In the general population, transcranial anodal direct current stimulation of the cerebellum (ctDCS) reduces pain intensity and the amplitude of nociceptive laser evoked potentials (LEPs), whereas cathodal ctDCS elicits opposite effects. Since behavioral findings suggest that the cerebellar activity of highly hypnotizable individuals (highs) differs from the general population, we investigated whether hypnotizability-related differences occur in the modulation of pain by ctDCS. Sixteen healthy highs (according to the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, form A) and 16 participants not selected according to hypnotizability (controls) volunteered to undergo laser nociceptive stimulation of the dorsum of the left hand before and after anodal or cathodal ctDCS.

An unexpected target of spinal direct current stimulation: Interhemispheric connectivity in humans.

Background: Transcutaneous spinal Direct Current Stimulation (tsDCS) is a noninvasive technique based on the application of weak electrical currents over spinal cord.

New Method: We studied the effects of tsDCS on interhemispheric motor connectivity and visual processing by evaluating changes in ipsilateral Silent Period (iSP), Transcallosal Conduction Time (TCT) and hemifield Visual Evoked Potentials (hVEPs), before (T0) and at a different intervals following sham, anodal and cathodal tsDCS (T9-T11 level, 2.0 mA, 20').