Prenatal Cannabis Exposure and Executive Function and Aggressive Behavior at Age 5 Years.

Importance: Cannabis use during pregnancy is increasingly common in the US and may affect the development and behavior of preschool-aged children.

Objective: To prospectively investigate the association of prenatal cannabis exposure with executive function and aggressive behavior at age 5 years.

Design, Setting, Participants: This cohort study was conducted from 2016 through 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic related racial/ethnic disparities in the foster care system in the United States.

Background: The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on racial/ethnic differences in the US foster care system is unknown.

Objective: To study the COVID-19 pandemic-related differences in racial/ethnic disparities in entry rates, exit rates, and adverse exits from foster care in US.

Methods: Dataset: Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) data from Census Bureau.

Associations of prenatal stress with 5-year-old children's executive function in a low socioeconomic status population.

Prenatal stress has a significant, but small, negative effect on children's executive function (EF) in middle and high socioeconomic status (SES) households. Importantly, rates and severity of prenatal stress are higher and protective factors are reduced in lower SES households, suggesting prenatal stress may be particularly detrimental for children's EF in this population. This study examined whether prenatal stress was linked to 5-year-old's EF in a predominantly low SES sample and child sex moderated this association, as males may be more vulnerable to adverse prenatal experiences.

Determinants of exercise adherence in sedentary middle-aged and older adults.

Regular exercise positively impacts neurocognitive health, particularly in aging individuals. However, low adherence, particularly among older adults, hinders the adoption of exercise routines. While brain plasticity mechanisms largely support the cognitive benefits of exercise, the link between physiological and behavioral factors influencing exercise adherence remains unclear.

A Complex Case of Histoplasmosis in an Immunocompromised Patient: Diagnostic Challenges, Multidisciplinary Collaboration, and Environmental Factors.

Histoplasmosis is a systemic fungal infection caused by , known for its protean clinical manifestations that often pose diagnostic challenges. Immunocompromised patients, such as those on immunosuppressive therapies or with HIV/AIDS, are particularly susceptible to severe forms of the disease. We present a case of a 55-year-old female with a complex medical history, including a renal transplant, who developed fever, malaise, nausea, and vomiting after a month-long stay in Panama.

Modified Thermodilution for Simultaneous Cardiac Output and Recirculation Assessment in Veno-venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: A Prospective Diagnostic Accuracy Study.

Background: Thermodilution is unreliable in veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO). Systemic oxygenation depends on recirculation fractions and ratios of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) flow to cardiac output. In a prospective in vitro simulation, this study assessed the diagnostic accuracy of a modified thermodilution technique for recirculation and cardiac output.

Resting-state EEG signatures of Alzheimer's disease are driven by periodic but not aperiodic changes.

Electroencephalography (EEG) has shown potential for identifying early-stage biomarkers of neurocognitive dysfunction associated with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD). A large body of evidence shows that, compared to healthy controls (HC), AD is associated with power increases in lower EEG frequencies (delta and theta) and decreases in higher frequencies (alpha and beta), together with slowing of the peak alpha frequency. However, the pathophysiological processes underlying these changes remain unclear.

Reliability of resting-state EEG modulation by continuous and intermittent theta burst stimulation of the primary motor cortex: a sham-controlled study.

Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is a form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation designed to induce changes of cortical excitability that outlast the period of TBS application. In this study, we explored the effects of continuous TBS (cTBS) and intermittent TBS (iTBS) versus sham TBS stimulation, applied to the left primary motor cortex, on modulation of resting state electroencephalography (rsEEG) power. We first conducted hypothesis-driven region-of-interest (ROI) analyses examining changes in alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-21 Hz) bands over the left and right motor cortex.

Greater cognitive reserve is related to lower cortical excitability in healthy cognitive aging, but not in early clinical Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between cortico-motor excitability and cognitive reserve (CR) in cognitively unimpaired older adults (CU) and in older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: Data were collected and analyzed from 15 CU and 24 amyloid-positive AD participants aged 50-90 years. A cognitive reserve questionnaire score (CRQ) assessed education, occupation, leisure activities, physical activities, and social engagement.

Spectral power ratio as a measure of EEG changes in mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease: a case-control study.

Adopting preventive strategies in individuals with subclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) has the potential to delay dementia onset and reduce healthcare costs. Thus, it is extremely important to identify inexpensive, scalable, sensitive, and specific markers to track disease progression. The electroencephalography spectral power ratio (SPR: the fast to slow spectral power ratio), a measure of the shift in power distribution from higher to lower frequencies, holds potential for aiding clinical practice.

Resting-state EEG signatures of Alzheimer's disease are driven by periodic but not aperiodic changes.

Electroencephalography (EEG) has shown potential for identifying early-stage biomarkers of neurocognitive dysfunction associated with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD). A large body of evidence shows that, compared to healthy controls (HC), AD is associated with power increases in lower EEG frequencies (delta and theta) and decreases in higher frequencies (alpha and beta), together with slowing of the peak alpha frequency. However, the pathophysiological processes underlying these changes remain unclear.

Neuromodulatory effects and reproducibility of the most widely used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation protocols.

Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is widely used in both research and clinical settings to modulate human brain function and behavior through the engagement of the mechanisms of plasticity. Based upon experiments using single-pulse TMS as a probe, the physiologic mechanism of these effects is often assumed to be via changes in cortical excitability, with 10 Hz rTMS increasing and 1 Hz rTMS decreasing the excitability of the stimulated region. However, the reliability and reproducibility of these rTMS protocols on cortical excitability across and within individual subjects, particularly in comparison to robust sham stimulation, have not been systematically examined.

Reliability of resting-state EEG modulation by continuous and intermittent theta burst stimulation of the primary motor cortex: A sham-controlled study.

Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is a form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation designed to induce changes of cortical excitability that outlast the period of TBS application. In this study, we explored the effects of continuous TBS (cTBS) and intermittent TBS (iTBS) versus sham TBS stimulation, applied to the primary motor cortex, on modulation of resting state electroencephalography (rsEEG) power. We first conducted hypothesis-driven region-of-interest (ROI) analyses examining changes in alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-21 Hz) bands over the left and right motor cortex.

Phonetic categorization relies on motor simulation, but combinatorial phonological computations are abstract.

To identify a spoken word (e.g., dog), people must categorize the speech steam onto distinct units (e.

Phase matters when there is power: Phasic modulation of corticospinal excitability occurs at high amplitude sensorimotor mu-oscillations.

Prior studies have suggested that oscillatory activity in cortical networks can modulate stimulus-evoked responses through time-varying fluctuations in neural excitation-inhibition dynamics. Studies combining transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG) can provide direct measurements to examine how instantaneous fluctuations in cortical oscillations contribute to variability in TMS-induced corticospinal responses. However, the results of these studies have been conflicting, as some reports showed consistent phase effects of sensorimotor mu-rhythms with increased excitability at the negative mu peaks, while others failed to replicate these findings or reported unspecific mu-phase effects across subjects.

Molecular hallmarks of long non-coding RNAs in aging and its significant effect on aging-associated diseases.

Aging is linked to the deterioration of many physical and cognitive abilities and is the leading risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. The growing aging population is a significant healthcare problem globally that researchers must investigate to better understand the underlying aging processes. Advances in microarrays and sequencing techniques have resulted in deeper analyses of diverse essential genomes (e.

Efficacy of mechanisms of neuroplasticity after a stroke.

Background: The sequelae of stoke, including the loss and recovery of function, are strongly linked to the mechanisms of neuroplasticity. Rehabilitation and non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) paradigms have shown promise in modulating corticomotor neuroplasticity to promote functional recovery in individuals post-stroke. However, an important limitation to these approaches is that while stroke recovery depends on the mechanisms of neuroplasticity, those mechanisms may themselves be altered by a stroke.

Corticomotor plasticity as a predictor of response to high frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment for major depressive disorder.

Background: Many patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) respond to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) treatment. This study aimed to investigate whether modulation of corticomotor excitability by rTMS predicts response to rTMS treatment for TRD in 10 Hz and intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) protocols.

Methods: Thirteen TRD patients underwent two evaluations of corticomotor plasticity-assessed as the post-rTMS (10 Hz, iTBS) percent change (%∆) in motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude elicited by single-pulse TMS.

A structured ICA-based process for removing auditory evoked potentials.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-evoked potentials (TEPs), recorded using electroencephalography (EEG), reflect a combination of TMS-induced cortical activity and multi-sensory responses to TMS. The auditory evoked potential (AEP) is a high-amplitude sensory potential-evoked by the "click" sound produced by every TMS pulse-that can dominate the TEP and obscure observation of other neural components. The AEP is peripherally evoked and therefore should not be stimulation site specific.

Sham-derived effects and the minimal reliability of theta burst stimulation.

Theta-burst stimulation (TBS) is a patterned form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) that has been used to induce long-term modulation (plasticity) of corticospinal excitability in a drastically shorter duration protocol than conventional rTMS protocols. In this study we tested the reliability of the effects of two well defined TBS protocols, continuous TBS (cTBS) and intermittent TBS (iTBS), especially in relation to sham TBS, within and across the same 24 participants. All TBS protocols were repeated after approximately 1 month to assess the magnitude and reliability of the modulatory effects of each TBS protocol.

Higher motor cortical excitability linked to greater cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease: results from two independent cohorts.

Prior studies have reported increased cortical excitability in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but findings have been inconsistent, and how excitability relates to dementia severity remains incompletely understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) measure of motor cortical excitability and measures of cognition in AD. A retrospective cross-sectional analysis tested the relationship between resting motor threshold (RMT) and the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) across two independent samples of AD participants (a discovery cohort, n=22 and a larger validation cohort, n=129) and a control cohort of cognitively normal adults (n=26).

Large-scale analysis of interindividual variability in single and paired-pulse TMS data.

Objective: This study brought together over 60 transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) researchers to create the largest known sample of individual participant single and paired-pulse TMS data to date, enabling a more comprehensive evaluation of factors driving response variability.

Methods: Authors of previously published studies were contacted and asked to share deidentified individual TMS data. Mixed-effects regression investigated a range of individual and study level variables for their contribution to variability in response to single and paired-pulse TMS data.

Reproducibility of cortical response modulation induced by intermittent and continuous theta-burst stimulation of the human motor cortex.

Background: Over the past decade, the number of experimental and clinical studies using theta-burst-stimulation (TBS) protocols of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to modulate brain activity has risen substantially. The use of TBS is motivated by the assumption that these protocols can reliably and lastingly modulate cortical excitability despite their short duration and low number of stimuli. However, this assumption, and thus the experimental validity of studies using TBS, is challenged by recent work showing large inter- and intra-subject variability in response to TBS protocols.

Training in the practice of noninvasive brain stimulation: Recommendations from an IFCN committee.

As the field of noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) expands, there is a growing need for comprehensive guidelines on training practitioners in the safe and effective administration of NIBS techniques in their various research and clinical applications. This article provides recommendations on the structure and content of this training. Three different types of practitioners are considered (Technicians, Clinicians, and Scientists), to attempt to cover the range of education and responsibilities of practitioners in NIBS from the laboratory to the clinic.