Stimulation artefact removal: review and evaluation of applications in evoked responses.

This study investigated software methods for removing stimulation artefacts in recordings undertaken during deep brain stimulation (DBS). We aimed to evaluate artefact attenuation using sample recordings of evoked resonant neural activity (ERNA), as well as a synthetic ground-truth waveform that emulated observed ERNA characteristics.The synthetic waveform and eight raw DBS recordings were processed by fourteen algorithms spanning the following categories: signal modification, signal decomposition, and template subtraction.

Seeing is believing: Patients' attitudes and information preferences towards robotic gynaecological surgery.

Objectives: Robotic gynaecological surgery (RS) is reported to be associated with feelings of apprehension and anxiety pre-operatively in a proportion of patients. This study aimed to investigate patients' understanding and perceptions towards RS, and whether the format of RS information resources could improve acceptability of RS.

Design: A two-phase, sequential, mixed methods study involving semi-structured interviews of patients who had previously undergone gynaecological RS and a block-randomised crossover study of women from the general public.

Model-Based Approaches to Investigating Mismatch Responses in Schizophrenia.

Alterations of mismatch responses (ie, neural activity evoked by unexpected stimuli) are often considered a potential biomarker of schizophrenia. Going beyond establishing the type of observed alterations found in diagnosed patients and related cohorts, computational methods can yield valuable insights into the underlying disruptions of neural mechanisms and cognitive function. Here, we adopt a typology of model-based approaches from computational cognitive neuroscience, providing an overview of the study of mismatch responses and their alterations in schizophrenia from four complementary perspectives: (a) connectivity models, (b) decoding models, (c) neural network models, and (d) cognitive models.

Getting to the heart of the matter-are two agents really better than one for the treatment of staphylococcal infective endocarditis?

The recently published European Society of Cardiology guidelines for infective endocarditis management recommends daptomycin combination therapy for the treatment of staphylococcal endocarditis in severe penicillin allergy, rather than daptomycin monotherapy. We discuss the evidence base behind this recommendation, highlighting concerns regarding the lack of robust clinical studies, increased cost and logistical considerations, and adverse effects of combination therapy. Although further studies are required to elucidate the role of combination vs monotherapy in these patients, we propose a pragmatic management approach to reduce the risk of adverse antimicrobial side effects and limit costs, while aiming to maintain treatment efficacy.