Linguistic Markers of Subtle Cognitive Impairment in Connected Speech: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: This systematic review covers the current stage of research on subtle cognitive impairment with connected speech. It aims at surveying the linguistic features in use to single out those that can best identify patients with mild neurocognitive disorders (mNCDs), whose cognitive changes remain underdiagnosed.

Method: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines and proposed a full definition of features for the analysis of speech features.

Grasping rehabilitation using motor imagery with or without neurofeedback after tetraplegia: a study protocol for a bicentric randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Tetraplegia causes extensive sensorimotor deficits affecting activity, participation and quality of life. People with C6-C7 tetraplegia can learn to grasp objects by performing wrist extension movement (ie, tenodesis grasp), and motor imagery (MI) added to rehabilitation significantly improved tenodesis grasp. We hypothesise that this improvement can be further boosted by adding neurofeedback during MI.

Striking the Balance: Embracing Technology While Upholding Humanistic Principles in Neurorehabilitation.

Background: The rapid advancement of technology-focused strategies in neurorehabilitation has brought optimism to individuals with neurological disorders, caregivers, and physicians while reshaping medical practice and training.

Objectives: We critically examine the implications of technology in neurorehabilitation, drawing on discussions from the 2021 and 2024 World Congress for NeuroRehabilitation. While acknowledging the value of technology, it highlights inherent limitations and ethical concerns, particularly regarding the potential overshadowing of humanistic approaches.

Plasticity of face-hand sensorimotor circuits after a traumatic brachial plexus injury.

Background: Interactions between the somatosensory and motor cortices are of fundamental importance for motor control. Although physically distant, face and hand representations are side by side in the sensorimotor cortex and interact functionally. Traumatic brachial plexus injury (TBPI) interferes with upper limb sensorimotor function, causes bilateral cortical reorganization, and is associated with chronic pain.

Feeling without localizing: exploring tactile misperception in a patient with uncommon parietal left brain damage.

Introduction: We report a very unique clinical presentation of a patient who complained, after a left parietal brain damage, about feeling tactile stimulations on his right upper limb without being able to localize them.

Methods: Using a single case study approach, we report three experiments relying on several custom-made tasks to explore the different levels of somatosensory information processing, ranging from somato-sensation to somato-representation.

Results: Our results showed a preserved ability to localize tactile stimuli applied on the right upper limb when using pointing responses while the ability to localize was less efficient when having to name the stimulated part (akin Numbsense).

A new tool for the assessment of speech understanding and spatial hearing difficulties in children: the Kid-SSQ questionnaire.

Purpose: To develop and validate a new questionnaire, the Kid-SSQ, for the rapid screening of hearing abilities in children with hearing impairment, aged 7-17 years.

Methods: The questionnaire was constructed from two existing, validated versions of the 'Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing' - (SSQ) questionnaire (pediatric form and adult short-form). The 12 selected items included auditory aspects from three subscales: speech perception, spatial hearing, and qualities of hearing.

Description of an interdisciplinary, holistic cognitive rehabilitation program for adults with mild to moderate cognitive impairment after acquired brain injury.

Purpose: Cognitive rehabilitation research has progressed slowly, in part due to incomplete reporting of intervention content and delivery and the difficulties this produces for discerning program effectiveness. This knowledge gap can be reduced by providing detailed intervention descriptions. We document the content/ingredients and therapeutic targets of a cognitive rehabilitation program for adults with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairment.

Intensive Training of Spatial Hearing Promotes Auditory Abilities of Bilateral Cochlear Implant Adults: A Pilot Study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a virtual reality-based spatial hearing training protocol in bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users and to provide pilot data on the impact of this training on different qualities of hearing.

Design: Twelve bilateral CI adults aged between 19 and 69 followed an intensive 10-week rehabilitation program comprised eight virtual reality training sessions (two per week) interspersed with several evaluation sessions (2 weeks before training started, after four and eight training sessions, and 1 month after the end of training). During each 45-minute training session, participants localized a sound source whose position varied in azimuth and/or in elevation.

Ralstonia pickettii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Bloodstream Infections Associated With Contaminated Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Water Heater Devices.

We report on probable factory-based contamination of portable water heaters with waterborne pathogens and 2 bloodstream infections potentially attributable to off-label use of these water heaters to warm extracorporeal membrane oxygenation circuits. Great caution is warranted when using water-based devices to care for critically ill patients.

Cluster of Burkholderia cepacia Complex Infections Associated With Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Water Heater Devices.

Background: Burkholderia cepacia complex is a group of potential nosocomial pathogens often linked to contaminated water. We report on a cluster of 8 B. cepacia complex infections in cardiothoracic intensive care unit patients, which were attributed to contaminated extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) water heaters.

Face-hand sensorimotor interactions revealed by afferent inhibition.

Reorganization of the sensorimotor cortex following permanent (e.g., amputation) or temporary (e.

Caloric Vestibular Stimulation Reduces the DirectionalBias in Representational Neglect.

Caloric vestibular stimulation (CVS) can temporarily reduce visuospatial neglect and related symptoms. The present study examined the effect of CVS on representational neglect during free exploration of the map of France. We asked patients to name cities they could mentally "see" on the map of France, without giving them any directional instructions related to the left or right sides of the map.

Examining Social Risk Factors in a Pressure Ulcer Quality Measure for Three Post-Acute Care Settings.

Objective: To describe and explore relationships between social demographic factors and incidence or worsening of pressure ulcer scores among post-acute care (PAC) settings.

Design: The authors present the incidence of new or worsening pressure ulcers stratified by self-reported patient race and sex. Investigators used logistic regression modeling to examine relative risk of developing new or worsened pressure ulcers by sociodemographic status and multiple regression modeling to estimate the relative contribution of facility-level factors on rates of new or worsening pressure ulcers.

Clinical Effects of Mindfulness-Based Intervention in Patients With First Episode Psychosis and in Individuals With Ultra-High Risk for Transition to Psychosis: A Review.

Recent clinical studies and meta-analyses have reported the clinical effects of mindfulness-based interventions as a complementary treatment for patients with schizophrenia, but their possible efficacy in patients with first episode of psychosis (FEP) and in individuals with ultra-high risk (UHR) of transition to psychosis is less clear. Here, we investigated the current evidence on the usefulness of mindfulness-based interventions in these two populations. We conducted a systematic search of the literature according to the PRISMA guidelines.

The Patient's Perspective of the Intensive Care Unit Diary in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

Background: Many patients who survive an intensive care unit admission develop post-intensive care syndrome and face significant long-term physical, cognitive, and mental health impairments. The intensive care unit diary is a reality-sorting tool that is effective in aiding patients to connect their flashbacks and delusional memories to actual events.

Objectives: To describe implementation of an intensive care unit diary in the cardiac intensive care unit and to describe the patient's perspective of the diary.

Descriptive pilot study of vividness and temporal equivalence during motor imagery training after quadriplegia.

Background: Motor imagery (MI) training is often used to improve physical practice (PP), and the functional equivalence between imagined and practiced movements is widely considered essential for positive training outcomes.

Objective: We previously showed that a 5-week MI training program improved tenodesis grasp in individuals with C6-C7 quadriplegia. Here we investigated whether functional equivalence changed during the course of this training program.

The asymmetrical effect of leftward and rightward prisms on intact visuospatial cognition.

Rightward prismatic adaptation (RPA) can reduce neglect symptoms in patients whereas adaptation to leftward deviating prisms (LPA) can induce neglect-like behavior in healthy subjects. One influential anatomo-functional model of prismatic adaptation (PA) postulates that it inhibits activity of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) contralateral to the prismatic deviation. By hypo-activating the PPC and thus eventually acting on interhemispheric balance, both LPA and RPA could possibly affect visuospatial perception in healthy subjects, however, such behavioral modulation has seldom been reported after RPA.

Developing Professional Practice and Ethics Engagement: A Leadership Model.

Nurse leaders are responsible for a practice environment that fosters safe, quality patient outcomes through excellence in nursing practice. This article describes a reflective practice intervention in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit of an urban academic medical center led by the unit nursing director and the hospital's nurse ethicist. The twice monthly case-based discussions, called "Nursing Practice and Ethics Rounds," were attended by staff and unit managers (nurse director, assistant nurse director, and clinical educator) and were facilitated by the nurse ethicist.

Effect of Experimental Hand Pain on Training-Induced Changes in Motor Performance and Corticospinal Excitability.

Pain influences plasticity within the sensorimotor system and the aim of this study was to assess the effect of pain on changes in motor performance and corticospinal excitability during training for a novel motor task. A total of 30 subjects were allocated to one of two groups (Pain, NoPain) and performed ten training blocks of a visually-guided isometric pinch task. Each block consisted of 15 force sequences, and subjects modulated the force applied to a transducer in order to reach one of five target forces.

Blogging as an Innovative Method of Peer-to-Peer Educational Sharing.

Background: Nurses in the cardiac intensive care unit often attend professional education opportunities. However, it is difficult to share this information among nursing staff. Varying schedules, different shifts, and patient acuity limit the amount of time available for peer-to-peer sharing of educational information.

Adaptation to Leftward Shifting Prisms Alters Motor Interhemispheric Inhibition.

Adaptation to rightward shifting prisms (rightward prism adaptation, RPA) ameliorates neglect symptoms in patients while adaptation to leftward shifting prisms (leftward prism adaptation, LPA) induces neglect-like behaviors in healthy subjects. It has been hypothesized that prism adaptation (PA) modulates interhemispheric balance between the parietal cortices by inhibiting the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) contralateral to the prismatic deviation, but PA's effects on interhemispheric inhibition (IHI) have not been directly investigated. Since there are hyper-excitable connections between the PPC and primary motor cortex (M1) in the left hemisphere of neglect patients, we reasoned that LPA might mimic right hemisphere lesions by reducing parietal IHI, hyper-exciting the left PPC and PPC-M1 connections, and in turn altering IHI at the motor level.

Effect of Experimental Cutaneous Hand Pain on Corticospinal Excitability and Short Afferent Inhibition.

Sensorimotor integration is altered in people with chronic pain. While there is substantial evidence that pain interferes with neural activity in primary sensory and motor cortices, much less is known about its impact on integrative sensorimotor processes. Here, the short latency afferent inhibition (SAI) paradigm was used to assess sensorimotor integration in the presence and absence of experimental cutaneous heat pain applied to the hand.