Spontaneous isolated iliac artery dissection in a young male: Case report and review of literature.

Spontaneous isolated dissection of the iliac artery (SID-IA) is a rare vascular condition typically associated with trauma or connective tissue disorders. We present a unique case of a 39-year-old male without known risk factors or trauma history who presented with lower abdominal pain. Diagnostic imaging revealed SID-IA involving the right external iliac artery with thrombus formation.

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder: Exploring the diverse clinical manifestations and the need for further exploration.

Background: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by inflammatory assaults on the central nervous system (CNS), particularly on the optic nerves and spinal cord. In recent years, a wider range of clinical manifestations of this complex disease have been observed, emphasizing the importance of gaining a more profound understanding beyond optic neuritis (ON) and transverse myelitis (TM).

Current Knowledge: This study explores the many clinical symptoms of NMOSD, including common and uncommon presentations.

Lateral prefrontal anodal transcranial direct current stimulation augments resolution of auditory perceptual-attentional conflicts.

Successful action control requires the ability to attend to relevant sensory signals in the environment. This, however, can be complicated when different sensory inputs compete for the brain's limited resources. Under such conditions, sensory processes interact with top-down attention to selectively process goal-relevant stimuli, while inhibiting irrelevant or distracting sensory signals.

The system-neurophysiological basis for how methylphenidate modulates perceptual-attentional conflicts during auditory processing.

The ability to selectively perceive and flexibly attend to relevant sensory signals in the environment is essential for action control. Whereas neuromodulation of sensory or attentional processing is often investigated, neuromodulation of interactive effects between perception and attention, that is, high attentional control demand when the relevant sensory information is perceptually less salient than the irrelevant one, is not well understood. To fill this gap, this pharmacological-electroencephalogram (EEG) study applied an intensity-modulated, focused-attention dichotic listening paradigm together with temporal EEG signal decomposition and source localization analyses.

Dopamine Modulates the Efficiency of Sensory Evidence Accumulation During Perceptual Decision Making.

Background: Perceptual decision making is the process through which available sensory information is gathered and processed to guide our choices. However, the neuropsychopharmacological basis of this important cognitive function is largely elusive. Yet, theoretical considerations suggest that the dopaminergic system may play an important role.

Neural mechanisms underlying successful and deficient multi-component behavior in early adolescent ADHD.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder affecting cognitive control. These functions are important to achieve goals when different actions need to be executed in close succession. This type of multi-component behavior, which often further requires the processing of information from different modalities, is important for everyday activities.

On the effects of multimodal information integration in multitasking.

There have recently been considerable advances in our understanding of the neuronal mechanisms underlying multitasking, but the role of multimodal integration for this faculty has remained rather unclear. We examined this issue by comparing different modality combinations in a multitasking (stop-change) paradigm. In-depth neurophysiological analyses of event-related potentials (ERPs) were conducted to complement the obtained behavioral data.

Sensory processes modulate differences in multi-component behavior and cognitive control between childhood and adulthood.

Many everyday tasks require executive functions to achieve a certain goal. Quite often, this requires the integration of information derived from different sensory modalities. Children are less likely to integrate information from different modalities and, at the same time, also do not command fully developed executive functions, as compared to adults.

Blocking effects in non-conditioned goal-directed behaviour.

A great deal of our goal-directed behaviour depends on stimulus-response (S-R) associations, which can be established through conditioning or explicit instructions. For conditioned and reward maximizing behaviour, it has been shown that redundant information will no longer be taken into account once those associations have been formed ("blocking effect"). Following from this, new aspects will not be included in a pre-established association unless they improve behaviour.

The norepinephrine system and its relevance for multi-component behavior.

The ability to execute several actions in a specific temporal order to achieve an overarching goal, a process often termed action cascading or multi-component behavior, is essential for everyday life requirements. We are only at the beginning to understand the neurobiological mechanisms important for these cognitive processes. However, it is likely that the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system may be of importance.

Improvements of sensorimotor processes during action cascading associated with changes in sensory processing architecture-insights from sensory deprivation.

In most everyday situations sensorimotor processes are quite complex because situations often require to carry out several actions in a specific temporal order; i.e. one has to cascade different actions.

Questioning the role of the frontopolar cortex in multi-component behavior--a TMS/EEG study.

Cognitive control is central to many every day situations. There, we usually have to combine different actions to achieve a task goal. Several lines of research indicated that areas in the prefrontal cortex determine cognitive control in situations requiring multi-component behavior.

Effects of copper toxicity on response inhibition processes: a study in Wilson's disease.

Wilson's disease (WD) is a rare genetic disease causing copper deposits in various tissues. Given the specificity of the underlying pathology, it is a good model to investigate the effects of copper toxicity on cognitive functions in humans. If left untreated, WD results in neurodegeneration and organ failure, but irrespective of potential brain damage, the medication might reduce cortical norepinephrine (NE) levels.

Age-related differences in task goal processing strategies during action cascading.

We are often faced with situations requiring the execution of a coordinated cascade of different actions to achieve a goal, but we can apply different strategies to do so. Until now, these different action cascading strategies have, however, not been examined with respect to possible effects of aging. We tackled this question in a systems neurophysiological study using EEG and source localization in healthy older adults and employing mathematical constraints to determine the strategy applied.

The importance of sensory integration processes for action cascading.

Dual tasking or action cascading is essential in everyday life and often investigated using tasks presenting stimuli in different sensory modalities. Findings obtained with multimodal tasks are often broadly generalized, but until today, it has remained unclear whether multimodal integration affects performance in action cascading or the underlying neurophysiology. To bridge this gap, we asked healthy young adults to complete a stop-change paradigm which presented different stimuli in either one or two modalities while recording behavioral and neurophysiological data.

Binds and bounds of communion: effects of interpersonal values on assumed similarity of self and others.

Assumed similarity refers to ascribing similar attributes to the self and others. Because self-other similarity facilitates communion, people who value communion should be prone to assume self-other similarity; but because self-other similarity also evokes obligation, they may be prone to assume similarity only with others with whom they are or would feel comfortable being interconnected. We tested these hypotheses in 5 studies (total N = 1,709).