The plays a pivotal role in the orchestration of sympathetic nervous system activities. Through its projections to the brainstem and pontomedullary nuclei, it controls heart rate, contractility, blood pressure, and respiratory activity, such as timing and volumes. The DMH integrates inputs from higher brain centers and processes these signals in order to modulate autonomic outflow accordingly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArea A5 is a noradrenergic cell group in the brain stem characterised by its important role in triggering sympathetic activity, exerting a profound influence on the sympathetic outflow, which is instrumental in the modulation of cardiovascular functions, stress responses and various other physiological processes that are crucial for adaptation and survival mechanisms. Understanding the role of area A5, therefore, not only provides insights into the basic functioning of the sympathetic nervous system but also sheds light on the neuronal basis of a number of autonomic responses. In this review, we look deeper into the specifics of area A5, exploring its anatomical connections, its neurochemical properties and the mechanisms by which it influences sympathetic nervous system activity and cardiorespiratory regulation and, thus, contributes to the overall dynamics of the autonomic function in regulating body homeostasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn humans, speech is a complex process that requires the coordinated involvement of various components of the phonatory system, which are monitored by the central nervous system. The larynx in particular plays a crucial role, as it enables the vocal folds to meet and converts the exhaled air from our lungs into audible sounds. Voice production requires precise and sustained exhalation, which generates an air pressure/flow that creates the pressure in the glottis required for voice production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis a new R package designed for the complete evaluation of closed-loop cardiovascular interactions and baroreflex sensitivity estimated from continuous non-invasive heart rate and blood pressure recordings. In this work, we highlight the importance of this software tool in the context of human cardiovascular and autonomic neurophysiology. A summary of the main algorithms that uses are reviewed, and the workflow of this package is also discussed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Neurosci
July 2023
Introduction: Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a prevalent condition among musicians that can manifest both psychologically and physiologically, leading to impaired musical performance. Physiologically, MPA is characterized by excessive muscular and/or autonomic tone. This study focuses on the cardiovascular blood pressure responses, autonomic tone and baroreceptor sensitivity changes that occur during musical performance due to MPA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy is a rare, immune-mediated disorder associated with anti-ganglionic α3-subunit nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (anti-α3gAChR) antibodies, which bind to acetylcholine receptor in autonomic ganglia (parasympathetic and sympathetic) leading to autonomic failure. This disorder is mostly associated with viral infections, but it can also be associated with systemic malignancies. Here, we report the case of a paraneoplastic autonomic ganglionopathy as the first symptom of bladder cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Physiol Biochem
November 2020
Connections between the midbrain dorsolateral periaqueductal grey (dlPAG) and the pontine A5 region have been shown. The stimulation of both regions evokes similar cardiovascular responses: tachycardia and hypertension. Accordingly, we have studied the interactions between dlPAG and A5 region in spontaneously breathing anesthetized rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: In autonomic units, patients perform several short Valsalva maneuvers (VMs) while learning the procedure. The effects of repeated VMs on cardiovascular elicited responses were assessed.
Methods: 14 healthy volunteer subjects were selected (aged 22-26).
Linguistic anxiety (LA) is an abnormal stress response induced by situations that require the use of verbal behavior, and it is accentuated during language testing in persons with aphasia (PWA). The presence of LA in PWA may jeopardize the interpretation of cognitive evaluations, leading to biased conclusions about the severity of the language alteration and the effectiveness of the treatments. In the present study, we report the case of a woman (Mrs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To analyze the effect of beta-blockers on the risk of aseptic loosening (AL) in Total Hip (THA) or Knee (TKA) Arthroplasty.
Methods: A nested case-control study was conducted. Cases were patients who underwent revision surgery for THA or TKA due to AL.
J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis
December 2018
Introduction And Goal: Lacunar stroke is defined as an <1.5 cm diameter infarct located in the territory of a perforating artery, that is not accessible for direct study using conventional imaging techniques. Diagnosis requires exclusion of other causes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To analyse peripapillary choroidal thickness (PCT) in non-arteritic ischaemic optic neuropathy (NAION).
Methods: 28 patients diagnosed with NAION (37 affected and 19 unaffected eyes) and 38 disease-free control individuals (38 eyes) were analysed using enhanced-depth imaging of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. A vertical and a horizontal raster scan centred on the optic nerve were obtained per eye.
Changes in ERP (P100 and N400) and root mean square (RMS) were obtained during a silent reading task in 28 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of both memantine and constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT). Participants received memantine/placebo alone (weeks 0-16), followed by drug treatment combined with CIAT (weeks 16-18), and then memantine/placebo alone (weeks 18-20). ERP/RMS values (week 16) decreased more in the memantine group than in the placebo group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Epilepsy is a chronic illness that requires a long-term periodic follow-up of the patient and this means that as time goes by the number of patients attended increases, with the ensuing added cost for the healthcare system.
Aim: To determine the factors involved in the time until an epileptic patient's next visit.
Patients And Methods: Our sample consisted of a selection of patients who visited the epilepsy clinic at our hospital consecutively during one year.
Purpose: Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder found in all societies. There are extensive epidemiologic studies of different European areas. However, not much information about the South-West of Europe exists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent studies have reported the presence of acetylcholine (ACh) receptor subtypes in bone tissue, and have demonstrated that inhibition of the ACh receptors has negative effects on bone mass and fracture healing capacity. However, little is known about the potential clinical effects that increased ACh signaling might have on bone. Accordingly, this study was designed to determine whether the use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), a group of drugs that stimulate ACh receptors and are used to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD), is associated with a decreased risk of hip fracture in AD patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: In the absence of a gold-standard tool to measure chronic pelvic pain (CPP), most studies on the prevalence of CPP use the NIH-chronic prostatitis symptom index (CPSI) questionnaire. However, its suitability and relevance for use in both sexes have not yet been evaluated, and generalized interpretation of the results is therefore questionable. Accordingly, we designed a questionnaire that discriminates between patients with and without symptoms of CPP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Res
July 2009
To analyze the role of parabrachial complex (PBc) in the modulation of cardiorespiratory response evoked from the hypothalamic defense area (HDA), cardiorespiratory changes were analyzed in spontaneously breathing anesthetised rats in response to electrical stimulation of the HDA (1 ms pulses, 30-50 microA, 100 Hz for 5 s) before and after the microinjection of muscimol (50 nl, 0.25 nmol, 5 s) within the PBc. HDA stimulation evoked an inspiratory facilitatory response, consisting of an increase in respiratory rate (p<0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF