Gut-brain axis and neuroplasticity in health and disease: a systematic review.

The gut microbiota emerged as a potential modulator of brain connectivity in health and disease. This systematic review details current evidence on the gut-brain axis and its influence on brain connectivity. The initial set of studies included 532 papers, updated to January 2024.

Bacterial Meningoencephalitis in Newborns.

Bacterial meningoencephalitis in newborns is a severe and life-threatening pathology, which results from meningeal infection and the subsequent involvement of the brain parenchyma. The severity of the acute onset of symptoms and the risk of neurodevelopmental adverse sequelae in children strongly depend on the timing of the infection, the immunological protection transmitted by the mother to the fetus during pregnancy, and the neonate's inflammatory and immune system response after birth. Although the incidence of neonatal meningitis and meningoencephalitis and related mortality declined in the past twenty years with the improvement of prenatal care and with the introduction of intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis against Streptococcus beta Hemolyticus group B (Streptococcus Agalactiae) in the 1990s, bacterial meningitis remains the most common form of cerebrospinal fluid infection in pediatric patients.

MRI scan with the "feed and wrap" technique and with an optimized anesthesia protocol: a retrospective analysis of a single-center experience.

Introduction: MRI examinations in the pediatric population require acquiring motionless images in the safest possible manner. At our institute, we have developed a protocol called "Good Practice" aimed at avoiding anesthesia in newborns and infants through the use of the "feed and wrap" technique, as well as preventing hospitalization for older children requiring anesthesia with an optimized sedation protocol. We evaluated this protocol in terms of patient safety, imaging quality, and parental satisfaction.

Evaluation of epilepsy lesion visualisation enhancement in low-field MRI using image quality transfer: a preliminary investigation of clinical potential for applications in developing countries.

Purpose: Low-field (LF) MRI scanners are common in many Low- and middle-Income countries, but they provide images with worse spatial resolution and contrast than high-field (HF) scanners. Image Quality Transfer (IQT) is a machine learning framework to enhance images based on high-quality references that has recently adapted to LF MRI. In this study we aim to assess if it can improve lesion visualisation compared to LF MRI scans in children with epilepsy.

Vertical Parasagittal Hemispherotomy in a Pediatric Case of Epilepsy Due to Rasmussen Encephalitis: 2-Dimensional Operative Video.

Hemispherotomy is an effective disconnection technique for the treatment of different forms of drug-resistant epilepsy due to encephalopathies with unilateral hemispheric involvement.1-8 We describe the case of a 6-year-old child affected by Rasmussen encephalitis who underwent right vertical parasagittal hemispherotomy.9 The goal of the procedure was to isolate the basal ganglia region by interrupting the interhemispheric and intrahemispheric white matter connectivity.

Congenital Malformations of the Eye: A Pictorial Review and Clinico-Radiological Correlations.

Congenital malformations of the eye represent a wide and heterogeneous spectrum of abnormalities that may be part of a complex syndrome or be isolated. Ocular malformation severity depends on the timing of the causative event during eye formation, ranging from the complete absence of the eye if injury occurs during the first weeks of gestation, to subtle abnormalities if the cause occurs later on. Knowledge of ocular malformations is crucial to performing a tailored imaging protocol and correctly reporting imaging findings.

Morphometric network-based abnormalities correlate with psychiatric comorbidities and gene expression in PCDH19-related developmental and epileptic encephalopathy.

Protocadherin-19 (PCDH19) developmental and epileptic encephalopathy causes an early-onset epilepsy syndrome with limbic seizures, typically occurring in clusters and variably associated with intellectual disability and a range of psychiatric disorders including hyperactive, obsessive-compulsive and autistic features. Previous quantitative neuroimaging studies revealed abnormal cortical areas in the limbic formation (parahippocampal and fusiform gyri) and underlying white-matter fibers. In this study, we adopted morphometric, network-based and multivariate statistical methods to examine the cortex and substructure of the hippocampus and amygdala in a cohort of 20 PCDH19-mutated patients and evaluated the relation between structural patterns and clinical variables at individual level.

Structural networking of the developing brain: from maturation to neurosurgical implications.

Modern neuroscience agrees that neurological processing emerges from the multimodal interaction among multiple cortical and subcortical neuronal hubs, connected at short and long distance by white matter, to form a largely integrated and dynamic network, called the brain "connectome." The final architecture of these circuits results from a complex, continuous, and highly protracted development process of several axonal pathways that constitute the anatomical substrate of neuronal interactions. Awareness of the network organization of the central nervous system is crucial not only to understand the basis of children's neurological development, but also it may be of special interest to improve the quality of neurosurgical treatments of many pediatric diseases.

Magnetic resonance imaging based neurosurgical planning on hololens 2: A feasibility study in a paediatric hospital.

Objective: The goal of this work is to show how to implement a mixed reality application (app) for neurosurgery planning based on neuroimaging data, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of its design.

Methods: Our workflow explains how to handle neuroimaging data, including how to load morphological, functional and diffusion tensor imaging data into a mixed reality environment, thus creating a first guide of this kind. Brain magnetic resonance imaging data from a paediatric patient were acquired using a 3 T Siemens Magnetom Skyra scanner.

Connectome-based approaches in pediatric epilepsy surgery: "State-of-the art" and future perspectives.

Modern epilepsy science has overcome the traditional interpretation of a strict region-specific origin of epilepsy, highlighting the involvement of wider patterns of altered neuronal circuits. In selected cases, surgery may constitute a valuable option to achieve both seizure freedom and neurocognitive improvement. Although epilepsy is now considered as a brain network disease, the most relevant literature concerning the "connectome-based" epilepsy surgery mainly refers to adults, with a limited number of studies dedicated to the pediatric population.

Calcium phosphate and titanium cranioplasty after total angular craniopagus separation.

Craniopagus separation requires careful planning and a multi-staged surgical approach, managed by a multidisciplinary team. Despite growing experience on surgical management, the long-term restoration of the cranial defect has been rarely discussed so far. Several alloplastic materials have been proposed as effective and safe solutions for cranioplasty even for pediatric patients, allowing for bone generation, good aesthetic results, and low complication rates.

A New Pattern of Brain and Cord Gadolinium Enhancement in Molybdenum Cofactor Deficiency: A Case Report.

Molybdenum cofactor deficiency (MoCD) is a rare and severe autosomal recessive in-born error of metabolism caused by the mutation in MOCS1, MOCS2, MOCS3 or GEPH genes, with an incidence ranging between 1 in 100,000 and 200,000 live births. The clinical presentation with seizures, lethargy and neurologic deficits reflects the neurotoxicity mediated via sulphite accumulation, and it occurs within the first hours or days after birth, often leading to severe neurodegeneration and the patient's death within days or months. The Imaging of Choice is a brain-specific MRI technique, which is usually performed without contrast and shows typical radiological findings in the early phase, such as diffuse cerebral oedema and infarction affecting the cortex and the basal ganglia and the white matter, as well as in the late phase, such as multicystic encephalomalacia.

Vertical Hemispherotomy: Contribution of Advanced Three-Dimensional Modeling for Presurgical Planning and Training.

Vertical hemispherotomy is an effective treatment for many drug-resistant encephalopathies with unilateral involvement. One of the main factors influencing positive surgical results and long-term seizure freedom is the quality of disconnection. For this reason, perfect anatomical awareness is mandatory during each step of the procedure.

Predictive Value of MRI in Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy Treated with Therapeutic Hypothermia.

Background: Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a severe pathology, and no unique predictive biomarker has been identified. Our aims are to identify associations of perinatal and outcome parameters with morphological anomalies and ADC values from MRI. The secondary aims are to define a predictive ADC threshold value and detect ADC value fluctuations between MRIs acquired within 7 days (MR0) and at 1 year (MR1) of birth in relation to perinatal and outcome parameters.

Correlations between cortical gyrification and schizophrenia symptoms with and without comorbid hostility symptoms.

Introduction: Interest in identifying the clinical implications of the neuropathophysiological background of schizophrenia is rising, including changes in cortical gyrification that may be due to neurodevelopmental abnormalities. Inpatients with schizophrenia can show abnormal gyrification of cortical regions correlated with the symptom severity.

Methods: Our study included 36 patients that suffered an acute episode of schizophrenia and have undergone structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to calculate the local gyrification index (LGI).

Hemispherotomy in Infants with Hemimegalencephaly: Long-Term Seizure and Developmental Outcome in Early Treated Patients.

Hemimegalencephaly (HME) is a rare brain congenital malformation, consisting in altered neuronal migration and proliferation within one hemisphere, which is responsible for early onset drug-resistant epilepsy. Hemispherotomy is an effective treatment option for patients with HME and drug-resistant epilepsy. Surgical outcome may be variable among different surgical series, and the long-term neuropsychological trajectory has been rarely defined using a standardized neurocognitive test.

Can Presurgical Interhemispheric EEG Connectivity Predict Outcome in Hemispheric Surgery? A Brain Machine Learning Approach.

Objectives: Hemispherotomy (HT) is a surgical option for treatment of drug-resistant seizures due to hemispheric structural lesions. Factors affecting seizure outcome have not been fully clarified. In our study, we used a brain Machine Learning (ML) approach to evaluate the possible role of Inter-hemispheric EEG Connectivity (IC) in predicting post-surgical seizure outcome.

Sex Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Diagnostic, Neurobiological, and Behavioral Features.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with a worldwide prevalence of about 1%, characterized by impairments in social interaction, communication, repetitive patterns of behaviors, and can be associated with hyper- or hypo-reactivity of sensory stimulation and cognitive disability. ASD comorbid features include internalizing and externalizing symptoms such as anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and attention problems. The precise etiology of ASD is still unknown and it is undoubted that the disorder is linked to some extent to both genetic and environmental factors.

Surgical management of pediatric intracranial cerebral cavernous malformations: a 10-year single-center experience.

Background: Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are low-flow vascular malformations made up of dilated vascular spaces without intervening parenchyma that can occur throughout the central nervous system. CCMs can occur sporadically or in familial forms. Presentation is diverse, ranging from incidental discovery of asymptomatic CCMs to drug-resistant epilepsy and hemorrhages.

Understanding Language Reorganization With Neuroimaging: How Language Adapts to Different Focal Lesions and Insights Into Clinical Applications.

When the language-dominant hemisphere is damaged by a focal lesion, the brain may reorganize the language network through functional and structural changes known as adaptive plasticity. Adaptive plasticity is documented for triggers including ischemic, tumoral, and epileptic focal lesions, with effects in clinical practice. Many questions remain regarding language plasticity.

Spatial Stability of Functional Networks: A Measure to Assess the Robustness of Graph-Theoretical Metrics to Spatial Errors Related to Brain Parcellation.

There is growing interest in studying human brain connectivity and in modelling the brain functional structure as a network. Brain network creation requires parcellation of the cerebral cortex to define nodes. Parcellation might be affected by possible errors due to inter- and intra-subject variability as a consequence of brain structural and physiological characteristics and shape variations related to ageing and diseases, acquisition noise, and misregistration.

Networking of the Human Cerebellum: From Anatomo-Functional Development to Neurosurgical Implications.

In the past, the cerebellum was considered to be substantially involved in sensory-motor coordination. However, a growing number of neuroanatomical, neuroimaging, clinical and lesion studies have now provided converging evidence on the implication of the cerebellum in a variety of cognitive, affective, social, and behavioral processes as well. These findings suggest a complex anatomo-functional organization of the cerebellum, involving a dense network of cortical territories and reciprocal connections with many supra-tentorial association areas.

Late Deformity Following Fronto-Orbital Reconstructive Surgery for Metopic Synostosis: The Role of Temporalis Muscle.

Theories for late-developing deformity (LDD) following fronto-orbital reconstructive surgery (FOR) for metopic synostosis (MS) must explain both its delayed onset and its physical characteristics. This study examined whether FOR-related interference with the normal childhood expansion of temporalis is responsible for its soft tissue component.Three-dimensional reformats of preoperative and postoperative computed tomography scans of MS patients were reviewed.