Brain-Computer Interfaces Using Flexible Electronics: An a-IGZO Front-End for Active ECoG Electrodes.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are evolving toward higher electrode count and fully implantable solutions, which require extremely low power densities (<15mW cm). To achieve this target, and allow for a large and scalable number of channels, flexible electronics can be used as a multiplexing interface. This work introduces an active analog front-end fabricated with amorphous Indium-Gallium-Zinx-Oxide (a-IGZO) Thin-Film Transistors (TFTs) on foil capable of active matrix multiplexing.

DO NOT LOSE SLEEP OVER IT: IMPLANTED BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE FUNCTIONALITY DURING NIGHTTIME IN LATE-STAGE AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS.

Background And Objectives: Brain-computer interfaces () hold promise as augmentative and alternative communication technology for people with severe motor and speech impairment (locked-in syndrome) due to neural disease or injury. Although such BCIs should be available 24/7, to enable communication at all times, feasibility of nocturnal BCI use has not been investigated. Here, we addressed this question using data from an individual with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who was implanted with an electrocorticography-based BCI that enabled the generation of click-commands for spelling words and call-caregiver signals.

Effect of Electrode Distance and Size on Electrocorticographic Recordings in Human Sensorimotor Cortex.

Subdural electrocorticography (ECoG) is a valuable technique for neuroscientific research and for emerging neurotechnological clinical applications. As ECoG grids accommodate increasing numbers of electrodes and higher densities with new manufacturing methods, the question arises at what point the benefit of higher density ECoG is outweighed by spatial oversampling. To clarify the optimal spacing between ECoG electrodes, in the current study we evaluate how ECoG grid density relates to the amount of non-shared neurophysiological information between electrode pairs, focusing on the sensorimotor cortex.

Longevity of a Brain-Computer Interface for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

The durability of communication with the use of brain-computer interfaces in persons with progressive neurodegenerative disease has not been extensively examined. We report on 7 years of independent at-home use of an implanted brain-computer interface for communication by a person with advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the inception of which was reported in 2016. The frequency of at-home use increased over time to compensate for gradual loss of control of an eye-gaze-tracking device, followed by a progressive decrease in use starting 6 years after implantation.

Insights Into Pediatric Asthma: A Population Study From Alto Minho Health Center.

Background Asthma represents one of the most common diseases in childhood, with a prevalence ranging between 9% and 13% in Portugal. Therefore, it holds significant importance in pediatric health. While existing studies have shed light on asthma in the Portuguese population, they have predominantly concentrated on urban centers, with the population of Alto Minho remaining underrepresented in the literature.

McArdle's, a Rare Disease That Every Family Doctor Can Manage: A Case Report.

McArdle's disease is a rare autosomal recessive disorder that affects glycogen storage. It typically manifests in adolescence or early adulthood with presenting symptoms, such as fatigue, myalgia, exercise intolerance, and cramps, which can be easily overlooked. This case report seeks to offer a comprehensive overview of the perspective of a patient living with McArdle's disease, emphasizing the importance of treatment encouragement.

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) for the Assessment of Body Composition in Oncology: A Scoping Review.

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) is a reliable, non-invasive, objective, and cost-effective body composition assessment method, with high reproducibility. This scoping review aims to evaluate the current scientific and clinical evidence on BIA for body composition assessment in oncology patients, under active treatment. Literature search was conducted through MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science databases, following PRISMA-ScR Guidelines.

Using fMRI to localize target regions for implanted brain-computer interfaces in locked-in syndrome.

Objective: Electrocorticography (ECoG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems have the potential to improve quality of life of people with locked-in syndrome (LIS) by restoring their ability to communicate independently. Before implantation of such a system, it is important to localize ECoG electrode target regions. Here, we assessed the predictive value of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for the localization of suitable target regions on the sensorimotor cortex for ECoG-based BCI in people with locked-in syndrome.

Developmental Toxicity Studies: The Path towards Humanized 3D Stem Cell-Based Models.

Today, it is recognized that medicines will eventually be needed during pregnancy to help prevent to, ameliorate or treat an illness, either due to gestation-related medical conditions or pre-existing diseases. Adding to that, the rate of drug prescription to pregnant women has increased over the past few years, in accordance with the increasing trend to postpone childbirth to a later age. However, in spite of these trends, information regarding teratogenic risk in humans is often missing for most of the purchased drugs.

Advancing organoid design through co-emergence, assembly, and bioengineering.

Human adult stem cells and patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells represent promising tools to understand human biology, development, and disease. Under a permissive environment, stem cell derivatives can self-organize and reconstruct their native milieu, resulting in the creation of organ-like entities known as organoids. Although organoids represent a breakthrough in the stem cell field, there are still considerable shortcomings preventing their widespread use, namely their variability, limited function, and reductionist size.

Human multilineage pro-epicardium/foregut organoids support the development of an epicardium/myocardium organoid.

The epicardium, the outer epithelial layer that covers the myocardium, derives from a transient organ known as pro-epicardium, crucial during heart organogenesis. The pro-epicardium develops from lateral plate mesoderm progenitors, next to septum transversum mesenchyme, a structure deeply involved in liver embryogenesis. Here we describe a self-organized human multilineage organoid that recreates the co-emergence of pro-epicardium, septum transversum mesenchyme and liver bud.

Methodological Recommendations for Studies on the Daily Life Implementation of Implantable Communication-Brain-Computer Interfaces for Individuals With Locked-in Syndrome.

Implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to be a viable means to restore communication in individuals with locked-in syndrome (LIS). In 2016, we presented the world-first fully implantable BCI system that uses subdural electrocorticography electrodes to record brain signals and a subcutaneous amplifier to transmit the signals to the outside world, and that enabled an individual with LIS to communicate via a tablet computer by selecting icons in spelling software. For future clinical implementation of implantable communication-BCIs, however, much work is still needed, for example, to validate these systems in daily life settings with more participants, and to improve the speed of communication.

Open multimodal iEEG-fMRI dataset from naturalistic stimulation with a short audiovisual film.

Intracranial human recordings are a valuable and rare resource of information about the brain. Making such data publicly available not only helps tackle reproducibility issues in science, it helps make more use of these valuable data. This is especially true for data collected using naturalistic tasks.

MarkerLess Motion Capture: ML-MoCap, a low-cost modular multi-camera setup.

Motion capture systems are extensively used to track human movement to study healthy and pathological movements, allowing for objective diagnosis and effective therapy of conditions that affect our motor system. Current motion capture systems typically require marker placements which is cumbersome and can lead to contrived movements.Here, we describe and evaluate our developed markerless and modular multi-camera motion capture system to record human movements in 3D.

Distinct representation of ipsilateral hand movements in sensorimotor areas.

There is ample evidence that the contralateral sensorimotor areas play an important role in movement generation, with the primary motor cortex and the primary somatosensory cortex showing a detailed spatial organization of the representation of contralateral body parts. Interestingly, there are also indications for a role of the motor cortex in controlling the ipsilateral side of the body. However, the precise function of ipsilateral sensorimotor cortex in unilateral movement control is still unclear.

Decoding four hand gestures with a single bipolar pair of electrocorticography electrodes.

Electrocorticography (ECoG) based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can be used to restore communication in individuals with locked-in syndrome. In motor-based BCIs, the number of degrees-of-freedom, and thus the speed of the BCI, directly depends on the number of classes that can be discriminated from the neural activity in the sensorimotor cortex. When considering minimally invasive BCI implants, the size of the subdural ECoG implant must be minimized without compromising the number of degrees-of-freedom.

Brain-Computer interfaces for communication: preferences of individuals with locked-in syndrome, caregivers and researchers.

Objectives: The development of Brain-Computer Interfaces to restore communication (cBCIs) in people with severe motor impairment ideally relies on a close collaboration between end-users and other stakeholders, such as caregivers and researchers. Awareness about potential differences in opinion between these groups is crucial for development of usable cBCIs and access technology (AT) in general. In this study, we compared the opinions of prospective cBCI users, their caregivers and cBCI researchers regarding: (1) what applications would users like to control with a cBCI; (2) what mental strategies would users prefer to use for cBCI control; and (3) at what stage of their clinical trajectory would users like to be informed about AT and cBCIs.

Paracetamol Allergy: A Case of a 9-Year-Old Female with a History of Atopy.

We describe a rare case involving paracetamol, a commonly used drug worldwide. Increased paracetamol consumption increases the risk of adverse drug reactions. This is a case of a 9-year-old girl who visited the emergency department due to sudden onset sneezing, nasal itching, urticaria, and angioedema after paracetamol ingestion.

Trajectories of cognitive performance over five years in a prospective cohort of patients with breast cancer (NEON-BC).

Purpose: To identify trajectories of cognitive performance up to five years since diagnosis and their predictors, in a cohort of patients with breast cancer (BCa).

Methods: A total of 464 women with BCa admitted to the Portuguese Institute of Oncology, Porto, during 2012, were evaluated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) before any treatment, and after one, three and five years. Probable cognitive impairment (PCI) at baseline was defined based on normative age- and education-specific reference values.

Brain-Computer Interfaces for Communication: Preferences of Individuals With Locked-in Syndrome.

Background: Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been proposed as an assistive technology (AT) allowing people with locked-in syndrome (LIS) to use neural signals to communicate. To design a communication BCI (cBCI) that is fully accepted by the users, their opinion should be taken into consideration during the research and development process.

Objective: We assessed the preferences of prospective cBCI users regarding (1) the applications they would like to control with a cBCI, (2) the mental strategies they would prefer to use to control the cBCI, and (3) when during their clinical trajectory they would like to be informed about AT and cBCIs.

Accurate Offline Asynchronous Detection of Individual Finger Movement From Intracranial Brain Signals Using a Novel Multiway Approach.

Asynchronous motor Brain Computer Interfacing (BCI) is characterized by the continuous decoding of intended muscular activity from brain signals. Such applications have gained widespread interest for enabling users to issue commands volitionally. In conventional motor BCIs features extracted from brain signals are concatenated into vector- or matrix-based (or one-/two-way) representations.

3D Microwell Platform for Cardiomyocyte Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.

The generation of cardiomyocytes (CMs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represents a valuable tool for a myriad of in vitro applications, including drug screening, disease modeling and regenerative medicine. However, the success of these applications is dependent on the establishment of reliable, efficient, simple, and cost-effective differentiation methods. In this chapter, we describe an efficient and robust 3D platform for the generation of hPSC-CMs based on the use of a microwell culture system, which can be applied in any laboratory environment.

Peripheral neuropathy in systemic vasculitis and other autoimmune diseases - a report of five cases emphasizing the importance of etiologic characterization.

Introduction: Peripheral neuropathies may present in the context of systemic vasculitis and other autoimmune diseases. The etiologic characterization is crucial to define the treatment and prognosis in secondary vasculitis. The purpose of this study is to describe the pathway of etiologic investigation including the role of nerve biopsy.