Psycho-Cognitive Profile and NGF and BDNF Levels in Tears and Serum: A Pilot Study in Patients with Graves' Disease.

Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) and Brain derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) mature/precursor imbalance in tears and serum is suggested as a risk factor and symptomatology aggravation in ophthalmology and neuropsychiatric disturbances. Cognitive and mood alterations are reported by patients with Graves' Orbitopathy (GO), indicating neurotrophin alterations might be involved. To address this question, the expression levels of NGF and BDNF and their precursors in serum and tears of GO patients were analyzed and correlated with the ophthalmological and psycho-cognitive symptoms.

Differences in visual information processing style between Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsy with and without photosensitivity.

Purpose: Recently, altered visual cortical processes i.e., lack of habituation to visual evoked potentials (VEP), has been highlighted in both photosensitive epilepsy and in a specific i.

Analytic information processing style in epilepsy patients.

Relevant to the study of epileptogenesis is learning processing, given the pivotal role that neuroplasticity assumes in both mechanisms. Recently, evoked potential analyses showed a link between analytic cognitive style and altered neural excitability in both migraine and healthy subjects, regardless of cognitive impairment or psychological disorders. In this study we evaluated analytic/global and visual/auditory perceptual dimensions of cognitive style in patients with epilepsy.

Lack of habituation of evoked visual potentials in analytic information processing style: evidence in healthy subjects.

Habituation is considered one of the most basic mechanisms of learning. Habituation deficit to several sensory stimulations has been defined as a trait of migraine brain and also observed in other disorders. On the other hand, analytic information processing style is characterized by the habit of continually evaluating stimuli and it has been associated with migraine.

Analytic information processing style in migraineurs.

Despite great advances in pathophysiological facets of migraine that have been made during recent years, as of today, migraine etiology is still not completely understood; moreover, to date the relationship between psychological factors and this primary headache must be further elucidated. However, abnormal information processing, as measured by evoked and event-related potentials, has been considered a key feature in migraine pathogenesis. The aim of this work was to study the relationships between analytic/global style of information processing and migraine, hypothesizing an analytic style, as highlighted by our previous study on cluster headache.

Analytic cognitive style in cluster headache.

Previous reports on cluster headache have shown a hypothalamic dysfunction and a hitherto unrecognized defect in the information processing pathways measured by event-related potentials. As of today, the causes are still unknown; likewise, studies on the psychological factors involved in CH have not yielded relevant data. The aim of our study was to evaluate the presence of a possible correlation between CH and a specific manner of information processing, i.