Impaired selective attention in patients with severe primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis: An event-related potential study.

Objectives: Primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PMNE) is a very common problem in school age children. It is thought that PMNE represents a maturational lag in the central nervous system of those children. We did this case control study to assess the selective attention and resource allocation in those children using the P300 wave of the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and its relation to disease severity.

Non-epileptic paroxysmal events in paediatric patients: A single tertiary centre study in Egypt.

Purpose: The misdiagnosis of non-epileptic seizures (NES) as epilepsy is one of the most common pitfalls in neuropsychiatric practice. This study aimed to describe the percentage and types of NES among children who were referred for a diagnosis of epilepsy in Upper Egypt.

Methods: We recruited a total of 876 patients who were referred to Sohag University Hospital, a tertiary referral centre in Upper Egypt, for the evaluation of suspected epilepsy.

Altered Spinal Excitability in Patients with Primary Fibromyalgia: A Case-Control Study.

Background And Purpose: Abnormal excitability of the central nervous system, both spinal and supraspinal, has previously been described as a pathophysiological plastic mechanism for chronic pain syndromes. Primary fibromyalgia (FM) as one extreme of this spectrum of diseases. This case-control study aimed to determine the changes in the spinal excitability by investigating the Hoffman reflex (H-reflex) in patients with FM.

Double-Shock Stimulation of the Superficial Radial Nerve Compared With Standard Medial Plantar Nerve Conduction in the Early Detection of Asymptomatic Diabetic Neuropathy: A Pilot Study.

Purpose: Diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem. Diabetic polyneuropathy (DP) is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus. The early detection of DP is very important for timely treatment of symptoms and preventative foot care.

Evaluation of knowledge about epilepsy and attitudes towards patients with epilepsy among university students in Upper Egypt.

Purpose: Epilepsy is a major public health problem worldwide. There are many misconceptions about people's knowledge and attitudes about epilepsy, which influence people's behavior towards patients with epilepsy.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in Sohag University, a public Egyptian University, in Upper Egypt.

Cognitive Event-Related Potentials in Patients With Adenoid Hypertrophy: A Case-Control Pilot Study.

Purpose: Children with adenoid hypertrophy commonly have sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep-disordered breathing is associated with various neurocognitive problems. The aim of this study was to assess the cognitive function in those patients using cognitive event-related potentials.

Idiopathic Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Evaluation of the Depth of the Carpal Tunnel by Ultrasonography.

The objective of the work described here was to evaluate the depth of the carpal tunnel (DCT) in patients with idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and healthy volunteers by ultrasonography (US), through measurement of the distance from the flexor retinaculum to the surface of the capitate bone at the carpal tunnel outlet, and compare it with other ultrasonographic and electrophysiologic parameters in CTS. The study was conducted in 60 non-diabetic patients with idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome (unilateral n = 37, bilateral n = 23) evidenced by electrophysiologic diagnosis according to the criteria of the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AAEM). Furthermore, 40 hands from 20 healthy volunteers were examined.

Community-based epidemiological study of epilepsy in the Qena governorate in Upper Egypt, a door-to-door survey.

Background: The aim of this study is to estimate the epidemiological features of epilepsy in a representative governorate of Upper Egypt.

Materials And Methods: A door-to-door community-based survey study was performed using a sample of 10 areas among various districts of the Qena governorate in Upper Egypt. Six were classified as rural areas, and the remaining four were classified as urban areas, with a total population of 8027 inhabitants.

Combined central and peripheral stimulation for treatment of chronic tinnitus: a randomized pilot study.

Background: Tinnitus is a common untreatable condition that originates from central maladaptive plasticity initiated by peripheral injury. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), direct cochlear low-level laser therapy (LLLT), and acupuncture were tried for tinnitus treatment, but the results of these methods were clinically unsatisfactory.

Objective: This study aimed to test the combined effect of the 3 methods targeting both peripheral and central auditory areas as a new therapeutic strategy for tinnitus.

Writing's shadow: corticospinal activation during letter observation.

We can recognize handwritten letters despite the variability among writers. One possible strategy is exploiting the motor memory of orthography. By using TMS, we clarified the excitatory and inhibitory neural circuits of the motor corticospinal pathway that might be activated during the observation of handwritten letters.

Human motor plasticity induced by mirror visual feedback.

The clinical use of mirror visual feedback (MVF) was initially introduced to alleviate phantom pain, and has since been applied to the improvement of hemiparesis following stroke. However, it is not known whether MVF can restore motor function by producing plastic changes in the human primary motor cortex (M1). Here, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to test whether M1 plasticity is a physiological substrate of MVF-induced motor behavioral improvement.

Momentary reward induce changes in excitability of primary motor cortex.

Objective: To investigate the human primary motor cortex (M1) excitability changes induced by momentary reward.

Methods: To test the changes in excitatory and inhibitory functions of M1, motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI) were tested in the abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscle of non-dominant hand in 14 healthy volunteers by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) during a behavioral task in which subjects were pseudorandomly received either reward target or non-target stimuli in response to a cue. To control sensorimotor and attention effects, a sensorimotor control task was done replacing the reward target with non-reward target.

Movement-related cortical stimulation can induce human motor plasticity.

Repeated paired associative stimulation combining peripheral nerve stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the primary motor cortex (M1) can produce human motor plasticity. However, previous studies used paired artificial stimuli, so that it is not known whether repetitive natural M1 activity associated with TMS can induce plasticity or not. To test this hypothesis, we developed a movement-related cortical stimulation (MRCS) protocol, in which the left M1 was stimulated by TMS at specific timing with respect to the mean expected reaction time (RT) of voluntary movement during a simple reaction time task using the right abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscle.

Recovery of upper-limb function due to enhanced use-dependent plasticity in chronic stroke patients.

Patients with chronic stroke often show increased flexor hypertonia in their affected upper limbs. Although an intervention strategy targeting the extensors of the affected upper limb might thus be expected to have benefits for functional recovery, conventional repetitive motor training has limited clinical utility. Recent studies have shown that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation could induce motor recovery.