Independent and combined effects of methamphetamine use disorders and APOEε4 allele on cognitive performance and brain morphometry.

Aims: Prior studies showed that methamphetamine (METH) users had greater than normal age-related brain atrophy; whether having the apolipoprotein E (APOE)-ε4 allele may be a contributory factor has not been evaluated. We aimed to determine the independent and combined effects of chronic heavy METH use and having at least one copy of the APOE-ε4 allele (APOE-ε4+) on brain morphometry and cognition, especially in relation to aging.

Methods: We compared brain morphometry and cognitive performance in 77 individuals with chronic heavy METH use (26 APOE-ε4+, 51 APOE-ε4-) and 226 Non-METH users (66 APOE-ε4+, 160 APOE-ε4-), using a 2 × 2 design (two-way analysis of co-variance).

Brain Microstructure and Impulsivity Differ between Current and Past Methamphetamine Users.

Methamphetamine (Meth) use disorder continues to be highly prevalent worldwide. Meth users have higher impulsivity and brain abnormalities that may be different between current and past Meth users. The current study assessed impulsivity and depressive symptoms in 94 participants (27 current Meth users, 32 past Meth users and 35 non-drug user controls).

Case report of a 24-year-old man with resolution of treatment-resistant major depressive disorder and comorbid PTSD using rTMS.

Although there is a large amount of literature indicating the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (trMDD), the authors did not find any literature supporting rTMS for MDD with the comorbid condition of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we report an original case of a patient whose trMDD and PTSD remitted using rTMS at the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Relationship between White Matter Lesions and Progression of Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: This study examined the relationship between baseline white matter lesions (WMLs) and the progression of cognitive decline in patients with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: Fifty-six patients with AD were included in the study (23 men, 33 women; mean age, 77.8 years).

Effect of white matter lesions on brain perfusion in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: This study examined the effect of white matter lesions (WMLs) on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: Ninety-eight patients with AD were included in the study (40 men and 58 women; mean age, 78.1 years).

Altered brain activation during visuomotor integration in chronic active cannabis users: relationship to cortisol levels.

Cannabis is the most abused illegal substance in the United States. Alterations in brain function and motor behavior have been reported in chronic cannabis users, but the results have been variable. The current study aimed to determine whether chronic active cannabis use in humans may alter psychomotor function, brain activation, and hypothalamic-pituitary-axis (HPA) function in men and women.

Impact of apolipoprotein E ε4 and HIV on cognition and brain atrophy: antagonistic pleiotropy and premature brain aging.

Objective: The apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele may accelerate the progression of HIV disease, and increase the risk for developing HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND). Whether APOEε4 allele(s) and age may influence brain atrophy in HIV patients is unknown and was evaluated.

Methods: Automated morphometry on magnetic resonance images, using FreeSurfer analyses, neuropsychological testing and APOE genotyping were performed in 139 subjects [70 seronegative controls (SN); 69 clinically-stable HIV subjects].

Methamphetamine users show greater than normal age-related cortical gray matter loss.

Background: Methamphetamine (Meth) abuse continues to be a major illicit drug of abuse. Neuroimaging findings suggest that Meth is neurotoxic and may alter various brain structures, but the effect of Meth on the aging brain has not been studied.

Aim: The aim was to determine regional volumes of cortical gray matter in the brains of adult Meth users versus healthy control subjects, and their interaction with age and Meth-usage variables.

Lower brain glutamate is associated with cognitive deficits in HIV patients: a new mechanism for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder.

Purpose: To determine whether subjects with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) show altered concentrations of brain glutamate (GLU), and whether lower GLU levels correlate with cognitive deficits.

Materials And Methods: GLU concentrations were measured in the basal ganglia, frontal gray and white matter, and parietal gray matter of 45 HIV-positive and 46 age-and-education-matched HIV-negative subjects using echo-time averaged proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H MRS).

Results: Compared to controls, HIV subjects with cognitive deficits had lower GLU in the parietal gray matter, while those without cognitive deficits tended to show higher basal ganglia GLU.

MEG time-frequency analyses for pre- and post-surgical evaluation of patients with epileptic rhythmic fast activity.

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of surgery for epilepsy, we analyzed rhythmic fast activity by magnetoencephalography (MEG) before and after surgery using time-frequency analysis. To assess reliability, the results obtained by pre-surgical MEG and intraoperative electrocorticography were compared.

Methods: Four children with symptomatic localization-related epilepsy caused by circumscribed cortical lesion were examined in the present study using 204-channel helmet-shaped MEG with a sampling rate of 600Hz.

Persistent hypoglossal artery with hypoplasia of the vertebral and posterior communicating arteries.

We observed a rare case of the right persistent hypoglossal artery (PHA) in the posterior cranial fossa of a deceased 74-year-old Japanese man who did not have any clinical manifestations related to this anomaly when alive. The large-sized PHA originating from the cervical internal carotid artery passed through the hypoglossal canal together with the hypoglossal nerve and reached the posterior cranial fossa to anastomose the basilar artery. In addition, the ipsilateral vertebral artery and bilateral posterior communicating arteries were hypoplastic.

Contribution of subtraction ictal SPECT coregistered to MRI to epilepsy surgery: a multicenter study.

Objective: A multicenter prospective study was performed to assess the additional value of a subtraction ictal SPECT coregistered to MRI (SISCOM) technique to traditional side-by-side comparison of ictal- and interictal SPECT images in epilepsy surgery.

Methods: One hundred and twenty-three patients with temporal and extratemporal lobe epilepsy who had undergone epilepsy surgery after evaluation of scalp ictal and interictal electroencephalogram (EEG), MRI, and ictal and interictal SPECT scans were followed up in terms of postsurgical outcome for a period of at least 1 year. Three reviewers localized the epileptogenic focus using ictal and interictal SPECT images first by side-by-side comparison and subsequently by SISCOM.

Declined neural efficiency in cognitively stable human immunodeficiency virus patients.

Objective: To determine whether brain activation changes in clinically and neurocognitively normal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and in HIV-seronegative control (SN) participants over a 1-year period.

Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed in 32 SN and 31 HIV patients (all with stable combination antiretroviral treatment) at baseline and after 1 year. Each participant performed a set of visual attention tasks with increasing attentional load (from tracking two, three, or four balls).

Repeat magnetoencephalography and surgeries to eliminate atonic seizures of non-lesional frontal lobe epilepsy.

A 7-year-old boy presented with intractable head nodding and atonic seizures since the age of 3 years and severe behavior problems unsuitable for video EEG monitoring. We performed magnetoencephalography (MEG) 4 times: before (1) corpus callosotomy, (2) left frontal cortical resection with multiple subpial transection and (3) resection of residual MEG spike sources, which eliminated seizures. Repeat MEGs consistently localized the epileptogenic zone in a patient with intractable residual non-lesional left frontal lobe epilepsy.

Hyperkinetic movement disorder in a child treated by globus pallidus stimulation.

We report herein the case of a 9-year-old girl with life-threatening hyperkinetic involuntary movement of unknown etiology. Medical treatment was ineffective for her stereotypy and choreoathetotic/ballistic movements, but bilateral stimulation of the globus pallidus immediately alleviated these symptoms. Pallidal deep-brain stimulation may be considered the therapy of choice for children with intractable hyperkinetic movement disorders.

Association between psychiatric symptoms and craving in methamphetamine users.

This study examined the differences in psychiatric symptoms between adult methamphetamine users (n = 46) and control subjects (n = 31), the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and the intensity of methamphetamine craving, and whether psychiatric symptoms were correlated to methamphetamine drug-usage variables (ie, length of abstinence, frequency, duration, and lifetime grams). We found that depressive symptoms on the Center for Epidemiology Studies-Depression (CES-D) and many other psychiatric symptoms on the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) significantly correlated with craving methamphetamine on the visual analog scale (VAS) for craving. Methamphetamine users had significantly more depressive symptoms (on CES-D) and psychotic symptoms (on SCL-90) compared to controls.

Greater than age-related changes in brain diffusion of HIV patients after 1 year.

Chronic infection with HIV is associated with neuroinflammation. Prior diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies demonstrated increased mean diffusion (MD) and decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the white matter (WM) and subcortical brain regions of HIV patients. The current study aims to detect whether there are greater than age-related brain changes in HIV patients after a 1-year follow-up period using DTI.

Antiretroviral treatment is associated with increased attentional load-dependent brain activation in HIV patients.

Objective: The purpose of this paper was to determine whether antiretroviral medications, especially the nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors, lead to altered brain activation due to their potential neurotoxic effects in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

Methods: Forty-two right-handed men were enrolled in three groups: seronegative controls (SN, n = 18), HIV subjects treated with antiretroviral medications (HIV+ARV, n = 12), or not treated with antiretroviral medications (HIV+NARV, n = 12). Each subject performed a set of visual attention tasks with increasing difficulty or load (tracking two, three or four balls) during functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Delayed N100m latency in focal epilepsy associated with spike dipoles at the primary auditory cortex.

Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), auditory evoked magnetic N100m were measured in patients with focal epilepsy and the influence of focal interictal epileptic spikes on primary auditory cortex (PAC) was evaluated. Spontaneous cerebral magnetic fields and auditory evoked magnetic fields were recorded in 40 epileptic patients and 9 healthy volunteers using MEG and latency of N100m in the bilateral hemisphere, and the distribution of epileptic spike dipoles were measured. Depending on the presence of structural lesions and the localization of spike dipoles, the patients were divided into groups as follows: group I, patients with structural lesions in PAC; group II, patients without structural lesions and with spike dipoles in PAC; and group III, patients with neither structural lesions nor spike dipoles in PAC.

Altered distribution of KCC2 in cortical dysplasia in patients with intractable epilepsy.

Purpose: To examine the distribution of KCC2, a neuron-specific K(+)-Cl(-) cotransporter, in human cortical dysplasia (CD).

Methods: The immunohistochemical expression of KCC2 was investigated in 18 CD specimens obtained during epilepsy surgery. The histopathologic diagnoses were focal CD (FCD) type I (eight cases), FCD type II (six cases), and hemimegalencephaly (HME; four cases).