Lower loss rate of serotonergically modulated neuronal accumulator for time in patients with major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by dramatic and persistent worsening of mood, as well as a subjective feeling of time slowing. However, experimental data on time perception are inconsistent. As serotonergic dysfunction implicated in MDD etiology, we aim to examine time perception in MDD through the framework of lossy temporal integration model, previously also related to serotonergic transmission.

Does the Potocki-Lupski Syndrome Convey the Autism Spectrum Disorder Phenotype? Case Report and Scoping Review.

Potocki-Lupski Syndrome (PTLS) is a rare condition associated with a duplication of 17p11.2 that may underlie a wide range of congenital abnormalities and heterogeneous behavioral phenotypes. Along with developmental delay and intellectual disability, autism-specific traits are often reported to be the most common among patients with PTLS.

Generalization of sustained neurophysiological effects of short-term auditory 13-Hz stimulation to neighbouring frequency representation in humans.

A fuller understanding of the effects of auditory tetanization in humans would inform better language and sensory learning paradigms; however, there are still unanswered questions. Here, we probe sustained changes in the event-related potentials (ERPs) to 1020- and 980-Hz tones following a rapid presentation of 1020-Hz tone (every 75 ms, 13.3 Hz, tetanization).

40-Hz Auditory Steady-State Response (ASSR) as a Biomarker of Genetic Defects in the Gene: A Case Report of 15-Year-Old Girl with a Rare Partial Duplication.

encodes a scaffold protein involved in postsynaptic receptor density in glutamatergic synapses, including those in the parvalbumin (PV)+ inhibitory neurons-the key players in the generation of sensory gamma oscillations, such as 40-Hz auditory steady-state response (ASSR). However, 40-Hz ASSR was not studied in relation to SHANK3 functioning. Here, we present a 15-year-old girl (SH01) with previously unreported duplication of the first seven exons of the gene (22q13.

Atypical processing of tones and phonemes in Rett Syndrome as biomarkers of disease progression.

Due to severe motor impairments and the lack of expressive language abilities seen in most patients with Rett Syndrome (RTT), it has proven extremely difficult to obtain accurate measures of auditory processing capabilities in this population. Here, we examined early auditory cortical processing of pure tones and more complex phonemes in females with Rett Syndrome (RTT), by recording high-density auditory evoked potentials (AEP), which allow for objective evaluation of the timing and severity of processing deficits along the auditory processing hierarchy. We compared AEPs of 12 females with RTT to those of 21 typically developing (TD) peers aged 4-21 years, interrogating the first four major components of the AEP (P1: 60-90 ms; N1: 100-130 ms; P2: 135-165 ms; and N2: 245-275 ms).

Sensory evoked potentials in patients with Rett syndrome through the lens of animal studies: Systematic review.

Objective: Systematically review the abnormalities in event related potential (ERP) recorded in Rett Syndrome (RTT) patients and animals in search of translational biomarkers of deficits related to the particular neurophysiological processes of known genetic origin (MECP2 mutations).

Methods: Pubmed, ISI Web of Knowledge and BIORXIV were searched for the relevant articles according to PRISMA standards.

Results: ERP components are generally delayed across all sensory modalities both in RTT patients and its animal model, while findings on ERPs amplitude strongly depend on stimulus properties and presentation rate.

Auditory sensory memory span for duration is severely curtailed in females with Rett syndrome.

Rett syndrome (RTT), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene, is typified by profound cognitive impairment and severe language impairment, rendering it very difficult to accurately measure auditory processing capabilities behaviorally in this population. Here we leverage the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potential to measure the ability of RTT patients to decode and store occasional duration deviations in a stream of auditory stimuli. Sensory memory for duration, crucial for speech comprehension, has not been studied in RTT.

Neural gain control measured through cortical gamma oscillations is associated with sensory sensitivity.

Gamma oscillations facilitate information processing by shaping the excitatory input/output of neuronal populations. Recent studies in humans and nonhuman primates have shown that strong excitatory drive to the visual cortex leads to suppression of induced gamma oscillations, which may reflect inhibitory-based gain control of network excitation. The efficiency of the gain control measured through gamma oscillations may in turn affect sensory sensitivity in everyday life.

Event-related potential (ERP) correlates of face processing in verbal children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their first-degree relatives: a family study.

Background: Inherited abnormalities of perception, recognition, and attention to faces have been implicated in the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) including abnormal components of event-related brain potentials (ERP) elicited by faces.

Methods: We examined familial aggregation of face processing ERP abnormalities previously implicated in ASD in 49 verbal individuals with ASD, 36 unaffected siblings (US), 18 unaffected fathers (UF), and 53 unrelated controls (UC). The ASD, US, and UC groups ranged in age from 12 to 21 years, the UF group ranged in age from 30 to 56 years.

Input-dependent modulation of MEG gamma oscillations reflects gain control in the visual cortex.

Gamma-band oscillations arise from the interplay between neural excitation (E) and inhibition (I) and may provide a non-invasive window into the state of cortical circuitry. A bell-shaped modulation of gamma response power by increasing the intensity of sensory input was observed in animals and is thought to reflect neural gain control. Here we sought to find a similar input-output relationship in humans with MEG via modulating the intensity of a visual stimulation by changing the velocity/temporal-frequency of visual motion.

Abnormal Size-Dependent Modulation of Motion Perception in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Excitation/Inhibition (E/I) imbalance in neural networks is now considered among the core neural underpinnings of autism psychopathology. In motion perception at least two phenomena critically depend on E/I balance in visual cortex: spatial suppression (SS), and spatial facilitation (SF) corresponding to impoverished or improved motion perception with increasing stimuli size, respectively. While SS is dominant at high contrast, SF is evident for low contrast stimuli, due to the prevalence of inhibitory contextual modulations in the former, and excitatory ones in the latter case.

Reduced Oblique Effect in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

People are very precise in the discrimination of a line orientation relative to the cardinal (vertical and horizontal) axes, while their orientation discrimination sensitivity along the oblique axes is less refined. This difference in discrimination sensitivity along cardinal and oblique axes is called the "oblique effect." Given that the oblique effect is a basic feature of visual processing with an early developmental origin, its investigation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may shed light on the nature of visual sensory abnormalities frequently reported in this population.

Altered modulation of gamma oscillation frequency by speed of visual motion in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Background: Recent studies link autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with an altered balance between excitation and inhibition (E/I balance) in cortical networks. The brain oscillations in high gamma-band (50-120 Hz) are sensitive to the E/I balance and may appear useful biomarkers of certain ASD subtypes. The frequency of gamma oscillations is mediated by level of excitation of the fast-spiking inhibitory basket cells recruited by increasing strength of excitatory input.

Frequency of gamma oscillations in humans is modulated by velocity of visual motion.

Gamma oscillations are generated in networks of inhibitory fast-spiking (FS) parvalbumin-positive (PV) interneurons and pyramidal cells. In animals, gamma frequency is modulated by the velocity of visual motion; the effect of velocity has not been evaluated in humans. In this work, we have studied velocity-related modulations of gamma frequency in children using MEG/EEG.

From pre-attentive processes to durable representation: an ERP index of visual distraction.

Visual search and oddball paradigms were combined to investigate memory for to-be-ignored color changes in a group of 12 healthy participants. The onset of unexpected color change of an irrelevant stimulus evoked two reliable ERP effects: a component of the event-related potential (ERP), similar to the visual mismatch negativity response (vMMN), with a latency of 120-160 ms and a posterior distribution over the left hemisphere and Late Fronto-Central Negativity (LFCN) with a latency of 320-400 ms, apparent at fronto-central electrodes and some posterior sites. Color change of that irrelevant stimulus also slowed identification of a visual target, indicating distraction.

Physical exercise speeds up motor timing.

THIS STUDY AIMED TO EXAMINE EFFECT OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON MOTOR TIMING: personal, maximum and "once per second" tapping. The acute effect was examined by comparing the baseline tapping with that after acute exercise in 9 amateur athletes, 8 elite synchronous swimmers and 9 elite biathletes. Then the baseline tapping was compared among athletes of different sports and professional levels (15 elite biathletes, 27 elite cross-country skiers, 15 elite synchronous swimmers and 9 amateur wrestlers) with a control group (44 non-athletes) not involved in regular exercise to examine the sport-specific or long-term effects.

Genetic determinants of time perception mediated by the serotonergic system.

Background: The present study investigates neurobiological underpinnings of individual differences in time perception.

Methodology: Forty-four right-handed Russian Caucasian males (18-35 years old) participated in the experiment. The polymorphism of the genes related to the activity of serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA)-systems (such as 5-HTT, 5HT2a, MAOA, DAT, DRD2, COMT) was determined upon the basis of DNA analysis according to a standard procedure.

Brain science: on the way to solving the problem of consciousness.

Four issues are discussed: the possible mechanism of subjective events, conscious versus unconscious brain functions, the rhythmic coding of mental operations and the possible brain basis of understanding.

Aggression and 5HTT polymorphism in females: study of synchronized swimming and control groups.

Aggression is a heterogeneous heritable psychological trait, also influenced by environmental factors. Previous studies, mostly conducted on male population, have found some associations of the aggression with the polymorphisms of genes, regulating the activity of serotonin (5-HT) in the brain. However, psychological as well as biochemical manifestations of the aggression are different in males and females.

Rapid and slow brain systems of abstract and concrete words differentiation.

Previous studies have repeatedly found that late (300-800 ms) components of event-related potentials (ERP) reflected semantic analysis, i.e. the differentiation between abstract and concrete words.