Exploring complex and integrated information during sleep.

The Integrated Information Theory is a theoretical framework that aims to elucidate the nature of consciousness by postulating that it emerges from the integration of information within a system, and that the degree of consciousness depends on the extent of information integration within the system. When consciousness is lost, the core complex of consciousness proposed by the Integrated Information Theory disintegrates, and Φ measures, which reflect the level of integrated information, are expected to diminish. This study examined the predictions of the Integrated Information Theory using the global brain network acquired via functional magnetic resonance imaging during various tasks and sleep.

Development of a stroke risk score with MRI asymptomatic brain lesions attributes to evaluate prognostic vascular events.

Background: The use of a combination of stroke predictors, such as clinical factors and asymptomatic lesions on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), may improve the accuracy of stroke risk prediction. Therefore, we attempted to develop a stroke risk score for healthy individuals.

Methods: We investigated the presence of cerebral stroke in 2365 healthy individuals who underwent brain dock screening at the Health Science Center in Shimane.

Altered Feedback-Related Negativity in Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Introduction: Feedback-related negativity (FRN) is electrical brain activity related to the function of monitoring behavior and its outcome. FRN is generated by negative feedback input, such as punishment or monetary loss, and its potential is distributed maximally over the frontal-central part of the skull. Our previous study demonstrated that FRN latency was delayed and that the amplitude was increased in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Complex of global functional network as the core of consciousness.

Finding the neural basis of consciousness is challenging, and the distribution location of the core of consciousness remains inconclusive. Integrated information theory (IIT) argues that the posterior part of the brain is the hot zone of consciousness, especially phenological consciousness. The IIT has proposed a "main complex", a set of elements determined such that the information loss in a hierarchical partition approach is the largest among those of any other supersets and subsets, as the core of consciousness in a dynamic system.

Pulse pressure is associated with cognitive performance in Japanese non-demented population: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Growing evidence suggests that vascular risk factors, especially hypertension, relate not only to cardiovascular disease but also to cognitive impairment. However, the impact of pulse pressure on cognitive function remains controversial. In this study, we evaluated the associations between pulse pressure and cognitive function in a Japanese health examination cohort using propensity matching analysis.

Multiscale Entropy of Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Differentiates Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Multiple System Atrophy.

Distinguishing progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) from multiple system atrophy (MSA) in the early clinical stages is challenging; few sensitive and specific biomarkers are available for their differential diagnosis. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is used to study the fluctuations in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals at rest, which provides evidence for aberrant brain functional networks in neurodegenerative diseases. We aimed to examine whether rs-fMRI data could differentiate between PSP and MSA via a multiscale entropy (MSE) analysis of BOLD signals, which estimates the complexity of temporal fluctuations in brain activity.

Altered resting-state functional connectivity of the frontal-striatal circuit in elderly with apathy.

Apathy is defined as reduction of goal-directed behaviors and a common nuisance syndrome of neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease. The underlying mechanism of apathy implicates changes of the front-striatal circuit, but its precise alteration is unclear for apathy in healthy aged people. The aim of our study is to investigate how the frontal-striatal circuit is changed in elderly with apathy using resting-state functional MRI.

Grey-matter brain healthcare quotient and cognitive function: A large cohort study of an MRI brain screening system in Japan.

There is sometimes a divergence between brain atrophy and impairments in cognitive function. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between cognitive function and the grey-matter brain healthcare quotient (GM-BHQ), which represents brain volume as a deviation value. In addition, we aimed to investigate lifestyle factors that can help maintain cognitive function despite brain atrophy.

Environmental Factors Affecting Cognitive Function among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Longitudinal Study.

Although neighborhood environmental factors have been found to be associated with cognitive decline, few longitudinal studies have focused on their effect on older adults living in rural areas. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the role of neighborhood environmental factors in cognitive decline among rural older adults. The data of 485 older adults aged ≥60 years who were living in Unnan City in Japan and had participated in two surveys conducted between 2014 and 2018 were analyzed.

Predicting intraocular pressure using systemic variables or fundus photography with deep learning in a health examination cohort.

The purpose of the current study was to predict intraocular pressure (IOP) using color fundus photography with a deep learning (DL) model, or, systemic variables with a multivariate linear regression model (MLM), along with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression (LASSO), support vector machine (SVM), and Random Forest: (RF). Training dataset included 3883 examinations from 3883 eyes of 1945 subjects and testing dataset 289 examinations from 289 eyes from 146 subjects. With the training dataset, MLM was constructed to predict IOP using 35 systemic variables and 25 blood measurements.

Prevalence of Epiretinal Membrane among Subjects in a Health Examination Program in Japan.

The prevalence of an epiretinal membrane (ERM) was elucidated using a dataset from a health examination program database in Japan. From the cohort database, 5042 eyes of 2552 subjects were included. The presence of an ERM, cellophane macular reflex (CMR), or preretinal macular fibrosis (PMF) was detected using color fundus photographs, and crude and age-standardized prevalence were obtained.

Prediction of conversion to Alzheimer's disease using deep survival analysis of MRI images.

The prediction of the conversion of healthy individuals and those with mild cognitive impairment to the status of active Alzheimer's disease is a challenging task. Recently, a survival analysis based upon deep learning was developed to enable predictions regarding the timing of an event in a dataset containing censored data. Here, we investigated whether a deep survival analysis could similarly predict the conversion to Alzheimer's disease.

The association of motivation with mind wandering in trait and state levels.

Mind wandering (MW) is a phenomenon in which attention drifts away from task-related thoughts toward task-unrelated thoughts. Recent studies have demonstrated that MW occurs during tasks in which participants are unmotivated. However, motivation ranges on a continuum from trait to state.

Systemic factors associated with intraocular pressure among subjects in a health examination program in Japan.

Background: To elucidate the possible effect of various systemic factors on intraocular pressure (IOP) using a dataset from a health examination program database in Japan.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1569 subjects selected from the 2287 subjects who comprised the database. Various systemic parameters including age, sex, height, body weight, waist circumference, percent body fat, blood pressure (BP), pulse rate, body mass index, 28 blood examination values, intimal medial thicknesses of both carotid arteries, and intraocular pressure (IOP) values measured by non-contact tonometry in both eyes were collected.

iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis after mesenchymal stem cell line transplantation for ischemic stroke.

Transplantation with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been reported to promote functional recovery in animal models of ischemic stroke. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of MSC transplantation have been only partially elucidated. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively identify changes in brain proteins in rats treated with MSCs for ischemic stroke, and to explore the multi-target mechanisms of MSCs using a proteomics-based strategy.

Reduced Dynamic Complexity of BOLD Signals Differentiates Mild Cognitive Impairment From Normal Aging.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is characterized as a transitional phase between cognitive decline associated with normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measuring blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals provides complementary information considered essential for understanding disease progression. Previous studies suggested that multi-scale entropy (MSE) analysis quantifying the complexity of BOLD signals is a novel and promising method for investigating neurodegeneration associated with cognitive decline in different stages of MCI.

Association between cystatin C gene polymorphism and the prevalence of white matter lesion in elderly healthy subjects.

Cystatin C (CST3) is a cysteine protease inhibitor abundant in the central nervous system, and demonstrated to have roles in several pathophysiological processes including vascular remodeling and inflammation. Previously, we showed a relation of CST3 gene polymorphisms with deep and subcortical white matter hyperintensity (DSWMH) in a small case-control study. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relation in a larger cross-sectional study.

The right hemisphere is important for driving-related cognitive function after stroke.

Considering quality of life (QOL) after stroke, car driving is one of the most important abilities for returning to the community. In this study, directed attention and sustained attention, which are thought to be crucial for driving, were examined. Identification of specific brain structure abnormalities associated with post-stroke cognitive dysfunction related to driving ability would help in determining fitness for car driving after stroke.

Distinct decrease in peripheral lymphocytes in EBER-positive cases of MTX-LPD.

Objectives: To determine the clinical characteristics of methotrexate-associated lymphoproliferative disorder (MTX-LPD).

Methods: In this study, 12 RA patients who developed MTX-LPD were assessed. The peripheral blood lymphocyte (PBL) count at the onset of MTX-LPD was compared to that 6 months before the onset, in Epstein-Barr virus-encoded RNA (EBER)-positive and -negative subgroups.

Anterior insula activity and the effect of agency on the Stimulus-Preceding Negativity.

If you know that you are the author of a freely chosen action and that you bear responsibility for its outcome, then you are said to have "a sense of agency." When there is a delay between action and outcome, this response must be remembered if you are to learn from the experience. Previous studies have shown that the Stimulus-Preceding Negativity (SPN) recorded during the delay interval is larger under conditions that foster a sense of agency.

The neural correlates of "mind blanking": When the mind goes away.

Mind blanking (MB) is the state where our minds are seemingly "nowhere," and attention calls no perceptual input into conscious awareness. It is little investigated, perhaps partly because it is difficult to detect the mysterious periods of blanking. In this study, we found that our participants could intentionally produce a state of MB whose neural correlates were deactivation of Broca's area and parts of the default mode network (namely, the hippocampus) which would be active during mind wandering (MW), in addition to activity in another region in the default mode network (namely, anterior cingulate cortex).

Subjective memory complaints are associated with altered resting-state functional connectivity but not structural atrophy.

Research indicates that a subtle cognitive decline, accompanied by pathological changes, occurs in individuals with subjective memory complaints (SMC). However, there is less evidence regarding the measurement of resting-state functional connectivity to detect subtle brain network alterations in neurodegenerative illnesses before cognitive change manifestation. We investigated the correlation between SMC and cognitive performance and explored functional and structural brain changes underlying SMC severity, using behavioral and brain imaging data-driven approaches.