Modulation of the default-mode network and the attentional network by self-referential processes in patients with disorder of consciousness.

Disorders of consciousness (DOC) are related to an altered capacity of the brain to successfully integrate and segregate information. Alterations in brain functional networks structure have been found in fMRI studies, which could account for the incapability of the brain to efficiently manage internally and externally generated information. Here we assess the modulation of neural activity in areas of the networks related to active introspective or extrospective processing in 9 patients with DOC and 17 controls using fMRI.

Short apraxia screening test.

Background: Limb apraxia comprises many different and common disorders, which are largely unrecognized essentially because there is no easy-to-use screening test sensitive enough to identify all types of limb praxis deficits.

Method: We evaluated 70 right-handed patients with limb apraxia due to a single focal lesion of the left hemisphere and 40 normal controls, using a new apraxia screening test. The test covered 12 items including: intransitive gestures, transitive gestures elicited under verbal, visual, and tactile modalities, imitation of meaningful and meaningless postures and movements, and a multiple object test.

Decision-making impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis: a case-control study.

Objectives: To assess decision-making under explicit risk conditions in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients and its relationship to decisions made under conditions of ambiguity. To assess cognitive functions related to decision-making performance in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Setting: MS center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Lateralization of brain activity during motor planning of proximal and distal gestures.

Praxis functions are predominantly processed by the left hemisphere. However, limb apraxia is found in less than 50% of patients with left hemisphere damage, and also, although infrequently, in patients with right hemisphere damage. We studied brain representation of preparation/planning of tool-use pantomime separating the gestures involving mostly distal limb control (e.

[Moderate control of hyperglycemia after acute stroke in the intensive care unit].

Hyperglycemia following an ischemic stroke has been associated with poor clinical outcome. We retrospectively assessed the effect of moderately controlled plasma glucose (correction from 135mg/dl) compared to conservative treatment (correction from 200 mg/dl), as regards neurological evolution, duration of hospitalization, at discharge and at 30 days post-discharge, also complications associated with the treatment in patients admitted to the intensive care unit. We studied 208 patients, 103 (24% diabetics) with moderate therapy and 105 (23% diabetics) with conservative treatment.

Neural correlates of musical creativity: differences between high and low creative subjects.

Previous studies of musical creativity suggest that this process involves multi-regional intra and interhemispheric interactions, particularly in the prefrontal cortex. However, the activity of the prefrontal cortex and that of the parieto-temporal regions, seems to depend on the domains of creativity that are evaluated and the task that is performed. In the field of music, only few studies have investigated the brain process of a creative task and none of them have investigated the effect of the level of creativity on the recruit networks.

Distinct patterns of functional brain connectivity correlate with objective performance and subjective beliefs.

The degree of correspondence between objective performance and subjective beliefs varies widely across individuals. Here we demonstrate that functional brain network connectivity measured before exposure to a perceptual decision task covaries with individual objective (type-I performance) and subjective (type-II performance) accuracy. Increases in connectivity with type-II performance were observed in networks measured while participants directed attention inward (focus on respiration), but not in networks measured during states of neutral (resting state) or exogenous attention.

State-dependent changes of connectivity patterns and functional brain network topology in autism spectrum disorder.

Anatomical and functional brain studies have converged to the hypothesis that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with atypical connectivity. Using a modified resting-state paradigm to drive subjects' attention, we provide evidence of a very marked interaction between ASD brain functional connectivity and cognitive state. We show that functional connectivity changes in opposite ways in ASD and typicals as attention shifts from external world towards one's body generated information.

Alerting network dysfunction in early multiple sclerosis.

The objective of this study is to assess attention in recently diagnosed relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients. Twenty-seven patients with early multiple sclerosis and low clinical disability scores (EDSS<2) and 27 sex-, age-, and education-matched healthy controls underwent attention assessment using the Attentional Network Test, a computerized task designed to measure efficiency independently in 3 attentional networks (Alerting, Orienting and Executive Control). MS patients had significantly less efficiency in the Alerting network (p = .

Early motor predictors of recovery in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.

Research Design: Retrospective observational study.

Objective: To compare motor variables between patients with severe traumatic brain injury who emerge and patients who do not emerge from vegetative state, in an attempt to identify early motor manifestations associated with consistent patient improvement.

Methods And Procedures: Patients were divided into two groups: group 1, patients who emerged from vegetative state attaining at least a state of functional interactive communication and/or functional use of two different objects (n = 8); and group 2, patients who did not emerge (n = 7).

The effect of the visual context in the recognition of symbolic gestures.

Background: To investigate, by means of fMRI, the influence of the visual environment in the process of symbolic gesture recognition. Emblems are semiotic gestures that use movements or hand postures to symbolically encode and communicate meaning, independently of language. They often require contextual information to be correctly understood.

Autonomic nervous system activation during social cognition tasks in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected relatives.

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine whether patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected first-degree relatives have abnormal autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to social cognition tasks.

Background: Social cognition impairments are significant in schizophrenia. ANS activity has been shown to be abnormal in schizophrenia patients, and some of the abnormalities seem to be shared by patients' unaffected relatives.

Higher autonomic activation predicts better performance in iowa gambling task.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between the autonomic nervous system basal state and performance in decision-making tasks.

Background: The link between performance in decision-making tasks and acute changes in autonomic parameters during their execution has been extensively investigated. However, there is lacking evidence regarding the relationship between decision making and basal autonomic state.

Asymmetrical contribution of brain structures to treatment-resistant depression as illustrated by effects of right subgenual cingulum stimulation.

Major depressive disorder is one of the most common psychiatric disorders, with a worldwide lifetime prevalence rate of 10%-20% in women and a slightly lower rate in men. While many patients are successfully treated using established therapeutic strategies, a significant percentage of patients fail to respond. This report describes the successful recovery of a previously treatment-resistant patient following right unilateral deep brain stimulation of Brodmann's area 25.

The impact of bilateral cerebellar damage on theory of mind, empathy and decision making.

The extensive infarction affecting the posterior vermis and the medial and posterior regions of both cerebellar hemispheres, as well as the small central pontine lesion, seems to have disrupted multiple cerebral and brainstem cerebellar loops. These loops process information related to many cognitive domains, behavior and emotion, including decision making, empathy and theory of mind.

Continuous subcutaneous apomorphine for severe disorders of consciousness after traumatic brain injury.

Background: The prognosis of long-term severe disorders of consciousness due to traumatic brain injury is discouraging. There is little definitive evidence of the underlying mechanisms, but a deficiency of the dopaminergic system may be involved.

Methods: In a prospective open-labelled clinical study, the feasibility, relative efficacy and safety of continuous subcutaneous (s.

Emotion processing and theory of mind in schizophrenia patients and their unaffected first-degree relatives.

Previous studies have suggested that social cognition is affected in individuals with schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to explore to what extent social cognition deficits are shared by unaffected first-degree relatives, and the nature of the relationship between performance in different paradigms of social cognition. 20 Schizophrenia patients (7 females, 31+/-10 years), 20 healthy age- and gender-matched individuals, 20 unaffected first-degree relatives of the schizophrenia patients (11 females, 50+/-20 years), and 20 healthy individuals matched for age and gender were recruited.

Globus pallidus internus firing rate modification after motor-imagination in three Parkinson's disease patients.

Motor imagery is thought to involve the same processes of movement preparation as actual movement. Imagination of a simple repetitive movement significantly decreased the firing rate of extracellular micro recording at sensorimotor neurons of globus pallidus internus in three patients with Parkinson's disease, who underwent microelectrode-guided posteroventral pallidotomy. These findings suggest, in agreement with previous clinical and functional neuroimaging studies that the motor corticostriatal circuit could be engaged in mental simulation.

Fast awakening from minimally conscious state with apomorphine.

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can induce long-term severe disorders of consciousness. Evidence suggests an underlying dopaminergic deficit. Dopamine agonists may therefore play an important role in recovery of consciousness.

Heart rate variability response to mental arithmetic stress is abnormal in first-degree relatives of individuals with schizophrenia.

Background: Schizophrenia patients exhibit an abnormal autonomic response to mental stress. We sought to determine the cardiac autonomic response to mental arithmetic stress in their unaffected first-degree relatives.

Methods: Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis was performed on recordings obtained before, during, and after a standard mental arithmetic task to induce mental stress.

Mood, Th-1/Th-2 cytokine profile, and autonomic activity in older adults with acute/decompensated heart failure: preliminary observations.

In order to assess the relationships among mood, peripheral autonomic output and circulating immunoinflammatory mediators in older individuals with decompensated heart failure (CHF), 20 consecutive patients (78+/-7 years, 35% women) admitted to the coronary care unit with a clinical diagnosis of acute/decompensated CHF of coronary origin were examined. Mood was evaluated by the 21-item Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D). Four patients met the criteria for major depression.

The neural substrate of gesture recognition.

Previous studies have linked action recognition with a particular pool of neurons located in the ventral premotor cortex, the posterior parietal cortex and the superior temporal sulcus (the mirror neuron system). However, it is still unclear if transitive and intransitive gestures share the same neural substrates during action-recognition processes. In the present study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the cortical areas active during recognition of pantomimed transitive actions, intransitive gestures, and meaningless control actions.