Blood pressure changes during the first 24 hours of life and the association with the persistence of a patent ductus arteriosus and occurrence of intraventricular haemorrhage.

Very low birthweight (VLBW) infants are at risk of intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) and delayed closure of ductus arteriosus. We investigated mean arterially recorded blood pressure (MAP) changes during the first day of life in VLBW infants as potential risk factors for a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and IVH. This retrospective cohort study exploring MAP changes during adaption and risk factors for a PDA and IVH comprised 844 VLBW infants admitted to the Helsinki University Children's Hospital during 2005-2013.

Spatial variability of functional brain networks in early-blind and sighted subjects.

To further the understanding how the human brain adapts to early-onset blindness, we searched in early-blind and normally-sighted subjects for functional brain networks showing the most and least spatial variabilities across subjects. We hypothesized that the functional networks compensating for early-onset blindness undergo cortical reorganization. To determine whether reorganization of functional networks affects spatial variability, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare brain networks, derived by independent component analysis, of 7 early-blind and 7 sighted subjects while they rested or listened to an audio drama.

Two-point tactile discrimination ability is influenced by temporal features of stimulation.

Two-point discrimination threshold is commonly used for assessing tactile spatial resolution. Since the effect of temporal features of cutaneous test stimulation on spatial discrimination ability is not yet well known, we determined whether the ability to discriminate between two stimulus locations varies with the interstimulus interval (ISI) of sequentially presented tactile stimuli or the length of the stimulus train. Electrotactile stimuli were applied to one or two locations on the skin of the thenar eminence of the hand in healthy human subjects.

A segregated neural pathway for prefrontal top-down control of tactile discrimination.

It has proven difficult to separate functional areas in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), an area implicated in attention, memory, and distraction handling. Here, we assessed in healthy human subjects whether PFC subareas have different roles in top-down regulation of sensory functions by determining how the neural links between the PFC and the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) modulate tactile perceptions. Anatomical connections between the S1 representation area of the cutaneous test site and the PFC were determined using probabilistic tractography.

Listening to an audio drama activates two processing networks, one for all sounds, another exclusively for speech.

Earlier studies have shown considerable intersubject synchronization of brain activity when subjects watch the same movie or listen to the same story. Here we investigated the across-subjects similarity of brain responses to speech and non-speech sounds in a continuous audio drama designed for blind people. Thirteen healthy adults listened for ∼19 min to the audio drama while their brain activity was measured with 3 T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Facilitation of tactile working memory by top-down suppression from prefrontal to primary somatosensory cortex during sensory interference.

Tactile working memory (WM) is improved by increasing top-down suppression of interfering sensory processing in S1 via a link from the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) to S1. Here we studied in healthy subjects whether the efficacy of top-down suppression varies with submodality of sensory interference. Navigated stimulation of the MFG-S1 link significantly improved tactile WM performance when accompanied by tactile but not visual interference of memory maintenance.