Serial systemic immune inflammation indices: markers of acute migraine events or indicators of persistent inflammatory status?

Background: Migraine is the most common complex neurological disorder, affecting over a billion people worldwide. Neurogenic inflammation has long been recognized as a key factor in the pathophysiology of migraine though little research has been directed to investigating whether inflammation is greatest in migraine with aura or without, and whether inflammation is a permanent state in migraine or whether is an event related transitory state. Thus, the primary aim of this single-centre, retrospective study was to explore the potential clinical utility of the Serial Systemic Immune-Inflammatory Indices (SSIIi) as a comparative measure of duration and severity of inflammation derived from routine blood cell counts in migraine patients with aura and no-aura both within an acute inpatient setting and as outpatients.

Serial Systemic Immune-Inflammation Indices (SSIIi) as Prognostic Markers in Persistent Hypoxic Brain Injury Post-cardiac Arrest: A Case Report.

This case report presents a novel exploration of serial systemic immune-inflammation indices (SSIIi) as a potential prognostic biomarker in a critical care setting. The subject of this report is a 31-year-old male who, following a heroin overdose, suffered an asystolic cardiac arrest and subsequently passed away two weeks later in the intensive care unit (ICU). The SSIIi, calculated as platelet count × neutrophil count / lymphocyte count, was monitored throughout his stay.

Comparison of Tiling Artifact Removal Methods in Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Images.

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) imaging is used across many fields for the atomic and molecular characterization of surfaces, with both high sensitivity and high spatial resolution. When large analysis areas are required, standard ToF-SIMS instruments allow for the acquisition of adjoining tiles, which are acquired by rastering the primary ion beam. For such large area scans, tiling artifacts are a ubiquitous challenge, manifesting as intensity gradients across each tile and/or sudden changes in intensity between tiles.

The Influence of Light Wavelength on Human HPA Axis Rhythms: A Systematic Review.

Environmental light entrains many physiological and behavioural processes to the 24 h solar cycle. Such light-driven circadian rhythms are centrally controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which receives information from the short-wavelength-sensitive intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. The SCN synchronizes local clocks throughout the body affecting sleep/wake routines and the secretion of neuroendocrine-linked hormones such as melatonin from the pineal gland and cortisol via the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis.

Sex and stress hormone dysregulation as clinical manifestations of hypothalamic function in migraine disorder: A meta-analysis.

Migraine is a leading cause of disability in young adults. It occurs more frequently in females, often comorbidly with stress disorders, suggesting an association with hypothalamic sex and stress hormonal function and a likely interaction with autonomic nervous system activation. Thus, this study aimed to meta-analyse current literature pertaining to female and male sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone and testosterone concentration), hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) cortisol responses and heart rate variability (HRV) in migraineurs and controls aged 13-65 years.

Visual Motor Reaction Times Predict Receptive and Expressive Language Development in Early School-Age Children.

Proficiency of multisensory processing and motor skill are often associated with early cognitive, social, and language development. However, little research exists regarding the relationship between multisensory motor reaction times (MRTs) to auditory, visual and audiovisual stimuli, and classical measures of receptive language and expressive vocabulary development in school-age children. Thus, this study aimed to examine the concurrent development of performance in classical tests of receptive (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test; abbreviated as PPVT) and expressive vocabulary (Expressive Vocabulary Test; abbreviated as EVT), nonverbal intelligence (NVIQ) (determined with the aid of Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices; abbreviated as RCPM), speed of visual-verbal processing in the Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) test, Eye-Hand Co-ordination (EHC) in the SLURP task, and multisensory MRTs, in children ( = 75), aged between 5 and 10 years.

Escalating Bi-Directional Feedback Loops between Proinflammatory Microglia and Mitochondria in Ageing and Post-Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive age-related neurodegenerative disease affecting up to 3% of the global population over 65 years of age. Currently, the underlying physiological aetiology of PD is unknown. However, the diagnosed disorder shares many common non-motor symptoms associated with ageing-related neurodegenerative disease progression, such as neuroinflammation, microglial activation, neuronal mitochondrial impairment, and chronic autonomic nervous system dysfunction.

Flash Electroretinography as a Measure of Retinal Function in Myopia and Hyperopia: A Systematic Review.

Refractive errors (myopia and hyperopia) are the most common visual disorders and are severe risk factors for secondary ocular pathologies. The development of refractive errors has been shown to be associated with changes in ocular axial length, suggested to be induced by outer retinal elements. Thus, the present study systematically reviewed the literature examining retinal function as assessed using global flash electroretinograms (gfERGs) in human clinical refractive error populations.

The Contribution of Visual and Auditory Working Memory and Non-Verbal IQ to Motor Multisensory Processing in Elementary School Children.

Although cognitive abilities have been shown to facilitate multisensory processing in adults, the development of cognitive abilities such as working memory and intelligence, and their relationship to multisensory motor reaction times (MRTs), has not been well investigated in children. Thus, the aim of the current study was to explore the contribution of age-related cognitive abilities in elementary school-age children ( = 75) aged 5-10 years, to multisensory MRTs in response to auditory, visual, and audiovisual stimuli, and a visuomotor eye-hand co-ordination processing task. Cognitive performance was measured on classical working memory tasks such as forward and backward visual and auditory digit spans, and the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM test of nonverbal intelligence).

Faster social attention disengagement in individuals with higher autism traits.

Introduction: Atypical visual and social attention has often been associated with clinically diagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and with the broader autism phenotype. Atypical social attention is of particular research interest given the importance of facial expressions for social communication, with faces tending to attract and hold attention in neurotypical individuals. In autism, this is not necessarily so, where there is debate about the temporal differences in the ability to disengage attention from a face.

The effect of anxiety on working memory and language abilities in elementary schoolchildren with and without Additional Health and Developmental Needs.

Although excessive childhood anxiety is recognised as a significant public health, education and socioeconomic concern, the specific effects of such anxiety on language development and working memory, particularly visual working memory, are relatively unknown. Thus, this study aimed to examine parent-reported trait anxiety, parent-reported functional language (daily communication skills) and clinical measures of non-verbal intelligence, receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness, and visual and auditory-verbal short-term and working memory in elementary schoolchildren. The final sample included 41 children categorised as Additional Health and Developmental Needs (AHDN) due to medical, neurodevelopmental or educational concerns and 41 age- and IQ-matched neurotypical (NT) children, aged 5- to 9-years.

Kinematic Studies of the Go/No-Go Task as a Dynamic Sensorimotor Inhibition Task for Assessment of Motor and Executive Function in Stroke Patients: An Exploratory Study in a Neurotypical Sample.

Inhibition of reaching and grasping actions as an element of cognitive control and executive function is a vital component of sensorimotor behaviour that is often impaired in patients who have lost sensorimotor function following a stroke. To date, there are few kinematic studies detailing the fine spatial and temporal upper limb movements associated with the millisecond temporal trajectory of correct and incorrect responses to visually driven Go/No-Go reaching and grasping tasks. Therefore, we aimed to refine the behavioural measurement of correct and incorrect inhibitory motor responses in a Go/No-Go task for future quantification and personalized rehabilitation in older populations and those with acquired motor disorders, such as stroke.

Osmotic gradients and transretinal water flow-a quantitative elemental microanalytical study of frozen hydrated chick eyes.

Optical clarity and efficient phototransduction are necessary for optimal vision, however, how the associated processes of osmoregulation and continuous fluid drainage across the whole eye are achieved remains relatively unexplored. Hence, we have employed elemental microanalysis of planed surfaces of light-adapted bulk frozen-hydrated chick eyes to determine the unique intracellular elemental localization, compositions, and hydration states that contribute to maintaining osmotic gradients and water flow from the vitreous, across the retina, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), to choroid and sclera. As expected, the greatest difference in resultant osmotic concentration gradients, [calculated using the combined concentrations of sodium (Na) and potassium (K)] and tissue hydration [oxygen-defined water concentration], occurs in the outer retina and, in particular, in the RPE where the apical and basal membranes are characterized by numerous bioenergetically active, osmoregulating ion transport mechanisms, aquaporins, and chloride (Cl) channels.

Age-related decrease in motor contribution to multisensory reaction times in primary school children.

Traditional measurement of multisensory facilitation in tasks such as speeded motor reaction tasks (MRT) consistently show age-related improvement during early childhood. However, the extent to which motor function increases with age and hence contribute to multisensory motor reaction times in young children has seldom been examined. Thus, we aimed to investigate the contribution of motor development to measures of multisensory (auditory, visual, and audiovisual) and visuomotor processing tasks in three young school age groups of children ( = 69) aged (5-6, = 21; 7-8, = 25.

A Role for Visual Memory in Vocabulary Development: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Although attention and early associative learning in preverbal children is predominantly driven by rapid eye-movements in response to moving visual stimuli and sounds/words (e.g., associating the word "bottle" with the object), the literature examining the role of visual attention and memory in ongoing vocabulary development across childhood is limited.

Visual Processing During the Interictal Period Between Migraines: A Meta-Analysis.

Migraine is a poorly understood neurological disorder and a leading cause of disability in young adults, particularly women. Migraines are characterized by recurring episodes of severe pulsating unilateral headache and usually visual symptoms. Currently there is some disagreement in the electrophysiological literature regarding the universality of all migraineurs exhibiting physiological visual impairments also during interictal periods (i.

Functional Deficits and Structural Changes Associated With the Visual Attention Network During Resting State in Adult Strabismic and Anisometropic Amblyopes.

Our previous study has shown impaired blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD)/functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation of the visual attention network in strabismic amblyopia (SA). However, there has been no comparison of resting state fMRI activation and functional connectivity (FC) in brain regions of interest (ROIs) along the visual attention network including visual cortex (V1), intraparietal sulcus (IPS), and frontal eye fields (FEFs) during closed eye resting across the SA ( = 20, 13LE), or anisometropic amblyopes (AA) ( = 20, 13LE) groups. Hence, we compared, gray matter volume (GMV), amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFFs), regional homogeneity (ReHo), and FC in the left and right hemisphere ROIs of the visual attention network in SA, AA, and healthy controls (HCs) ( = 21).

Vision and Visuomotor Performance Following Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Background: As measurable sensory and motor deficits are key to the diagnosis of stroke, we investigated the value of objective tablet based vision and visuomotor capacity assessment in acute mild-moderate ischemic stroke (AIS) patients.

Methods: Sixty AIS patients (65 ± 14 years, 33 males) without pre-existing visual/neurological disorders and acuity better than 6/12 were tested at their bedside during the first week post-stroke and were compared to 40 controls (64 ± 11 years, 15 males). Visual field sensitivity, quantified as mean deviation (dB) and visual acuity (with and without luminance noise), were tested on MRFn (Melbourne Rapid Field-Neural) iPad application.

Action video game training improves text reading accuracy, rate and comprehension in children with dyslexia: a randomized controlled trial.

Dynamic visual attention training using Action Video Games (AVGs) is a promising intervention for dyslexia. This study investigated the efficacy of 5 h (10 × 30 min) of AVG training in dyslexic children (aged 8-13) using 'Fruit Ninja', while exploring whether increasing attentional and eye movement demands enhanced AVG effectiveness. Regular (AVG-R; n = 22) and enhanced AVG training (AVG+; n = 23) were compared to a treatment-as-usual comparison group (n = 19) on reading, rapid naming, eye movements and visuo-temporal processing.

The Age-Related Changes in Speed of Visual Perception, Visual Verbal and Visuomotor Performance, and Nonverbal Intelligence During Early School Years.

Speed of sensory information processing has long been recognized as an important characteristic of global intelligence, though few studies have concurrently investigated the contribution of different types of information processing to nonverbal IQ in children, nor looked at whether chronological age vs. months of early schooling plays a larger role. Thus, this study investigated the speed of visual information processing in three tasks including a simple visual inspection time (IT) task, a visual-verbal processing task using Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) of objects as an accepted preschool predictor of reading, and a visuomotor processing task using a game-like iPad application, (the "SLURP" task) that requires writing like skills, in association with nonverbal IQ (Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices) in children ( = 100) aged 5-7 years old.

Long-Wavelength-Filtered Light Transiently Inhibits Negative Lens-Induced Axial Eye Growth in the Chick Myopia Model.

Purpose: Eye growth and myopia development in chicks, and some other animal models, can be suppressed by rearing under near-monochromatic, short-wavelength blue light. We aimed to determine whether similar effects could be achieved using glass filters that transmit a broader range of short and middle wavelengths.

Methods: On day 6 or 7 post-hatch, 169 chicks were assigned to one of three monocular lens conditions (-10 D, +10 D, plano) and reared for 7 or 10 days under one of four 201-lux lighting conditions: (1) B410 long-wavelength-filtered light, (2) B460 long-wavelength-filtered light, (3) Y48 short-wavelength-filtered light, or (4) HA50 broadband light.

Electroretinography and Gene Expression Measures Implicate Phototransduction and Metabolic Shifts in Chick Myopia and Hyperopia Models.

The Retinal Ion-Driven Fluid Efflux (RIDE) model theorizes that phototransduction-driven changes in trans-retinal ion and fluid transport underlie the development of myopia (short-sightedness). In support of this model, previous functional studies have identified the attenuation of outer retinal contributions to the global flash electroretinogram (gfERG) following weeks of myopia induction in chicks, while discovery-driven transcriptome studies have identified changes to the expression of ATP-driven ion transport and mitochondrial metabolism genes in the retina/RPE/choroid at the mid- to late-induction time-points. Less is known about the early time-points despite biometric analyses demonstrating changes in eye growth by 3 h in the chick lens defocus model.

An x-ray microanalytical method for measuring in vivo element and water concentrations, relating to osmoregulation, in cells and tissues of the posterior eye.

Osmoregulation is critical for cell and tissue survival yet there are relatively few methods available to determine osmotic gradients from water and elemental concentration either in single cells or across multiple cellular layers of tissue. X-ray microanalysis of frozen-hydrated preparations in a scanning electron microscope is one such powerful, sensitive, nondestructive technique. Here we use x-ray microanalysis to quantitatively analyse intracellular element concentrations and oxygen concentrations, as a proxy for water concentrations, in selected individual cells of the posterior eye.

Case Report: Posterior Reversible Leukoencephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) as a Biologically Predictable Neurological Association in Severe COVID-19. First Reported Case From Australia and Review of Internationally Published Cases.

Reports of different types of neurological manifestations of COVID-19 are rapidly increasing, including changes of posterior reversible leukoencephalopathy syndrome (PRES). Here we describe the first reported case of COVID-19 and PRES in Australia diagnosed on basis of MRI brain imaging and confirmed clinically by presence of confusion, delirium, headaches, also associated with hypertension and blood pressure variability and stable long-term kidney problems. He made full recovery as his blood pressure was controlled and clinical status was supported with appropriate supportive therapy.