Intensified post-stroke care improves long-term dysphagia recovery after acute ischemic stroke: Results from the STROKE CARD trial.

Introduction: Dysphagia is common after acute ischemic stroke and entails considerable morbidity and mortality. Here, we investigated the impact of intensified care on swallowing recovery after stroke.

Patients And Methods: In this secondary analysis of STROKE-CARD, a randomized intervention trial of intensified post-stroke care, dysphagia was assessed by speech therapists at admission for acute ischemic stroke, at hospital discharge, and after 12-months.

Comorbidities associated with dysphagia after acute ischemic stroke.

Background: Pre-existing comorbidities increase the likelihood of post-stroke dysphagia. This study investigates comorbidity prevalence in patients with dysphagia after ischemic stroke.

Methods: The data of patients with acute ischemic stroke from two large representative cohorts (STROKE-CARD trial 2014-2019 and STROKE-CARD registry 2020-2022 - both study center Innsbruck, Austria) were analyzed for the presence of dysphagia at hospital admission (clinical swallowing examination).

Health-related quality of life in vibrant soundbridge patients: generic and specific measures, short-term and long-term outcomes.

Objective: The goal of the study was to determine the short- and long-term outcome of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in adults implanted with a Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB).

Methods: Twenty-one adults (8 females, 13 males; mean age at implantation: 57 ±10 years) who received a unilateral VSB for combined or conductive hearing loss, were administered two questionnaires: the Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ) as a measure of hearing-specific HRQoL, and the Health Utility Index 3 (HUI 3) as a measure of generic HRQoL. The questionnaires were administered before implantation and three, six, 12 and 24 months after processor activation.

Is it too loud? Ask your brain!

Purpose: In this study, the objectification of the subjective perception of loudness was investigated using electroencephalography (EEG). In particular, the emergence of objective markers in the domain of the acoustic discomfort threshold was examined.

Methods: A cohort of 27 adults with normal hearing, aged between 18 and 30, participated in the study.

Perceived social support improves health-related quality of life in cochlear implant patients.

Purpose: Perceived social support has been shown to positively correlate with health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in a variety of conditions. This study investigated whether perceived social support is affecting HR-QoL of patients who receive a cochlear implant (CI) for deafness.

Methods: Eighty eight adults (56 males, 32 females; mean age: 60 years) with a uni- or bilateral CI for bilateral high-grade hearing loss were administered two questionnaires: a questionnaire for perceived social support (FSU-14) and the Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ) for hearing-specific HR-QoL.

Association between dysphagia and symptoms of depression and anxiety after ischemic stroke.

Background And Purpose: Dysphagia is associated with poor outcome, higher mortality, reduced quality of life, and social isolation. We investigate the relationship between swallowing impairment and symptoms of anxiety and depression after ischemic stroke.

Methods: Consecutive patients with ischemic stroke participating in the prospective STROKE-CARD Registry study from 2020 to 2022 were assessed for dysphagia on hospital admission (clinical swallowing assessment) and for persistence until discharge and 3-month follow-up (SINGER Independency Index).

Localization of Low- and High-Frequency Sounds in Cochlear Implant Recipients Using a Contralateral Hearing Aid.

Background And Objectives: The ability to localize sounds is partly recovered in patients using a cochlear implant (CI) in one ear and a hearing aid (HA) on the contralateral side. Binaural processing seems effective at least to some extent, despite the difference between electric and acoustic stimulation in each ear. To obtain further insights into the mechanisms of binaural hearing in these listeners, localization of low- and high-frequency sounds was tested.

Neural Processing of Cognitive Control in an Emotionally Neutral Context in Anxiety Patients.

Impaired cognitive control plays a crucial role in anxiety disorders and is associated with deficient neural mechanisms in the fronto-parietal network. Usually, these deficits were found in tasks with an emotional context. The present study aimed at investigating electrophysiological and vascular signatures from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in anxiety patients versus healthy controls during an inhibition task integrated in an emotionally neutral context.

The challenge of learning a new language in adulthood: Evidence from a multi-methodological neuroscientific approach.

Being proficient in several foreign languages is an essential part of every-day life. In contrast to childhood, learning a new language can be highly challenging for adults. The present study aims at investigating neural mechanisms supporting very initial foreign language learning in adulthood.

Inner versus Overt Speech Production: Does This Make a Difference in the Developing Brain?

Studies in adults showed differential neural processing between overt and inner speech. So far, it is unclear whether inner and overt speech are processed differentially in children. The present study examines the pre-activation of the speech network in order to disentangle domain-general executive control from linguistic control of inner and overt speech production in 6- to 7-year-olds by simultaneously applying electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Individual differences in working memory capacity moderate effects of post-learning activity on memory consolidation over the long term.

Similar to sleeping after learning, a brief period of wakeful resting after encoding new information supports memory retention in contrast to task-related cognition. Recent evidence suggests that working memory capacity (WMC) is related to sleep-dependent declarative memory consolidation. We tested whether WMC moderates the effect of a brief period of wakeful resting compared to performing a distractor task subsequent to encoding a word list.

So young, yet so mature? Electrophysiological and vascular correlates of phonotactic processing in 18-month-olds.

The present study investigated neural correlates of implicit phonotactic processing in 18-month-old children that just reached an important step in language development: the vocabulary spurt. Pseudowords, either phonotactically legal or illegal with respect to their native language, were acoustically presented to monolingually German raised infants. Neural activity was simultaneously assessed by means of electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Uncovering electrophysiological and vascular signatures of implicit emotional prosody.

The capability of differentiating between various emotional states in speech displays a crucial prerequisite for successful social interactions. The aim of the present study was to investigate neural processes underlying this differentiating ability by applying a simultaneous neuroscientific approach in order to gain both electrophysiological (via electroencephalography, EEG) and vascular (via functional near-infrared-spectroscopy, fNIRS) responses. Pseudowords conforming to angry, happy, and neutral prosody were presented acoustically to participants using a passive listening paradigm in order to capture implicit mechanisms of emotional prosody processing.

The Brain Differentially Prepares Inner and Overt Speech Production: Electrophysiological and Vascular Evidence.

Speech production not only relies on spoken (overt speech) but also on silent output (inner speech). Little is known about whether inner and overt speech are processed differently and which neural mechanisms are involved. By simultaneously applying electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we tried to disentangle executive control from motor and linguistic processes.

How the Brain Understands Spoken and Sung Sentences.

The present study investigates whether meaning is similarly extracted from spoken and sung sentences. For this purpose, subjects listened to semantically correct and incorrect sentences while performing a correctness judgement task. In order to examine underlying neural mechanisms, a multi-methodological approach was chosen combining two neuroscientific methods with behavioral data.

How Therapeutic Tapping Can Alter Neural Correlates of Emotional Prosody Processing in Anxiety.

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychological disorders worldwide resulting in a great demand of adequate and cost-effective treatment. New short-term interventions can be used as an effective adjunct or alternative to pharmaco- and psychotherapy. One of these approaches is therapeutic tapping.

Bilingual and Monolingual First Language Acquisition Experience Differentially Shapes Children's Property Term Learning: Evidence from Behavioral and Neurophysiological Measures.

Studies of novel noun learning show bilingual children rely less on the Mutual Exclusivity Constraint (MEC) for word learning than monolinguals. Shifting the focus to learning novel property terms (adjectives), the present study compared 3.5- and five-year-old bilingual and monolingual preschoolers' adherence to the MEC.

Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms.

Background: Depressed populations demonstrate a greater tendency to have negative interpretations on ambiguous situations. Cognitive theories concerning depression proposed that such a negative bias plays an important role in developing and maintaining depression. There is now fairly consistent evidence arising from different stimuli and assessment methods that depression is featured by such a bias.

Effects of Working Memory Capacity and Tasks in Processing L2 Complex Sentence: Evidence from Chinese-English Bilinguals.

Two experiments aimed at investigating how working memory capacity (WMC) related to processing wh-extractions in both a grammatical judgment and a translation task by using the Operation Span task. A self-paced paradigm was used to collect response times and accuracy rates. In Experiment 1, results showed that high WMC was related to faster grammatical judgment of the critical region in subject- and object-extractions.

Impact of associative word learning on phonotactic processing in 6-month-old infants: A combined EEG and fNIRS study.

During early language development native phonotactics are acquired in a 'bottom-up' fashion, relying on exquisite auditory differentiation skills operational from birth. Since basic lexico-semantic abilities have been demonstrated from 6 months onwards, 'top-down' influences on phonotactic learning may complement the extraction of transitional probabilities in phonotactic learning. Such a bidirectional acquisition strategy predicts, that familiarization with (proto)words should affect processing of untrained word-forms of similar phonological structure.

Smaller gray matter volume of hippocampus/parahippocampus in elderly people with subthreshold depression: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Hippocampal/parahippocampal structural changes accompany major depressive disorders in the elderly, but whether subthreshold depression (StD) at an advanced age is also accompanied by similar changes in hippocampal/parahippocampal volumes is still unknown. By using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis of the gray matter, we explored whether there are structural alterations of the hippocampus/parahippocampus and the correlations between its volume and participants' self-reported depressive symptoms.

Methods: Participants were 19 community-dwelling older adults with StD assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) scores.

Universal and language-specific sublexical cues in speech perception: a novel electroencephalography-lesion approach.

SEE CAPPA DOI101093/BRAIN/AWW090 FOR A SCIENTIFIC COMMENTARY ON THIS ARTICLE  : The phonological structure of speech supports the highly automatic mapping of sound to meaning. While it is uncontroversial that phonotactic knowledge acts upon lexical access, it is unclear at what stage these combinatorial rules, governing phonological well-formedness in a given language, shape speech comprehension. Moreover few studies have investigated the neuronal network affording this important step in speech comprehension.

Electrophysiological evidence for domain-general inhibitory control during bilingual language switching.

This paper presents an experiment that explored the role of domain-general inhibitory control on language switching. Reaction times (RTs) and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded when low-proficient bilinguals with high and low inhibitory control (IC) switched between overt picture naming in both their L1 and L2. Results showed that the language switch costs of bilinguals with high-IC were symmetrical, while that of bilinguals with low-IC were not.

Electrophysiological evidence for modulation of lexical processing after repetitive exposure to foreign phonotactic rules.

In two experiments we investigate how repeated exposure to native and non-native phonotactic regularities alters the N400, an event-related potential related to lexico-semantic access. Participants underwent a Passive Listening (Experiment 1) or a Categorization Training (Experiment 2) for monosyllabic pseudowords over 3 days. During Passive Listening participants solely listened to the stimuli while for Categorization Training they learned to assign items to two arbitrary categories by feedback.