Thalamic Atrophy Predicts 5-Year Disability Progression in Multiple Sclerosis.

Thalamus is among the first brain regions to become atrophic in multiple sclerosis (MS). We studied whether thalamic atrophy predicts disability progression at 5 years in a cohort of Finnish MS patients. Global and regional brain volumes were measured from 24 newly diagnosed relapsing MS (RMS) patients 6 months after initiation of therapy and from 36 secondary progressive MS (SPMS) patients.

Thalamic Atrophy Without Whole Brain Atrophy Is Associated With Absence of 2-Year NEDA in Multiple Sclerosis.

To study which brain volume measures best differentiate early relapsing MS (RMS) and secondary progressive MS (SPMS) patients and correlate with disability and cognition. To test whether isolated thalamic atrophy at study baseline correlates with NEDA (no evidence of disease activity) at 2 years. Total and regional brain volumes were measured from 24 newly diagnosed RMS patients 6 months after initiation of therapy and 2 years thereafter, and in 36 SPMS patients.

Microglial activation, white matter tract damage, and disability in MS.

Objective: To investigate the relationship of in vivo microglial activation to clinical and MRI parameters in MS.

Methods: Patients with secondary progressive MS (n = 10) or relapsing-remitting MS (n = 10) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 17) were studied. Microglial activation was measured using PET and radioligand [C]()-PK11195.

Effect of prolonged differentiation on functional maturation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuronal cultures.

Long-term neural differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) is associated with enhanced neuronal maturation, which is a necessity for creation of representative in vitro models. It also induces neurogenic-to-gliogenic fate switch, increasing proportion of endogenous astrocytes formed from the common neural progenitors. However, the significance of prolonged differentiation on the neural cell type composition and functional development of hPSC-derived neuronal cells has not been well characterized.

TMS-EEG reveals hemispheric asymmetries in top-down influences of posterior intraparietal cortex on behavior and visual event-related potentials.

Clinical data and behavioral studies using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) suggest right-hemisphere dominance for top-down modulation of visual processing in humans. We used concurrent TMS-EEG to directly test for hemispheric differences in causal influences of the right and left intraparietal cortex on visual event-related potentials (ERPs). We stimulated the left and right posterior part of intraparietal sulcus (IPS1) while the participants were viewing and rating the visibility of bilaterally presented Gabor patches.