Focal temporoparietal slow activity in Alzheimer's disease revealed by magnetoencephalography.

Background: Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease exhibit more activity in the conventional electroencephalographic delta and theta bands. This activity concurs with atrophy and reduced metabolic and perfusion rates, particularly in temporoparietal structures.

Methods: Whole-head magnetoencephalographic recordings were obtained from 15 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and 19 healthy control subjects during a resting condition.

Longer versus shorter daily constraint-induced movement therapy of chronic hemiparesis: an exploratory study.

Objective: To evaluate and compare the effects of 3-hour versus 6-hour daily training sessions in constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT).

Design: Intervention study, 2-group randomized trial; baseline, pretreatment, and posttreatment measures; 1-month follow-up (weekly measures).

Setting: University department of psychology in Germany.

Sensory motor retuning: a behavioral treatment for focal hand dystonia of pianists and guitarists.

Objective: To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of sensory motor retuning (SMR), a new treatment for focal hand dystonia in musicians.

Design: Prospective case series with an (adventitious) comparison group with 3- to 25-month follow-up in piano and guitar and 0- to 4-month follow-up in flute and oboe players.

Setting: General community in Germany.

Large-scale neural correlates of affective picture processing.

Hemodynamic and electrophysiological studies indicate differential brain response to emotionally arousing, compared to neutral, pictures. The time course and source distribution of electrocortical potentials in response to emotional stimuli, using a high-density electrode (129-sensor) array were examined here. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures.

High resolution EEG indicators of pain responses in relation to hypnotic susceptibility and suggestion.

In this report we use a dense array (129 electrodes) EEG procedure to examine the effects of hypnotic susceptibility and hypnotic suggestions on electrocortical and self-report measures of painful stimuli. Self-report and event-related potential measures of six high and six low hypnotic susceptible individuals in response to pain were examined during an initial baseline condition and following a standard hypnotic induction under suggestions to either increase (hyperalgesia) or decrease (hypoalgesia) the painful stimulation. Our results show that high and low hypnotically susceptible individuals: (1) show few self-report or psychophysiological differences in response to baseline pain stimuli; (2) report differential pain experiences depending on hypnotic suggestions and (3) display differential psychophysiological indicators following an hypnotic induction with a suggestion of hypoalgesia.

New treatments in neurorehabilitation founded on basic research.

Recent discoveries about how the central nervous system responds to injury and how patients reacquire lost behaviours by training have yielded promising new therapies for neurorehabilitation. Until recently, this field had been largely static, but the current melding of basic behavioural science with neuroscience promises entirely new approaches to improving behavioural, perceptual and cognitive capabilities after neurological damage. Studies of phenomena such as cortical reorganization after a lesion, central nervous system repair, and the substantial enhancement of extremity use and linguistic function by behavioural therapy, support this emerging view.

Dissociation in human prefrontal cortex of affective influences on working memory-related activity.

Although neural activity associated with emotion is becoming better understood, the influence of affective parameters on brain activity reflecting cognitive functioning in humans remains poorly characterized. We examined affective influences on working memory (WM) and tested the hypotheses that (i) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity reflecting WM is influenced by the emotion-evoking qualities of task-relevant stimuli, but only when brought "on-line" by task demands, and (ii) DLPFC and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) activities are inversely related as a function of emotional valence. Participants performed two tasks while event-related functional MRI measured brain activity; one task required active maintenance of stimulus representations in WM, and the other task required target detection responses with no demand for WM.