High-Resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Metabolic Profiling of Ocotea diospyrifolia (Meisn.) Mez Leaves.

Ocotea is an important genus of Lauraceae plant family that comprises over 400 species, many of which pose challenges in taxonomic differentiation due to their complex botanical characteristics. Chemosystematics, and more recently, chemophenetics, have emerged as valuable tools to address these challenges based on their natural products (NPs) composition. O.

Migraine aura discrimination using machine learning: an fMRI study during ictal and interictal periods.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on migraine with aura are challenging due to the rarity of patients with triggered cases. This study optimized methodologies to explore differences in ictal and interictal spatiotemporal activation patterns based on visual stimuli using fMRI in two patients with unique aura triggers. Both patients underwent separate fMRI sessions during the ictal and interictal periods.

Impact of Loneliness on Training Gains with Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback in the Elderly: A Pilot Study.

The negative impact of loneliness on the health of the elderly is particularly noticeable because of the effects of central control on the autonomic nervous system. Such an impact can be assessed through heart rate variability (HRV) analysis and can be modified using HRV biofeedback training. This study aimed to investigate the impact of different levels of social interaction reported by the elderly on HRV before and after training with HRV biofeedback and after a follow-up period.

Emotion regulation effects of Ayahuasca in experienced subjects during implicit aversive stimulation: An fMRI study.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Ayahuasca is a beverage used in Amazonian traditional medicine and it has been part of the human experience for millennia as well as other different psychoactive plants. Although Ayahuasca has been proposed as potentially therapeutic as an anxiolytic and antidepressant, whilst no studies have been carried out so far investigating their direct effect on brain emotional processing.

Aim Of The Study: This study aimed to measure the emotional acute effect of Ayahuasca on brain response to implicit aversive stimulation using a face recognition task in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Long-term benefits of heart rate variability biofeedback training in older adults with different levels of social interaction: a pilot study.

Unlabelled: To test whether heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback training benefits older adults with different social interaction levels.

Methods: 32 older adults (16 were institutionalized and 16 were not). Both groups received 14 sessions, 15 min, 3 times a week, with half of the individuals receiving HRV biofeedback training and the other half receiving control training.

The impact of a violent community on mental health and the benefits of a sport program for social development.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of a violent environment on mental health and the impact of a sport for social development (SSD) program on quality of life, mental distress symptoms, and heart rate variability (HRV). HRV and psychometric data were measured from 20 men professional athletes assisted by the SSD and 20 men living in the same violent community. The comparison of groups revealed greater sympathetic parameters of HRV, positive affect, and quality of life in the SSD group.

The digiti quinti sign in hemiplegic migraine: An fMRI study.

Background And Purpose: The digiti quinti sign (DQS) consists of a wider angle between the fourth and fifth fingers (ANG) indicative of subtle hemiparesis that has been found interictally in hemiplegic migraine (HM), suggesting a permanent subtle motor dysfunction. The aim of this study was to find a possible cortical origin for the DQS using blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional (f) MRI.

Methods: Eight HM patients and 13 controls entered the cross-sectional study.

Heart Rate Variability and Pain Sensitivity in Chronic Low Back Pain Patients Exposed to Passive Viewing of Photographs of Daily Activities.

Objective: Investigation if emotional reactivity by measuring heart rate variability (HRV) and pressure pain sensitivity during a passive visualization task in participants with chronic low back pain (CLBP).

Materials And Methods: This case-control study was composed of 47 participants with CLBP and 47 asymptomatic participants. Both groups were submitted to a passive visualization task using 27 pictures from PHODA (Photograph Series of Daily Activities).

Heart rate variability in patients with low back pain: a systematic review.

Objectives: Heart rate variability (HRV) is an important physiological measure of the capacity for neurogenic homeostatic regulation, and an indirect measure of emotional processing. We aimed to investigate whether HRV parameters are altered in people with chronic low back pain when compared to healthy controls.

Methods: We searched on PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO from inception to January 2018.

Autonomic dysregulation and impairments in the recognition of facial emotional expressions in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Objectives: Emotions are involved in the identification of safety cues in the environment, and are also related to social interaction through recognition of emotional facial expressions. Heart rate variability (HRV) can be an indicator of the adaptive response of the autonomic nervous system to stressful conditions, including pain. This study aimed to investigate the emotional processing in a sample of patients with chronic musculoskeletal by measuring the resting-state HRV and the ability to recognize facial emotion expressions.

Anterior Insular Resting-State Functional Connectivity is Related to Cognitive Reserve in Multiple Sclerosis.

Background And Purpose: Cognitive dysfunction is common in multiple sclerosis (MS). The dorsal anterior insula (dAI) is a key hub of the salience network (SN) orchestrating access to critical cognitive brain regions. The aim of this study was to assess whole-brain dAI intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) in people with MS and healthy controls (HC) and test the relationship between cognitive reserve (CR) and dAI iFC in people with MS.

Correction to: How do you perceive threat? It's all in your pattern of brain activity.

The author found a mistake in their published article. They observed that Fig. 2 presented some mistakes as follow.

Effects of Yoga Respiratory Practice () on Anxiety, Affect, and Brain Functional Connectivity and Activity: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

refers to a set of yoga breathing exercises. Recent evidence suggests that the practice of has positive effects on measures of clinical stress and anxiety. This study explored the impact of a training program on emotion processing, anxiety, and affect.

Interactions between emotion and action in the brain.

A growing literature supports the existence of interactions between emotion and action in the brain, and the central participation of the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) in this regard. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we sought to investigate the role of self-relevance during such interactions by varying the context in which threating pictures were presented (with guns pointed towards or away from the observer). Participants performed a simple visual detection task following exposure to such stimuli.

How do you perceive threat? It's all in your pattern of brain activity.

Whether subtle differences in the emotional context during threat perception can be detected by multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) remains a topic of debate. To investigate this question, we compared the ability of pattern recognition analysis to discriminate between patterns of brain activity to a threatening versus a physically paired neutral stimulus in two different emotional contexts (the stimulus being directed towards or away from the viewer). The directionality of the stimuli is known to be an important factor in activating different defensive responses.

A new approach for radiosynoviorthesis: A dose-optimized planning method based on Monte Carlo simulation and synovial measurement using 3D slicer and MRI.

Purpose: Recently, there has been a growing interest in a methodology for dose planning in radiosynoviorthesis to substitute fixed activity. Clinical practice based on fixed activity frequently does not embrace radiopharmaceutical dose optimization in patients. The aim of this paper is to propose and discuss a dose planning methodology considering the radiological findings of interest obtained by three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging combined with Monte Carlo simulation in radiosynoviorthesis treatment applied to hemophilic arthropathy.

Default mode and task-positive networks connectivity during the N-Back task in remitted depressed patients with or without emotional residual symptoms.

Clinical remission of depression may be associated with emotional residual symptoms. We studied the association of emotional blunting, rumination with neural networks dynamics in remitted depressed patients and cognitive performance during an N-Back task. Twenty-six outpatients in remission of depression (Hamilton Depressive rating scale score <7) performed an N-Back task during fMRI assessment.

Cortical Thickness and Episodic Memory Impairment in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in brain cortical thickness of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with and without episodic memory impairment and healthy controls.

Methods: We studied 51 patients divided in 2 groups (SLE with episodic memory deficit, n = 17; SLE without episodic memory deficit, n = 34) by the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and 34 healthy controls. Groups were paired based on sex, age, education, Mini-Mental State Examination score, and accumulation of disease burden.

Decoding negative affect personality trait from patterns of brain activation to threat stimuli.

Introduction: Pattern recognition analysis (PRA) applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to decode cognitive processes and identify possible biomarkers for mental illness. In the present study, we investigated whether the positive affect (PA) or negative affect (NA) personality traits could be decoded from patterns of brain activation in response to a human threat using a healthy sample.

Methods: fMRI data from 34 volunteers (15 women) were acquired during a simple motor task while the volunteers viewed a set of threat stimuli that were directed either toward them or away from them and matched neutral pictures.

Primary Motor Cortex Representation of Handgrip Muscles in Patients with Leprosy.

Background: Leprosy is an endemic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae that predominantly attacks the skin and peripheral nerves, leading to progressive impairment of motor, sensory and autonomic function. Little is known about how this peripheral neuropathy affects corticospinal excitability of handgrip muscles. Our purpose was to explore the motor cortex organization after progressive peripheral nerve injury and upper-limb dysfunction induced by leprosy using noninvasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Clinical feasibility of Açai (Euterpe olerácea) pulp as an oral contrast agent for magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography.

Background: We evaluate the effectiveness of the Amazonian fruit pulp from Euterpe olerácea (popularly named Açaí) as a negative oral contrast agent applied to clinical routine. The use of such contrasts is particularly important in magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) to reduce overlapping.

Materials And Methods: We administered Açaí pulp to 5 nonsymptomatic subjects and 35 patients submitted to unspecific abdominal MR imaging, intending to set up optimal protocol.