White matter tracts and executive functions: a review of causal and correlation evidence.

Executive functions are high-level cognitive processes involving abilities such as working memory/updating, set-shifting and inhibition. These complex cognitive functions are enabled by interactions among widely distributed cognitive networks, supported by white matter tracts. Executive impairment is frequent in neurological conditions affecting white matter; however, whether specific tracts are crucial for normal executive functions is unclear.

Combining resting state functional MRI with intraoperative cortical stimulation to map the mentalizing network.

Objective: To infer the face-based mentalizing network from resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) using a seed-based correlation analysis with regions of interest identified during intraoperative cortical electrostimulation.

Methods: We retrospectively included 23 patients in whom cortical electrostimulation induced transient face-based mentalizing impairment during 'awake' craniotomy for resection of a right-sided diffuse low-grade glioma. Positive stimulation sites were recorded and transferred to the patients' preoperative normalized MRI, and then used as seeds for subsequent seed-to-voxel functional connectivity analyses.

Zn-triggered self-assembly of Gonadorelin [6-D-Phe] to produce nanostructures and fibrils.

A synthetic derivative, GnRH [6-D-Phe], stable against enzymatic degradation, self-assembles and forms nanostructures and fibrils upon a pH shift in the presence of different concentrations of Zn in vitro. Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) revealed the existence of higher order assembly of Zn: GnRH [6-D-Phe]. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR) indicated a weak interaction between Zn and GnRH [6-D-Phe].

Neuropsychological evidence for the crucial role of the right arcuate fasciculus in the face-based mentalizing network: A disconnection analysis.

Recent evidence from axonal stimulation mapping studies suggests that at least two white matter connectivities in the right hemisphere may be involved in face-based mentalizing, i.e. the ability to infer complex cognitive and affective states from human faces: the inferior fronto-occipital (IFOF) and the superior longitudinal/arcuate (SLF/AF) fasciculi.

Left Spatial Neglect Evoked by Electrostimulation of the Right Inferior Fronto-occipital Fasciculus.

Left spatial neglect is a debilitating condition that may occur after lesion of many cortical territories in the right hemisphere. At the subcortical level, the second and third branches of the right superior longitudinal fasciculus has emerged as strong candidates in conveying information exchanges within the attention networks as their damage has been repeatedly associated to spatial neglect in neuromodulation and neuropsychological studies. Yet, a few cases of spatial neglect have also been observed after damage to the right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), suggesting an involvement of this associative connectivity in spatial attention.