Novel G1481V and Q1491H SCN5A Mutations Linked to Long QT Syndrome Destabilize the Nav1.5 Inactivation State.

Background: Na1.5, which is encoded by the gene, is the predominant voltage-gated Na channel in the heart. Several mutations of this gene have been identified and reported to be involved in several cardiac rhythm disorders, including type 3 long QT interval syndrome, that can cause sudden cardiac death.

White matter hyperintensities mediate the impact of amyloid ß on future freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Freezing of gait (FOG) is a common symptom in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients. Previous studies have reported relationships between FOG, substantia nigra (SN) degeneration, dopamine transporter (DAT) concentration, as well as amyloid β deposition. However, there is a paucity of research on the concurrent impact of white matter damage.

Development and validation of a self-report measure assessing failures in the mentalization of trauma and adverse relationships.

Background: The way people process trauma and adverse relationships may be more predictive of subsequent adaptation than trauma exposure in itself. However, there is currently no self-report instrument assessing failures in the mentalization of trauma and adverse relationships.

Objective: We developed the Failure to Mentalize Trauma Questionnaire (FMTQ) and evaluated its psychometric properties.

Disappearing metabolic youthfulness in the cognitively impaired female brain.

Sex differences play a vital role in human brain structure and physiology. Previous reports have proposed evidence hinting at a metabolic advantage in female brains across adulthood. It remained to be determined whether this advantage would be maintained across the spectrum of cognitive impairment, up to and including dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Training in the practice of noninvasive brain stimulation: Recommendations from an IFCN committee.

As the field of noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) expands, there is a growing need for comprehensive guidelines on training practitioners in the safe and effective administration of NIBS techniques in their various research and clinical applications. This article provides recommendations on the structure and content of this training. Three different types of practitioners are considered (Technicians, Clinicians, and Scientists), to attempt to cover the range of education and responsibilities of practitioners in NIBS from the laboratory to the clinic.

International Legal Approaches to Neurosurgery for Psychiatric Disorders.

Neurosurgery for psychiatric disorders (NPD), also sometimes referred to as psychosurgery, is rapidly evolving, with new techniques and indications being investigated actively. Many within the field have suggested that some form of guidelines or regulations are needed to help ensure that a promising field develops safely. Multiple countries have enacted specific laws regulating NPD.

Intrinsic Mechanisms Regulating Neuronal Migration in the Postnatal Brain.

Neuronal migration is a fundamental brain development process that allows cells to move from their birthplaces to their sites of integration. Although neuronal migration largely ceases during embryonic and early postnatal development, neuroblasts continue to be produced and to migrate to a few regions of the adult brain such as the dentate gyrus and the subventricular zone (SVZ). In the SVZ, a large number of neuroblasts migrate into the olfactory bulb (OB) along the rostral migratory stream (RMS).

Vascular Contributions to Neurodegeneration: Protocol of the COMPASS-ND Study.

Objective: To describe the neuroimaging and other methods for assessing vascular contributions to neurodegeneration in the Comprehensive Assessment of Neurodegeneration and Dementia (COMPASS-ND) study, a Canadian multi-center, prospective longitudinal cohort study, including reliability and feasibility in the first 200 participants.

Methods: COMPASS-ND includes persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 150), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Lewy body dementias (LBDs) (200), mixed dementia (200), mild cognitive impairment (MCI; 400), subcortical ischemic vascular MCI (V-MCI; 200), subjective cognitive impairment (SCI; 300), and cognitively intact elderly controls (660). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was acquired according to the validated Canadian Dementia Imaging Protocol and visually reviewed by either of two experienced readers blinded to clinical characteristics.

Adult neural stem cell activation in mice is regulated by the day/night cycle and intracellular calcium dynamics.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) in the adult brain transit from the quiescent state to proliferation to produce new neurons. The mechanisms regulating this transition in freely behaving animals are, however, poorly understood. We customized in vivo imaging protocols to follow NSCs for several days up to months, observing their activation kinetics in freely behaving mice.

Impact of bifrontal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on decision-making and stress reactivity. A pilot study.

Stress is an adaptive response with repercussions on the human health. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is thought to be involved in stress regulation by contributing to limit its biological and behavioral pejorative consequences. Here, to investigate the contribution of the DLPFC in stress response, we applied transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the DLPFC during acute stress exposure in healthy participants.

Functional Impairments and Theory of Mind Deficits in Schizophrenia: A Meta-analysis of the Associations.

Schizophrenia is associated with major functioning difficulties. Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to infer the mental states of others, is an important determinant of functioning. However, the contribution of ToM to each specific domain of functioning remains to be better understood.

Tools and tutorial on practical ray tracing for microscopy.

An advanced understanding of optical design is necessary to create optimal systems but this is rarely taught as part of general curriculum. Compounded by the fact that professional optical design software tools have a prohibitive learning curve, this means that neither knowledge nor tools are easily accessible. In this tutorial, we introduce a raytracing module for Python, originally developed for teaching optics with ray matrices, to simplify the design and optimization of optical systems.

Neural correlates of resilience to the effects of hippocampal atrophy on memory.

Introduction: Cognitive reserve can be defined as a property of the brain that enables an individual to sustain cognitive performance in spite of age-related neural changes. This study uses brain imaging to identify which cognitive reserve mechanisms protect against the detrimental effect of hippocampal atrophy on associative memory.

Methods: The study included 108 older adults from the Quebec Consortium for the early identification of Alzheimer's disease.

Brain aging and speech perception: Effects of background noise and talker variability.

Speech perception can be challenging, especially for older adults. Despite the importance of speech perception in social interactions, the mechanisms underlying these difficulties remain unclear and treatment options are scarce. While several studies have suggested that decline within cortical auditory regions may be a hallmark of these difficulties, a growing number of studies have reported decline in regions beyond the auditory processing network, including regions involved in speech processing and executive control, suggesting a potentially diffuse underlying neural disruption, though no consensus exists regarding underlying dysfunctions.

Patterns of Intrahemispheric EEG Asymmetry in Insomnia Sufferers: An Exploratory Study.

Individuals with insomnia present unique patterns of electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry between homologous regions of each brain hemisphere, yet few studies have assessed asymmetry within the same hemisphere. Increase in intrahemispheric asymmetry during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in good sleepers (GS) and disruption of REM sleep in insomnia sufferers (INS) both point out that this activity may be involved in the pathology of insomnia. The objective of the present exploratory study was to evaluate and quantify patterns of fronto-central, fronto-parietal, fronto-occipital, centro-parietal, centro-occipital and parieto-occipital intrahemispheric asymmetry in GS and INS, and to assess their association with sleep-wake misperception, daytime anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as insomnia severity.

AMPK-induced autophagy as a key regulator of cell migration.

Cell migration is a highly dynamic and energy-intensive process that ensures the correct targeting of cells during embryonic and postnatal development. In recent work, we highlighted the importance of macroautophagy/autophagy in regulating the dynamics of cell migration under baseline conditions and in response to a diverse set of molecular factors. Genetic suppression of autophagy-related genes induced longer stationary phases in migrating cells and cell stalling at the beginning of the migratory stream.

Incidence, Persistence, and Remission Rates of Insomnia Over 5 Years.

Importance: Insomnia is a significant public health problem, but there is little information on its natural history.

Objective: To assess the incidence, persistence, and remission rates of insomnia over a 5-year naturalistic follow-up period.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study included participants with and without sleep problems selected from the adult population in Canada from August 2007 to June 2014.

Semantic Processing in Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review of the N400 Differences.

Semantic deficits are common in individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). These deficits notably impact the ability to understand words. In healthy aging, semantic knowledge increases but semantic processing (i.

Good Sleep Quality and Progressive Increments in Vigilance During Extended Night Shifts: A 14-Day Actigraphic Study in Underground Miners.

Objective: Assess the change in sleep and vigilance of underground miners during long periods of extended shifts.

Methods: Seventy miners worked 14 consecutive 12-hour day and/or night shifts. Also, they wore an actigraph and completed a visual analog scale for vigilance four times per shift.

The temporal relationships between white matter hyperintensities, neurodegeneration, amyloid beta, and cognition.

Introduction: Cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease is associated with amyloid beta (Aβ) accumulation, neurodegeneration, and cerebral small vessel disease, but the temporal relationships among these factors is not well established.

Methods: Data included white matter hyperintensity (WMH) load, gray matter (GM) atrophy and Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive-Plus (ADAS13) scores for 720 participants and cerebrospinal fluid amyloid (Aβ1-42) for 461 participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Linear regressions were used to assess the relationships among baseline WMH, GM, and Aβ1-42 to changes in WMH, GM, Aβ1-42, and cognition at 1-year follow-up.

Parallel metabolomics and lipidomics enables the comprehensive study of mouse brain regional metabolite and lipid patterns.

Global profiling of the metabolome and lipidome of specific brain regions is essential to understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating brain activity. Given the limited amount of starting material, conventional mouse studies comparing brain regions have mainly targeted a set of known metabolites in large brain regions (e.g.

LRIG1-Mediated Inhibition of EGF Receptor Signaling Regulates Neural Precursor Cell Proliferation in the Neocortex.

Here, we ask how neural stem cells (NSCs) transition in the developing neocortex from a rapidly to a slowly proliferating state, a process required to maintain lifelong stem cell pools. We identify LRIG1, known to regulate receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in other cell types, as a negative regulator of cortical NSC proliferation. LRIG1 is expressed in murine cortical NSCs as they start to proliferate more slowly during embryogenesis and then peaks postnatally when they transition to give rise to a portion of adult NSCs.