Treating Alzheimer's disease with brain stimulation: From preclinical models to non-invasive stimulation in humans.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a severe and progressive neurodegenerative condition that exerts detrimental effects on brain function. As of now, there is no effective treatment for AD patients. This review explores two distinct avenues of research.

Looks like home: numerosity, but not spatial frequency guides preference in zebrafish larvae (Danio rerio).

Despite their young age, zebrafish larvae have a well-developed visual system and can distinguish between different visual stimuli. First, we investigated if the first visual surroundings the larvae experience during the first days after hatching shape their habitat preference. Indeed, these animals seem to "imprint" on the first surroundings they see and select visual stimuli accordingly at 7 days post fertilization (dpf).

Lifestyles and Academic Stress in University Students of Health Sciences: A Mixed-Methodology Study.

The global health emergency generated by the COVID-19 pandemic (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) led to the implementation of extraordinary measures such as confinement and isolation in many countries to mitigate the spread of the virus. (1) This study analyzes the lifestyles and academic and perceived stresses of university students of health sciences during the period of online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The relationship between lifestyles and academic stress was examined.

Multiunit Frontal Eye Field Activity Codes the Visuomotor Transformation, But Not Gaze Prediction or Retrospective Target Memory, in a Delayed Saccade Task.

Single-unit (SU) activity-action potentials isolated from one neuron-has traditionally been employed to relate neuronal activity to behavior. However, recent investigations have shown that multiunit (MU) activity-ensemble neural activity recorded within the vicinity of one microelectrode-may also contain accurate estimations of task-related neural population dynamics. Here, using an established model-fitting approach, we compared the spatial codes of SU response fields with corresponding MU response fields recorded from the frontal eye fields (FEFs) in head-unrestrained monkeys () during a memory-guided saccade task.

Clinical utility of diffusion MRI-derived measures of cortical microstructure in a real-world memory clinic setting.

Objective: To investigate cortical microstructural measures from diffusion MRI as "neurodegeneration" markers that could improve prognostic accuracy in mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: The prognostic power of Amyloid/Tau/Neurodegeneration (ATN) biomarkers to predict progression from MCI to AD or non-AD dementia was investigated. Ninety patients underwent clinical evaluation (follow-up interval 32 ± 18 months), lumbar puncture, and MRI.

Speech-Gesture Matching and Schizotypal Traits: A Network Approach.

Background And Hypothesis: Impaired speech-gesture matching has repeatedly been shown in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Here, we tested the hypothesis that schizotypal traits in the general population are related to reduced speech-gesture matching performance and reduced self-reports about gesture perception. We further explored the relationships between facets of schizotypy and gesture processing in a network model.

Frontoparietal and salience network synchronizations during nonsymbolic magnitude processing predict brain age and mathematical performance in youth.

The development and refinement of functional brain circuits crucial to human cognition is a continuous process that spans from childhood to adulthood. Research increasingly focuses on mapping these evolving configurations, with the aim to identify markers for functional impairments and atypical development. Among human cognitive systems, nonsymbolic magnitude representations serve as a foundational building block for future success in mathematical learning and achievement for individuals.

Testing two-step models of negative quantification using a novel machine learning analysis of EEG.

The sentences " of the students passed the exam" and " of the students failed the exam" describe the same set of situations, and yet the former results in shorter reaction times in verification tasks. The two-step model explains this result by postulating that negative quantifiers contain hidden negation, which involves an extra processing stage. To test this theory, we applied a novel EEG analysis technique focused on detecting cognitive stages (HsMM-MVPA) to data from a picture-sentence verification task.

Neural networks associated with eye movements in congenital blindness.

Recent studies have shown that during the typical resting-state, echo planar imaging (EPI) time series obtained from the eye orbit area correlate with brain regions associated with oculomotor control and lower-level visual cortex. Here, we asked whether congenitally blind (CB) shows similar patterns, suggesting a hard-wired constraint on connectivity. We find that orbital EPI signals in CB do correlate with activity in the motor cortex, but less so with activity in the visual cortex.

The connectivity-based architecture of the human piriform cortex.

The anatomy of the human piriform cortex (PC) is poorly understood. We used a bimodal connectivity-based-parcellation approach to investigate subregions of the PC and its connectional differentiation from the amygdala. One hundred (55 % female) genetically unrelated subjects from the Human Connectome Project were included.

Fear of COVID-19 predicts increases in anxiety, depressive symptoms, health anxiety, psychosocial distress, and loneliness: Findings from a prospective two-year follow-up study.

The role of fear of COVID-19 in prospectively predicting changes in psychopathological symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear. The present data were obtained from a longitudinal non-probability sample in Germany, initially assessed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany (April-May 2020) and reassessed after two years (n = 846; 83% female; mean age: 44.59 years, SD = 12.

Perceptual plausibility of exaggerated realistic motion.

The informal heuristic practices of the fine arts have much to offer to our understanding of the appearance of phenomenological reality. One interesting example is the use of exaggeration to enhance the illusion of liveliness in both living and nonliving subjects. This further eases the uncomfortable sense that the motion is somehow uncanny - especially with inanimate objects.

Paradoxical Kinesia Induced by Nightmare: Unique Case Report and Insights regarding the Neural Mechanism Based on Human and Rat Studies.

Introduction: Bradykinesia, characterized by slowed movement, stands out as a primary symptom observed in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Nonetheless, there are instances where PD patients exhibit sudden and effective movements despite the presence of bradykinesia. This phenomenon, referred to as paradoxical kinesia, has remained a subject of interest for neuroscientists, who have struggled to unravel its underlying neural mechanisms for decades.

Novel Insights into Parkin-Mediated Mitochondrial Dysfunction and "Mito-Inflammation" in α-Synuclein Toxicity. The Role of the cGAS-STING Signalling Pathway.

The prevalence of age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and related disorders continues to grow worldwide. Increasing evidence links intracellular inclusions of misfolded alpha-synuclein (α-syn) aggregates, so-called Lewy bodies (LB) and Lewy neuritis, to the progressive pathology of PD and other synucleinopathies. Our previous findings established that α-syn oligomers induce S-nitrosylation and deregulation of the E3-ubiquitin ligase Parkin, leading to mitochondrial disturbances in neuronal cells.

Intentions and barriers to help-seeking in adolescents and young adults differing in depression severity: cross-sectional results from a school-based mental health project.

Background: Mental health problems, such as depression, have a high prevalence in young people. However, the majority of youths suffering from depression do not seek professional help. This study aimed to compare help-seeking behavior, intentions and perceived barriers between youthswith different levels of depressive symptoms.

Transcriptomic changes in the posterior pallium of male zebra finches associated with social niche conformance.

Animals plastically adjust their physiological and behavioural phenotypes to conform to their social environment-social niche conformance. The degree of sexual competition is a critical part of the social environment to which animals adjust their phenotypes, but the underlying genetic mechanisms are poorly understood. We conducted a study to investigate how differences in sperm competition risk affect the gene expression profiles of the testes and two brain areas (posterior pallium and optic tectum) in breeding male zebra finches (Taeniopygia castanotis).

Sex-biasing influence of autism-associated gene overdosage at connectomic, behavioral, and transcriptomic levels.

Genomic mechanisms enhancing risk in males may contribute to sex bias in autism. The ubiquitin protein ligase E3A gene () affects cellular homeostasis via control of protein turnover and by acting as transcriptional coactivator with steroid hormone receptors. Overdosage of via duplication or triplication of chromosomal region 15q11-13 causes 1 to 2% of autistic cases.

Where was this thing again? Evaluating methods to indicate remembered object positions in virtual reality.

A current focus in sensorimotor research is the study of human perception and action in increasingly naturalistic tasks and visual environments. This is further enabled by the recent commercial success of virtual reality (VR) technology, which allows for highly realistic but well-controlled three-dimensional (3D) scenes. VR enables a multitude of different ways to interact with virtual objects, but only rarely are such interaction techniques evaluated and compared before being selected for a sensorimotor experiment.

What's Next? Advances and Challenges in Understanding How Environmental Predictability Shapes the Development of Cognitive Control.

Forming predictions about what will happen next in the world happens early in development, without instruction, and across species. Some environments support more accurate predictions. These more predictable environments also support what appear to be positive developmental trajectories, including increases in cognitive control over thoughts and actions.

The role of motor effort on the sensorimotor number system.

The integration of numerical information with motor processes has emerged as a fascinating area of investigation in both animal and human cognition. The interest in a sensorimotor number system has recently generated neurophysiological and psychophysical evidence which combine to highlight the importance of motor functions in the encoding of numerical information. Nevertheless, several key questions remain, such as the influence of non-numerical motor parameters over numerical perception.

Exercise-induced inflammation alters the perception and visual exploration of emotional interactions.

Introduction: The study aimed to investigate whether an exercise-induced pro-inflammatory response alters the perception as well as visual exploration of emotional body language in social interactions.

Methods: In a within-subject design, 19 male, healthy adults aged between 19 and 33 years performed a downhill run for 45 min at 70% of their VO on a treadmill to induce maximal myokine blood elevations, leading to a pro-inflammatory status. Two control conditions were selected: a control run with no decline and a rest condition without physical exercise.