Artificial intelligence to support early diagnosis of temporomandibular disorders: A preliminary case study.

Background: Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are disabling conditions with a negative impact on the quality of life. Their diagnosis is a complex and multi-factorial process that should be conducted by experienced professionals, and most TMDs remain often undetected. Increasing the awareness of un-experienced dentists and supporting the early TMD recognition may help reduce this gap.

Ethical safety of deep brain stimulation: A study on moral decision-making in Parkinson's disease.

Introduction: The possibility that deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) alters patients' decisions and actions, even temporarily, raises important clinical, ethical and legal questions. Abnormal moral decision-making can lead to ethical rules violations. Previous experiments demonstrated the subthalamic (STN) activation during moral decision-making.

Cerebellar tDCS: how to do it.

Cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (cerebellar tDCS) is a non-invasive technique for inducing prolonged functional changes in the human cerebellum. Available data show that this simple and safe technique can modulate several motor and non-motor cerebellar functions in healthy humans. Also, preliminary data suggest that cerebellar tDCS is a possible therapeutic option in patients with cerebellar disorders.

WebBioBank: a new platform for integrating clinical forms and shared neurosignal analyses to support multi-centre studies in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: The web-based systems available for multi-centre clinical trials do not combine clinical data collection (Electronic Health Records, EHRs) with signal processing storage and analysis tools. However, in pathophysiological research, the correlation between clinical data and signals is crucial for uncovering the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. A specific example is the investigation of the mechanisms of action for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) used for Parkinson's Disease (PD); the neurosignals recorded from the DBS target structure and clinical data must be investigated.

Transcranial cerebellar direct current stimulation and transcutaneous spinal cord direct current stimulation as innovative tools for neuroscientists.

Two neuromodulatory techniques based on applying direct current (DC) non-invasively through the skin, transcranial cerebellar direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcutaneous spinal DCS, can induce prolonged functional changes consistent with a direct influence on the human cerebellum and spinal cord. In this article we review the major experimental works on cerebellar tDCS and on spinal tDCS, and their preliminary clinical applications. Cerebellar tDCS modulates cerebellar motor cortical inhibition, gait adaptation, motor behaviour, and cognition (learning, language, memory, attention).

Modeling the current density generated by transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS).

Objective: Non-invasive transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) induces changes in spinal cord function in humans. Nonetheless, the current density (J) spatial distributions generated by tsDCS are unknown. This work aimed to estimate the J distributions in the spinal cord during tsDCS.

Modelling the electric field and the current density generated by cerebellar transcranial DC stimulation in humans.

Objective: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the cerebellum (or cerebellar tDCS) modulates working memory, changes cerebello-brain interaction, and affects locomotion in humans. Also, the use of tDCS has been proposed for the treatment of disorders characterized by cerebellar dysfunction. Nonetheless, the electric field (E) and current density (J) spatial distributions generated by cerebellar tDCS are unknown.

Transcranial cerebellar direct current stimulation (tcDCS): motor control, cognition, learning and emotions.

The neurological manifestations of cerebellar diseases range from motor to cognitive or behavioral abnormalities. Experimental data in healthy subjects extend the cerebellar role to learning, emotional and mood control. The need for a non-invasive tool to influence cerebellar function in normal and pathological conditions led researchers to develop transcranial cerebellar direct current stimulation (tcDCS).

Lies tell the truth about cognitive dysfunction in essential tremor: an experimental deception study with the guilty knowledge task.

Background: Research conducted in the past decade challenges the traditional view that essential tremor (ET) is characterised exclusively by movement disorder, and increasingly shows that these patients have deficits in cognitive and behavioural functioning. The available evidence suggests that this impairment might arise from dysfunction in either the fronto-subcortical or cortico-cerebellar circuits. Although abnormalities in the fronto-subcortical circuits could imply difficulty in lying, no study has investigated deception in patients with ET.

Pathological gambling in Parkinson's disease: subthalamic oscillations during economics decisions.

Pathological gambling develops in up to 8% of patients with Parkinson's disease. Although the pathophysiology of gambling remains unclear, several findings argue for a dysfunction in the basal ganglia circuits. To clarify the role of the subthalamic nucleus in pathological gambling, we studied its activity during economics decisions.

Deep brain electrophysiological recordings provide clues to the pathophysiology of Tourette syndrome.

Although ample evidence suggests that high-frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective therapy in patients with Tourette syndrome (TS), its pathophysiology and the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these benefits remain unclear. The DBS targets mainly used to date in TS are located within the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuit compromised in this syndrome: the medial and ventral thalamic nuclei, which are way stations within the circuit, the globus pallidus and the nucleus accumbens. Neuronal activity can be electrophysiologically recorded from deep brain structures during DBS surgery (intraoperative microrecordings) or within few days after DBS electrode implantation (local field potentials, LFPs).

Modulating human procedural learning by cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation.

Neuroimaging studies suggest that the cerebellum contributes to human cognitive processing, particularly procedural learning. This type of learning is often described as implicit learning and involves automatic, associative, and unintentional learning processes. Our aim was to investigate whether cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) influences procedural learning as measured by the serial reaction time task (SRTT), in which subjects make speeded key press responses to visual cues.

Neurophysiology of deep brain stimulation.

We review the data concerning the neurophysiology of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in humans, especially in reference to Parkinson's disease. The electric field generated by DBS interacts with the brain in complex ways, and several variables could influence the DBS-induced biophysical and clinical effects. The neurophysiology of DBS comprises the DBS-induced effects per se as well as neurophysiological studies designed to record electrical activity directly from the basal ganglia (single-unit or local field potential) through the electrodes implanted for DBS.

Subthalamic local field potentials after seven-year deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease.

Studies describing subthalamic (STN) local field potentials (LFPs) recorded during deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), within the first month after DBS electrode implant, show that DBS modulates specific STN oscillations: whereas low-frequency (LF) oscillations (2-7 Hz) increase, beta oscillations (8-30 Hz) variably decrease. No data show whether LFPs remain stable for longer than one month after DBS surgery. Having long-term information is essential especially for use as a long-term feedback control signal for adaptive DBS systems.

The effects of levodopa and deep brain stimulation on subthalamic local field low-frequency oscillations in Parkinson's disease.

New adaptive systems for deep brain stimulation (DBS) could in the near future optimize stimulation settings online so as to achieve better control over the clinical fluctuations in Parkinson's disease (PD). Local field potentials (LFPs) recorded from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in PD patients show that levodopa and DBS modulate STN oscillations. Because previous research has shown that levodopa and DBS variably influence beta LFP activity (8-20 Hz), we designed this study to find out how they affect low-frequency (LF) oscillations (2-7 Hz).

Cerebellum and processing of negative facial emotions: cerebellar transcranial DC stimulation specifically enhances the emotional recognition of facial anger and sadness.

Some evidence suggests that the cerebellum participates in the complex network processing emotional facial expression. To evaluate the role of the cerebellum in recognising facial expressions we delivered transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex. A facial emotion recognition task was administered to 21 healthy subjects before and after cerebellar tDCS; we also tested subjects with a visual attention task and a visual analogue scale (VAS) for mood.

Clinical research with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): challenges and future directions.

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulatory technique that delivers low-intensity, direct current to cortical areas facilitating or inhibiting spontaneous neuronal activity. In the past 10 years, tDCS physiologic mechanisms of action have been intensively investigated giving support for the investigation of its applications in clinical neuropsychiatry and rehabilitation. However, new methodologic, ethical, and regulatory issues emerge when translating the findings of preclinical and phase I studies into phase II and III clinical studies.

Prolonged visual memory enhancement after direct current stimulation in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Immediately after patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) receive a single anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) session their memory performance improves. Whether multiple tDCS sessions improve memory performance in the longer term remains unclear.

Objective: In this study we aimed to assess memory changes after five consecutive sessions of anodal tDCS applied over the temporal cortex in patients with AD.

Subthalamic local field beta oscillations during ongoing deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease in hyperacute and chronic phases.

In the past years, local field potential (LFP) signals recorded from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in patients undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD) disclosed that DBS has a controversial effect on STN beta oscillations recorded 2-7 days after surgery for macroelectrode implantation. Nothing is known about these DBS-induced oscillatory changes 30 days after surgery. We recorded STN LFPs during ongoing DBS in 7 patients with PD, immediately (hyperacute phase) and 30 days (chronic phase) after surgery.

Increased short latency afferent inhibition after anodal transcranial direct current stimulation.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a technique for central neuromodulation, has been recently proposed as possible treatment in several neurological and psychiatric diseases. Although shifts on focal brain excitability have been proposed to explain the clinical effects of tDCS, how tDCS-induced functional changes influence cortical interneurones is still largely unknown. The assessment of short latency afferent inhibition (SLAI) of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), provides the opportunity to test non-invasively interneuronal cholinergic circuits in the human motor cortex.

Transcutaneous spinal cord direct current stimulation inhibits the lower limb nociceptive flexion reflex in human beings.

Aiming at developing a new, noninvasive approach to spinal cord neuromodulation, we evaluated whether transcutaneous direct current (DC) stimulation induces long-lasting changes in the central pain pathways in human beings. A double-blind crossover design was used to investigate the effects of anodal direct current (2mA, 15min) applied on the skin overlying the thoracic spinal cord on the lower-limb flexion reflex in a group of 11 healthy volunteers. To investigate whether transcutaneous spinal cord DC stimulation (tsDCS) acts indirectly on the nociceptive reflex by modulating excitability in mono-oligosynaptic segmental reflex pathways, we also evaluated the H-reflex size from soleus muscle after tibial nerve stimulation.