Biomarkers of postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction.

Elderly surgical patients frequently experience postoperative delirium (POD) and the subsequent development of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Clinical features include deterioration in cognition, disturbance in attention and reduced awareness of the environment and result in higher morbidity, mortality and greater utilization of social financial assistance. The aging Western societies can expect an increase in the incidence of POD and POCD.

Safe Administration of Botulinum Toxin Type A Injections During Pregnancy: A Report of Two Cases.

Local injections of botulinum toxin type A (BoNT/A) are safe and efficacious to treat focal and segmental dystonia. However, there are no adequate studies in humans regarding the safety of BoNT/A during pregnancy. Despite the fact that 25 case reports have been published on patients who received BoNT/A injections during a total of 31 pregnancies, in only 3 patients were the injections continued beyond the first trimester.

State-dependencies of learning across brain scales.

Learning is a complex brain function operating on different time scales, from milliseconds to years, which induces enduring changes in brain dynamics. The brain also undergoes continuous "spontaneous" shifts in states, which, amongst others, are characterized by rhythmic activity of various frequencies. Besides the most obvious distinct modes of waking and sleep, wake-associated brain states comprise modulations of vigilance and attention.

The uncanny return of the race concept.

The aim of this Hypothesis and Theory is to question the recently increasing use of the "race" concept in contemporary genetic, psychiatric, neuroscience as well as social studies. We discuss "race" and related terms used to assign individuals to distinct groups and caution that also concepts such as "ethnicity" or "culture" unduly neglect diversity. We suggest that one factor contributing to the dangerous nature of the "race" concept is that it is based on a mixture of traditional stereotypes about "physiognomy", which are deeply imbued by colonial traditions.

ECoG high gamma activity reveals distinct cortical representations of lyrics passages, harmonic and timbre-related changes in a rock song.

Listening to music moves our minds and moods, stirring interest in its neural underpinnings. A multitude of compositional features drives the appeal of natural music. How such original music, where a composer's opus is not manipulated for experimental purposes, engages a listener's brain has not been studied until recently.

7-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Brain Iron Quantification in Homozygous and Heterozygous Mutation Carriers.

Pantothenate-kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by iron deposits in basal ganglia. The aim of this study was to quantify iron concentrations of deep gray matter structures in heterozygous mutation carriers and in PKAN patients using quantitative susceptibility mapping MRI. By determining iron concentration, we intended to find mutation-specific brain parenchymal stigmata in heterozygous mutation carriers in comparison to age-matched healthy volunteers.

Long-range correlation properties in timing of skilled piano performance: the influence of auditory feedback and deep brain stimulation.

Unintentional timing deviations during musical performance can be conceived of as timing errors. However, recent research on humanizing computer-generated music has demonstrated that timing fluctuations that exhibit long-range temporal correlations (LRTC) are preferred by human listeners. This preference can be accounted for by the ubiquitous presence of LRTC in human tapping and rhythmic performances.

Functionally aberrant electrophysiological cortical connectivities in first episode medication-naive schizophrenics from three psychiatry centers.

Functional dissociation between brain processes is widely hypothesized to account for aberrations of thought and emotions in schizophrenic patients. The typically small groups of analyzed schizophrenic patients yielded different neurophysiological findings, probably because small patient groups are likely to comprise different schizophrenia subtypes. We analyzed multichannel eyes-closed resting EEG from three small groups of acutely ill, first episode productive schizophrenic patients before start of medication (from three centers: Bern N = 9; Osaka N = 9; Berlin N = 12) and their controls.

The role of serine protease HtrA in acute ulcerative enterocolitis and extra-intestinal immune responses during Campylobacter jejuni infection of gnotobiotic IL-10 deficient mice.

Campylobacter jejuni infections have a high prevalence worldwide and represent a significant socioeconomic burden. C. jejuni can cross the intestinal epithelial barrier as visualized in biopsies derived from human patients and animal models, however, the underlying molecular mechanisms and associated immunopathology are still not well understood.

Different conceptions of mental illness: consequences for the association with patients.

Whenever partial knowledge is considered absolute and turned into ideological and dogmatic conceptions, the risk increases that the conditions for the people involved might become dangerous. This will be illustrated by casuistic examples of consequences of one-sided psychiatric conceptions such as social, biological, and psychological ideas about the treatment and care of the mentally ill. Present perspectives of an integrative model, i.

Electrostatically Stabilized Magnetic Nanoparticles - An Optimized Protocol to Label Murine T Cells for in vivo MRI.

We present a novel highly efficient protocol to magnetically label T cells applying electrostatically stabilized very small superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (VSOP). Our long-term aim is to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate T cell dynamics in vivo during the course of neuroinflammatory disorders such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis. Encephalitogenic T cells were co-incubated with VSOP, or with protamine-complexed VSOP (VProt), respectively, at different conditions, optimizing concentrations and incubation times.

The Roles of Glutathione Peroxidases during Embryo Development.

Embryo development relies on the complex interplay of the basic cellular processes including proliferation, differentiation, and apoptotic cell death. Precise regulation of these events is the basis for the establishment of embryonic structures and the organ development. Beginning with fertilization of the oocyte until delivery the developing embryo encounters changing environmental conditions such as varying levels of oxygen, which can give rise to reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Social Cognition in Borderline Personality Disorder: Evidence for Disturbed Recognition of the Emotions, Thoughts, and Intentions of others.

Disturbed relatedness is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD), and impaired social cognition or deficits in "mentalization" are hypothesized to underlie this feature. To date, only weak empirical evidence argues for impairment in the recognition of emotions, thoughts, or intentions in BPD. Data from facial emotion recognition research indicate that these abilities are altered in BPD only if tasks are complex.