EXPRESS: Vocal and musical emotion perception, voice cue discrimination, and quality of life in cochlear implant users with and without acoustic hearing.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive picture of auditory emotion perception in cochlear implant (CI) users by (1) investigating emotion categorization in both vocal (pseud-ospeech) and musical domains, and (2) how individual differences in residual acoustic hearing, sensitivity to voice cues (voice pitch, vocal tract length), and quality of life (QoL) might be associated with vocal emotion perception, and, going a step further, also with musical emotion perception. In 28 adult CI users, with or without self-reported acoustic hearing, we showed that sensitivity (d') scores for emotion categorization varied largely across the participants, in line with previous research. However, within participants, the d' scores for vocal and musical emotion categorization were significantly correlated, indicating similar processing of auditory emotional cues across the pseudo-speech and music domains and robustness of the tests.

Residual sleepiness and impaired alertness in treated obstructive sleep apnoea: role of hypoxic burden and sleep fragmentation.

The pathophysiology of residual sleepiness in treated obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) remains poorly understood. Animal models suggest that it may involve neuronal damage due to intermittent hypoxia and sleep fragmentation. In a cohort of 122 continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treated OSA patients referred for maintenance of wakefulness test, we explored the determinants of (objective) alertness and those of (subjective) sleepiness assessed by Epworth Sleepiness Scale.

Toward alpha-synuclein seed amplification assay in clinical practice.

Introduction: Seed amplification assays (SAAs) demonstrate remarkable diagnostic performance in alpha-synucleinopathies. However, existing protocols lack accessibility in routine laboratories, mainly due to the requirement for in-house production of recombinant alpha-synuclein (aSyn). This study proposes a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) aSyn-SAA protocol using solely commercial reagents to facilitate its clinical implementation.

Clinical impact of an explainable machine learning with amino acid PET imaging: application to the diagnosis of aggressive glioma.

Purpose: Radiomics-based machine learning (ML) models of amino acid positron emission tomography (PET) images have shown efficiency in glioma prediction tasks. However, their clinical impact on physician interpretation remains limited. This study investigated whether an explainable radiomics model modifies nuclear physicians' assessment of glioma aggressiveness at diagnosis.

Respiratory failure as main presentation sign of MAPT-related disorder.

Introduction: The MAPT gene encodes Tau, a protein mainly expressed by neurons. Tau protein plays an important role in cerebral microtubule polymerization and stabilization, in axonal transport and synaptic plasticity. Heterozygous pathogenic variation in MAPT are involved in a spectrum of autosomal dominant neurodegenerative diseases known as taupathies, including Alzheimer's disease, Pick's disease, fronto-temporal dementia, cortico-basal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy.

A distributed subcortical circuit linked to instrumental information-seeking about threat.

Daily life for humans and other animals requires switching between periods of threat- and reward-oriented behavior. We investigated neural activity associated with spontaneous switching, in a naturalistic task, between foraging for rewards and seeking information about potential threats with 7T fMRI in healthy humans. Switching was driven by estimates of likelihood of threat and reward.

A Double-Blind Comparative Study of burstDR Versus Tonic Epidural Motor Cortex Stimulation for the Treatment of Intractable Neuropathic Pain.

Background: Preliminary studies on epidural motor cortex stimulation (eMCS) for the treatment of drug-resistant neuropathic pain have supported the extension to novel stimulation waveforms, in particular burstDR. However, only a low level of evidence is available. The aim of this retrospective observational study was to compare the analgesic efficacy of burstDR versus tonic eMCS.

Assessing the prevalence of anticholinergic and sedative medications to avoid in older adults from the French Health Data System.

Background: In older people, medications with anticholinergic or sedative properties are associated with falls, frailty, and functional and cognitive impairment. These medications are often described as a subset of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). We examined the prevalence of anticholinergic or sedative medications to avoid in older people in France in 2023.

Care trajectories and adherence to respiratory management recommendations in persons living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a ten-year cohort study in a French tertiary university centre.

: This study determined real-life care trajectories before and after initiation of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Caregiver adherence to respiratory management recommendations and the associated survival rate of people with ALS were also assessed. : Data were obtained from a tertiary center prospective ALS database that included 10 years of follow-up data for people with ALS.

Neurochemical Databases: Purpose and Expectations.

The exploration of increasingly specific brain structures and their relationships, in more nuanced ways, has facilitated the generation of databases for gene expression, connectivity, cell morphology, and electrophysiology. However, neurochemistry, the study of neurochemical environment and transmission, has not yet warranted a public database, despite the plethora of data published. From our viewpoint, a neurochemical database is overdue and would allow the field of neurochemistry to develop facilitating, standardization and reference values, reproducibility, resource efficiency, preservation and accessibility of raw data, hypothesis development and exploration, and metadata analysis.

Devices for the electrical stimulation of the olfactory system: A review.

The loss of olfactory function has a profound impact on quality of life, affecting not only sensory perception but also memory, emotion, and overall well-being. Despite this, advancements in olfactory prostheses have lagged significantly behind those made for vision and hearing restoration. This review offers a comprehensive analysis of the current state of devices for electrical stimulation of the olfactory system.

Validation of a screening test based on symbols visual search to detect visuo-attentionnal reading difficulties.

Objective: Visuo-attentional dyslexia has been associated with impaired simultaneous visual processing of multiple items made of separable features (i.e. symbols).

Novel Digital Anomalies, Hippocampal Atrophy, and Mutations Expand the Genotypic and Phenotypic Spectra of CNKSR2 in the Houge Type of X-Linked Syndromic Intellectual Development Disorder (MRXSHG).

The Houge type of X-linked syndromic intellectual developmental disorder (MRXSHG) encompasses a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by intellectual disability (ID), language/speech delay, attention issues, and epilepsy. These conditions arise from hemizygous or heterozygous deletions, along with point mutations, affecting CNKSR2, a gene located at Xp22.12.

Corticolimbic structures activation during preparation and execution of respiratory manoeuvres in voluntary olfactory sampling: An intracranial EEG study.

Volitional respiratory manoeuvres such as sniffing and apnoea play a key role in the active olfactory exploration of the environment. Their impairment by neurodegenerative processes could thus impair olfactory abilities with the ensuing impact on quality of life. Functional brain imaging studies have identified brain networks engaged in sniffing and voluntary apnoea, comprising the primary motor and somatosensory cortices, the insula, the anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala.

A modular machine learning tool for holistic and fine-grained behavioral analysis.

Artificial intelligence techniques offer promising avenues for exploring human body features from videos, yet no freely accessible tool has reliably provided holistic and fine-grained behavioral analyses to date. To address this, we developed a machine learning tool based on a two-level approach: a first lower-level processing using computer vision for extracting fine-grained and comprehensive behavioral features such as skeleton or facial points, gaze, and action units; a second level of machine learning classification coupled with explainability providing modularity, to determine which behavioral features are triggered by specific environments. To validate our tool, we filmed 16 participants across six conditions, varying according to the presence of a person ("Pers"), a sound ("Snd"), or silence ("Rest"), and according to emotional levels using self-referential ("Self") and control ("Ctrl") stimuli.

A single exposure to prolonged flexor carpi radialis muscle vibration increases sensorimotor cortical areas activity.

Prolonged local vibration (LV) is thought to promote brain plasticity through repeated Ia afferents discharge. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study therefore aimed at determining the acute after-effects of 30-min LV of the flexor carpi radialis muscle (FCR) on sensorimotor (S1, M1) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) areas activity.

Clinical and genetic characterization of a progressive RBL2-associated neurodevelopmental disorder.

Retinoblastoma (RB) proteins are highly conserved transcriptional regulators that play important roles during development by regulating cell-cycle gene expression. RBL2 dysfunction has been linked to a severe neurodevelopmental disorder. However, to date, clinical features have only been described in six individuals carrying five biallelic predicted loss of function (pLOF) variants.

Catch-Up Saccades in Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex Deficit: Contribution of Visual Information?

Objectives: Catch-up saccades help to compensate for loss of gaze stabilization during rapid head rotation in case of vestibular deficit. While overt saccades observed after head rotation are obviously visually guided, some of these catch-up saccades occur with shorter latency while the head is still moving, anticipating the needed final eye position. These covert saccades seem to be generated based on the integration of multisensory inputs.

Prevalence and characteristics of participants in 2024: findings from a general population survey in France.

Background: Dry January is a one-month alcohol abstinence challenge for the general population running since 2013 in the United Kingdom, and 2020 in France. Dry January has gained increasing popularity among the public, but studies assessing the individual characteristics associated with awareness and participation remain sparse.

Methods: Using quota sampling, a representative sample of 5,000 French adults completed an online cross-sectional survey between 8 and 17th January 2024.

A Taybi-Linder syndrome-related RTTN variant impedes neural rosette formation in human cortical organoids.

Taybi-Linder syndrome (TALS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by severe microcephaly with abnormal gyral pattern, severe growth retardation and bone abnormalities. It is caused by pathogenic variants in the RNU4ATAC gene. Its transcript, the small nuclear RNA U4atac, is involved in the excision of ~850 minor introns.