Regular cannabis use alters the neural dynamics serving complex motor control.

Cannabis is the most widely used recreational drug in the United States and regular use has been linked to deficits in attention and memory. However, the effects of regular use on motor control are less understood, with some studies showing deficits and others indicating normal performance. Eighteen users and 23 nonusers performed a motor sequencing task during high-density magnetoencephalography (MEG).

Dehydroepiandrosterone mediates associations between trauma-related symptoms and anterior pituitary volume in children and adolescents.

Introduction: The anterior pituitary gland (PG) is a potential locus of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responsivity to early life stress, with documented associations between dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels and anterior PG volumes. In adults, elevated anxiety/depressive symptoms are related to diminished DHEA levels, and studies have shown a positive relationship between DHEA and anterior pituitary volumes. However, specific links between responses to stress, DHEA levels, and anterior pituitary volume have not been established in developmental samples.

Developmental changes in endogenous testosterone have sexually-dimorphic effects on spontaneous cortical dynamics.

The transition from childhood to adolescence is associated with an influx of sex hormones, which not only facilitates physical and behavioral changes, but also dramatic changes in neural circuitry. While previous work has shown that pubertal hormones modulate structural and functional brain development, few of these studies have focused on the impact that such hormones have on spontaneous cortical activity, and whether these effects are modulated by sex during this critical developmental window. Herein, we examined the effect of endogenous testosterone on spontaneous cortical activity in 71 typically-developing youth (ages 10-17 years; 32 male).

Reduced brainstem volume is associated with mobility impairments in youth with cerebral palsy.

Background: Persons with cerebral palsy (CP) have impaired mobility that has been attributed to changes in structure and function within the nervous system. The brainstem is a region that plays a critical role in mobility by connecting the cortex and cerebellum to the spinal cord, yet this region has been largely unstudied in persons with CP.

Research Question: We used high-resolution structural MRI and biomechanical analyses to examine whether the volume of the whole brainstem and its constituent elements are altered in CP and if these alterations relate to the mobility impairments within this population.

Visual feedback influences the consistency of the locomotor pattern in Asian elephants ().

Elephants are atypical of most quadrupeds in that they maintain the same lateral sequence footfall pattern across all locomotor speeds. It has been speculated that the preservation of the footfall patterns is necessary to maintain a statically stable support polygon. This should be a particularly important constraint in large, relatively slow animals.

Role of optically pumped magnetometers in presurgical epilepsy evaluation: Commentary of the American Clinical Magnetoencephalography Society.

One of the major challenges of modern epileptology is the underutilization of epilepsy surgery for treatment of patients with focal, medication resistant epilepsy (MRE). Aggravating this distressing failure to deliver optimum care to these patients is the underuse of proven localizing tools, such as magnetoencephalography (MEG), a clinically validated, non-invasive, neurophysiological method used to directly measure and localize brain activity. A sizable mass of published evidence indicates that MEG can improve identification of surgical candidates and guide pre-surgical planning, increasing the yield of SEEG and improving operative outcomes.

Elevated CRP and TNF-α levels are associated with blunted neural oscillations serving fluid intelligence.

Introduction: Inflammatory processes help protect the body from potential threats such as bacterial or viral invasions. However, when such inflammatory processes become chronically engaged, synaptic impairments and neuronal cell death may occur. In particular, persistently high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) have been linked to deficits in cognition and several psychiatric disorders.

Movement-related beta and gamma oscillations indicate parallels and disparities between Alzheimer's disease and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder.

People with HIV (PWH) often develop HIV-related neurological impairments known as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND), but cognitive dysfunction in older PWH may also be due to age-related disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Discerning these two conditions is challenging since the specific neural characteristics are not well understood and limited studies have probed HAND and AD spectrum (ADS) directly. We examined the neural dynamics underlying motor processing during cognitive interference using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 22 biomarker-confirmed patients on the ADS, 22 older participants diagnosed with HAND, and 30 healthy aging controls.

Linking corticospinal tract activation and upper-limb motor control in adults with cerebral palsy.

Aim: To quantify the cervicomedullary motor evoked potentials (CMEPs) at the cervical spinal level in adults with cerebral palsy (CP) and determine if altered CMEPs are linked with upper-extremity motor function in this population.

Method: This cross-sectional study consisted of a cohort of adults with CP (n = 15; mean age = 33 years 5 months [SD = 11 years 8 months]); Manual Ability Classification System levels I-IV) and neurotypical controls (n = 18; mean age = 30 years 10 months [SD = 10 years 4 months]), who were recruited to participate at an academic medical center. Adults with CP and typical adults (controls) were stimulated at the cervicomedullary junction to assess CMEPs at the cervical spinal cord level.

Role of Emotion Reactivity to Predict Facial Emotion Recognition Changes with Aging.

Emotional intelligence includes an assortment of factors related to emotion function. Such factors involve emotion recognition (in this case via facial expression), emotion trait, reactivity, and regulation. We aimed to investigate how the subjective appraisals of emotional intelligence (i.

Altered age-related alpha and gamma prefrontal-occipital connectivity serving distinct cognitive interference variants.

The presence of conflicting stimuli adversely affects behavioral outcomes, which could either be at the level of stimulus (Flanker), response (Simon), or both (Multisource). Briefly, flanker interference involves conflicting stimuli requiring selective attention, Simon interference is caused by an incongruity between the spatial location of the task-relevant stimulus and prepotent motor mapping, and multisource is combination of both. Irrespective of the variant, interference resolution necessitates cognitive control to filter irrelevant information and allocate neural resources to task-related goals.

Transdiagnostic indicators predict developmental changes in cognitive control resting-state networks.

Over the past decade, transdiagnostic indicators in relation to neurobiological processes have provided extensive insight into youth's risk for psychopathology. During development, exposure to childhood trauma and dysregulation (i.e.

Developmental alterations in the neural oscillatory dynamics underlying attentional reorienting.

The neural and cognitive processes underlying the flexible allocation of attention undergo a protracted developmental course with changes occurring throughout adolescence. Despite documented age-related improvements in attentional reorienting throughout childhood and adolescence, the neural correlates underlying such changes in reorienting remain unclear. Herein, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine neural dynamics during a Posner attention-reorienting task in 80 healthy youth (6-14 years old).

Specialized late cingulo-opercular network activation elucidates the mechanisms underlying decisions about ambiguity.

Cortical task control networks, including the cingulo-opercular (CO) network play a key role in decision-making across a variety of functional domains. In particular, the CO network functions in a performance reporting capacity that supports successful task performance, especially in response to errors and ambiguity. In two studies testing the contribution of the CO network to ambiguity processing, we presented a valence bias task in which masked clearly and ambiguously valenced emotional expressions were slowly revealed over several seconds.

Epigenetic associations with adolescent grey matter maturation and cognitive development.

Adolescence, a critical phase of human neurodevelopment, is marked by a tremendous reorganization of the brain and accompanied by improved cognitive performance. This development is driven in part by gene expression, which in turn is partly regulated by DNA methylation (DNAm). We collected brain imaging, cognitive assessments, and DNAm in a longitudinal cohort of approximately 200 typically developing participants, aged 9-14.

Aberrant age-related alterations in spontaneous cortical activity in participants with cerebral palsy.

Introduction: Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most common neurodevelopmental motor disability, resulting in life-long sensory, perception and motor impairments. Moreover, these impairments appear to drastically worsen as the population with CP transitions from adolescents to adulthood, although the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms remain poorly understood.

Methods: We began to address this knowledge gap by utilizing magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain imaging to study how the amplitude of spontaneous cortical activity (i.

Resting state network connectivity alterations in HIV: Parallels with aging.

The increasing incidence of age-related comorbidities in people with HIV (PWH) has led to accelerated aging theories. Functional neuroimaging research, including functional connectivity (FC) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), has identified neural aberrations related to HIV infection. Yet little is known about the relationship between aging and resting-state FC in PWH.

Within-network brain connectivity during a social optimism task is related to personal optimism and optimism for in-group members.

Optimism bias is the tendency to believe desirable events are more likely to happen than undesirable ones. People often display optimistic biases for themselves (personal optimism), but also for members of groups they like or identify with (social optimism). However, the neural bases of and connections between these two concepts are poorly understood.

Developmental differences in functional organization of multispectral networks.

Assessing brain connectivity during rest has become a widely used approach to identify changes in functional brain organization during development. Generally, previous works have demonstrated that brain activity shifts from more local to more distributed processing from childhood into adolescence. However, the majority of those works have been based on functional magnetic resonance imaging measures, whereas multispectral functional connectivity, as measured using magnetoencephalography (MEG), has been far less characterized.

Testosterone levels mediate the dynamics of motor oscillatory coding and behavior in developing youth.

Recent investigations have studied the development of motor-related oscillatory responses to delineate maturational changes from childhood to young adulthood. While these studies included youth during the pubertal transition period, none have probed the impact of testosterone levels on motor cortical dynamics and performance. We collected salivary testosterone samples and recorded magnetoencephalography during a complex motor sequencing task in 58 youth aged 9-15 years old.

The co-use of nicotine and prescription psychostimulants: A review of their behavioral and neuropharmacological interactions.

Background: Nicotine is commonly co-used with other psychostimulants. These high co-use rates have prompted much research on interactions between nicotine and psychostimulant drugs. These studies range from examination of illicitly used psychostimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine to prescription psychostimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) such as methylphenidate (Ritalin™) and d-amphetamine (active ingredient of Adderall™).

Sleep quality differentially modulates neural oscillations and proteinopathy in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Alterations in resting-state neural activity have been reported in people with sleep disruptions and in patients with Alzheimer's disease, but the direct impact of sleep quality on Alzheimer's disease-related neurophysiological aberrations is unclear.

Methods: We collected cross-sectional resting-state magnetoencephalography and extensive neuropsychological and clinical data from 38 biomarker-confirmed patients on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum and 20 cognitively normal older control participants. Sleep efficiency was quantified using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

Comprehensive review of task-based neuroimaging studies of cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease using electrophysiological methods.

With an aging population, cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disorders are an emerging public health crises with enormous, yet still under-recognized burdens. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia, and the number of cases is expected to dramatically rise in the upcoming decades. Substantial efforts have been placed into understanding the disease.

Oscillatory dynamics serving visual selective attention during a Simon task.

Selective attention is an important component of cognitive control and is essential for day-to-day functioning. The Simon task is a common test of visual selective attention that has been widely used to probe response selection, inhibition and cognitive control. However, to date, there is a dearth of literature that has focused on the oscillatory dynamics serving task performance in the selective attention component of this task.