Defining key concepts for mental state attribution.

The terminology used in discussions on mental state attribution is extensive and lacks consistency. In the current paper, experts from various disciplines collaborate to introduce a shared set of concepts and make recommendations regarding future use.

Detailed mapping of the complex fiber structure and white matter pathways of the chimpanzee brain.

Long-standing questions about human brain evolution may only be resolved through comparisons with close living evolutionary relatives, such as chimpanzees. This applies in particular to structural white matter (WM) connectivity, which continuously expanded throughout evolution. However, due to legal restrictions on chimpanzee research, neuroscience research currently relies largely on data with limited detail or on comparisons with evolutionarily distant monkeys.

Alpha oscillations reflect similar mapping mechanisms for localizing touch on hands and tools.

It has been suggested that our brain re-uses body-based computations to localize touch on tools, but the neural implementation of this process remains unclear. Neural oscillations in the alpha and beta frequency bands are known to map touch on the body in external and skin-centered coordinates, respectively. Here, we pinpointed the role of these oscillations during tool-extended sensing by delivering tactile stimuli to either participants' hands or the tips of hand-held rods.

Developmental epileptic encephalopathy in DLG4-related synaptopathy.

Objective: The postsynaptic density protein of excitatory neurons PSD-95 is encoded by discs large MAGUK scaffold protein 4 (DLG4), de novo pathogenic variants of which lead to DLG4-related synaptopathy. The major clinical features are developmental delay, intellectual disability (ID), hypotonia, sleep disturbances, movement disorders, and epilepsy. Even though epilepsy is present in 50% of the individuals, it has not been investigated in detail.

The macaque ventral intraparietal area has expanded into three homologue human parietal areas.

The macaque ventral intraparietal area (VIP) in the fundus of the intraparietal sulcus has been implicated in a diverse range of sensorimotor and cognitive functions such as motion processing, multisensory integration, processing of head peripersonal space, defensive behavior, and numerosity coding. Here, we exhaustively review macaque VIP function, cytoarchitectonics, and anatomical connectivity and integrate it with human studies that have attempted to identify a potential human VIP homologue. We show that human VIP research has consistently identified three, rather than one, bilateral parietal areas that each appear to subsume some, but not all, of the macaque area's functionality.

Decoding across sensory modalities reveals common supramodal signatures of conscious perception.

An increasing number of studies highlight common brain regions and processes in mediating conscious sensory experience. While most studies have been performed in the visual modality, it is implicitly assumed that similar processes are involved in other sensory modalities. However, the existence of supramodal neural processes related to conscious perception has not been convincingly shown so far.

Effects of Antiepileptic Drug Tapering on Episodic Memory as Measured by Virtual Reality Tests.

Antiepileptic drugs impair episodic memory in patients with epilepsy, but this effect has so far only been examined with tests that do not provide first-person experience-an aspect that is crucial for episodic memory. Virtual reality techniques facilitate the development of ecologically valid tests. In the present study, we measure the effect of antiepileptic drug changes in a within-subject design using a virtual reality test in order to provide direct evidence for effects of antiepileptic drugs on episodic memory.

A virtual reality paradigm to assess episodic memory: Validation-dataset for six parallel versions and a structured behavioral assessment.

In the epilepsy monitoring unit of the Department of Neurology at the University Clinic of Salzburg 20 adult patients were recruited to participate in a validation of 6 parallel versions of the virtual reality test for episodic memory. Patients were tested up to 7 times, i.e.

Head magnetomyography (hMMG): A novel approach to monitor face and whole head muscular activity.

Muscular activity recording is of high basic science and clinical relevance and is typically achieved using electromyography (EMG). While providing detailed information about the state of a specific muscle, this technique has limitations such as the need for a priori assumptions about electrode placement and difficulty with recording muscular activity patterns from extended body areas at once. For head and face muscle activity, the present work aimed to overcome these restrictions by exploiting magnetoencephalography (MEG) as a whole head myographic recorder (head magnetomyography, hMMG).

Awake brain surgery in children-review of the literature and state-of-the-art.

Objective: Awake brain surgery (ABS) is poorly reported in children as it is considered having limited indications due to age and neuropsychological aspects interfering with its feasibility and psychological outcome. The aim of this article is to review the current state-of-the-art of ABS in children and to offer an objective summary of the published literature on diversified outcome aspects of pediatric awake procedures.

Methods: A literature review was performed using the MEDLINE (PubMed) electronic database applying the following MeSH terms to the keyword search within titles and abstracts: "awake brain surgery children," "awake brain surgery pediatric," "awake craniotomy children," "awake craniotomy pediatric," and "awake surgery children.

Automatic and feature-specific prediction-related neural activity in the human auditory system.

Prior experience enables the formation of expectations of upcoming sensory events. However, in the auditory modality, it is not known whether prediction-related neural signals carry feature-specific information. Here, using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we examined whether predictions of future auditory stimuli carry tonotopic specific information.

Psychological aspects of awake brain surgery in children-interests and risks.

Awake brain surgery (ABS) in children remains a subject of controversial debate for the potential psychological limitations that are related to this type of procedure. However, the tolerance and benefits of ABS in adults advocate for increased application of ABS in children. In this study, we report the psychological assessment, evaluation algorithm, and outcome of pediatric patients, who underwent ABS for surgical treatment of lesions in eloquent areas.

Differences in Cortical Structure and Functional MRI Connectivity in High Functioning Autism.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) represent a complex group of neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by deficits in communication and social behaviors. We examined the functional connectivity (FC) of the default mode network (DMN) and its relation to multimodal morphometry to investigate superregional, system-level alterations in a group of 22 adolescents and young adults with high-functioning autism compared to age-, and intelligence quotient-matched 29 healthy controls. The main findings were that ASD patients had gray matter (GM) reduction, decreased cortical thickness and larger cortical surface areas in several brain regions, including the cingulate, temporal lobes, and amygdala, as well as increased gyrification in regions associated with encoding visual memories and areas of the sensorimotor component of the DMN, more pronounced in the left hemisphere.

Histopathological Findings in Brain Tissue Obtained during Epilepsy Surgery.

Background: Detailed neuropathological information on the structural brain lesions underlying seizures is valuable for understanding drug-resistant focal epilepsy.

Methods: We report the diagnoses made on the basis of resected brain specimens from 9523 patients who underwent epilepsy surgery for drug-resistant seizures in 36 centers from 12 European countries over 25 years. Histopathological diagnoses were determined through examination of the specimens in local hospitals (41%) or at the German Neuropathology Reference Center for Epilepsy Surgery (59%).

Acute Isolated Paraplegia Revealing an Ewing Sarcoma of the Thoracic Spine.

Ewing sarcoma (ES) infrequently affects the spine. Diagnosis is usually made several weeks following growing symptoms. In this report, we present the case of a child with ES localized at the upper thoracic level.

Consensus classification of posterior cortical atrophy.

Introduction: A classification framework for posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is proposed to improve the uniformity of definition of the syndrome in a variety of research settings.

Methods: Consensus statements about PCA were developed through a detailed literature review, the formation of an international multidisciplinary working party which convened on four occasions, and a Web-based quantitative survey regarding symptom frequency and the conceptualization of PCA.

Results: A three-level classification framework for PCA is described comprising both syndrome- and disease-level descriptions.

Cognitive remediation and social cognitive training for violence in schizophrenia: a systematic review.

Unlabelled: A significant correlation exists between violence and schizophrenia (SCZ). Recent studies matched some cognitive deficits like strong risk factors for violence with interesting applications in terms of treatment. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review of the effectiveness of cognitive remediation (CR) and social cognitive training (SCT) in the management of violent and aggressive behaviors in SCZ.

Active SAmpling Protocol (ASAP) to Optimize Individual Neurocognitive Hypothesis Testing: A BCI-Inspired Dynamic Experimental Design.

The relatively young field of Brain-Computer Interfaces has promoted the use of electrophysiology and neuroimaging in real-time. In the meantime, cognitive neuroscience studies, which make extensive use of functional exploration techniques, have evolved toward model-based experiments and fine hypothesis testing protocols. Although these two developments are mostly unrelated, we argue that, brought together, they may trigger an important shift in the way experimental paradigms are being designed, which should prove fruitful to both endeavors.

Testing patients during seizures: A European consensus procedure developed by a joint taskforce of the ILAE - Commission on European Affairs and the European Epilepsy Monitoring Unit Association.

There is currently no international consensus procedure for performing comprehensive periictal testing of patients in the epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs). Our primary goal was to develop a standardized procedure for managing and testing patients during and after seizures in EMUs. The secondary goal was to assess whether it could be implemented in clinical practice (feasibility).

Current practices in long-term video-EEG monitoring services: A survey among partners of the E-PILEPSY pilot network of reference for refractory epilepsy and epilepsy surgery.

Purpose: The European Union-funded E-PILEPSY network aims to improve awareness of, and accessibility to, epilepsy surgery across Europe. In this study we assessed current clinical practices in epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs) in the participating centers.

Method: A 60-item web-based survey was distributed to 25 centers (27 EMUs) of the E-PILEPSY network across 22 European countries.