Self-other voice discrimination task: A potential neuropsychological tool for clinical assessment of self-related deficits.

Background: Deficits in self are commonly described through different neuro-pathologies, based on clinical evaluations and experimental paradigms. However, currently available approaches lack appropriate clinical validation, making objective evaluation and discrimination of self-related deficits challenging.

Methods: We applied a statistical standardized method to assess the clinical discriminatory capacity of a Self-Other Voice Discrimination (SOVD) task.

Fingerprints of brain disease: connectome identifiability in Alzheimer's disease.

Functional connectivity patterns in the human brain, like the friction ridges of a fingerprint, can uniquely identify individuals. Does this "brain fingerprint" remain distinct even during Alzheimer's disease (AD)? Using fMRI data from healthy and pathologically ageing subjects, we find that individual functional connectivity profiles remain unique and highly heterogeneous during mild cognitive impairment and AD. However, the patterns that make individuals identifiable change with disease progression, revealing a reconfiguration of the brain fingerprint.

Early intensive rehabilitation reverses locomotor disruption, decrease brain inflammation and induces neuroplasticity following experimental Cerebral Palsy.

Background: Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a major cause of motor and cognitive disability in children due to injury to the developing brain. Early intensive sensorimotor rehabilitation has been shown to change brain structure and reduce CP symptoms severity. We combined environmental enrichment (EE) and treadmill training (TT) to observe the effects of a one-week program of sensorimotor stimulation (EETT) in animals exposed to a CP model and explored possible mechanisms involved in the functional recovery.

Reduced spatial frequency differentiation and sex-related specificities in fearful face detection in autism: Insights from EEG and the predictive brain model.

Face processing relies on predictive processes driven by low spatial frequencies (LSF) that convey coarse information prior to fine information conveyed by high spatial frequencies. However, autistic individuals might have atypical predictive processes, contributing to facial processing difficulties. This may be more normalized in autistic females, who often exhibit better socio-communicational abilities than males.

Non-invasive spinal cord electrical stimulation for arm and hand function in chronic tetraplegia: a safety and efficacy trial.

Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to permanent impairment of arm and hand functions. Here we conducted a prospective, single-arm, multicenter, open-label, non-significant risk trial that evaluated the safety and efficacy of ARC Therapy to improve arm and hand functions in people with chronic SCI. ARC Therapy involves the delivery of externally applied electrical stimulation over the cervical spinal cord during structured rehabilitation.

Performing well but not appreciating it - A trait feature of anorexia nervosa.

Background: Despite advances in the etiology of anorexia nervosa (AN), a large subgroup of individuals does not profit optimally from treatment. Perfectionism has been found to be a risk factor predicting the onset, severity, and duration of AN episodes. To date, perfectionism has been studied predominantly by the use of self-report questionnaires, a useful approach that may, however, be impacted by demand characteristics, or other distortions of introspective or metacognitive access.

Accelerometry as a tool for measuring the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Objective: We predicted that accelerometry would be a viable alternative to electromyography (EMG) for assessing fundamental Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) measurements (e.g. Resting Motor Threshold (RMT), recruitment curves, latencies).

Single neurons in the thalamus and subthalamic nucleus process cardiac and respiratory signals in humans.

Visceral signals are constantly processed by our central nervous system, enable homeostatic regulation, and influence perception, emotion, and cognition. While visceral processes at the cortical level have been extensively studied using non-invasive imaging techniques, very few studies have investigated how this information is processed at the single neuron level, both in humans and animals. Subcortical regions, relaying signals from peripheral interoceptors to cortical structures, are particularly understudied and how visceral information is processed in thalamic and subthalamic structures remains largely unknown.

Sex modulation of faces prediction error in the autistic brain.

Recent research suggests that autistic females may have superior socio-cognitive abilities compared to autistic males, potentially contributing to underdiagnosis in females. However, it remains unclear whether these differences arise from distinct neurophysiological functioning in autistic males and females. This study addresses this question by presenting 41 autistic and 48 non-autistic adults with a spatially filtered faces oddball paradigm.

An immersive virtual reality tool for assessing left and right unilateral spatial neglect.

The reported rate of the occurrence of unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is highly variable likely due to the lack of validity and low sensitivity of classical tools used to assess it. Virtual reality (VR) assessments try to overcome these limitations by proposing immersive and complex environments. Nevertheless, existing VR-based tasks are mostly focused only on near space and lack analysis of psychometric properties and/or clinical validation.

Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation for Stroke Recovery: A Novel Deep Brain Stimulation Approach for Neurorehabilitation?

Stroke as the leading cause of adult long-term disability and has a significant impact on patients, society and socio-economics. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) approaches such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) are considered as potential therapeutic options to enhance functional reorganization and augment the effects of neurorehabilitation. However, non-invasive electrical and magnetic stimulation paradigms are limited by their depth focality trade-off function that does not allow to target deep key brain structures critically important for recovery processes.

Feats: A database of semantic features for early produced noun concepts.

Semantic feature production norms have several desirable characteristics that have supported models of representation and processing in adults. However, several key challenges have limited the use of semantic feature norms in studies of early language acquisition. First, existing norms provide uneven and inconsistent coverage of early-acquired concepts that are typically produced and assessed in children under the age of three, which is a time of tremendous growth of early vocabulary skills.

Brain connectome correlates of short-term motor learning in healthy older subjects.

The motor learning process entails plastic changes in the brain, especially in brain network reconfigurations. In the current study, we sought to characterize motor learning by determining changes in the coupling behaviour between the brain functional and structural connectomes on a short timescale. 39 older subjects (age: mean (SD) = 69.

Preserved Corticospinal Tract Revealed by Acute Perfusion Imaging Relates to Better Outcome After Thrombectomy in Stroke.

Background: The indication for mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in stroke patients with large vessel occlusion has been constantly expanded over the past years. Despite remarkable treatment effects at the group level in clinical trials, many patients remain severely disabled even after successful recanalization. A better understanding of this outcome variability will help to improve clinical decision-making on MT in the acute stage.

Modulation of Visually Induced Self-motion Illusions by α Transcranial Electric Stimulation over the Superior Parietal Cortex.

The growing popularity of virtual reality systems has led to a renewed interest in understanding the neurophysiological correlates of the illusion of self-motion (vection), a phenomenon that can be both intentionally induced or avoided in such systems, depending on the application. Recent research has highlighted the modulation of α power oscillations over the superior parietal cortex during vection, suggesting the occurrence of inhibitory mechanisms in the sensorimotor and vestibular functional networks to resolve the inherent visuo-vestibular conflict. The present study aims to further explore this relationship and investigate whether neuromodulating these waves could causally affect the quality of vection.

Noninvasive theta-burst stimulation of the human striatum enhances striatal activity and motor skill learning.

The stimulation of deep brain structures has thus far only been possible with invasive methods. Transcranial electrical temporal interference stimulation (tTIS) is a novel, noninvasive technology that might overcome this limitation. The initial proof-of-concept was obtained through modeling, physics experiments and rodent models.

Connecting the dots: harnessing dual-site transcranial magnetic stimulation to quantify the causal influence of medial frontal areas on the motor cortex.

Dual-site transcranial magnetic stimulation has been widely employed to investigate the influence of cortical structures on the primary motor cortex. Here, we leveraged this technique to probe the causal influence of two key areas of the medial frontal cortex, namely the supplementary motor area and the medial orbitofrontal cortex, on primary motor cortex. We show that supplementary motor area stimulation facilitates primary motor cortex activity across short (6 and 8 ms) and long (12 ms) inter-stimulation intervals, putatively recruiting cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortico-cortical circuits, respectively.

Experimentally-evidenced personality alterations following meningioma resection: A case report.

Personality changes following neurosurgical procedures remain poorly understood and pose a major concern for patients, rendering a strong need for predictive biomarkers. Here we report a case of a female patient in her 40s who underwent resection of a large sagittal sinus meningioma with bilateral extension, including resection and ligation of the superior sagittal sinus, that resulted in borderline personality disorder. Importantly, we captured clinically-observed personality changes in a series of experiments assessing self-other voice discrimination, one of the experimental markers for self-consciousness.

Variability and reproducibility of multi-echo relaxometry: Insights from multi-site, multi-session and multi-subject MRI acquisitions.

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) can increase the specificity and sensitivity of conventional weighted MRI to underlying pathology by comparing meaningful physical or chemical parameters, measured in physical units, with normative values acquired in a healthy population. This study focuses on multi-echo relaxometry, a qMRI technique that probes the complex tissue microstructure by differentiating compartment-specific relaxation times. However, estimation methods are still limited by their sensitivity to the underlying noise.

Computer vision-based algorithm to sUppoRt coRrect electrode placemeNT (CURRENT) for home-based electric non-invasive brain stimulation.

Objective: Home-based non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has been suggested as an adjunct treatment strategy for neuro-psychiatric disorders. There are currently no available solutions to direct and monitor correct placement of the stimulation electrodes. To address this issue, we propose an easy-to-use digital tool to support patients for self-application.

Novel personalized treatment strategy for patients with chronic stroke with severe upper-extremity impairment: The first patient of the AVANCER trial.

Background: Around 25% of patients who have had a stroke suffer from severe upper-limb impairment and lack effective rehabilitation strategies. The AVANCER proof-of-concept clinical trial (NCT04448483) tackles this issue through an intensive and personalized-dosage cumulative intervention that combines multiple non-invasive neurotechnologies.

Methods: The therapy consists of two sequential interventions, lasting until the patient shows no further motor improvement, for a minimum of 11 sessions each.