Altered Brain Activity Research Articles

Neural mechanisms of acupuncture for peripheral facial nerve palsy: A protocol for systematic review and meta analysis.

Peripheral facial nerve palsy (PFNP) is a cranial neuropathy that occurs when the seventh facial nerve is damaged. PFNP seriously affects patients' quality of life, and approximately 30% of patients suffer from sequelae, such as unrecovered palsy, synkinesis, facial muscle contracture, and facial spasm. Many studies have confirmed the effectiveness of acupuncture for the treatment of PFNP. However, the specific mechanism remains unclear and needs to be further explored. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying acupuncture treatment for PFNP using neuroimaging methods. We will search all published studies from inception to March 2023 using the following databases: MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CNKI, KMBASE, KISS, ScienceON, and OASIS. All clinical studies evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating PFNP using functional neuroimaging will be selected without language restrictions. Two reviewers will independently conduct the study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment, according to a predetermined protocol. The outcomes, including the types of functional neuroimaging techniques, brain function alterations, and clinical outcomes, such as the House-Brackmann scale and Sunnybrook Facial Grading System, will also be analyzed. Coordinate-based meta-analysis and subgroup analyses will be performed if possible. This study will analyze the effect of acupuncture on brain activity alterations and clinical improvement in patients with PFNP using functional neuroimaging. This study will provide a comprehensive summary and help elucidate the neural mechanisms of acupuncture treatment for PFNP. CRD42022321827.

Altered Resting-State Brain Activity and Functional Connectivity in Post-Stroke Apathy: An fMRI Study.

Apathy is a common neuropsychiatric disease after stroke and is linked to a lower quality of life while undergoing rehabilitation. However, it is still unknown what are the underlying neural mechanisms of apathy. This research aimed to explore differences in the cerebral activity and functional connectivity (FC) of subjects with post-stroke apathy and those without it. A total of 59 individuals with acute ischemic stroke and 29 healthy subjects with similar age, sex, and education were recruited. The Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES) was used to evaluate apathy at 3 months after stroke. Patients were split into two groups-PSA (n = 21) and nPSA (n = 38)-based on their diagnosis. The fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) was used to measure cerebral activity, as well as region-of-interest to region-of-interest analysis to examine functional connectivity among apathy-related regions. Pearson correlation analysis between fALFF values and apathy severity was performed in this research. The values of fALFF in the left middle temporal regions, right anterior and middle cingulate regions, middle frontal region, and cuneus region differed significantly among groups. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the fALFF values in the left middle temporal region (p < 0.001, r = 0.66) and right cuneus (p < 0.001, r = 0.48) were positively correlated with AES scores in stroke patients, while fALFF values in the right anterior cingulate (p < 0.001, r = -0.61), right middle frontal gyrus (p < 0.001, r = -0.49), and middle cingulate gyrus (p = 0.04, r = -0.27) were negatively correlated with AES scores in stroke patients. These regions formed an apathy-related subnetwork, and functional connectivity analysis unveiled that altered connectivity was linked to PSA (p < 0.05). This research found that abnormalities in brain activity and FC in the left middle temporal region, right middle frontal region, right cuneate region, and right anterior and middle cingulate regions in stroke patients were associated with PSA, revealing a possible neural mechanism and providing new clues for the diagnosis and treatment of PSA.

Altered brain activity in diabetic patients with erectile dysfunction revealed by fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation: A resting-state fMRI study.

Diabetes mellitus is one of the major chronic diseases, which enhances the risk of erectile dysfunction. However, the central pathological mechanisms of erectile dysfunction in diabetes mellitus patients are still unclear. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired in 30 type-2 diabetes mellitus, 31 type-2 diabetes mellitus with erectile dysfunction patients, and 31 healthy controls. The measure of fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation was calculated and compared among groups. Differences of fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation values were found in the left superior frontal gyrus (medial) and middle temporal gyrus among three groups. Compared with healthy controls group, type-2 diabetes mellitus group exhibited lower fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation values in the left superior frontal gyrus (dorsolateral), anterior cingulate gyrus, calcarine fissure, and increased fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation values in the left post-central gyrus. Compared with healthy controls group, erectile dysfunction with type-2 diabetes mellitus group exhibited lower fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation values in the left superior frontal gyrus (medial), middle temporal gyrus, temporal middle (pole), and increased fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation values in the right post-central gyrus. Compared with type-2 diabetes mellitus group, erectile dysfunction with type-2 diabetes mellitus group exhibited increased fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation values in the right median cingulum gyrus and left calcarine fissure. Erectile dysfunction with type-2 diabetes mellitus patients showed functional changes in brain regions that were closely correlated with sexual dysfunction, which suggested that altered regional brain activity might be related to the pathophysiology of erectile dysfunction with type-2 diabetes mellitus.

Spontaneous Brain Activity Alterations in First-Episode Psychosis: A Meta-analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies.

Several studies have shown that spontaneous brain activity, including the total and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (LFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo), is altered in psychosis. Nonetheless, neuroimaging results show a high heterogeneity. For this reason, we gathered the extant literature on spontaneous brain activity in first-episode psychosis (FEP), where the effects of long-term treatment and chronic disease are minimal. A systematic research was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify studies exploring spontaneous brain activity and local connectivity in FEP estimated using functional magnetic resonance imaging. 20 LFF and 15 ReHo studies were included. Coordinate-Based Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analyses stratified by brain measures, age (adolescent vs adult), and drug-naïve status were performed to identify spatially-convergent alterations in spontaneous brain activity in FEP. We found a significant increase in LFF in FEP compared to healthy controls (HC) in the right striatum and in ReHo in the left striatum. When pooling together all studies on LFF and ReHo, spontaneous brain activity was increased in the bilateral striatum and superior and middle frontal gyri and decreased in the right precentral gyrus and the right inferior frontal gyrus compared to HC. These results were also replicated in the adult and drug-naïve samples. Abnormalities in the frontostriatal circuit are present in early psychosis independently of treatment status. Our findings support the view that altered frontostriatal can represent a core neural alteration of the disorder and could be a target of treatment.

A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study of altered functional brain activity in cardiac arrest survivors with good neurological outcome.

To investigate the spontaneous brain activity alterations in survivors of cardiac arrest (CA) with good neurological outcome using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) with amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) methods. Thirteen CA survivors with favorable neurological outcomes and 13 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and underwent rs-fMRI scans. The ALFF and ReHo methods were applied to assess the regional intensity and synchronization of spontaneous brain activity. Correlation analyses were performed to explore the relationships between the mean ALFF and ReHo values in significant clusters and clinical parameters. The survivors of CA showed significantly decreased ALFF values in the left postcentral gyrus and precentral gyrus and increased ALFF values in the left hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus than HCs. Significantly decreased ReHo values were observed in the left inferior occipital gyrus and middle occipital gyrus in the patients. Mean ALFF values in the left hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus were positively correlated with the time to return of spontaneous circulation (r = 0.794, p = 0.006) in the patient group. Functional activity alterations in the brain areas corresponding to known cognitive and physical impairments were observed in CA survivors with preserved neurological function. Our results could advance the understanding of the neurological mechanisms underlying the residual deficits in those patients.

Effects of Temporal Light Modulation on Cognitive Performance,Eye Movements, and Brain Function

ABSTRACT Temporal light modulation (TLM) describes variations in light output from a light source or lighting system and can be a characteristic of their normal operation. TLM at 100 or 120 Hz can disrupt eye movements and reduce visual performance compared to 40 kHz, but little is known of the effects between those frequencies. Such evidence could provide the basis for lighting product and application standards to support the development of energy-efficient lighting systems. This repeated-measures experiment compared the effects of three stimuli (no TLM [DC], 100 Hz, and 500 Hz [both rectangular-wave, 100% modulation depth, 50% duty cycle]) on state anxiety, eye movements (blinks, saccades, fixations, and pupil size), cognitive performance (Stroop task and sentence reading speed), and visual event-related potentials (ERPs). Post-processing of EEG data included dipole source analysis and estimates of source dipole strength. TLM at 100 Hz was associated with larger pupil sizes and greater ERP dipole strength during 100 Hz exposure than no TLM, particularly in the right hemisphere. Cognitive interference was lower for 500 Hz TLM than 100 Hz. State anxiety was unaffected. The addition of TLM to the light source signal increased arousal and altered brain activity; at the highest frequency tested here this reduced cognitive interference. Arousal theory and stochastic facilitation can provide possible explanations.

Static and temporal dynamic alteration of intrinsic brain activity in MRI-negative temporal lobe epilepsy

PurposeTo comprehensively explore the potential brain activity abnormalities affected by MRI-negative temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and to detect whether the changes were associated with cognition and help in the diagnosis or lateralization. MethodSix static intrinsic brain activity (IBA) indicators (ALFF, fALFF, ReHo, DC, GSCorr, VMHC) and their corresponding six temporal dynamic indicators in 39 unilateral MRI-negative TLE patients and 42 healthy volunteers were compared. Correlation analyses were performed between these indicators in areas displaying group differences, cognitive function, and epilepsy duration. ROC analyses were performed to test the diagnostic and lateralization ability of the IBA parameters. ResultsConsiderable overlap was present among the abnormal brain regions detected by different static and dynamic indicators, including (1) alteration of fALFF, Reho, DC, VMHC, dfALFF, dReHo, and dDC in the temporal neocortex (predominately ipsilateral to the epileptogenic foci); (2) decreased dGSCorr and dVMHC in the occipital lobe. Meanwhile, the ReHo and VMHC values in the temporal neocortex correlated with the cognition scores or epilepsy duration (P < 0.01). The ROC analysis results revealed moderate diagnosis or lateralization efficiency of several IBA indicators (fALFF, dfALFF, ReHo, DC, dDC, and VMHC). ConclusionThe abnormal condition of neuronal activity in the temporal neocortex, predominately lateralized to the epileptic side, was a crucial feature in patients with MRI-negative TLE and might offer diagnosis or lateralization information. The application of dynamic intrinsic brain activity indicators played a complementary role, further revealing the temporal variability decline of the occipital lobe in MRI-negative TLE patients.

Neural correlates of peer evaluation in irritable adolescents: Linking anticipation to receipt of social feedback

Elevated irritability during adolescence predicts mental health issues in adulthood. Social interactions commonly elicit symptoms of irritability. Prior research has traditionally examined neural activity during the anticipation of, and immediate reaction to, social feedback separately in irritable adolescents. However, studies suggest that irritable adolescents demonstrate altered brain activation when anticipating feedback, and these alterations may have downstream effects on the neural activity when actually presented with feedback. Thus, the goal of this study was to characterize the influence of irritability on the relationship between brain function during anticipation and receipt of social feedback. We leveraged the Virtual School task to mimic social interactions using dynamic stimuli. Parallel region of interest (ROI) analyses tested effects of anticipatory bilateral amygdala (or dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; dACC) activation on the dACC (or bilateral amygdala) activation during receipt of peer feedback. Parallel exploratory whole-brain analyses were conducted to identify the effects of anticipatory bilateral amygdala or dACC activation on other regions during receipt of peer feedback. In ROI analyses, more vs. less irritable adolescents showed distinct relationships between anticipatory bilateral amygdala activation and dACC activation when receiving predictably mean feedback. Across both whole-brain analyses, anticipatory bilateral amygdala and dACC activation were separately associated with activation in socioemotional regions of the brain during subsequent feedback. These relationships were modulated by irritability, and the valence and predictability of the feedback. This suggests that irritable adolescents may engage in altered emotion processing and regulation strategies, depending on the valence and predictability of social feedback.

Distinct brain activity alterations of treatment of bipolar disorders with psychotherapy and drug therapy: activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis - CORRIGENDUM.

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Can the aberrant occipital-cerebellum network be a predictor of treatment in panic disorder?

BackgroundThis study aimed to detect altered brain activation pattern of patients with panic disorder (PD) and its changes after treatment. The possibilities of diagnosis and prediction of treatment response based on the aberrant brain activity were tested. MethodsFifty-four PD patients and 54 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Clinical assessment and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were conducted. Then, patients received a 4-week paroxetine treatment and underwent a second clinical assessment and scan. The fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) was measured. Support vector machine (SVM) and support vector regression (SVR) analyses were conducted. ResultsLower fALFF values in the right calcarine/lingual gyrus and left lingual gyrus/cerebellum IV/V, whereas higher fALFF values in right cerebellum Crus II were observed in patients related to HCs at baseline. After treatment, patients with PD exhibited significant clinical improvement, and the abnormal lower fALFF values in the right lingual gyrus exhibited a great increase. The abnormal fALFF at pretreatment can distinguish patients from HCs with 80 % accuracy and predict treatment response which was reflected in the significant correlation between the predicted and actual treatment responses. LimitationsThe impacts of ethnic, cultural, and other regional differences on PD were not considered for it was a single-center study. ConclusionsThe occipital-cerebellum network played an important role in the pathophysiology of PD and should be a part of the fear network. The abnormal fALFF values in patients with PD at pretreatment could serve as biomarkers of PD and predict the early treatment response of paroxetine.

Altered brain activity in unipolar depression unveiled using connectomics

Over 20 years of neuroimaging experiments into aberrant task-based brain activity in unipolar depression have failed to reliably delineate a convergent set of anatomical regions. Here we examined whether study-derived coordinates might delineate a dysfunctional brain network in unipolar depression rather than isolated neuroanatomical foci, utilizing data from 57 studies with 99 individual neuroimaging task-based experiments, testing either emotional or cognitive processing (n = 1,058). We further assessed clinical relevance by computing optimal network-based personalized targets in 26 individuals who previously received transcranial magnetic stimulation for unipolar depression. Although coordinates were neuroanatomically heterogeneous, they localized to highly robust distributed brain networks. Importantly, these networks closely recapitulated clinically meaningful and independently derived models of depression circuitry, quantified by spatial correlation (P < 0.00002). Therapeutic outcome of transcranial magnetic stimulation was dependent on how effectively this circuit was targeted (P = 0.018). These findings indicate that neuroimaging findings in depression, which previously appeared irreconcilable, localize to highly robust and clinically meaningful distributed brain networks. Cash et al. examined whether coordinates derived from neuroimaging studies might delineate a dysfunctional brain network in unipolar depression rather than isolated neuroanatomical foci. The authors found highly robust distributed brain networks that closely recapitulate clinically meaningful models of depression circuitry.

Decreased Resting-State Alpha Self-Synchronization in Depressive Disorder.

Background. Depression disorder has been associated with altered oscillatory brain activity. The common methods to quantify oscillatory activity are Fourier and wavelet transforms. Both methods have difficulties distinguishing synchronized oscillatory activity from nonrhythmic and large-amplitude artifacts. Here we proposed a method called self-synchronization index (SSI) to quantify synchronized oscillatory activities in neural data. The method considers temporal characteristics of neural oscillations, amplitude, and cycles, to estimate the synchronization value for a specific frequency band. Method. The recorded electroencephalography (EEG) data of 45 depressed and 55 healthy individuals were used. The SSI method was applied to each EEG electrode filtered in the alpha frequency band (8-13 Hz). The multiple linear regression model was used to predict depression severity (Beck Depression Inventory-II scores) using alpha SSI values. Results. Patients with severe depression showed a lower alpha SSI than those with moderate depression and healthy controls in all brain regions. Moreover, the alpha SSI values negatively correlated with depression severity in all brain regions. The regression model showed a significant performance of depression severity prediction using alpha SSI. Conclusion. The findings support the SSI measure as a powerful tool for quantifying synchronous oscillatory activity. The data examined in this article support the idea that there is a strong link between the synchronization of alpha oscillatory neural activities and the level of depression. These findings yielded an objective and quantitative depression severity prediction.

Prolonged exposure to cocaine self-administration results in a continued progression of alterations in functional activity in a nonhuman primate model

BackgroundStudies of nonhuman primates with exposures of up to 100 days of cocaine self-administration (SA) have provided evidence that the central effects of cocaine progress over time. These durations of cocaine exposure, however, may be insufficient to capture the extent of the neurobiological alterations observed in cocaine users, many of whom use the drug for years. The goal of the present study was to determine whether 1.5 years of cocaine SA would result in further progression of alterations in functional brain activity. MethodsAdult male rhesus monkeys were exposed to 300 sessions of high-dose cocaine SA over 1.5 years. Following the final session rates of local cerebral glucose utilization (LCGU) were assessed with the 2-[14C]-deoxyglucose method and compared to rates of LCGU in control monkeys who responded for food reinforcement. In addition, LCGU in these animals was compared to a previously published group of monkeys that had self-administered cocaine or food for 100 sessions over a 4–5 month period. ResultsCompared to 100 days of exposure, 300 days of cocaine SA further reduced LCGU in the post-commissural striatum and produced reductions in areas unaffected by the shorter duration of exposure, such as the hypothalamus, all of the amygdala, and large expanses of cortex. ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate a clear progression of the impact of cocaine on functional activity with increasing durations of drug experience and have important implications for the development of potential strategies for the treatment of cocaine use disorder.

Behavioral and Functional Brain Activity Alterations Induced by TMS Coils with Different Spatial Distributions.

Previous investigation of cognitive processes using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have explored the response to different stimulation parameters such as frequency and coil location. In this study, we attempt to add another parameter by exploiting the spatial profiles of TMS coils to infer regional information concerning reward-related behavior. We used different TMS coils to modulate activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and examined resulting changes in behavior and associated brain activity. More specifically, we used the Figure-8 coil to stimulate a portion of the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) and the H-Coil to stimulate a larger volume within the lateral PFC (LPFC). Healthy human volunteers completed behavioral questionnaires (n = 29) or performed a reward-related decision-making functional MRI (fMRI) task (n = 21) immediately before and after acute high-frequency stimulation (10 Hz) with either a Figure-8 coil, H-Coil, or a sham coil. Stimulation was found to induce behavioral changes as well as changes in brain activation in key nodes of the reward network. Right LPFC, but not right DLPFC or sham, stimulation was found to induce changes in both behavioral scores and brain activation in key nodes of the reward system. In conclusion, this study supports the role of the right LPFC in reward-related behavior and suggest that the pathways through which the observed effects were generated are located outside the area of the DLPFC that is traditionally targeted with TMS. These results demonstrate the use of TMS coils with different spatial profiles as an informative tool to investigate anatomic and functional correlates of behavior.

Altered static and dynamic spontaneous neural activity in patients with ischemic pontine stroke.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the abnormality both of static spontaneous brain activity and dynamic temporal variances following a pontine infarction. Forty-six patients with chronic left pontine infarction (LPI), thirty-two patients with chronic right pontine infarction (RPI), and fifty healthy controls (HCs) were recruited for the study. The static amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (sALFF), static regional homogeneity (sReHo), dynamic ALFF (dALFF), and dynamic ReHo (dReHo) were employed to detect the alterations in brain activity induced by an infarction. The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and Flanker task were used to evaluate the verbal memory and visual attention function, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to reveal the potential capacity of these metrics to distinguish the patients from HCs. There were significant variations of these static and dynamic metrics in patients with chronic pontine infarction. The altered regions involved the supratentorial regions, including cortex and subcortical. Moreover, the altered metrics were significantly correlated with verbal memory and visual attention. In addition, these static and dynamic metrics also showed potential in distinguishing stroke patients with behavior deficits from HCs. The pontine infarction-induced cerebral activation changes are observed in both motor and cognitive systems, indicating the functional damage and reorganization across the global cerebral level in these patients with subtentorial infarction, and there is a reciprocal effect between motor and cognitive impairment and repair.

Frequency-Specific Alterations of Spontaneous Brain Activity in First-Episode Drug-Naïve Schizophrenia

To investigate frequency-specific alterations of spontaneous brain activity in first-episode drug-naïve schizophrenia (SZ) patients and the associations with clinical symptoms. We collected the resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data from 84 first-episode drug-naïve SZ patients and 94 healthy controls (HCs) and calculated the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) of four frequency bands, including slow-2, slow-3, slow-4, and slow-5. Two-sample t-tests were used to evaluate the intergroup differences in ALFF and ReHo, while partial correlation analyses were conducted to explore the associations between abnormal ALFF and ReHo and the severity of clinical symptoms in the SZ group. Compared with HCs, the SZ group showed reduced ALFF in superior cerebellum and cerebellar vermis across slow-2, slow-3, and slow-4 bands, while increased ALFF was found in left superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and superior temporal pole at slow-4 band. Moreover, reduced ReHo was observed in the right precentral and postcentral gyri at slow-3 band in the SZ group. Additionally, the ALFF of left superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and superior temporal pole in slow-4 band showed a trend of positive correlation with the excited factor score of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in the SZ group. Our results suggest that local alterations of spontaneous brain activity were frequency-specific in first-episode drug-naïve SZ patients.

High-throughput functional analysis of autism genes in zebrafish identifies convergence in dopaminergic and neuroimmune pathways

Advancing from gene discovery in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to the identification of biologically relevant mechanisms remains a central challenge. Here, we perform parallel invivo functional analysis of 10 ASD genes at the behavioral, structural, and circuit levels in zebrafish mutants, revealing both unique and overlapping effects of gene loss of function. Whole-brain mapping identifies the forebrain and cerebellum as the most significant contributors to brain size differences, while regions involved in sensory-motor control, particularly dopaminergic regions, are associated with altered baseline brain activity. Finally, we show a global increase in microglia resulting from ASD gene loss of function in select mutants, implicating neuroimmune dysfunction as a key pathway relevant to ASD biology.

A hypotheses to explain acute adjustment disorder after phakic intraocular lens implantation in a highly myopic patient: Potential causes and suggested remedies

Phakic intraocular lenses (phakic IOLs) have expanded the options to correct high myopia surgically. However, we have noted that some very high myopes can have difficulty adjusting to the new uncorrected vision after Phakic IOLs. We hypothesize that in these cases, drastically increased optical magnification and altered spontaneous brain activity patterns can contribute to difficulty with delayed post operative recovery of visual function. We present empirical data from a case and calculate the magnification effect to support the hypotheses. This highly myopic patient, who had worn spectacles (and not contact lenses), underwent Visian Implantable Collamer Lens (ICL, Staar Surgical, Monrovia, CA USA) placement and subsequently developed an adjustment disorder post operatively. The patient’s preoperative refraction was −23.75 D Sph/+1.50 D Cyl @ 158 (spherical equivalent −23 D) in the right eye and −19.0 D Sph/+2.0 D Cyl @ 025 (spherical equivalent −18 D) in the left eye resulting into pre-operative spectacle related retinal image minification of 73.1% and 77.6% in size compared to emmetropic retinal image for the right and left eyes, respectively. Myopic patients who are habituated to glasses and adapt to this image minification. Therefore, the change in the image size after phakic IOL (intraocular lenses) placement can be difficult to adjust to immediately post operatively. Contact lenses can better simulate emmetropic sized retinal image and should preferably be trialed in preoperative evaluation.Secondly, several studies have highlighted neuronal activity alternations in high myopes, and also changes in neuronal activity after refractive surgery (Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK)) as demonstrated by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It is hypothesized that neuronal connections are re-activated after refractive surgery as shown by alterations in amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in specific areas of the brain, including the primary visual cortex, lingual and medial occipital gyri, the left parahippocampal gyrus, cerebellar vermis and left posterior cingulate cortex, that can be linked with emotional and visuospatial processing.Therefore, we hypothesize that in some highly myopic patients, the combination of drastically altered retinal magnification and altered brain activity can result in acute adjustment disorder. Refractive surgeons should counsel these patients further regarding the adjustment period and additionally there should be a multi-disciplinary approach implemented to help patients cope with their resulting vision pre and post operatively.

Poorer sleep health is associated with altered brain activation during cognitive control processing in healthy adults.

This study investigated how proactive and reactive cognitive control processing in the brain was associated with habitual sleep health. BOLD fMRI data were acquired from 81 healthy adults with normal sleep (41 females, age 20.96-39.58years) during a test of cognitive control (Not-X-CPT). Sleep health was assessed in the week before MRI scanning, using both objective (actigraphy) and self-report measures. Multiple measures indicating poorer sleep health-including later/more variable sleep timing, later chronotype preference, more insomnia symptoms, and lower sleep efficiency-were associated with stronger and more widespread BOLD activations in fronto-parietal and subcortical brain regions during cognitive control processing (adjusted for age, sex, education, and fMRI task performance). Most associations were found for reactive cognitive control activation, indicating that poorer sleep health is linked to a "hyper-reactive" brain state. Analysis of time-on-task effects showed that, with longer time on task, poorer sleep health was predominantly associated with increased proactive cognitive control activation, indicating recruitment of additional neural resources over time. Finally, shorter objective sleep duration was associated with lower BOLD activation with time on task and poorer task performance. In conclusion, even in "normal sleepers," relatively poorer sleep health is associated with altered cognitive control processing, possibly reflecting compensatory mechanisms and/or inefficient neural processing.

Altered spontaneous brain activity as a potential imaging biomarker for generalized and focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures: A resting-state fMRI study

ObjectiveWe aimed to determine whether alterations in spontaneous regional brain activity in those with generalized tonic‐clonic seizures (GTCS) and focal to bilateral tonic‐clonic seizures (FBTCS) and explore whether the alterations could be used as biomarkers to classify disease subtypes through support vector machine analysis (SVM). MethodsThe fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data were extracted from 57 patients with GTCS, 35 patients with FBTCS, and 50 age-matched and sex-matched normal controls (NCs) using the DPARSF 5.0 toolbox. Between-group comparisons were adjusted for covariates (age, sex, and equipment). Correlation analyses between imaging biomarkers and the frequency or duration of seizure activity were calculated using partial correlations. The differential imaging indicators, age, and sex were considered as the discriminative features in the SVM to evaluate classification performance. ResultsThe patients with GTCS showed lower fALFF values (voxel p < 0.001, cluster p < 0.05, Gaussian random field corrected, GRF corrected) in the right postcentral gyrus and precentral gyrus and lower ReHo values (GRF corrected) in the middle temporal gyrus than the NCs. The patients with FBTCS showed higher fALFF (GRF corrected) values in the right postcentral and precentral gyrus and higher ReHo (GRF corrected) values in the right postcentral gyrus. Both fALFF (GRF corrected) and ReHo (GRF corrected) values were lower in the right postcentral gyrus and precentral gyrus in the GTCS group than in the FBTCS group. In patients with FBTCS, fALFF values in the right postcentral and precentral gyrus were positively correlated with duration (r = 0.655, p = 0.008, Bonferroni corrected) in the low-duration group, and ReHo values in the right postcentral gyrus were positively correlated with frequency (r = 0.486, p = 0.022, uncorrected) in the low-frequency group. SVM results showed receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.89, 0.87, and 0.76 for the classification between GTCS and NC, between FBTCS and NC, and GTCS and FBTCS, respectively. SignificanceThis study detected alterations in fALFF and ReHo in the postcentral gyrus and precentral gyrus in patients with GTCS and FBTCS, which might contribute to understanding the pathogenesis, disease classification, and clinical targeted therapy.