Neurofunctional Reorganization Research Articles

The Padovan® Method as an adjuvant therapy for tendon elongation surgery in children with cerebral paralysis: two case reports

Objective: To report two cases of children rehabilitated with the Padovan® Method before the tendon stretching surgery. Case reports: Observational, descriptive, quantitative and retrospective study of two cases of children who had cerebral palsy, spasticity, shortening of the tendons and lack of gait, due to hypoxia in the neonatal period, seen in a private clinic by the Padovan® method of neurofunctional reorganization, through review of medical records. For motor evaluation, the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) was used. The reports were approved by the Research Ethics Committee. Patients received conventional motor physiotherapy from the first months of life to 7 years old (case 1) and 5 years old (case 2), when they started rehabilitation with the Padovan® Method, 3 times a week and, after improving their tone and muscle strength, patients were referred for orthopedic surgery and moved from level IV (mobility with limitations) to level II (walking with limitations) on the GMFCS scale. Final considerations: Even after the sequela installed, patients managed to acquire gait, contributing to the results of orthopedic surgery due to the reprogramming of movements proposed by the Padovan® Method, which can contribute to reducing failures in this type of surgery.

A twelve-week, four-arm, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 prospective clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of an anthroposophic multimodal treatment on chronic pain in outpatients with postpolio syndrome.

IntroductionChronic pain and fatigue are the main symptoms of postpoliomyelitis syndrome (PPS). This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of an anthroposophic multimodal treatment for chronic pain in PPS outpatients.MethodsA twelve‐week, four‐arm, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, phase 2 prospective clinical trial was designed to compare four groups (n = 48): groups A and B received daily active experimental transdermal gel (ETG) or placebo gel (PTG), respectively; groups C and D received weekly external therapies, art therapies, and neurofunctional reorganization, plus either daily ETG or PTG, respectively. The pain symptoms were evaluated through a visual analogue scale (VAS), the McGill questionnaire, and thermography. Quality of life and resilience were evaluated by the WHOQOL‐BREF and Antonovsky sense of coherence questionnaires applied at baseline and after the interventions.ResultsNo related adverse events occurred, and 10% of the patients reports dysphagia improvement. In the groups C and D, pain reduction was statistically significant in both the placebo group (p = .02, d = 1.315) and in the ETG (p = .005, d = 2.035). However, following the week‐to‐week evolution of pain with the concomitant use of the ETG, this significant pain reduction occurred earlier from the 4th week and continued to decrease (p = .016, d = 1.369). In the group that received the complete multimodal treatment, the greatest significant benefit in increasing quality of life occurred in the physical domain and elevation in resilience with an emphasis on meaning and comprehension domains.ConclusionsThe anthroposophic multimodal treatment group presented both safety and efficacy as an analgesic in the groups that received the nonpharmacological therapies, much earlier when associated with the ETG. The multimodal approach corresponded to the pattern of better efficacy for both pain reduction and improvement in quality of life and resilience.

Neurocognitive reorganization of emotional processing following a socio-cognitive intervention in Colombian ex-combatants

ABSTRACT Ex-combatants often exhibit atypical Emotional Processing (EP) such as reduced emphatic levels and higher aggressive attitudes. Social Cognitive Training (SCT) addressing socio-emotional components powerfully improve social interaction among Colombian ex-combatants. However, with narrow neural evidence, this study offers a new testimony. A sample of 28 ex-combatants from Colombian illegal armed groups took part in this study, split into 15 for SCT and 13 for the conventional program offered by the Governmental Reintegration Route. All of them were assessed before and after the intervention with a protocol that included an EP task synchronized with electroencephalographic recordings. We drew behavioral scores and brain connectivity (Coherency) metrics from task performance. Behavioral scores yielded no significant effects. Increased post-intervention connectivity in the delta band was observed during negative emotional processing only SCT group. Positive emotions exposed distinctive gamma band connectivity that differentiate groups. These results suggest that SCT can trigger covert neurofunctional reorganization in ex-combatants embarked on the reintegration process even when overt behavioral improvements are not yet apparent. Such covert functional changes may be the neural signature of compensatory mechanisms necessary to reshape behaviors adaptively. This novel framework may inspire cutting-edge translational research at the crossing of neuroscience, sociology, and public policy-making.

On Tools Making Minds: an Archaeological Perspective on Human Cognitive Evolution

AbstractUsing a model of cognition as extended and enactive, we examine the role of materiality in making minds as exemplified by lithics and writing, forms associated with conceptual thought and meta-awareness of conceptual domains. We address ways in which brain functions may change in response to interactions with material forms, the attributes of material forms that may cause such change, and the spans of time required for neurofunctional reorganization. We also offer three hypotheses for investigating co-influence and change in cognition and material culture.

More expertise for a better perspective: Task and strategy-driven adaptive neurofunctional reorganization for word production in high-performing older adults

ABSTRACTThe suggestion that neurofunctional reorganization may contribute to preserved language abilities is still emerging in aging studies. Some of these abilities, such as verbal fluency (VF), are not unitary but instead rely on different strategic processes that are differentially changed with age. Younger (n = 13) and older adults (n = 13) carried out an overt self-paced semantic and orthographic VF tasks within mixed fMRI design. Our results suggest that patterns of brain activation sustaining equivalent performances could be underpinned by different strategies facing brain changes during healthy aging. These main findings suggest that temporally mediated semantic clustering and frontally mediated orthographic switching were driven by evolutive neurofunctional resources in high-performing older adults. These age-related activation changes can appear to be compatible with the idea that unique neural patterns expressing distinctive cognitive strategies are necessary to support older adults’ performance on VF tasks.

Differences in Brain Architecture in Remote Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is brain trauma from an external impact with a loss of consciousness less than 30 min. Mild TBI results in several biopsychosocial impairments, with pronounced cognitive deficits thought to resolve within 3 months of injury. Previous research suggests that these impairments are due to a temporary inability to appropriately allocate neural resources in response to cognitive demands. Our study questioned this assumption and instead hypothesized that mTBI was associated with long-term neural disruptions and compromised brain structure integrity. By extension, we investigated the likelihood that functional restitution and cognitive resolution following mTBI may be due to some form of neurofunctional reorganization. To this end, we examined abnormalities in resting state functional connectivity and structure (volume, thickness, and fractional anisotropy) in two groups of mTBI-those with 1-10 years time post-injury (mTBI1-10), and those with 20-65 years time post-injury, relative to age-, sex-, and education-matched controls. We observed abnormalities in brain architecture only in the mTBI1-10 group, characterized by functional hypo-activation in the right frontal pole, smaller frontal pole volume, and lesser fractional anisotropy in the genu of the corpus callosum that extended near the right frontal pole. This frontal region is laterally specialized to regulate function specific to socio-emotional processes. Collectively, neural disruptions and structural insult in mTBI may persist up to 10 years following injury, but injury-related pathology may resolve with longer recovery time. Disruption to frontal-dependent function that supports socio-emotional processes also may interfere with cognitive functioning, as in the case of chronic mTBI.

Age-Related Shift in Neuro-Activation during a Word-Matching Task.

Growing evidence from the neuroscience of aging suggests that executive function plays a pivotal role in maintaining semantic processing performance. However, the presumed age-related activation changes that sustain executive semantic processing remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore the executive aspects of semantic processing during a word-matching task with regard to age-related neuro-functional reorganization, as well as to identify factors that influence executive control profiles. Twenty younger and 20 older participants underwent fMRI scanning. The experimental task was based on word-matching, wherein visual feedback was used to instruct participants to either maintain or switch a semantic-matching rule. Response time and correct responses were assessed for each group. A battery of cognitive tests was administrated to all participants and the older group was divided into two subgroups based on their cognitive control profiles. Even though the percentage of correct responses was equivalent in the task performance between both groups and within the older groups, neuro-functional activation differed in frontoparietal regions with regards to age and cognitive control profiles. A correlation between behavioral measures (correct responses and response times) and brain signal changes was found in the left inferior parietal region in older participants. Results indicate that the shift in age-related activation from frontal to parietal regions can be viewed as another form of neuro-functional reorganization. The greater reliance on inferior parietal regions in the older compared to the younger group suggests that the executive control system is still efficient and sustains semantic processing in the healthy aging brain. Additionally, cognitive control profiles underlie executive ability differences in healthy aging appear to be associated with specific neuro-functional reorganization throughout frontal and parietal regions. These findings demonstrate that changes in neural support for executive semantic processing during a word-matching task are not only influenced by age, but also by cognitive control profile.

Langage, cerveau et vieillissement : une complicité tout au long de la vie

The neurobiological bases of language remain activated long after the period of language acquisition. Growing evidence shows that the neurofunctional organization of language develops throughout one’s lifetime and thus contributes to the maintenance of communication abilities, an important element for active aging. However, the maintenance of communication abilities in older people is in contrast with the observed neurobiological changes taking place, therefore demonstrating that a paradox exists, known as the brain-cognition mismatch. It has been hypothesized that neurofunctional reorganization allows the brain to compensate for age-related neural decline and maintenance of various cognitive abilities, such as language. Several phenomena such as cognitive reserve, HAROLD, PASA, CRUNCH, and STAC have attempted to explain the mechanisms of cerebral reorganization. Yet no theory has fully explained this phenomenon yet, as the brain displays flexible strategies for adapting to aging. This review compares the semantic treatment of words—a language component usually well preserved during aging—between younger and older adults, while observing the characteristics of neurofunctional reorganization.

Padovan Method Of Neurofunctional Reorganization As A Way For Neurological Recovery In Newborns

Introduction: The physiological basis of neurofunctional reorganization in stimulating the nervous system is justified and ratified by the concepts of neuroplasticity and therefore, its use in neonatology is well indicated.Objective: Describe how Neurofunctional reorganization through Padovan method can contribute to restore neurologic function of newborns and can avoid the need for gastrostomy and shortening hospital stay. Method: Descriptive and retrospective study performed in a hospital at Ceará´s inland, Brazil, through analysis of medical records. 92 patients from the neonatal ICU who suffered perinatal asphyxia and evolved with neurological disorders were evaluated. Patients received Neurofunctional Reorganization therapy, which is the performance of physical and oral exercises that complement each other in order to recover lost functions and also prepare the body to acquire functions and capabilities which it has potential for. Results: Eighty-two patients completed the therapy and showed positive results (89.1%). The main expected outcome was the recovery of suction and this was achieved in between 8 and 150 days. 48 cases showed an improvement between 8 and 30 days of treatment (56%). Conclusions: The Neurofunctional reorganization proposed by Padovan is effective in the recovery of neurological function of newborns, especially the suction, shortening the hospital stay and avoiding gastrostomy.

Padovan Method As Early Stimulation In Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

The pathologies of the neonatal period are largely responsible for infant mortality in the fist year of life, as well as neurological sequelae. In support, we have a greater neuroplasticity in the fist two years of life, which can provide a rehabilitation of neurological circuits, contributing to the recovery of child neurodevelopment. According to the theories of neuroscience and epigenetics is that the Padovan method of Neurofunctional Reorganization is being used as early stimulation therapy in premature and term infants who suffered perinatal hypoxia, with excellent results in a public hospital in the state of Ceará.

Marginal neurofunctional changes in high-performing older adults in a verbal fluency task

The maintenance of a high level of performance in aging has often been associated with changes in cerebral activations patterns for various cognitive components. However, relatively few studies have investigated this phenomenon in light of lexical speech production abilities, which have not been systematically found to benefit from neurofunctional reorganization during verbal fluency tasks. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess overt self-paced semantic and orthographic verbal fluency tasks performed by healthy younger and older adults within a mixed block/event-related fMRI design. Behavioral results indicated similarly high levels of performance between tasks and age groups, while whole brain analysis revealed significant task-related differences in patterns of brain activity, but no significant effect of age or task-by-age interaction across the speech conditions. Only local activity differences were found between age groups. These marginal neurofunctional changes in high-performing older adults are discussed in terms of task demands.

The adaptive aging brain: evidence from the preservation of communication abilities with age

Neurofunctional reorganization with age is suspected to occur for many cognitive components including communication abilities. Several functional neuroimaging studies of elderly individuals have reported the occurrence of an interhemispheric neurofunctional reorganization characterized by more bilateral activation patterns. Other studies have indicated that the preservation of some other cognitive abilities is associated with some intrahemispheric reorganization following either a posterior-anterior or an anterior-posterior shift in aging. Interestingly, other studies have shown that age-related neurofunctional reorganization is task-load-dependent. Taken together, these studies suggest that neurofunctional reorganization in aging is based on a more dynamic, flexible and adaptive neurofunctional process than previously proposed. This review summarizes the different factors that are thought to support the preservation of the semantic processing of words in aging, and highlights a multidetermined and complex set of processes such as the nature of the specific cognitive processes, task complexity and cognitive strategy, characterizing the neurofunctional reorganization in aging that allows for optimal cognitive abilities. In so doing, it provides the background for future study looking at the neurofunctional dimensions of the impact of neurodegenerative diseases on cognitive abilities.

Coping with task demand in aging using neural compensation and neural reserve triggers primarily intra-hemispheric-based neurofunctional reorganization

It has been proposed that cognitive reserve is supported by two neural mechanisms: neural compensation and neural reserve. The purpose of this study was to test how these neural mechanisms are solicited in aging in the context of visual selective attention processing and whether they are inter- or intra-hemispheric. Younger and older participants were scanned using fMRI during a visual letter-matching task with two attentional load levels. The results show that in the low-load condition, the older participants activated frontal superior gyri bilaterally; these regions were not activated in the younger participants, in accordance with the compensation mechanism and the Posterior-Anterior Shift in Aging (PASA) phenomenon. However, when task demand increased, the older participants recruited the same regions (parietal) as the younger ones, showing the involvement of a similar neural reserve mechanism. This result suggests that successful cognitive aging relies on the concurrent use of both neural compensation and neural reserve in high-demand tasks, calling on the frontoparietal network. In addition, the finding of intra-hemispheric-based neurofunctional reorganization with a PASA phenomenon for all attentional load levels suggests that the PASA phenomenon is a function more of compensation than of reserve.

Task- and Strategy-driven Neurofunctional Reorganization for Verbal Fluency in Normal Aging

Task- and Strategy-driven Neurofunctional Reorganization for Verbal Fluency in Normal Aging

Recovering sight in adulthood leads to rapid neurofunctional reorganization of visual functions

Recovering sight in adulthood leads to rapid neurofunctional reorganization of visual functions

Neurofunctional (re)organization underlying narrative discourse processing in aging: Evidence from fNIRS

Relatively few studies have analyzed the mechanisms underlying the cognitive changes that affect language in the elderly, and fewer have done so for narrative discourse. The goal of this study was to explore the neurofunctional changes associated with aging for different components of narrative discourse. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and behavioral data on 10 younger adults and 10 healthy elderly participants were collected. Ten younger adults in a non-proficient second language condition were included to explore the possibility that the age-related neurofunctional reorganization partly expresses demanding resource allocation. Results show within- and across-hemispheric differences in the neurofunctional pattern of activation in the older participants with reference to the younger ones, partially shared with the low-proficiency young adults, providing support for the recognized mechanisms underlying neural reserve and compensation. fNIRS was shown to be appropriate for studying the age-related neurofunctional reorganization of complex cognitive abilities.

Increasing complexity determines the changes in inter-hemispheric coupling characterizing age-related fMRI neurofunctional reorganization

Increasing complexity determines the changes in inter-hemispheric coupling characterizing age-related fMRI neurofunctional reorganization

Neurofunctional reorganization in myo-osteo-dentofacial disorders: Complementary roles of orthodontics, speech and myofunctional therapy

A system of therapy for improving nasal breathing, sucking ability, chewing, swallowing, speech and orofacial muscle function is described. The therapeutic exercises do not require conscious cooperation, so they can be used with very young or handicapped children. Novel strategies for helping children overcome damaging oral habits are detailed. Patterns of collaboration between therapist and orthodontist are described for specific malocclusions. <br />Incomplete copy (missing pages 34-35)