Neuroscience Research Notes

Word class deficits in individuals with aphasia: A syntactic analysis at discourse and single word production in the Kannada language

2024-06-25T01:12:51+08:00

Aphasia commonly leads to word retrieval issues, particularly with nouns and verbs. Traditional assessments often focus on single-word. This study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to assess word class deficits in Kannada-speaking Individuals with Aphasia (IWA) compared to Neurotypical Individuals (NTI) in single-word production and discourse production. Twenty IWAs (aged 20-50) and twenty age/gender-matched NTIs were recruited. Confrontation naming evaluated single-word production, while structured picture description (picnic scene) assessed discourse. Both tasks included a fixed set of nouns and verbs for comparison. The results were that IWAs performed poorer than NTIs in both tasks. Statistically significant noun and verb usage differences were observed between IWAs and NTIs in the picture description task (p<0.05). However, word class differences in the IWA group were insignificant across tasks. NTIs showed significant differences only in the picture description task. This study underscores word class deficits in aphasia, particularly at the discourse level. Discourse analysis is crucial for understanding language characteristics in aphasia and should be integrated into routine assessments.

Investigating the effect of conventional physiotherapy training on muscle activity among diabetic neuropathy patients through wireless EMG: a pilot study

2024-11-07T02:18:19+08:00

Persons with diabetes often experience muscle weakness and decreased mobility due to diabetic neuropathy. This condition usually arises due to prolonged elevated blood sugar levels, which damage the motor nerves, innervating the muscles and sensory nerves. As the neuropathy progresses, it can cause loss of muscle mass and diminished motor function in the legs and feet. Consequently, individuals with diabetic neuropathy may experience difficulties with balance, walking, and performing daily activities. This weakness increases the risk of falls and injuries and contributes to reduced mobility and a lower quality of life. Hence, early intervention and management are essential to preserve muscle strength and functionality among the diabetic population. Managing muscle function and mobility in affected individuals is a significant challenge. This pilot study aimed to investigate the effect of conventional physiotherapy training on muscle activity in diabetic neuropathy patients using Noroxon wireless sensor electromyography (EMG) technology. The study included 8 patients aged 45-65; after obtaining consent and meeting selection criteria, these patients were enrolled. Wireless sensor EMG monitored muscle activity in the tibialis anterior and soleus. Participants underwent conventional physiotherapy, consisting of 40 minutes daily, 5 days a week, over 3 months. The result showed a significant increase in the maximum voluntary contraction of tibialis anterior and soleus muscles on both right and left side mean values at p ≤ 0.001. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that diabetic neuropathy causes alterations in muscle dynamics, particularly in distal muscles. These findings offer valuable insights into the progression of neuropathy and highlight the effectiveness of physiotherapy in mitigating its effects by significantly enhancing the maximum voluntary contraction of these muscles.

Fear-evoked stimuli in social and non-social domains: comparative effects on electrophysiological processes

2024-09-27T00:07:38+08:00

Fear is a vital survival mechanism across species, triggering responses to threats and aiding in navigating dangerous environments. In humans, it plays a key role in risk assessment and decision-making, contributing to adaptive behaviour and survival. Emotional well-being and inform strategies can be enhanced for managing fear-related disorders by understanding fear's neural processing through fear-evoked stimuli. This study aimed to compare the effects of social (human mutilation) and non-social (wild animals) fear-evoked stimuli on the human brain using the event-related potential (ERP) technique. Thirty-eight participants of mixed gender and ethnicity underwent ERP assessments while being exposed to images of mutilation and wild animals alongside neutral geometric images. Brain activity was measured using a 128 HydroCel Geodesic Sensor Net, focusing on the N200 component, indicative of emotional processing. The analysis revealed that social fear-evoked stimuli (human mutilation images) elicited greater electrophysiological responses in most brain areas than non-social stimuli (wild animal images). This finding suggests that stimuli related to social fears have a greater impact on the brain than non-social fears, likely due to humans' inherent empathy for one another. The gender factor may interfere with this emotional fear processing. It highlights the critical role of social context in fear response. It suggests that understanding these dynamics can guide more effective treatments for anxiety and phobias, opening avenues for further exploration into how psychological interventions influence fear reactions.

Transient prenatal ruxolitinib treatment promotes neurogenesis and suppresses astrogliogenesis during embryonic mouse brain development

2024-08-18T07:10:20+08:00

Ruxolitinib is a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor that inhibits the JAK/STAT signalling pathway by targeting JAK1 and JAK2, which are crucial for regulating astrogliogenesis. This study assessed the effect of ruxolitinib (5 and 30 mg/kg/day) on developing mouse brains by administering it to pregnant mice from E7.5 to E20.5. No adverse effects were observed in the treated mice. The brains of P1.5 pups were collected, and RNA was extracted to assess markers of neurogenesis and astrogliogenesis through RT-qPCR. The results revealed a significant decrease in Gfap expression (p<0.0001) in both ruxolitinib-treated groups compared to the control, indicating a suppression of astrogliogenesis. Additionally, S100β expression (p<0.05) was significantly reduced in the 30 mg/kg ruxolitinib-treated group. In contrast, the expression of neuronal markers vGLuT1 (p<0.01) and vGLuT2 (p<0.01) increased significantly in the 30 mg/kg treated group, suggesting enhanced neuronal differentiation. Furthermore, 5 and 30 mg/kg ruxolitinib-treated groups showed a significant increase in GAT1 expression (p<0.01) compared to the control group. A marked decrease in Nestin expression was also observed in the 5 mg/kg (p<0.001) and 30 mg/kg (p<0.0001) treated groups. These findings demonstrate that transplacental administration of ruxolitinib modulates key markers involved in neuronal differentiation and gliogenesis in the developing mouse brain, suggesting its potential use in correcting imbalances in early brain development.

Effects of autogenic relaxation training and progressive muscle relaxation on anxiety: an EEG-based experimental study

2024-11-04T19:57:42+08:00

Younger generations are shown to have a high prevalence rate of anxiety. This study examined the changes in the alpha brain signals based on autogenic relaxation training (ART) and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) to determine their efficacy in reducing anxiety symptoms among undergraduate students. This study was a randomized controlled trial in which participants were randomly allocated to either the ART group or the PMR group. Seven supervised sessions of ART and PMR were conducted over three weeks, with each session lasting approximately 20 minutes. Electroencephalography (EEG) and Beck Anxiety Inventory scores (BAI) were used as outcome measures to assess the effectiveness of relaxation training on anxiety before and after the interventions. The study included 30 participants with a mean age of 19.60 ± 0.84 years. A paired sample t-test revealed that relaxation training significantly reduced anxiety. Additionally, ART demonstrated statistically significant effects in reducing anxiety (p=0.004), showing a greater decrease in post-intervention mean BAI scores compared to PMR. However, the difference between ART and PMR was not statistically significant (p=0.110). ART showed a greater reduction in post-intervention BAI scores, while PMR showed greater positive changes in EEG findings. The study outcome is an enhanced evidence-based physiotherapy program that may be used by physiotherapists in the neurological rehabilitation with anxiety.

Analysis of lumbar dorsal spinal potentials evoked by electrical stimulation of the colon and their changes induced by high-frequency stimulation or ischemia in rats

2024-10-20T16:20:08+08:00

The clinical-related input and processing of intestinal afferents to the spinal cord is not well known. This study aims to develop an electrophysiological experimental animal model to study spinal cord afferents from the colon during clinical-related conditions such as hyperexcitability or ischemia. Spinal cord evoked potentials (SCEP) were elicited by colonic stimulation in ten male adult Sprague-Dawley rats anesthetized with thiobarbital, 60 mg kg-1 i.p. After laminectomy (T11 to L5), a tungsten electrode (500 μm; <50Ω) was placed in the spinal dorsum to record SCEP induced by bipolar electrical stimulation of colon mucosa (basal 30 V; 1 ms) at low (0.2 Hz; 10 min) or high (5 Hz; 5 min) frequency. In 3 experiments, after the basal recording, a respiratory arrest was induced by D-tubocurarine to evaluate the ischemia effects. The SCEPs were stable and reliable (n=310), displaying a N1 wave (delay: 3.9±0.1 ms; amplitude 7.78±0.39 μV) and P1 wave (delay 9.96±0.14 ms; amplitude 2.97±0.21 μV). Colonic high-frequency stimulation induced an amplitude increase in both +11% (N1) and +23.7% (P1) (p<0.001). The ischemia induced a linear decay of both wave amplitudes more intense for the P1 wave. sensitive. These results denote the intense colonic input to the lumbar dorsal spinal cord, the presence of spinal sensory potentiation mechanisms induced by colonic high frequency stimulation, and the high oxygen dependency of the neuronal networks involved in the N1 and P1 wave generation. This experimental model could contribute to the study of visceral pain and inflammation, allowing the electrophysiological evaluation of experimental treatment response in experimental colon disease models.