Medical Neurobiology Commons^™

Stimulating The Facial Nerve To Treat Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review, Turner S. Baker, Justin Robeny, Danna Cruz, Alexis Bruhat, Alfred-Marc Iloreta, Anthony Costa, Thomas James Oxley

Publications and Research

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a common devastating disease that has increased yearly in absolute number of cases since 1990. While mechanical thrombectomy and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) have proven to be effective treatments, their window-of-efficacy time is very short, leaving many patients with no viable treatment option. Over recent years there has been a growing interest in stimulating the facial nerves or ganglions to treat AIS. Pre-clinical studies have consistently demonstrated an increase in collateral blood flow (CBF) following ganglion stimulation, with positive indications in infarct size and neurological scores. Extensive human trials have focused on trans-oral electrical stimulation …

Leveraging High-Resolution 7-Tesla Mri To Derive Quantitative Metrics For The Trigeminal Nerve And Subnuclei Of Limbic Structures In Trigeminal Neuralgia, Judy Alper, Alan C. Seifert, Gaurav Verma, Kuang-Han Huang, Yael Jacob, Ameen Al Qadi, John W. Rutland, Sheetal Patel, Joshua Bederson, Raj K. Shrivastava, Bradley N. Delman, Priti Balchandani

Publications and Research

Background: Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) is a chronic neurological disease that is strongly associated with neurovascular compression (NVC) of the trigeminal nerve near its root entry zone. The trigeminal nerve at the site of NVC has been extensively studied but limbic structures that are potentially involved in TN have not been adequately characterized. Specifically, the hippocampus is a stress-sensitive region which may be structurally impacted by chronic TN pain. As the center of the emotion-related network, the amygdala is closely related to stress regulation and may be associated with TN pain as well. The thalamus, which is involved in the trigeminal …

Machine Learning Classification Of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Versus Healthy Controls Using Arterial Spin Labeled Perfusion Mri, Vanessa I. Grass

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common causes of death and disability worldwide, yet accurate in vivo detection of TBI neuropathology remains challenging due to complexities in the structural and functional changes observed post-injury as well as limitations in conventional neuroimaging modalities. Although advanced neuroimaging techniques such as arterial spin labeling (ASL) can noninvasively assess cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes observed post-injury, this technique is underutilized in TBI research partly due to the low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) inherent in ASL imaging. The aim of the current study is to examine the use of machine learning, specifically a Support …

Applications Of Non-Invasive Neuromodulation For The Management Of Disorders Related To Covid-19, Abrahão Fontes Baptista, Adriana Baltar, Alexandre Hideki Okano, Alexandre Moreira, Ana Carolina Pinheiro Campos, Ana Mércia Fernandes, André Russowsky Brunoni, Bashar W. Badran, Clarice Tanaka, Daniel Ciampi De Andrade, Daniel Gomes Da Silva Machado, Edgard Morya, Eduardo Trujillo, Jaiti K. Swami, Joan A. Camprodon, Katia Monte-Silva, Katia Nunes Sá, Isadora Nunes, Juliana Barbosa Goulardins, Marom Bikson, Pedro Sudbrack-Oliveira, Priscila De Carvalho, Rafael Jardim Duarte-Moreira, Rosana Lima Pagano, Samuel Katsuyuki Shinjo, Yossi Zana

Publications and Research

Background: Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) morbidity is not restricted to the respiratory system, but also affects the nervous system. Non-invasive neuromodulation may be useful in the treatment of the disorders associated with COVID-19.

Objective: To describe the rationale and empirical basis of the use of non-invasive neuromodulation in the management of patients with COVID-10 and related disorders.

Methods: We summarize COVID-19 pathophysiology with emphasis of direct neuroinvasiveness, neuroimmune response and inflammation, autonomic balance and neurological, musculoskeletal and neuropsychiatric sequela. This supports the development of a framework for advancing applications of non-invasive neuromodulation in the management COVID-19 and related disorders.

Results: …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Uric Acid And Substantia Nigra Brain Connectivity In Patients With Rem Sleep Behavior Disorder And Parkinson’S Disease, Timothy M. Ellmore, Jessika Suescun, Richard J. Castriotta, Mya C. Schiess

Publications and Research

Low levels of the natural antioxidant uric acid (UA) and the presence of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) are both associated with an increased likelihood of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD). RBD and PD are also accompanied by basal ganglia dysfunction including decreased nigrostriatal and nigrocortical resting state functional connectivity. Despite these independent findings, the relationship between UA and substantia nigra (SN) functional connectivity remains unknown. In the present study, voxelwise analysis of covariance was used in a cross-sectional design to explore the relationship between UA and whole-brain SN functional connectivity using the eyes-open resting state fMRI method in controls without …

Two Nights Of Recovery Sleep Restores Hippocampal Connectivity But Not Episodic Memory After Total Sleep Deprivation, Ya Chai, Zhuo Fang, Fan Nils Yang, Sihua Xu, Yao Deng, Andrew Raine, Jieqiong Wang, Meichen Yu, Mathias Basner, Namni Goel, Junghoon J. Kim, David A. Wolk, John A. Detre, David F. Dinges, Hengyi Rao

Publications and Research

Sleep deprivation significantly impairs a range of cognitive and brain function, particularly episodic memory and the underlying hippocampal function. However, it remains controversial whether one or two nights of recovery sleep following sleep deprivation fully restores brain and cognitive function. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and examined the effects of two consecutive nights (20-hour time-in-bed) of recovery sleep on resting-state hippocampal connectivity and episodic memory deficits following one night of total sleep deprivation (TSD) in 39 healthy adults in a controlled in-laboratory protocol. TSD significantly reduced memory performance in a scene recognition task, impaired hippocampal …

Brain Development: Why The Young Sleep Longer, Budhaditya Chowdhury, Orie T. Shafer

Advanced Science Research Center

From absorbing new languages to mastering musical instruments, young children are wired to learn in ways that adults are not (Johnson and Newport, 1989). This ability coincides with periods of intense brain plasticity during which neurons can easily remodel their connections (Hubel and Wiesel, 1970). Many children are also scandalously good sleepers, typically getting several more hours of sleep per night than their parents (Jenni and Carskadon, 2007). As sleep deprivation has negative effects on learning and memory, learning like a child likely requires sleeping like one (Diekelmann and Born, 2010). Yet, how the ability to sleep for longer is …

Spinal Matrix Metalloproteinase 8 Regulates Pain After Peripheral Trauma, Maral Tajerian, J. David Clark

Publications and Research

It is well documented that pain chronification requires a host of plastic mechanisms at the spinal cord (SC) level, including alterations in neuronal and glial structure and function. Such cellular plasticity necessitates the existence of a plastic extracellular matrix(ECM). Here, we describe a key role for ECM remodeling in the regulation of chronic pain following peripheral injury. Three weeks following tibia fracture in mice, we show increased levels of MMP8 in the SC. Furthermore, we show that the pharmacological or genetic downregulation of MMP8 ameliorates the pain phenotype observed after injury. These results delineate an extracellular mechanism for pain chronification, …

Cerebellar Tdcs: A Novel Approach To Augment Language Treatment Post-Stroke, Rajani Sebastian, Sadhvi Saxena, Kyrana Tsapkini, Andreia V. Faria, Charltien Long, Amy Wright, Cameron Davis, Donna C. Tippett, Antonios P. Mourdoukoutas, Marom Bikson, Pablo Celnik, Argye E. Hillis

Publications and Research

People with post-stroke aphasia may have some degree of chronic deficit for which current rehabilitative treatments are variably effective. Accumulating evidence suggests that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may be useful for enhancing the effects of behavioral aphasia treatment. However, it remains unclear which brain regions should be stimulated to optimize effects on language recovery. Here, we report on the therapeutic potential of right cerebellar tDCS in augmenting language recovery in SMY, who sustained bilateral MCA infarct resulting in aphasia and anarthria. We investigated the effects of 15 sessions of anodal cerebellar tDCS coupled with spelling therapy using a randomized, …

Paired Associative Transspinal And Transcortical Stimulation Produces Bidirectional Plasticity Of Human Cortical And Spinal Motor Pathways, Luke Dixon, Mohamed Ibrahim, Danielle Santora

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anatomical, physiological, and functional connectivity exists between primary motor cortex (M1) and spinal cord neurons. Paired associative stimulation (PAS) produces enduring changes in M1 based on the Hebbian principle of associative plasticity. The present study aims to discover immediate neurophysiological changes on human corticomotor pathways by pairing noninvasive transspinal and transcortical stimulation via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We delivered paired transspinal and transcortical stimulation for 40-min at precise interstimulus intervals with TMS being delivered after (transspinal-transcortical PAS) or before (transcortical-transspinal PAS) transspinal stimulation. Transspinal-transcortical PAS markedly decreased intracortical inhibition, increased intracortical facilitation and M1 excitability with concomitant decreases of motor …

The Relationship Between Lexical Performance And Regional Gray Matter Volumes: A Longitudinal Study Of Cognitively Healthy Elderly, Jungmoon Hyun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigated the longitudinal relationship among aging, performance on lexical tasks, and regional gray matter volumes over 2-7 years. A total of 137 older participants who remained cognitively normal were administered four lexical tasks at each time point: the Boston Naming Test (BNT), Vocabulary Test, Semantic- and Phonemic-Fluency task. In addition, they underwent repeated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning acquired within two months of the lexical tasks. The average interval between time points was 2.36 years (range 1.50-7.64) and the average number of time points was 2.65 times (range 2-5).

Results indicated that age differentially affects lexical task performance …

Three‐Dimensional Brain Mri For Dbs Patients Within Ultra‐Low Radiofrequency Power Limits, Subhendra N. Sarkar, Efstathios Papavassiliou, David Hackney, David Alsop, Ananth Madhuranthakam, Ludy Shih, Reed Busse, Susan Laruche, Rafeeque Bhadelia

Publications and Research

Background: For patients with deep brain stimulators (DBS), local absorbed radiofrequency (RF) power is unknown and is much higher than what the system estimates. We developed a comprehensive, highquality brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol for DBS patients utilizing three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance sequences at very low RF power. Methods: Six patients with DBS were imaged (10 sessions) using a transmit/receive head coil at 1.5 Tesla with modified 3D sequences within ultra-low specific absorption rate (SAR) limits (0.1 W/kg) using T2, fast fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T1- weighted image contrast. Tissue signal and tissue contrast from the low-SAR images …

Stereospecific Opiate Binding In Human Erythrocyte Membranes And Changes In Heroin Addicts, Leo G. Abood, Holly G. Atkinson, Mary Macneil

Publications and Research

Stereospecific opiate binding has been demonstrated in human erythrocyte membranes, having a Kd of 9-10(-9) M. In most respects the binding characteristics resemble those of synaptic membranes. These included the correlation of binding affinity and pharmacological potency of opiates; competition by naloxone; inhibition by Ca2+ and Na+; and sensitivity to phospholipases and trypsin. A comparison of stereospecific opiate binding in control human subjects and heroin addicts revealed a 43% increase in the addict group.