Neurology Commons^™

Occupational Therapy's Role In Addressing Sex And Intimacy For Individuals With Progressive Neuromuscular Disorders, Lindsay N. Richards, Becki Cohill, Kathryn Ellis, Susan Macdermott

Summer 2020 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Individuals with progressive neuromuscular disorders (PND); specifically, Parkinson’s disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s Disease (HD), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) often face physical, psychological, and social challenges related to sex and intimacy. Occupational therapy (OT) practitioners are experts in activity analysis and are equipped with unique knowledge of performance skills and client factors to address deficits in occupational performance. Though there is literature presenting the effects of PND on sexual occupations, a gap exists as it relates to qualitative data from the perspective of the individual and their partners.

A mixed-methods survey was conducted examining the lived experience of …

Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging As A Diagnostic Biomarker Of Hiv-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (Hand), Mikki Schantell

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Objective: The goal of this study was to do an exploratory analysis to determine if gray matter brain volumes and cortical thickness measures obtained from structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) can discriminate people with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), neurocognitively unimpaired people with HIV (NU PWH), and HIV-negative controls (HIV- controls) using linear discriminant analyses.

Methods: A total of 231 participants, including 110 PWH and 121 HIV- controls, completed a neuropsychological (NP) battery and an sMRI protocol. The bilateral gray matter volumes and cortical thickness brain regions were analyzed using 18 linear discriminant models to assess the discriminability of gray matter …

Variability In The Analysis Of A Single Neuroimaging Dataset By Many Teams, Rotem Botvinik-Nezer, Tom Schonberg, Russell A. Poldrack, Zachary J. Cole, Matthew R. Johnson, Phui Cheng Lim, Evan N. Linz, Douglas H. Schultz, Joshua E. Zosky, Narps Management Team, Jean M. Vettel, More Than 100 Other Co-Authors

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Data analysis workflows in many scientific domains have become increasingly complex and flexible. To assess the impact of this flexibility on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results, the same dataset was independently analyzed by 70 teams, testing nine ex-ante hypotheses. The flexibility of analytic approaches is exemplified by the fact that no two teams chose identical workflows to analyze the data. This flexibility resulted in sizeable variation in hypothesis test results, even for teams whose statistical maps were highly correlated at intermediate stages of their analysis pipeline. Variation in reported results was related to several aspects of analysis methodology. Importantly, …

Risk And Protective Factors Of Dementia Among Adults With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review Protocol, Karen A. Lawrence, Theresia M. Pachner, Molly M. Long, Stephanie Henderson, Donna L. Schuman, Brenda L. Plassman

Social Work Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with an increased risk of dementia. Individual epidemiological studies have controlled for several confounders of the relationship between PTSD and increased dementia risk, yet particular risk factors underlying this relationship have not been determined. This systematic review protocol aims to identify risk and protective factors of dementia among adults with PTSD.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will conduct an electronic search of the databases: PubMed, CINAHL, PsychINFO, The Cochrane Library, Scopus and ProQuest Dissertation and Theses Global. After screening the studies, quantitative synthesis will be performed, if possible. Otherwise, a narrative synthesis will be …

Perceived Impact Of Non-Contact Boxing On Daily Life And Occupational Participation At Home Among Individuals With Parkinson's Disease, Kristen E. Bignal

Student Capstone Papers

The aim of this project was to determine whether individuals with Parkinson's disease perceive an impact on their daily life and occupational participation at home secondary to participation in non-contact boxing.

Semi-structured open-ended interview questions were conducted with 17 participants (3 female) who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease for(i.e., self-care, home and health maintenance, sleep, intimacy, social and leisure interests, etc.) in the home environment. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed utilizing thematic analysis.

Data analysis derived three overarching themes including psychological benefits, sense of community, and framework to develop routines. Subsequent research exploring how non-contact boxing directly impacts specific …

De Novo Frameshift Variants In The Neuronal Splicing Factor Nova2 Result In A Common C-Terminal Extension And Cause A Severe Form Of Neurodevelopmental Disorder, Francesca Mattioli, Gaelle Hayot, Nathalie Drouot, Bertrand Isidor, Jérémie Courraud, Maria-Victoria Hinckelmann, Frederic Tran Mau-Them, Chantal Sellier, Alica Goldman, Aida Telegrafi, Alicia Boughton, Candace Gamble, Sebastien Moutton, Angélique Quartier, Nolwenn Jean, Paul Van Ness, Sarah Grotto, Sophie Nambot, Ganka Douglas, Yue Cindy Si, Jamel Chelly, Zohra Shad, Elisabeth Kaplan, Richard Dineen, Christelle Golzio, Nicolas Charlet-Berguerand, Jean-Louis Mandel, Amélie Piton

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The neuro-oncological ventral antigen 2 (NOVA2) protein is a major factor regulating neuron-specific alternative splicing (AS), previously associated with an acquired neurologic condition, the paraneoplastic opsoclonus-myoclonus ataxia (POMA). We report here six individuals with de novo frameshift variants in NOVA2 affected with a severe neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by intellectual disability (ID), motor and speech delay, autistic features, hypotonia, feeding difficulties, spasticity or ataxic gait, and abnormal brain MRI. The six variants lead to the same reading frame, adding a common proline rich C-terminal part instead of the last KH RNA binding domain. We detected 41 genes differentially spliced after NOVA2 …

The Effectiveness Of A Mindfulness-Based Intervention: A Neuropsychological Perspective Using An Electroencephalography, Elizabeth Mary Grace

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in mindfulness-related techniques. The willingness to experience emotions fully, just as they are, is a catalyst for psychological change to occur. Mindfulness has been used to alleviate stress and promote healthy living (Lagopoulos et al., 2009). The clinical utility of mindfulness has grown exponentially; however, the neuropsychological process of mindfulness is still being understood. The present study sought to examine the influence of a brief mindfulness intervention on brain activation in college students. A sample (n = 17) of undergraduate participants were randomly assigned into a prepost mindfulness intervention or control …

Musical Expertise Generalizes To Superior Temporal Scaling In A Morse Code Tapping Task, Matthew A. Slayton, Juan L. Romero-Sosa, Katrina Shore, Dean V. Buonomano, Indre Viskontas

Psychology

A key feature of the brain’s ability to tell time and generate complex temporal patterns is its capacity to produce similar temporal patterns at different speeds. For example, humans can tie a shoe, type, or play an instrument at different speeds or tempi—a phenomenon referred to as temporal scaling. While it is well established that training improves timing precision and accuracy, it is not known whether expertise improves temporal scaling, and if so, whether it generalizes across skill domains. We quantified temporal scaling and timing precision in musicians and non-musicians as they learned to tap a Morse code sequence. We …

Will "Social Distancing" Lead To Future "Research Distancing": A Reflection On Covid-19 Impacts On Alzheimer's Disease Research, Shoshana H. Bardach, Allison K. Gibson, Elizabeth K. Rhodus, Gregory A. Jicha

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has dramatically altered everyday life, including the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) research. This perspective article explores some of the ways in which COVID-19 has already impacted the field, anticipates some of the long-lasting effects, and explores strategies for addressing current and future needs. Areas of impact include study integrity, regulatory and industry issues, and participant engagement. Proposed strategies for addressing these challenges include analytic methods to deal with large degrees of missing data and development of patient-centered, user-friendly, remote data collection tools and assessments. We also highlight the importance of maintaining participant well-being as a …

Prevalence And Predictors Of Chronic Pain Intensity And Disability Among Adults With Sickle Cell Disease, Nadine Matthie, Coretta Jenerette, Ashley Gibson, Sudeshna Paul, Melinda Higgins, Lakshmanan Krishnamurti

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Among 170 adults with sickle cell disease, we evaluated chronic pain impact and disability prevalence, assessed age and gender differences, and identified psychosocial predictors of chronic pain intensity and disability. Most participants had a high level of disability. Chronic pain intensity and disability were significantly associated with pain catastrophizing and chronic pain self-efficacy, and worsened with age. Further research is needed to confirm study findings and develop interventions, including palliative care approaches that address catastrophizing and disability, particularly for young women and middle-aged adults with sickle cell disease. Moreover, consistent clinical assessment of chronic pain and psychosocial health should be …

Ultrafast Two-Photon Imaging Of A High-Gain Voltage Indicator In Awake Behaving Mice, Vincent Villette, Mariya Chavarha, Ivan K Dimov, Jonathan Bradley, Lagnajeet Pradhan, Benjamin Mathieu, Stephen W Evans, Simon Chamberland, Dongqing Shi, Renzhi Yang, Benjamin B Kim, Annick Ayon, Abdelali Jalil, François St-Pierre, Mark J Schnitzer, Guoqiang Bi, Katalin Toth, Jun Ding, Stéphane Dieudonné, Michael Z Lin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Optical interrogation of voltage in deep brain locations with cellular resolution would be immensely useful for understanding how neuronal circuits process information. Here, we report ASAP3, a genetically encoded voltage indicator with 51% fluorescence modulation by physiological voltages, submillisecond activation kinetics, and full responsivity under two-photon excitation. We also introduce an ultrafast local volume excitation (ULoVE) method for kilohertz-rate two-photon sampling in vivo with increased stability and sensitivity. Combining a soma-targeted ASAP3 variant and ULoVE, we show single-trial tracking of spikes and subthreshold events for minutes in deep locations, with subcellular resolution and with repeated sampling over days. In the …

Is It Fair To Compare? A Patient And Family Experience Of Two Healthcare Systems And Neurosurgical Teams Within A Two-Week Period, Laura Miller Cpxp

Patient Experience Journal

As the mother of a 28-year-old son with cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus, and as a healthcare consultant focused on patient experience and professional development, I have a unique perspective and skill set. Recently he experienced symptoms that included an excruciating headache, neck pain and lethargy. Fearing his ventriculoperitoneal shunt had malfunctioned, he went to the emergency room and was later admitted on the neuro inpatient floor for a three-day hospitalization. His original shunt had been placed in 1991, and he never had an issue with until August 2018. While in the hospital, he was informed that he was no longer …

Awakening From A Medical Mystery: One Patient’S Experience Of Being Undiagnosed, Dwane Unruh

Patient Experience Journal

This personal narrative pleads for a supportive and comprehensive system or sub-system similar to that which exists for cancer patients, to deal with undiagnosed illnesses. By describing the torment of living with a debilitating illness that medicine could not easily recognize, then by contrasting this experience with my wife’s experience of the cancer care system, and by referring along the way to lessons learned many years ago from reading the works of the inciteful neurologist, Dr. Oliver Sacks, I hope to inspire the medical system to develop a separate, supportive and comprehensive system to deal with the undiagnosed. As it …

Post-Acquisition Processing Confounds In Brain Volumetric Quantification Of White Matter Hyperintensities, Ahmed A. Bahrani, Omar M. Al-Janabi, Erin L. Abner, Shoshana H. Bardach, Richard J. Kryscio, Donna M. Wilcock, Charles D. Smith, Gregory A. Jicha

Neurology Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Disparate research sites using identical or near-identical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisition techniques often produce results that demonstrate significant variability regarding volumetric quantification of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) in the aging population. The sources of such variability have not previously been fully explored.

NEW METHOD: 3D FLAIR sequences from a group of randomly selected aged subjects were analyzed to identify sources-of-variability in post-acquisition processing that can be problematic when comparing WMH volumetric data across disparate sites. The methods developed focused on standardizing post-acquisition protocol processing methods to develop a protocol with less than 0.5% inter-rater variance.

RESULTS: A series …

Socioemotional Selectivity And Psychological Health In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients And Caregivers: A Longitudinal, Dyadic Analysis, Suzanne C. Segerstrom, Edward J. Kasarskis, David W. Fardo, Philip M. Westgate

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: Socioemotional selectivity theory predicts that as the end of life approaches, goals and resources that provide immediate, hedonic reward become more important than those that provide delayed rewards. This study tested whether these goal domains differentially affected psychological health in the context of marital dyads in which one partner had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a life-limiting disease.

Design: ALS patients (N = 102) being treated in three multidisciplinary clinics and their spouses (N = 100) reported their loneliness, financial worry and psychological health every 3 months for up to 18 months.

Main …

The Hapless State Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis In India: A Comprehensive Look At Life And Medical Services For Als Patients In Rural Himachal Pradesh, Carson J. Bergström

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to paralysis. The disease requires a high amount of medical intervention and interdisciplinary focus to achieve quality of life for patients. This study looks at ALS patient’s lifestyles, their access to these medical devices, Indian therapeutic approaches and policy that impacts patients in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. As caretakers have a critical part in the care for this disease, their lives were also considered in the case studies. It was found that ALS patients are not experiencing access to medical devices necessary for life because of physical …

Modeling Interval Timing By Recurrent Neural Nets, Theodore Raphan, Eugene Dorokhin, Andrew R. Delamater

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study was to take a new approach in showing how the central nervous system might encode time at the supra-second level using recurrent neural nets (RNNs). This approach utilizes units with a delayed feedback, whose feedback weight determines the temporal properties of specific neurons in the network architecture. When these feedback neurons are coupled, they form a multilayered dynamical system that can be used to model temporal responses to steps of input in multidimensional systems. The timing network was implemented using separate recurrent “Go” and “NoGo” neural processing units to process an individual stimulus indicating the …

Agency And Neuroscience: A Conversation Between Philosophy And Psychology, Kevin Timpe, James Van Slyke

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

An Integration-To-Bound Model Of Decision-Making That Accounts For The Spectral Properties Of Neural Data, Ramón Guevara Erra, Marco Arbotto, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Integration-to-bound models are among the most widely used models of perceptual decision-making due to their simplicity and power in accounting for behavioral and neurophysiological data. They involve temporal integration over an input signal (“evidence”) plus Gaussian white noise. However, brain data shows that noise in the brain is long-term correlated, with a spectral density of the form 1/fα (with typically 1 < α < 2), also known as pink noise or ‘1/f’ noise. Surprisingly, the adequacy of the spectral properties of drift-diffusion models to electrophysiological data has received little attention in the literature. Here we propose a model of accumulation of evidence for decision-making that takes into consideration the spectral properties of brain signals. We develop a generalization of the leaky stochastic accumulator model using a Langevin equation whose non-linear noise term allows for varying levels of autocorrelation in the time course of the decision variable. We derive this equation directly from magnetoencephalographic data recorded while subjects performed a spontaneous movement initiation task. We then propose a nonlinear model of accumulation of evidence that accounts for the ‘1/f’ spectral properties of brain signals, and the observed variability in the power spectral properties of brain signals. Furthermore, our model outperforms the standard drift-diffusion model at approximating the empirical waiting time distribution.

Predator Journals: An Urgent And Global Problem., Karsten Wiechert, Jeffrey C Wang, Jens R Chapman

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

No abstract provided.

Does It Matter Whether You Or Your Brain Did It? An Empirical Investigation Of The Influence Of The Double Subject Fallacy On Moral Responsibility Judgments, Uri Maoz, Kellienne R. Sita, Jeroen J. A. Van Boxtel, Liad Mudrik

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Despite progress in cognitive neuroscience, we are still far from understanding the relations between the brain and the conscious self. We previously suggested that some neuroscientific texts that attempt to clarify these relations may in fact make them more difficult to understand. Such texts—ranging from popular science to high-impact scientific publications—position the brain and the conscious self as two independent, interacting subjects, capable of possessing opposite psychological states. We termed such writing ‘Double Subject Fallacy’ (DSF). We further suggested that such DSF language, besides being conceptually confusing and reflecting dualistic intuitions, might affect people’s conceptions of moral responsibility, lessening the …

The Risk Of Bleeding And Encephalopathy In Surgical Patients With Liver Cirrhosis, Petrișor Banu, Salvatore Settineri, Emanuele Maria Merlo, Maria Rosaria Anna Muscatello, Nicolae Bacalbașa, Carolina Negrei, Bianca Gălățeanu, Octav Ghinghină, Ioana Păunica, Cristian Bălălău

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Liver cirrhosis is a disease with an increasing incidence. Surgical procedures in patients with cirrhosis are also increasing, due to a longer life expectancy in these patients and also to the improvement of therapeutic and diagnostic resources.

Digestive hemorrhage in the cirrhotic patient requires emergency medical intervention (intensive therapy, endoscopic or even surgical approaches), being at the same time a factor that precipitates episodes of encephalopathy, i.e. the conventional complication of cirrhosis. Hepatic encephalopathy represents one of the most severe clinical events of cirrhosis, being associated with high morbidity and mortality. The causes of hepatic encephalopathy are briefly presented in …

Distinct Neuropsychological Profile And Associated Neurochemical Changes In Individuals With Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy, Lactic Acidosis, And Stroke-Like Episodes (Melas), Emily B. Leaffer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy, Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke-like Episodes (MELAS) is a maternally inherited progressive multisystemic disorder. Occurrence of seizure and/or stroke-like episode, as well as classic biomarkers (i.e., cerebral lactic acidosis, depleted N-acetylaspartate (NAA)), have been linked to neuropsychological deficit and trigger the developmental cascade of neurodegeneration affecting posterior prior to anterior brain regions. While a pattern of global deterioration has been reported, systematic examination in a large MELAS cohort has not been conducted.

Objective: First, we examined verbal and visual memory function and its relationship to brain metabolites (lactate, NAA) in individuals with MELAS. Second, we hypothesized that MELAS …

Mooney Face Stimuli For Visual Perception Research, Caspar M. Schwiedrzik, Lucia Melloni, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In 1957, Craig Mooney published a set of human face stimuli to study perceptual closure: the formation of a coherent percept on the basis of minimal visual information. Images of this type, now known as "Mooney faces", are widely used in cognitive psychology and neuroscience because they offer a means of inducing variable perception with constant visuospatial characteristics (they are often not perceived as faces if viewed upside down). Mooney's original set of 40 stimuli has been employed in several studies. However, it is often necessary to use a much larger stimulus set. We created a new set of over …

Treating Adhd With Suggestion: Neurofeedback And Placebo Therapeutics, Robert T. Thibault, Samuel Vassière, Jay A. Olson, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: We propose that clinicians can use suggestion to help treat conditions such as ADHD. Methods: We use EEG neurofeedback as a case study, alongside evidence from a recent pilot experiment utilizing a sham MRI scanner to highlight the therapeutic potential of suggestion-based treatments. Results: The medical literature demonstrates that many practitioners already prescribe treatments that hardly outperform placebo comparators. Moreover, the sham MRI experiment showed that, even with full disclosure of the procedure, suggestion alone can reduce the symptomatology of ADHD. Conclusion: Non-deceptive suggestion-based treatments, especially those drawing on accessories from neuroscience, may offer a safe complement and potential …

Network Specialization During Adolescence: Hippocampal Effective Connectivity In Boys And Girls, Jeffrey D. Riley, E. Elinor Chen, Jessica Winsell, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Laura M. Glynn, Tallie Z. Baram, Curt A. Sandman, Steven L. Small, Ana Solodkin

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Adolescence is a complex period of concurrent mental and physical development that facilitates adult functioning at multiple levels. Despite the growing number of neuroimaging studies of cognitive development in adolescence focusing on regional activation patterns, there remains a paucity of information about the functional interactions across these participating regions that are critical for cognitive functioning, including memory. The current study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to determine how interactions among brain regions critical for memory change over the course of adolescence. We obtained functional MRI in 77 individuals aged 8–16 years old, divided into younger (ages 8–10) and older (ages …

The Famous Names Discrimination Task As A Biomarker Of Alzheimer's Disease Risk: An Erp Study, Elizabeth Rose Paitel

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Current ERP research emphasizes age- and pathology-related declines in neural processing in the form of attenuated amplitudes and prolonged latencies. Notably, there is a gap in the ERP literature regarding neural processing trajectories in the time between healthy young adulthood and clinical MCI/AD samples. fMRI research, however, has demonstrated periods of increased, compensatory activation in healthy, cognitively intact APOE ɛ4 carriers both during resting state and event-related tasks (Bondi, Houston, Eyler, & Brown, 2005; Evans et al., 2014; Filippini et al., 2009; Rao et al., 2015), consistent with compensatory theories of cognitive aging (Cabeza, 2002; Park & Reuter-Lorenz, 2009; Reuter-Lorenz …

Inter-Rater Agreement And Validity Of A Tackling Performance Assessment Scale In Youth American Football, Eric Schussler, Richard J. Jagacinski, Susan E. White, Ajit M. Chaudhari, John A. Buford, James A. Onate

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Long term neurologic injury and concussion have been identified as risks from participation in American football. Altering tackling form has been recommended to reduce the risk of neurologic injury caused by head accelerations when tackling. The purpose of this research is to determine the inter-rater agreement and validity of the Qualitative Youth Tackling System (QYTS), a six-item feedback scale to correct tackling form, when utilized by novice and expert raters.

Hypothesis: Experienced raters will have higher levels of agreement with each other and with motion capture when compared to novice raters. Methods: Both novice and experienced raters viewed video …

Influence Of Dietary Salt Knowledge, Perceptions, And Beliefs On Consumption Choices After Stroke In Uganda, Martin N. Kaddumukasa, Elly Katabira, Martha Sajatovic, Svetlana Pundik, Mark Kaddumukasa, Larry B. Goldstein

Neurology Faculty Publications

Background

Previous research on Uganda's poststroke population revealed that their level of dietary salt knowledge did not lead to healthier consumption choices.

Purpose

Identify barriers and motivators for healthy dietary behaviors and evaluate the understanding of widely accepted salt regulation mechanisms among poststroke patients in Uganda.

Methods

Convergent parallel mixed methods triangulation design comprised a cross-sectional survey (n = 81) and 8 focus group discussions with 7-10 poststroke participants in each group. We assessed participant characteristics and obtained insights into their salt consumption attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge. Qualitative responses were analyzed using an inductive approach with thematic analytic procedures. Relationships …

Volition And Action In The Human Brain: Processes, Pathologies, And Reasons, Itzhak Fried, Patrick Haggard, Biyu J. He, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Humans seem to decide for themselves what to do, and when to do it. This distinctive capacity may emerge from an ability, shared with other animals, to make decisions for action that are related to future goals, or at least free from the constraints of immediate environmental inputs. Studying such volitional acts proves a major challenge for neuroscience. This review highlights key mechanisms in the generation of voluntary, as opposed to stimulus-driven actions, and highlights three issues. The first part focuses on the apparent spontaneity of voluntary action. The second part focuses on one of the most distinctive, but elusive, …