Neurosciences Commons^™

Acupuncture Treatment For Post-Stroke Depression: Intestinal Microbiota And Its Role, Hailun Jiang, Shizhe Deng, Jieying Zhang, Junjie Chen, Boxuan Li, Weiming Zhu, Menglong Zhang, Chao Zhang, Zhihong Meng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Stroke-induced depression is a common complication and an important risk factor for disability. Besides psychiatric symptoms, depressed patients may also exhibit a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms, and even take gastrointestinal symptoms as the primary reason for medical treatment. It is well documented that stress may disrupt the balance of the gut microbiome in patients suffering from post-stroke depression (PSD), and that disruption of the gut microbiome is closely related to the severity of the condition in depressed patients. Therefore, maintaining the balance of intestinal microbiota can be the focus of research on the mechanism of acupuncture in the treatment of …

Neural Mechanisms Of Language Development In Infancy, Scott Huberty, Christian O'Reilly, Virginia Carter Leno, Mandy Steiman, Sara J. Webb, Mayada Elsabbagh, The Basis Team

Publications

Understanding the neural processes underpinning individual differences in early language development is of increasing interest, as it is known to vary in typical development and to be quite heterogeneous in neurodevelopmental conditions. However, few studies to date have tested whether early brain measures are indicative of the developmental trajectory of language, as opposed to language outcomes at specific ages. We combined recordings from two longitudinal studies, including typically developing infants without a family history of autism, and infants with increased likelihood of developing autism (infant-siblings) (N = 191). Electroencephalograms (EEG) were recorded at 6 months, and behavioral assessments at …

Evolutionarily Conserved Regulators Of Tau Identify Targets For New Therapies, Jiyoen Kim, Maria De Haro, Ismael Al-Ramahi, Lorena Laura Garaicoechea, Hyun-Hwan Jeong, Jun Young Sonn, Bakhos Tadros, Zhandong Liu, Juan Botas, Huda Yahya Zoghbi

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Tauopathies are neurodegenerative diseases that involve the pathological accumulation of tau proteins; in this family are Alzheimer disease, corticobasal degeneration, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, among others. Hypothesizing that reducing this accumulation could mitigate pathogenesis, we performed a cross-species genetic screen targeting 6,600 potentially druggable genes in human cells and Drosophila. We found and validated 83 hits in cells and further validated 11 hits in the mouse brain. Three of these hits (USP7, RNF130, and RNF149) converge on the C terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein (CHIP) to regulate tau levels, highlighting the role of CHIP in maintaining tau proteostasis in the brain. …

In Vivo Functional Characterization Of Egfr Variants Identifies Novel Drivers Of Glioblastoma, Kwanha Yu, Kathleen Kong, Brittney Lozzi, Estefania Luna-Figueroa, Alexis Cervantes, Rachel Curry, Carrie A Mohila, Ganesh Rao, Ali Jalali, Gordon B Mills, Kenneth L Scott, Benjamin Deneen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor. Large-scale sequencing initiatives have cataloged its mutational landscape in hopes of elucidating mechanisms driving this deadly disease. However, a major bottleneck in harnessing this data for new therapies is deciphering "driver" and "passenger" events amongst the vast volume of information.

METHODS: We utilized an autochthonous, in vivo screening approach to identify driver, EGFR variants. RNA-Seq identified unique molecular signatures of mouse gliomas across these variants, which only differ by a single amino acid change. In particular, we identified alterations to lipid metabolism, which we further validated through an unbiased …

Hypermitotic Meningiomas Harbor Dna Methylation Subgroups With Distinct Biological And Clinical Features, Abrar Choudhury, William C Chen, Calixto-Hope G Lucas, James C Bayley, Akdes S Harmanci, Sybren L N Maas, Sandro Santagata, Tiemo Klisch, Arie Perry, Wenya Linda Bi, Felix Sahm, Akash J Patel, Stephen T Magill, David R Raleigh

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Meningiomas, the most common primary intracranial tumors, can be separated into 3 DNA methylation groups with distinct biological drivers, clinical outcomes, and therapeutic vulnerabilities. Alternative meningioma grouping schemes using copy number variants, gene expression profiles, somatic short variants, or integrated molecular models have been proposed. These data suggest meningioma DNA methylation groups may harbor subgroups unifying contrasting theories of meningioma biology.

METHODS: A total of 565 meningioma DNA methylation profiles from patients with comprehensive clinical follow-up at independent discovery (n = 200) or validation (n = 365) institutions were reanalyzed and classified into Merlin-intact, Immune-enriched, or Hypermitotic DNA methylation …

Varied Performance Of Picture Description Task As A Screening Tool Across Mci Subtypes, Joan A. Mefford, Zilong Zhao, Leah Heilier, Man Xu, Guifeng Zhou, Rachel Mace, Kelly L. Sloane, Shannon M. Sheppard, Shenly Glenn

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

A picture description task is a component of Miro Health’s platform for self-administration of neurobehavioral assessments. Picture description has been used as a screening tool for identification of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), but currently requires in-person administration and scoring by someone with access to and familiarity with a scoring rubric. The Miro Health implementation allows broader use of this assessment through self-administration and automated processing, analysis, and scoring to deliver clinically useful quantifications of the users’ speech production, vocal characteristics, and language. Picture description responses were collected from 62 healthy controls (HC), and 33 participants …

Poor Seizure Control Among Children Attending A Tertiary Hospital In South Western Uganda – A Retrospective Study, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Seizure control among children with epilepsy (CWE) receiving anti-seizure medications (ASMs) remains a challenge in low-resource settings. Uncontrolled seizures are significantly associated with increased morbidity and mortality among CWE. This negatively impacts their quality of life and increases stigma. Aim: This study determined seizure control status and described the factors associated among CWE receiving ASMs at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH). Methods: In a retrospective chart review study, socio-demographic and clinical data were obtained from 112 medical records. CWE receiving ASMs for at least six months and regularly attending the clinic were included in the study. Physical or telephone …

A Comprehensive And Integrative Approach To Mecp2 Disease Transcriptomics, Alexander J Trostle, Lucian Li, Seon-Young Kim, Jiasheng Wang, Rami Al-Ouran, Hari Krishna Yalamanchili, Zhandong Liu, Ying-Wooi Wan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Mutations in MeCP2 result in a crippling neurological disease, but we lack a lucid picture of MeCP2's molecular role. Individual transcriptomic studies yield inconsistent differentially expressed genes. To overcome these issues, we demonstrate a methodology to analyze all modern public data. We obtained relevant raw public transcriptomic data from GEO and ENA, then homogeneously processed it (QC, alignment to reference, differential expression analysis). We present a web portal to interactively access the mouse data, and we discovered a commonly perturbed core set of genes that transcends the limitations of any individual study. We then found functionally distinct, consistently up- and …

Child Weight Status: The Role Of Feeding Styles And Highly Motivated Eating In Children, Maria A Papaioannou, Thomas G Power, Teresia M O'Connor, Jennifer O Fisher, Nilda E Micheli, Sheryl O Hughes

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Although parental feeding plays an important role in child eating and weight status, high food motivation among children may also be a factor shaping how feeding impacts child weight. This study explored whether individual differences in preschool children’s food motivation interacted with mothers’ feeding styles in predicting subsequent child weight status. Participants included 129 Hispanic Head Start mother/child dyads. Data were collected at ages 4–5 years (Time 1) and 7–9 (Time 3). Staff measured heights/weights and observed children in an eating in the absence of hunger task. Mothers reported on feeding styles/practices and children’s eating behaviors. A principal components analysis …

The Ipdgc/Gp2 Hackathon - An Open Science Event For Training In Data Science, Genomics, And Collaboration Using Parkinson's Disease Data, Hampton L Leonard, Ruqaya Murtadha, Alejandro Martinez-Carrasco, Alina Jama, Amica Corda Müller-Nedebock, Ana-Luisa Gil-Martinez, Anastasia Illarionova, Anni Moore, Bernabe I Bustos, Bharati Jadhav, Brook Huxford, Catherine Storm, Clodagh Towns, Dan Vitale, Devina Chetty, Eric Yu, Francis P Grenn, Gabriela Salazar, Geoffrey Rateau, Hirotaka Iwaki, Inas Elsayed, Isabelle Francesca Foote, Zuné Jansen Van Rensburg, Jonggeol Jeff Kim, Jie Yuan, Julie Lake, Kajsa Brolin, Konstantin Senkevich, Lesley Wu, Manuela M X Tan, María Teresa Periñán, Mary B Makarious, Michael Ta, Nikita Simone Pillay, Oswaldo Lorenzo Betancor, Paula R Reyes-Pérez, Pilar Alvarez Jerez, Prabhjyot Saini, Rami Al-Ouran, Ramiya Sivakumar, Raquel Real, Regina H Reynolds, Ruifneg Hu, Shameemah Abrahams, Shilpa C Rao, Tarek Antar, Thiago Peixoto Leal, Vassilena Iankova, William J Scotton, Yeajin Song, Andrew Singleton, Mike A Nalls, Sumit Dey, Sara Bandres-Ciga, Cornelis Blauwendraat, Alastair J Noyce, The International Parkinson Disease Genomics Consortium (Ipdgc) And The Global Parkinson’S Genetics Program (Gp2)

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Open science and collaboration are necessary to facilitate the advancement of Parkinson's disease (PD) research. Hackathons are collaborative events that bring together people with different skill sets and backgrounds to generate resources and creative solutions to problems. These events can be used as training and networking opportunities, thus we coordinated a virtual 3-day hackathon event, during which 49 early-career scientists from 12 countries built tools and pipelines with a focus on PD. Resources were created with the goal of helping scientists accelerate their own research by having access to the necessary code and tools. Each team was allocated one of …

Prevalence And Management Of Sleep Disturbance In Adults With Primary Brain Tumours And Their Caregivers: A Systematic Review, Jason A. Martin, Nicolas H. Hart, Natalie Bradford, Fiona Naumann, Mark B. Pinkham, Elizabeth P. Pinkham, Justin J. Holland

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: The aims of this systematic review were to (1) examine the prevalence, severity, manifestations, and clinical associations/risk factors of sleep disturbance in primary brain tumour (PBT) survivors and their caregivers; and (2) determine whether there are any sleep-focused interventons reported in the literature pertaining to people affected by PBT. Methods: This systematic review was registered with the international register for systematic reviews (PROSPERO: CRD42022299332). PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, PsychINFO, and CINAHL were electronically searched for relevant articles reporting sleep disturbance and/or interventions for managing sleep disturbance published between September 2015 and May 2022. The search strategy included terms focusing on …

Persistent Nociceptor Hyperactivity As A Painful Evolutionary Adaptation, Edgar T Walters, Robyn J Crook, G Gregory Neely, Theodore J Price, Ewan St John Smith

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic pain caused by injury or disease of the nervous system (neuropathic pain) has been linked to persistent electrical hyperactivity of the sensory neurons (nociceptors) specialized to detect damaging stimuli and/or inflammation. This pain and hyperactivity are considered maladaptive because both can persist long after injured tissues have healed and inflammation has resolved. While the assumption of maladaptiveness is appropriate in many diseases, accumulating evidence from diverse species, including humans, challenges the assumption that neuropathic pain and persistent nociceptor hyperactivity are always maladaptive. We review studies indicating that persistent nociceptor hyperactivity has undergone evolutionary selection in widespread, albeit selected, animal …

A Tripartite View Of The Posterior Cingulate Cortex, Brett L Foster, Seth R Koslov, Lyndsey Aponik-Gremillion, Megan E Monko, Benjamin Y Hayden, Sarah R Heilbronner

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) is one of the least understood regions of the cerebral cortex. By contrast, the anterior cingulate cortex has been the subject of intensive investigation in humans and model animal systems, leading to detailed behavioural and computational theoretical accounts of its function. The time is right for similar progress to be made in the PCC given its unique anatomical and physiological properties and demonstrably important contributions to higher cognitive functions and brain diseases. Here, we describe recent progress in understanding the PCC, with a focus on convergent findings across species and techniques that lay a foundation …

Content Analysis Of American Network News Coverage Of Prevention Strategies During The Initial Wave Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cary M Cain, Nipa Kamdar, Rachael Veldman, Shahereez Budhwani, Patrick O'Mahen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Broadcast media is a method to communicate health information to the general public and has previously been used in prior public health emergencies. Despite the current ubiquity of social media, traditional news programming retains relatively large audiences, which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic's early days. Viewership of broadcast media networks' evening news skews toward older groups (age 65 and up) which were vulnerable to health complications related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: The current study explored the trends in American broadcast network news media coverage of prevention during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DESIGN: Quantitative content analysis …

Brain Ageing In Schizophrenia: Evidence From 26 International Cohorts Via The Enigma Schizophrenia Consortium, Constantinos Constantinides, Laura K M Han, Clara Alloza, Linda Antonella Antonucci, Celso Arango, Rosa Ayesa-Arriola, Nerisa Banaj, Alessandro Bertolino, Stefan Borgwardt, Jason Bruggemann, Juan Bustillo, Oleg Bykhovski, Vince Calhoun, Vaughan Carr, Stanley Catts, Young-Chul Chung, Benedicto Crespo-Facorro, Covadonga M Díaz-Caneja, Gary Donohoe, Stefan Du Plessis, Jesse Edmond, Stefan Ehrlich, Robin Emsley, Lisa T Eyler, Paola Fuentes-Claramonte, Foivos Georgiadis, Melissa Green, Amalia Guerrero-Pedraza, Minji Ha, Tim Hahn, Frans A Henskens, Laurena Holleran, Stephanie Homan, Philipp Homan, Neda Jahanshad, Joost Janssen, Ellen Ji, Stefan Kaiser, Vasily Kaleda, Minah Kim, Woo-Sung Kim, Matthias Kirschner, Peter Kochunov, Yoo Bin Kwak, Jun Soo Kwon, Irina Lebedeva, Jingyu Liu, Patricia Mitchie, Stijn Michielse, David Mothersill, Bryan Mowry, Víctor Ortiz-García De La Foz, Christos Pantelis, Giulio Pergola, Fabrizio Piras, Edith Pomarol-Clotet, Adrian Preda, Yann Quidé, Paul E Rasser, Kelly Rootes-Murdy, Raymond Salvador, Marina Sangiuliano, Salvador Sarró, Ulrich Schall, André Schmidt, Rodney J Scott, Pierluigi Selvaggi, Kang Sim, Antonin Skoch, Gianfranco Spalletta, Filip Spaniel, Sophia I Thomopoulos, David Tomecek, Alexander S Tomyshev, Diana Tordesillas-Gutiérrez, Therese Van Amelsvoort, Javier Vázquez-Bourgon, Daniela Vecchio, Aristotle Voineskos, Cynthia S Weickert, Thomas Weickert, Paul M Thompson, Lianne Schmaal, Theo G M Van Erp, Jessica Turner, James H Cole, Enigma Schizophrenia Consortium, Danai Dima, Esther Walton

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with an increased risk of life-long cognitive impairments, age-related chronic disease, and premature mortality. We investigated evidence for advanced brain ageing in adult SZ patients, and whether this was associated with clinical characteristics in a prospective meta-analytic study conducted by the ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group. The study included data from 26 cohorts worldwide, with a total of 2803 SZ patients (mean age 34.2 years; range 18–72 years; 67% male) and 2598 healthy controls (mean age 33.8 years, range 18–73 years, 55% male). Brain-predicted age was individually estimated using a model trained on independent data based on …

Mew Network Self-Management Program Characteristics And Lessons Learned Through The Re-Aim Framework, Cam Escoffery, Archna Patel, Jerik Leung, Molly Anderson, Robin Mcgee, Martha Sajatovic, Erica K Johnson, Barbara Jobst, Elaine T Kiriakopoulos, Ross Shegog, Robert Fraser, Rakale C Quarells

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

RATIONALE: The promotion of evidence-based self-management support for people living with chronic conditions such as epilepsy is a public health priority. Epilepsy self-management encompasses three general areas: (1) treatment management, (2) seizure management, and (3) lifestyle management. Interventions focusing on self-management have increased quality of life and adherence to treatment. This study assesses and synthesizes the Managing Epilepsy Well Network (MEWN) program implementation experiences using the RE-AIM framework. This research informs the quality and rigor of MEWN program dissemination and implementation efforts to assess whether these programs are being implemented and their scalability.

METHODS: The study data were derived from …

Properties Of A Combined Measure Of Reading And Writing: The Assessment Of Writing, Self-Monitoring And Reading (Awsm Reader), Anthony R Gioia, Yusra Ahmed, Steven P Woods, Paul T Cirino

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

There is significant overlap between reading and writing, but no known standardized measure assesses these jointly. The goal of the present study is to evaluate the properties of a novel measure, the Assessment of Writing, Self-Monitoring, and Reading (AWSM Reader), that simultaneously evaluates both reading comprehension and writing. In doing so, we evaluate reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) and various aspects of construct-related validity, including separate criterion measures of reading and writing, and the AWSM Reader’s relations with other variables, including language and executive function (EF), both of which are implicated for both reading and writing. Participants were 377 3rd, 4th, and …

Tubers Affecting The Fusiform Face Area Are Associated With Autism Diagnosis, Alexander L Cohen, Mallory R Kroeck, Juliana Wall, Peter Mcmanus, Arina Ovchinnikova, Mustafa Sahin, Darcy A Krueger, E Martina Bebin, Hope Northrup, Joyce Y Wu, Simon K Warfield, Jurriaan M Peters, Michael D Fox, Acern Study Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is associated with focal brain "tubers" and a high incidence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The location of brain tubers associated with autism may provide insight into the neuroanatomical substrate of ASD symptoms.

METHODS: We delineated tuber locations for 115 TSC participants with ASD (n = 31) and without ASD (n = 84) from the Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Autism Center of Excellence Research Network. We tested for associations between ASD diagnosis and tuber burden within the whole brain, specific lobes, and at 8 regions of interest derived from the ASD neuroimaging literature, including the anterior …

Impact Of Time To Treatment On Endovascular Thrombectomy Outcomes In The Early Versus Late Treatment Time Windows, Negar Asdaghi, Kefeng Wang, Hannah Gardener, Angus Jameson, David Z Rose, Ayham Alkhachroum, Carolina M Gutierrez, Hao Ying, Nils Mueller-Kronast, Nicole B Sur, Chuanhui Dong, Gillian Gordon Perue, Marissa Lepain, Sebastian Koch, Nastajjia Krementz, Erika Marulanda-Londoño, Ricardo Hanel, Brijesh Mehta, Dileep R Yavagal, Tatjana Rundek, Ralph L Sacco, Jose G Romano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The impact of time to treatment on outcomes of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) especially in patients presenting after 6 hours from symptom onset is not well characterized. We studied the differences in characteristics and treatment timelines of EVT-treated patients participating in the Florida Stroke Registry and aimed to characterize the extent to which time impacts EVT outcomes in the early and late time windows.

METHODS: Prospectively collected data from Get With the Guidelines-Stroke hospitals participating in the Florida Stroke Registry from January 2010 to April 2020 were reviewed. Participants were EVT patients with onset-to-puncture time (OTP) of ≤24 hours and …

New Mouse Models With Hypomorphic Sumf1 Variants Mimic Attenuated Forms Of Multiple Sulfatase Deficiency, Nicolina Cristina Sorrentino, Maximiliano Presa, Sergio Attanasio, Vincenzo Cacace, Martina Sofia, Aamir Zuberi, Jennifer Ryan, Somdatta Ray, Igor Petkovic, Karthikeyan Radhakrishnan, Lars Schlotawa, Andrea Ballabio, Cathleen Lutz, Nicola Brunetti-Pierri

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Multiple sulfatase deficiency (MSD) is an ultrarare lysosomal storage disorder due to deficiency of all known sulfatases. MSD is caused by mutations in the Sulfatase Modifying Factor 1 (SUMF1) gene encoding the enzyme responsible for the post-translational modification and activation of all sulfatases. Most MSD patients carry hypomorph SUMF1 variants resulting in variable degrees of residual sulfatase activities. In contrast, Sumf1 null mice with complete deficiency in all sulfatase enzyme activities, have very short lifespan with significant pre-wean lethality, owing to a challenging preclinical model. To overcome this limitation, we genetically engineered and characterized in mice two commonly …