Short-term brain ‘plasticity’ in humans: transient finger representation changes in sensory cortex somatotopy following ischemic anesthesia

Transient rearrangements of finger representation in primary somatosensory cortex induced by an anesthetic block of the sensory information from adjacent fingers have been shown invasively in animals. Such a phenomenon has been now replicated in seven healthy human volunteers. Somatosensory Evoked Fields (SEFs) have been recorded during separate electrical stimulation of the 1st, 3rd, or 5th finger. Recordings were obtained in control conditions (stage A), following complete ischemic anesthesia of the 4 non-stimulated fingers (stage B), and after regaining sensation (stage C). SEFs were recorded using a 28-channel DC-SQUID magnetometer; a single position of the sensor was enough to identify the source of N20m, P30m and following components using the Equivalent Current Dipole (ECD) model. The amount of afferent input during stages A through C was monitored with surface electrodes placed on the nerve at wrist and elbow. No variation of the nerve compound potential was observed during stages A through C. In stage A, the localizing algorithm was able to discriminate the individual finger representation in accordance with the somatotopic organisation of the sensory homunculus. It was observed that the ECDs responsible for the cortical responses from the unanesthetized finger were significantly changing following a relatively brief period of sensory deprivation from the adjacent fingers. Such changes of the ECDs with respect to the control conditions were characterized by an increase in strength and deepening for the middle finger, and by a shift on the coronal plane for the thumb and the little finger (medial for the former, lateral for the latter). Such changes became progressively evident in stage B, but were persisting in stage C.     

肌电图对腰神经后根节段定位作用的实验研究

目的:探讨应用肌电图行大鼠腰神经后根节段定位的方法。方法:通过电生理的方法,依次电刺激L3￣L5脊神经后根,分别记录大鼠双侧下肢主要肌肉的肌电图像,测量最早出现的感觉神经动作电位(SNAP)最大波幅值。结果:刺激L3脊神经后根,于股四头肌记录到的波幅峰值(480.8±255.9μV)显著高于其它各组肌肉(P<0.01)。刺激L4脊神经后根,于下肢四组肌肉记录到的CMAP最大波幅平均值均>100μV,其中在股四头肌(305.2±131.5μV)、胫骨前肌(340.2±310.4μV)记录到的波幅峰值显著高于在股二头肌(142.4±144.7μV)、腓肠肌(138.2±127.6μV)记录到的波幅峰值(P<0.01)。刺激L5脊神经后根,于股二头肌(377.5±264.4μV)、腓肠肌(168.4±126.7μV)记录到的波幅峰值显著高于其它各肌群记录到的波幅峰值(P<0.01)。结论:电刺激不同脊神经后根,在大鼠下肢不同肌肉记录到的SNAP的波幅峰值存在差异,综合分析记录到的SNAP的波幅峰值,可作为腰神经后根节段定位的参考。     

肾移植术后并发大腿感觉功能障碍(附28例报告)

目的 提高对肾移植术后并发大腿感觉功能障碍的认识水平。方法 对179例肾移植术后患者进行问诊和大腿皮肤针刺检查。结果 179例中发现28例存在手术侧大腿感觉功能障碍。其中78例移植肾动脉与髂内动脉吻合的患者中有11例，分别为大腿前面7例、外侧面2例、前面和外侧面2例：101例移植肾动脉与髂外动脉吻合的患者中有17例，分别为大腿前面13例、外侧面1例、前面和外侧面3例。除1例为持续性感觉功能障碍外，其余27例均在术后半年内自愈。结论 肾移植术后出现手术侧大腿皮肤感觉功能障碍是较常见的并发症。肾移植术前应告知患者可能出现这种并发症。     

Sensorimotor gating deficits in adults with autism.

BACKGROUND: Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is an operational measure of sensorimotor gating and is impaired in a family of neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by abnormalities of inhibitory function. Adults with autistic disorder (AD) exhibit clinical features of inhibitory deficits, such as restrictive and repetitive behaviors, that may be explained by deficits in sensorimotor gating. METHODS: Acoustic startle reactivity, habituation, and PPI (30-, 60-, 120-msec interstimulus intervals) were assessed in 14 adult men diagnosed with AD and 16 typically developing normal comparison (NC) participants. All participants were administered measures of intelligence and frontal-executive functioning. RESULTS: Adults with AD exhibited significantly less PPI in the 60-msec condition than NC participants, which was correlated with increased ratings of restricted and repetitive behaviors. The groups did not differ on measures of startle amplitude or overall habituation. There was, however, a significant group-by-block habituation effect. Furthermore, PPI was not related to intelligence but was moderately associated with performance on a measure of frontal-executive functioning. CONCLUSIONS: Adults with AD have sensorimotor gating deficits similar to other neurodevelopmental disorders, implicating a failure of normal inhibitory regulation of sensory, motor, and attentional mechanisms. Thus, PPI deficits may be indirectly linked to one of the hallmark features of AD.     

Whole-heart cine MRI using real-time respiratory self-gating.

Two-dimensional (2D) breath-hold cine MRI is used to assess cardiac anatomy and function. However, this technique requires cooperation from the patient, and in some cases the scan planning is complicated. Isotropic nonangulated three-dimensional (3D) cardiac MR can overcome some of these problems because it requires minimal planning and can be reformatted in any plane. However, current methods, even those that use undersampling techniques, involve breath-holding for periods that are too long for many patients. Free-breathing respiratory gating sequences represent a possible solution for realizing 3D cine imaging. A real-time respiratory self-gating technique for whole-heart cine MRI is presented. The technique enables assessment of cardiac anatomy and function with minimum planning or patient cooperation. Nonangulated isotropic 3D data were acquired from five healthy volunteers and then reformatted into 2D clinical views. The respiratory self-gating technique is shown to improve image quality in free-breathing scanning. In addition, ventricular volumetric data obtained using the 3D approach were comparable to those acquired with the conventional multislice 2D approach.     

Decreased sensitivity to experimental pain in adjustment disorder.

An altered perception of pain has been described for several psychiatric disorders. To date the influence of adjustment disorders (AD) on pain perception has not been described. Here, we investigated perception of experimentally induced pain in 15 patients suffering from AD (subtype with depressive symptoms) and controls matched for age and sex. Thresholds and tolerances were assessed for thermal and electrical pain on both sides of the body. We found an overall increase of pain thresholds and tolerances in AD patients as compared to controls, predominately on the right side of the body. Analogue findings have been reported for pain perception in major depressive disorder (MDD). Of the data obtained, only thermal pain threshold on the right arm correlated with the severity of depressive symptoms. Although the underlying pathology is elusive it is likely that the mechanisms for reduced pain sensitivity are comparable in MDD and AD.     

儿童感觉统合失调及其影响因素的调查分析

目的 研究儿童感觉统合失调与学习障碍及环境因素的关系。方法 采用感觉统合评定量表和学习障碍(PRS)筛查量表，分别对755名学龄儿童进行检测、分析。结果 感觉统合严重失调率为13．25％；感觉统合正常与失调儿童的学习障碍有统计学差异(P＜0．005)；其中在LD儿童中感觉统合失调率占63．51％；感觉统合失调与母孕期的情绪、是否足月顺产、出生后的喂养方式、居住环境、孩子1岁内有无高热、家长对孩子的态度及期待等因素有关(P＜0．05)。结论 儿童感觉统合失调与环境因素、学习障碍有一定的关系。     

Preliminary investigation of respiratory self-gating for free-breathing segmented cine MRI.

Segmented cine MRI generally requires breath-holding, which can be problematic for many patients. Navigator echo techniques, particularly successful for free-breathing coronary MRA, are incompatible with the acquisition strategies and SSFP pulse sequences commonly used for cine MRI. The purpose of this work is to introduce a new self-gating technique deriving respiratory gating information directly from the raw imaging data acquired for segmented cine MRI. The respiratory self-gating technique uses interleaved radial k-space sampling to provide low-resolution images in real time during the free-breathing acquisition that are compared to target expiration images. Only the raw data-producing images with high correlation to the target images are included in the final high-resolution reconstruction. The self-gating technique produced cine series with no significant differences in quantitative image sharpness to series produced using comparable breath-held techniques. Because of the difficulties associated with breath-holding, the respiratory self-gating technique represents an important practical advance for cardiac MRI. , Inc.     

Axonal regeneration in dorsal spinal roots is accelerated by peripheral axonal transection

Regeneration of crushed axons in rat dorsal spinal roots was measured to investigate the transganglionic influence of an additional peripheral axonal injury. The right sciatic nerve was cut at the hip and the left sciatic nerve was left intact. One week later, both fifth lumbar dorsal roots were crushed and subsequently, regeneration in the two roots was assessed with one of two anatomical techniques. By anterograde tracing with horseradish peroxidase, the maximal rate of axonal regrowth towards the spinal cord was estimated to be 1.0 mm/day on the left and 3.1 mm/day on the right. Eighteen days after crush injury, new, thinly myelinated fibers in the root between crush site and spinal cord were 5-10 times more abundant ipsilateral to the sciatic nerve transection. The central axons of primary sensory neurons regenerate more quickly if the corresponding peripheral axons are also injured.