Optimization of rs-fMRI parameters in the Seed Correlation Analysis (SCA) in DPARSF toolbox: A preliminary study

There are a number of various methods of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) analysis such as independent component analysis, multivariate autoregressive models, or seed correlation analysis however their results depend on arbitrary choice of parameters. Therefore, the aim of this work was to optimize the parameters in the seed correlation analysis using the Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI (DPARSF) toolbox for rs-fMRI data received from a Siemens Magnetom Skyra 3-Tesla scanner using a whole-brain, gradient-echo echo planar sequence with a 32-channel head coil. Different ranges of the following parameters: amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), Gaussian kernel at FWHM and radius of spherical ROI for 109 regions were tested for 20 healthy volunteers. The highest values of functional connectivity (FC) correlations were found for ALFF 0.01–0.08, spherical ROIs with the 8-mm radius and Gaussian kernel 8 mm at FWHM in all the studied areas that is, Auditory, Sensimotor, Visual, and Default Mode Network. The dominating influence of ALFF and smoothing on values of FC correlations was noted.     

Mise à jour des croyances et congruence à l'humeur dans le trouble dépressif

Depressive disorder is characterized by a polymorphic symptomatology associating emotional, cognitive and behavioral disturbances. One of the most specific symptoms is negative beliefs, called congruent to mood. Despite the importance of these beliefs in the development, the maintenance, and the recurrence of depressive episodes, little is known about the processes underlying the generation of depressive beliefs. In this paper, we detail the link between belief updating mechanisms and the genesis of depressive beliefs. We show how depression alters information processing, generating cognitive immunization when processing positive information, affective updating bias related to the valence of belief and prediction error, and difficultie to disengage from negative information. We suggest that disruption of belief-updating mechanisms forms the basis of belief-mood congruence in depression.     

Extraction of artefactual MRS patterns from a large database using non-negative matrix factorization

Despite the success of automated pattern recognition methods in problems of human brain tumor diagnostic classification, limited attention has been paid to the issue of automated data quality assessment in the field of MRS for neuro-oncology. Beyond some early attempts to address this issue, the current standard in practice is MRS quality control through human (expert-based) assessment. One aspect of automatic quality control is the problem of detecting artefacts in MRS data. Artefacts, whose variety has already been reviewed in some detail and some of which may even escape human quality control, have a negative influence in pattern recognition methods attempting to assist tumor characterization. The automatic detection of MRS artefacts should be beneficial for radiology as it guarantees more reliable tumor characterizations, as well as the development of more robust pattern recognition-based tumor classifiers and more trustable MRS data processing and analysis pipelines. Feature extraction methods have previously been used to help distinguishing between good and bad quality spectra to apply subsequent supervised pattern recognition techniques. In this study, we apply feature extraction differently and use a variant of a method for blind source separation, namely Convex Non-Negative Matrix Factorization, to unveil MRS signal sources in a completely unsupervised way. We hypothesize that, while most sources will correspond to the different tumor patterns, some of them will reflect signal artefacts. The experimental work reported in this paper, analyzing a combined short and long echo time ¹H-MRS database of more than 2000 spectra acquired at 1.5T and corresponding to different tumor types and other anomalous masses, provides a first proof of concept that points to the possible validity of this approach.     

中药炮制对中药化学成分的影响

目的:探讨与分析中药炮制对中药化学成分的影响。方法:中药材中含有的常见化学成分,例如生物碱、苷类、挥发油等物质。针对这些物质在炮制过程中,由于发生水解、氧化、异构化等化学反应,导致含量增加或减少,以及发生变性等情况对药材产生的影响加以汇总并进行分析,进而研究和探讨中药炮制的意义,为制定和选择合理有效的炮制工艺提供依据。结果:炮制过程中由于炮制方法不同,会导致中药材中化学成分的含量及理化性质发生不同的变化,从而使药物性味、功能、功效改变而发挥不同的作用。结论:选择合理、适宜的炮制方法,可以有效的提高中药的功效,降低毒副作用,保证用药安全。     

Rapid processing of haptic cues for postural control in blind subjects

ObjectivesVision and touch rapidly lead to postural stabilization in sighted subjects. Is touch-induced stabilization more rapid in blind than in sighted subjects, owing to cross-modal reorganization of function in the blind?MethodsWe estimated the time-period elapsing from onset of availability of haptic support to onset of lateral stabilization in a group of early- and late-onset blinds. Eleven blind (age 39.4 years ± 11.7 SD) and eleven sighted subjects (age 30.0 years ± 10.0 SD), standing eyes closed with feet in tandem position, touched a pad with their index finger and withdrew the finger from the pad in sequence. EMG of postural muscles and displacement of centre of foot pressure were recorded. The task was repeated fifty times, to allow statistical evaluation of the latency of EMG and sway changes following the haptic shift.ResultsSteady-state sway (with or without contact with pad, no haptic shift) did not differ between blind and sighted. On adding the haptic stimulus, EMG and sway diminished in both groups, but at an earlier latency (by about 0.5 s) in the blinds (p <0.01). Latencies were still shorter in the early-than late-blinds. When the haptic stimulus was withdrawn, both groups increased EMG and sway at equally short delays.ConclusionsBlinds are rapid in implementing adaptive postural modifications when granted an external haptic reference. Fast processing of the stabilizing haptic spatial-orientation cues may be favoured by cortical plasticity in blinds.SignificanceThese findings add new information to the field of sensory-guided dynamic control of equilibrium in man.     

中药鸡内金的现代研究进展

鸡内金来源于雉科动物家鸡Gallus gallus domesticus Brisson的干燥砂囊内壁,主要含有蛋白质、氨基酸、多糖等成分以及微量元素。作为药食同源中药,鸡内金不仅是一味消食化积的良药,在治疗口腔溃疡、石淋、腹泻、妇科疾病等方面也取得很好的疗效,具有广阔的药食开发前景。本文对鸡内金的来源、炮制加工、化学成分、质量评价、药理作用、临床应用以及综合利用等方面的研究进展进行了归纳总结,为其后续的深入研究及开发利用提供参考。     

Comorbidity in the prediction of Cognitive Processing Therapy treatment outcomes for combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder

This paper examines clinical predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment outcomes following Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) in Australian military veterans. Fifty nine treatment seeking veterans were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial comparing 12 sessions of CPT (n = 30) with usual treatment (n = 29) at three community-based veterans counseling centers. PTSD and key co-morbidities (depression, anxiety, anger and alcohol use) were measured. Growth curve modeling was used to examine factors which influenced PTSD severity post-treatment. For the CPT condition, baseline anger was the only co-morbidity predictive of change in PTSD severity over time. Participants with higher anger scores showed less of a decrease in PTSD severity over time. Higher anxiety in participants in treatment as usual was significantly associated with better treatment gains. This research suggests that veterans experiencing high levels of anger might benefit from targeted anger reduction strategies to increase the effectiveness of CPT treatment for PTSD.     

The impact of lexical frequency on sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment

Children with SLI generally exhibit poor sentence comprehension skills. We examined the specific impact of grammatical complexity and lexical frequency on comprehension performance, yielding contrasting results. The present study sheds new light on sentence comprehension in children with SLI by investigating a linguistic factor which has attracted little research interest: the impact of the lexical frequency of known words on sentence comprehension. We also examined the impact of grammatical complexity and sentence length by independently varying these two factors. Fifteen children with SLI, 15 age- and IQ-matched controls, and 15 controls matched on lexical and grammatical skills, performed sentence comprehension tasks in which three linguistic factors were manipulated: lexical frequency (sentences containing words of either low or high lexical frequency), grammatical complexity (sentence containing either a subject relative clause or an object relative clause) and sentence length (either short or long sentences). Results indicated that children with SLI performed more poorly overall compared to age- and IQ-matched children and to lexical and morphosyntactic age-matched children. However, their performance was not more affected by either sentence length or clause type than that of control children. Only lexical frequency affected sentence comprehension to a greater extent in children with SLI relative to the control groups, revealing that SLI children's sentence comprehension abilities are particularly affected by the presence of low-frequency but familiar words.