Longitudinal associations of subjectively-measured physical activity and screen time with cognitive development in young children

PurposeTo examine the longitudinal associations of subjectively-measured physical activity (PA) and screen time with multiple domains of cognitive development in a sample of young children.MethodsParticipants were 96 children (baseline age: 3.69 ± 0.78 years) and their parents from Edmonton, Canada in the Physical Activity and Cognition in Early Childhood (PACE) study. Different types of PA (organized, non-organized) and screen time (television viewing, video games) were measured using a parental questionnaire at baseline and at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Total proxy-reported PA, total screen time, and meeting/not meeting the screen time recommendations (2–4 years: ≤1 h/d; 5 years: ≤2 h/d) of the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines were also calculated. Working memory (Nebraska Barnyard task) and inhibitory control (Fish-Shark Go/No-Go task) were assessed at the three time points. Intellectual ability, including language development, inductive reasoning, and perceptual speed, were assessed using the Woodcock-Johnson III test battery at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Multilevel growth modeling was conducted.ResultsOrganized PA (B = 1.26; 95%CI: 0.19,2.33), non-organized PA (B = 0.89, 95%CI: 0.08, 1.71), and total proxy-reported PA (B = 1.03, 95%CI: 0.41,1.66) were positively associated with intellectual ability. In particular, positive associations in regard to language development and inductive reasoning were observed. As for screen time, most associations were not significant, except for positive associations of meeting the screen recommendation with intellectual ability (B = 3.19; 95%CI: 0.002,6.38) and language development (B = 4.32; 95%CI: 0.34,8.30).ConclusionFor young children, promoting PA participation in organized and non-organized activities, as well as meeting the screen time recommendations, appears important for cognitive development.     

Cognitive functions and psychological symptoms in migraine: a study on patients with and without aura

Aim: Migraine is neurological disorder with a complex pathophysiology. We described the neuropsychological profile of 100 migraineurs (50 with visual aura and 50 without aura), in interictal phase, compared to 50 matched healthy controls.

Materials and methods: A battery of standardized neuropsychological tests was used to assess attention, memory and executive functions. Beck Depression Inventory and Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety were used to evaluate anxiety and depressive symptoms. Severity of disability during daily activities was assessed by Migraine Disability Assessment.

Results: Migraine without aura showed a significant difference in comparison to healthy controls in semantic verbal fluency (p?=?0.02), delayed memory (p?<?0.001) and set-shifting (p?<?0.001). Migraine with aura showed a significant difference in delayed memory (p?=?0.001) and set-shifting (p?=?0.005) if compared to healthy controls. No significant correlation between cognitive functions and mood was found (HAM-A p?=?0.67) (BDI-II p?=?0.42).

Conclusions: Our data showed isolate and specific cognitive deficit during interictal phase in migraine patients. Future studies are need to identify if specific migraine characteristics may affect cognitive functions.     

Central fatigue and attentional processing in Parkinson’s disease: An event-related potentials study

ObjectiveTo verify whether central fatigue in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with the presence of a more severe selective cognitive impairment.MethodsTwenty-four PD patients without fatigue-PDnF, 11 with fatigue-PDF and 32 healthy volunteers underwent a P300 novelty task that elicits both the P3a and the P3b components.ResultsP3b latency was significantly longer in both PDF and PDnF than in controls. P3b amplitudes were comparable between groups. P3a latency and P3a amplitude were respectively significantly longer and lower in PDF than in either PDnF or controls.ConclusionThe ability to discriminate the significant target stimulus, which requires the integrity of the dorsal attentional network and top-down control mechanisms, is compromised in parkinsonian patients irrespective of the presence of fatigue. PDF exhibited a difficulty in attentional orienting to salient novel stimuli, a bottom-up attentional control mechanism that is related to the functioning of the ventral attention network.SignificanceFatigue seems to be specifically related to an impairment in the processing of novel stimuli, which is an essential part of adaptive decision-making behavior.     

It is more than Interference: Examining the neurohemodynamic correlates of the flanker task with functional near‐infrared spectroscopy

Previous functional near‐infrared spectroscopy studies using the Eriksen flanker task, in contrast to functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, revealed the quite puzzling finding of an inverted conflict effect, that is, greater middle and superior frontal activation in response compatible than in response incompatible trials. However, since neither prior functional near‐infrared spectroscopy studies nor most previous functional magnetic resonance imaging studies separated between an identical and a compatible condition, it is hard to pinpoint whether this discrepancy occurs on the level of stimulus processing or response generation. By assigning two letters to both left (D, F) and right (J, K) hand reactions, we were able to separate identical (e.g., JJJ) and compatible (e.g., JKJ) conditions that solely differ in their stimulus congruency. Replicating prior functional magnetic resonance imaging findings, we found the standard conflict effect at the transition of superior and middle frontal gyrus, when comparing the activation in compatible trials to that in incompatible trials. Both changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin thus pointed to more effortful processing in incompatible trials. Interestingly, however, identical trials showed the highest activation in this region, according to both changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. A finding that mirrors and extends prior functional near‐infrared spectroscopy findings, which only regarded oxygenated blood. We argue that this pattern of results does not reflect the standard conflict effect. We rather assume that other processes like perceptual familiarity or strategic readjustment might be at play.     

Is sustained attention deficit related to subclinical obsessive thoughts in children and adolescents with ADHD?

Abstract

Background: Thought content and its impact on sustained attention in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are topics of growing interest in literature.

Objective: We hypothesised that subclinical obsessive thoughts may be correlated with attention lapses in individuals with ADHD.

Method: Thirty children diagnosed with ADHD participated in the study and their level of subclinical obsessive thoughts, attention, and executive function were measured using Children Yale-Brown Obsessive Scale and Conners’ Continuous Performance Test II.

Results: No significant correlation between sustained attention impairment and the level of obsessive thoughts in patients with ADHD was found. Nevertheless, patients with ADHD with subclinical obsessive thoughts showed more commission errors than those without (W?=?51.5; p?=?0.02).

Conclusion: The nature of thought content in individuals with ADHD should be linked to executive dysfunction rather than attentional impairment. This could be of importance in the therapeutic strategy choice, addressing the importance of executive function remediation in the specific context of subclinical obsessive thoughts.

• Key points

• ?Patients with ADHD, without OCD or ASD comorbidity, still present subclinical obsessive thoughts (36% of our sample). ??Subclinical obsessive thoughts could be a part of thought content in patients with ADHD.

• ???Subclinical obsessive thoughts as measured by the CPT-II are not correlated with attention function in patients with ADHD.

• ???ADHD patients with subclinical obsessive symptoms present more impairment in response inhibition than the ones without.

• ???Results on subclinical obsessive thoughts are similar to those on another type of thought content called ‘mind wandering’.

• ???A clinical improvement strategy for patients with ADHD could be using executive function remediation rather than classical attention function remediation, according to both to our and previous results.

     

椎弓根螺钉三椎体内固定对脊椎爆裂性骨折患者椎体与神经功能状态的影响观察

目的:探讨椎弓根螺钉三椎体内固定对脊椎爆裂性骨折患者椎体与神经功能状态的影响.方法:选取2013年7月至2015年1月于本院进行治疗的58例脊椎爆裂性骨折患者为研究对象,对其进行回顾性研究,将其根据手术方式不同分为对照组(短节段椎弓根内固定组)29例和观察组(椎弓根螺钉三椎体内固定组)29例,然后将两组患者手术前与手术后不同时间的伤椎恢复指标与血清神经功能相关指标进行比较.结果:观察组手术后不同时间的伤椎恢复指标中的后凸Cobb角、椎体平移率、椎体高度丢失率与血清神经功能相关指标中的BDNF、NSE、NGF及S100B均显著好于同期的对照组指标,并且明显好于其治疗前,均有显著性差异(P＜0.05).结论:椎弓根螺钉三椎体内固定可更为有效地恢复脊椎爆裂性骨折患者椎体参数,并且更有助于神经功能状态的恢复.     

Partitioning heritability analyses unveil the genetic architecture of human brain multidimensional functional connectivity patterns

Resting‐state functional connectivity profiles have been increasingly shown to be important endophenotypes that are tightly linked to human cognitive functions and psychiatric diseases, yet the genetic architecture of this multidimensional trait is barely understood. Using a unique sample of 1,704 unrelated, young and healthy Chinese Han individuals, we revealed a significant heritability of functional connectivity patterns in the whole brain and several subnetworks. We further proposed a partitioned heritability analysis for multidimensional functional connectivity patterns, which revealed the common and unique enrichment patterns of the genetic contributions to brain connectivity patterns for several gene sets linked to brain functions, including the genes expressed preferentially in the central nervous system and those associated with intelligence, educational attainment, attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia. These results for the first time reveal the genetic architecture of multidimensional brain connectivity patterns across different networks and advance our understanding of the complex relationship between gene sets, neural networks, and behaviors.     

立体定向与神经导航技术在少量大脑半球出血患者中的应用

目的对于少量自发性脑出血伴明显功能障碍的患者是采取保守治疗还是手术,通常有争议性,探讨通过立体定向技术清除血肿对患者预后的改善作用。方法选取近5 a大脑半球出血患者150例(出血量20~30 mL),其中50例采用立体定向技术给予血肿清除术,50例采用导航技术给予血肿清除术,分别为手术组1、手术组2,另50例为药物保守治疗组,对比3组患者的改良Barthel指数评分及mRS评分。结果入组患者单侧肢体肌力<3级,出血量≤30 mL,出血部位为基底节区或丘脑。通过6个月随访,手术组改良Barthel指数评分、mRS评分显著优于保守治疗组。手术组相对保守组有更好的功能改善,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论对于少量自发性脑出血伴明显功能障碍的患者,通过立体定向手术、神经导航技术能显著改善患者的日常生活功能,其中立体定向技术并发症及血肿清除率优于神经导航技术。     

Diffusion MRI abnormalities detection with orientation distribution functions: A multiple sclerosis longitudinal study

We propose a new algorithm for the voxelwise analysis of orientation distribution functions between one image and a group of reference images. It relies on a generic framework for the comparison of diffusion probabilities on the sphere, sampled from the underlying models. We demonstrate that this method, combined to dimensionality reduction through a principal component analysis, allows for more robust detection of lesions on simulated data when compared to classical tensor-based analysis. We then demonstrate the efficiency of this pipeline on the longitudinal comparison of multiple sclerosis patients at an early stage of the disease: right after their first clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and three months later. We demonstrate the predictive value of ODF-based scores for the early detection of lesions that will appear or heal.