An Adaptive Approach for Processing Evoked Potentials From Human Auditory Cortex

Presents an adaptive approach for the processing of evoked potentials from the an auditory association cortex in humans. The approach can be conceptualized as a bank of least mean square adaptive signal enhancers. The recording data of each trial is then divided into several segments and each segment of data is input to corresponding adaptive signal enhancers. This approach allows the temporal variations of the evoked potential signal to be estimated across individual trials. This is a powerful tool for both clinical and research neurosciences. Two illustrative cases are shown.published_or_final_versio

The role of whole brain radiation therapy in the management of newly diagnosed brain metastases: a systematic review and evidence-based clinical practice guideline

QUESTION: Should patients with newly-diagnosed metastatic brain tumors undergo open surgical resection versus whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) and/or other treatment modalities such as radiosurgery, and in what clinical settings? TARGET POPULATION: These recommendations apply to adults with a newly diagnosed single brain metastasis amenable to surgical resection. RECOMMENDATIONS: Surgical resection plus WBRT versus surgical resection alone Level 1 Surgical resection followed by WBRT represents a superior treatment modality, in terms of improving tumor control at the original site of the metastasis and in the brain overall, when compared to surgical resection alone. Surgical resection plus WBRT versus SRS + or - WBRT Level 2 Surgical resection plus WBRT, versus stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) plus WBRT, both represent effective treatment strategies, resulting in relatively equal survival rates. SRS has not been assessed from an evidence-based standpoint for larger lesions (\u3e3 cm) or for those causing significant mass effect (\u3e1 cm midline shift). Level 3 Underpowered class I evidence along with the preponderance of conflicting class II evidence suggests that SRS alone may provide equivalent functional and survival outcomes compared with resection + WBRT for patients with single brain metastases, so long as ready detection of distant site failure and salvage SRS are possible. Note The following question is fully addressed in the WBRT guideline paper within this series by Gaspar et al. Given that the recommendation resulting from the systematic review of the literature on this topic is also highly relevant to the discussion of the role of surgical resection in the management of brain metastases, this recommendation has been included below

Neuromechanical representation of fabric-evoked prickliness: a fiber-skin-neuron model

Cutaneous Aδ nociceptors encode the material and geometrical features of fiber ends evoking prickliness sensation by generating neural spikes in response to indentation of human skin, however, understanding of the underlying neuromechanism of fabric-evoked prickliness is still far from clear. This work develops and validates a fiber-skin-neuron (mechanosensitive Aδ-nociceptors) model that combines an analytical model of fiber-skin indentation, a sigmoidal function of neuronal transduction, and a leaky integrate-and-fire model of neuronal dynamics. Firstly, the model is validated to be capable of capturing the typical neurphysiological features of cutaneous Aδ nociceptors and the psychophysical phenomenon. And then, several case studies with respect to statistical features of fiber ends are carried out, and the resulting neural responses are calculated to explore the relationship between statistical features in study and evoked responses. The analysis of predicted action potentials over one second indicates that they systematically change with statistical features of fiber ends protruding above fabric surfaces, and the fitted stimulus–response relationship of Aδ nociceptors is highly similar to the stimulus-sensation relationship of prickliness rating magnitude. It follows that there might exist a linear relationship between fabric-evoked neurophysiological responses and psychophysical responses. These results provide significant new insight into the fabric-evoked prickliness sensation and raise interesting questions for further investigation, and the model described here bridges the gap between those models that transform fiber ends properties to firing rates