A comprehensive review of tic disorders in children

Tics are characterized by sudden, rapid, recurrent, nonrhythmic movement or vocalization, and are the most common movement disorders in children. Their onset is usually in childhood and tics often will diminish within one year. However, some of the tics can persist and cause various problems such as social embarrassment, physical discomfort, or emotional impairments, which could interfere with daily activities and school performance. Furthermore, tic disorders are frequently associated with comorbid neuropsychiatric symptoms, which can become more problematic than tic symptoms. Unfortunately, misunderstanding and misconceptions of tic disorders still exist among the general population. Understanding tic disorders and their comorbidities is important to deliver appropriate care to patients with tics. Several studies have been conducted to elucidate the clinical course, epidemiology, and pathophysiology of tics, but they are still not well understood. This article aims to provide an overview about tics and tic disorders, and recent findings on tic disorders including history, definition, diagnosis, epidemiology, etiology, diagnostic approach, comorbidities, treatment and management, and differential diagnosis

Dilute-Bose-Gas Approach to ground state phases of 3D quantum helimagnets under high magnetic field

We study high-field phase diagram and low-energy excitations of three-dimensional quantum helimagnets. Slightly below the saturation field, the emergence of magnetic order may be mathematically viewed as Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of magnons. The method of dilute Bose gas enables an unbiased quantitative analysis of quantum effects in three-dimensional helimagnets and thereby three phases are found: cone, coplanar fan and an attraction-dominant one. To investigate the last phase, we extend the usual BEC approach so that we can handle 2-magnon bound states. In the case of 2-magnon BEC, the transverse magnetization vanishes and long-range order occurs in the quadrupolar channel (spin-nematic phase). As an application, we map out the phase diagram of a 3D helimagnet which consists of frustrated J1-J2 chains coupled by an interchain interaction J3.Comment: 4pages, 3figures, International Conference on Magnetism (ICM) 2009 (Karlsruhe, Germany, July 26-31, 2009)

Evaluation of a library of loxP variants with a wide range of recombination efficiencies by Cre

Sparse labeling of individual cells is an important approach in neuroscience and many other fields of research. Various methods have been developed to sparsely label only a small population of cells; however, there is no simple and reproducible strategy for managing the probability of sparse labeling at desired levels. Here, we aimed to develop a novel methodology based on the Cre-lox system to regulate sparseness at desired levels, and we purely analyzed cleavage efficiencies of loxP mutants by Cre. We hypothesized that mutations in the loxP sequence reduce the recognition efficiency by Cre, which enables the regulation of the sparseness level of gene expression. In this research, we mutagenized the loxP sequence and analyzed a library of loxP variants. We evaluated more than 1000 mutant loxP sequences, including mutants with reduced excision efficiencies by Cre ranging from 0.51% to 59%. This result suggests that these mutant loxP sequences can be useful in regulating the sparseness of genetic labeling at desired levels

External and internal focus of attention differentially modulate corticospinal excitability in anticipatory postural adjustments

Whether attentional focus modulates the corticospinal excitability of the lower limb muscles in anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) when performing a ballistic movement of the upper limb remains unclear. The present study used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine the corticospinal excitability of the lower limb muscles along with the kinematic profiles during dart throwing with different attentional foci, external focus (EF) and internal focus (IF). In 13 healthy participants, TMS was applied immediately before electromyographic onset of the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle, and the motor evoked potential (MEP) was recorded in the TA and soleus (SOL) muscles. The performance accuracy was significantly higher in the EF condition than in the IF condition. In both EF and IF conditions, MEP amplitude in the TA muscle, but not the SOL muscle, was significantly higher immediately before TA muscle onset (− 100, − 50, and 0 ms) compared to the control. In particular, the MEP increment in the TA muscle before TA muscle onset (− 50 and 0 ms) was significantly larger in the EF condition than in the IF condition. Our findings provide the first evidence for the modulation of corticospinal excitability in APA by changing attentional focus