Consider melatonin for migraine prevention

An effective migraine prevention alternative with minimal adverse effects Melatonin is an accessible and affordable option for preventing migraine headaches in chronic sufferers

How do oral NSAIDs compare to other oral analgesics right after an acute musculoskeletal injury?

Q: How do oral NSAIDs compare to other oral analgesics right after an acute musculoskeletal injury? A: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs) are at least as effective as other oral analgesics (opioids, acetaminophen) in relieving pain in the first few days after an acute musculoskeletal injury. Evidence also indicates that using NSAIDs results in fewer adverse events than using narcotics (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, systematic review of randomized controlled trials [RCTs], as well as individual RCTs).Authors: Corey Lyon, DO; Susan Piggott, MD, MPH; Shannon Langner, MD University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency, Denver; Kristen DeSanto, MSLS, MS, RD University of Colorado Health Sciences Library, Denver

Multivoxel codes for representing and integrating acoustic features in human cortex

Using fMRI and multivariate pattern analysis, we determined whether acoustic features are represented by independent or integrated neural codes in human cortex. Male and female listeners heard band-pass noise varying simultaneously in spectral (frequency) and temporal (amplitude-modulation [AM] rate) features. In the superior temporal plane, changes in multivoxel activity due to frequency were largely invariant with respect to AM rate (and vice versa), consistent with an independent representation. In contrast, in posterior parietal cortex, neural representation was exclusively integrated and tuned to specific conjunctions of frequency and AM features. Direct between-region comparisons show that whereas independent coding of frequency and AM weakened with increasing levels of the hierarchy, integrated coding strengthened at the transition between non-core and parietal cortex. Our findings support the notion that primary auditory cortex can represent component acoustic features in an independent fashion and suggest a role for parietal cortex in feature integration and the structuring of acoustic input. Significance statement A major goal for neuroscience is discovering the sensory features to which the brain is tuned and how those features are integrated into cohesive perception. We used whole-brain human fMRI and a statistical modeling approach to quantify the extent to which sound features are represented separately or in an integrated fashion in cortical activity patterns. We show that frequency and AM rate, two acoustic features that are fundamental to characterizing biological important sounds such as speech, are represented separately in primary auditory cortex but in an integrated fashion in parietal cortex. These findings suggest that representations in primary auditory cortex can be simpler than previously thought and also implicate a role for parietal cortex in integrating features for coherent perception

Natural vocalizations in the mammalian inferior colliculus are broadly encoded by a small number of independent multi-unit clusters

How complex natural sounds are represented by the main converging center of the auditory midbrain, the central inferior colliculus, is an open question. We applied neural discrimination to determine the variation of detailed encoding of individual vocalizations across the best frequency gradient of the central inferior colliculus. The analysis was based on collective responses from several neurons. These multi-unit spike trains were recorded from guinea pigs exposed to a spectrotemporally rich set of eleven species-specific vocalizations. Spike trains of disparate units from the same recording were combined in order to investigate whether groups of multi-unit clusters represent the whole set of vocalizations more reliably than only one unit, and whether temporal response correlations between them facilitate an unambiguous neural representation of the vocalizations. We found a spatial distribution of the capability to accurately encode groups of vocalizations across the best frequency gradient. Different vocalizations are optimally discriminated at different locations of the best frequency gradient. Furthermore, groups of a few multi-unit clusters yield improved discrimination over only one multi-unit cluster between all tested vocalizations. However, temporal response correlations between units do not yield better discrimination. Our study is based on a large set of units of simultaneously recorded responses from several guinea pigs and electrode insertion positions. Our findings suggest abroadly distributed code for behaviorally relevant vocalizations in the mammalian inferior colliculus.Responses from a few non-interacting units are sufficient to faithfully represent the whole set of studied vocalizations with diverse spectrotemporal properties

Exome chip analysis identifies low-frequency and rare variants in MRPL38 for white matter hyperintensities on brain MRI

International audienc