The Levels of Auditory Processing during Emotional Perception in Children with Autism

Background: The perception of basic emotional sounds, such as crying and laughter is associated with effective interpersonal communication. Difficulties with the perception and analysis of sounds that complicate understanding emotions at an early development age may contribute to communication deficits. Methods: This study focused on auditory nonverbal emotional perception including emotional vocalizations with opposite valences (crying and laughter) and neutral sound (phoneme “Pᴂ”). We conducted event-related potential analysis and compared peak alpha frequencies (PAFs) for different conditions in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children aged 4 to 6 years old (N = 25 for each group). Results: Children with ASD had a higher amplitude of P100 and lower amplitude of N200 for all types of sounds and higher P270 in response to neutral phoneme. During the perception of emotional sounds, children with ASD demonstrated a single P270 electroencephalography (EEG) component instead of a P200–P300 complex specific to TD children. However, the most significant differences were associated with a response to emotional valences of stimuli. The EEG differences between crying and laughter were expressed as a lower amplitude of N400 and higher PAF for crying compared to laughter and were found only in TD children. Conclusions: Children with ASD have shown not just abnormal acoustical perception but altered emotional analysis of affective sounds as well

Local administration of autologous platelet-rich plasma in a female patient with skin ulcer defect

The paper describes a clinical observation of the efficiency of local therapy with autologous platelet-rich plasma for .skin ulcer defect in a female with chronic lymphocytic leukemi

Rapid Effects of BCI-Based Attention Training on Functional Brain Connectivity in Poststroke Patients: A Pilot Resting-State fMRI Study

The prevalence of stroke-induced cognitive impairment is high. Effective approaches to the treatment of these cognitive impairments after stroke remain a serious and perhaps underestimated challenge. A BCI-based task-focused training that results in repetitive recruitment of the normal motor or cognitive circuits may strengthen stroke-affected neuronal connectivity, leading to functional improvements. In the present controlled study, we attempted to evaluate the modulation of neuronal circuits under the influence of 10 days of training in a P3-based BCI speller in subacute ischemic stroke patients