Fibromyalgia detection based on eeg connectivity patterns

Objective: The identification of a complementary test to confirm the diagnosis of FM. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM) is based on clinical features, but there is still no consensus, so patients and clinicians might benefit from such a test. Recent findings showed that pain lies in neuronal bases (pain matrices) and, in the long term, chronic pain modifies the activity and dynamics of brain structures. Our hypothesis is that patients with FM present lower levels of brain activity and therefore less connectivity than controls. Methods: We registered the resting state EEG of 23 patients with FM and compared them with 23 control subjects’ resting state recordings from the PhysioBank database. We measured frequency, amplitude, and functional connectivity, and conducted source localization (sLORETA). ROC analysis was performed on the resulting data. Results: We found significant differences in brain bioelectrical activity at rest in all analyzed bands between patients and controls, except for Delta. Subsequent source analysis provided connectivity values that depicted a distinct profile, with high discriminative capacity (between 91.3–100%) between the two groups. Conclusions: Patients with FM show a distinct neurophysiological pattern that fits with the clinical features of the disease.CN was funded through a Francisco Tomás y Valiente research fellowship (MIAS—UAM). This work is framed in the research project entitled “Criminal Law and Human Behaviour” (RTI2018- 097838-B-I00) granted by the Spain Ministry for Science, Innovation, and Universities of Spain (PI: Prof. Eduardo Demetrio Crespo). LSSR was funded by Boston Scientifi

Alteraciones cognitivas en la enfermedad de Parkinson. Evaluación de la plasticidad cerebral con resonancia magnética funcional

El objetivo de este trabajo era comprobar la capacidad de rehabilitación cognitiva de los pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson (EP). Para ello, se seleccionó un grupo de pacientes con EP y se les sometió a una resonancia magnética mientras llevaban a cabo la tarea Stroop. Durante 6 meses la mitad de ellos realizaron un programa de entrenamiento cognitivo basado en la tarea SUDOKU. Tras este periodo, todos los pacientes y los controles fueron evaluados de nuevo. Los resultados indicaron que el entrenamiento tiene resultados beneficiosos para los pacientes con EP. ABSTRACT: Objectives: To check the cerebral effects of cognitive training in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Materials and Methods: The pilot study was carried out with 16 non-demented PD patients and 16 healthy subjects. In the Test phase and Retest phase (6 months later) eight non demented PD patients and eight healthy controls were evaluated (Hoehn & Yahr, UPDRS, MMSE, MADRS scales and clinical history). All subjects underwent fMRI examination while doing the Stroop test in the modified version of Scholes (2006) with 160 stimuli (80 congruent and 80 incongruent). Then, half of PD patients completed a cognitive rehabilitation training programme lasting 6 months (PD training patients). Training consisted of completing an easy “sudoku” every day for 6 months; after which patients and controls were evaluated again with a Stroop while undergoing the fMRI test. Results: PD patients took significantly more time to complete the task than the control subjects but the difference between the scores was not statistically significant. In PD patients without training the same areas were activated as in the control subjects (this already seen activated in the Stroop task), but also some emotional areas and basal ganglia nuclei. PD patients with training showed additional temporal areas activated in respect to the controls but not in respect to untrained PD patients. Conclusions: To complete the task PD patients probably need to activate emotional areas and extra-activation of basal ganglia, which would imply an additional interactions of thalamus activation and inhibition and an impaired inhibition of the cortex. The consequence would be the activation of unnecessary areas and slower of the cognitive activit

Women neuroscientist disciples of Pío del Río-Hortega: the Cajal School Spreads in Europe and South America

Pio del Rio-Hortega was not only the discoverer of the microglia and oligodendroglia but also possibly the most prolific mentor of all Santiago Ramon y Cajal’s disciples (Nobel awardee in Physiology or Medicine 1906 and considered as the father of modern Neuroscience). Among Río-Hortega’s mentees, three exceptional women are frequently forgotten, chronologically: Pio’s niece Asunción Amo del Río who worked with Río- Hortega at Madrid, Paris, and Oxford; the distinguished British neuropathologist Dorothy Russell who also worked with Don Pío at Oxford; and Amanda Pellegrino de Iraldi, the last mentee in his career. Our present work analyzes the figures of these three women who were in contact and collaborated with Don Pío del Río-Hortega, describing the influences received and the impact on their careers and the History of Neuroscience. The present work completes the contribution of women neuroscientists who worked with Cajal and his main disciples of the Spanish Neurological School both in Spain (previous work) and in other countries (present work)The research group of FdC was currently supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Investigación [grant nos. PID2019-109858RB-100, RD16-0015-0019 (partially financed by F.E.D.E.R.: European Union “Una manera de hacer Europa”), and EIN2020-112366], Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-CSIC/Spanish Research Council (grant nos. 2019AEP033 and LINKA20268), the Fundación Ramón Areces (Spain, grant no. CIVP19A5917), the Comunidad de Madrid (Spain, grant no. IND2018/BMD-9751), and a grant from the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) History Online Project Grants Call 2018. CN received funding from RTI2018-097838-B-I00, granted by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PI: Prof. Eduardo Demetrio Crespo)