Botulinum toxin A modifies nociceptive withdrawal reflex in subacute stroke patients

Objectives: The aims of this study were to evaluate the pattern of the nociceptive withdrawal reflex (NWR) of the upper limb at rest and after injection of Botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) in poststroke subacute hemiparetic patients. Methods: Fourteen patients with poststroke subacute hemiparesis underwent clinical and instrumental evaluation and BoNT-A injection. Painful electrical stimulation was applied to induce the NWR. Baseline EMG activity and NWR recordings (EMG and kinematic response) were performed at T0, one month (T1), and three months (T2) after the BoNT-A injection, as were Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores. Results: Comparison of results at T0, T1, and T2 revealed significant changes in the MAS score for the elbow (p < 0.001) and wrist joints (p < 0.001) and in the FIM score at T0 and T2. BoNT-A injection had a significant effect on both NWR amplitude and baseline EMG activity in the posterior deltoid (PD) and flexor carpi radialis (FCR) muscles as well as in all averaged muscles. Analysis of elbow kinematics before and after treatment revealed that the reflex probability rates were significantly higher at T1 and T2 than at T0. Conclusion: Injection of BoNT-A in the subacute phase of stroke can modify both the baseline EMG activity and the NWR-related EMG responses in the upper limb muscles irrespective of the site of injection; furthermore, the reflex-mediated defensive mechanical responses, that is, shoulder extension and abduction and elbow flexion, increased after treatment. BoNT-A injection may be a useful treatment in poststroke spasticity with a potential indirect effect on spinal neurons

Visual Search in good and poor readers:effect with single and combined features targets

This study examined differences between normal and poor readers in the visual-search strategy used to detect a target shape in a background of similar shapes. No differences between the two groups occur in search for simple features (Exps. 1 and 3) and conjunction of features (Exp. 2). However, the performance of the two groups differ on search tasks with multifeatured shapes, in which targets and nontargets differ in both the identity of features and their spatial relationship or in the spatial relationship of features alone. Results suggest that, rather than a problem in searching complex stimuli, poor searchers have difficulty within stimuli like letters and geometrical shapes which require integration of features within a module of the visual system

New and forthcoming anti-epileptic drugs.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: There is a need for newer anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) with improved efficacy and tolerability. This article reviews AEDs introduced since 2007 and investigational compounds in clinical development. RECENT FINDINGS: Two recently introduced AEDs, stiripentol and rufinamide, have been licensed exclusively for orphan indications, that is severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy (stiripentol, Europe) and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (rufinamide, Europe and the USA). This signals a welcome new trend to explore novel treatments in specific pediatric syndromes for which there are high therapeutic needs. Two additional AEDs, lacosamide and eslicarbazepine acetate, have been licensed recently for a more traditional indication, refractory partial-onset seizures. Although newly introduced agents given as adjunctive therapy have been found to be superior to placebo in reducing seizure frequency, the ultimate goal of sustained seizure freedom is rarely achieved. Therefore, the search for better agents should continue. Several investigational compounds are currently in various stages of clinical development. SUMMARY: The recent introduction of newer AEDs has enlarged the armamentarium against epilepsy. However, newer agents had only a modest impact on the probability of achieving long-term remission. Novel strategies for the discovery and development of truly innovative AEDs are sorely needed

Improving Content Validity Evaluation of Assessment Instruments Through Formal Content Validity Analysis

Content validity is defined as the degree to which elements of an assessment instrument are relevant to and representative of the target construct. The available methods for content validity evaluation typically focus on the extent to which a set of items are relevant to the target construct, but do not afford precise evaluation of items’ behavior, nor their exhaustiveness with respect to the elements of the target construct. Formal content validity analysis (FCVA) is a new procedure combining methods and techniques from various areas of psychological assessment, such as (a) constructing Boolean classification matrices to formalize relationships among an assessment instrument’s items and target construct elements, and (b) computing interrater agreement indices. We discuss how FCVA can be extended through the implementation of a Bayesian procedure to improve the interrater agreement indices’ accuracy (Bayesian formal content validity analysis [B-FCVA]). With respect to extant methods, FCVA and B-FCVA can provide a great amount of information about content validity while not demanding much more work for authors and experts

Time perspective and the subjective passage of time in patients with borderline personality disorders

Patients with borderline personality disorders (BPD) show heightened negative affect and maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies. An individual's time perspective towards the past, present, and future as well as the feeling of time passage are strongly related to affect and emotion regulation. We therefore assessed the time perspective (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, ZTPI) and the subjective passage of time for present and past time intervals (Subjective Time Questionnaire, STQ) in 17 patients with BPD between the ages of 18 and 52 and 17 control subjects matched for gender, age and education. Patients with BPD show deviations in nearly all time orientations in the ZTPI: lower scores in the future and the past-positive dimension and higher scores in the present-fatalistic and past-negative dimensions. Patients deviate significantly more than controls from a balanced time perspective (BTP). Regarding the STQ, patients with BPD feel a general expansion of time at present but not for past intervals. Taken together, we show how BPD can be understood as a strong imbalance in individual time orientations and a most likely negatively felt expansion of subjective time in daily life

Spatial Multicomponent Agent-Based Simulation of a Fishery

International audienc

Spatial Multicomponent Agent-Based Simulation of a Fishery

International audienc

A resuable, extensible Netlogo building block of land and housing markets in a touristic region

International audienc

A resuable, extensible Netlogo building block of land and housing markets in a touristic region

International audienc