Sequential effects of increasing propofol sedation on frontal and temporal cortices as indexed by auditory event-related potentials

BACKGROUND: It is an open question whether cognitive processes of auditory perception that are mediated by functionally different cortices exhibit the same sensitivity to sedation. The auditory event-related potentials P1, mismatch negativity (MMN), and early right anterior negativity (ERAN) originate from different cortical areas and reflect different stages of auditory processing. The P1 originates mainly from the primary auditory cortex. The MMN is generated in or in the close vicinity of the primary auditory cortex but is also dependent on frontal sources. The ERAN mainly originates from frontal generators. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of increasing propofol sedation on different stages of auditory processing as reflected in P1, MMN, and ERAN. METHODS: The P1, the MMN, and the ERAN were recorded preoperatively in 18 patients during four levels of anesthesia adjusted with target-controlled infusion: awake state (target concentration of propofol 0.0 microg/ml), light sedation (0.5 microg/ml), deep sedation (1.5 microg/ml), and unconsciousness (2.5-3.0 microg/ml). Simultaneously, propofol anesthesia was assessed using the Bispectral Index. RESULTS: Propofol sedation resulted in a progressive decrease in amplitudes and an increase of latencies with a similar pattern for MMN and ERAN. MMN and ERAN were elicited during sedation but were abolished during unconsciousness. In contrast, the amplitude of the P1 was unchanged by sedation but markedly decreased during unconsciousness. CONCLUSION: The results indicate differential effects of propofol sedation on cognitive functions that involve mainly the auditory cortices and cognitive functions that involve the frontal cortices

Cognitive Components of Regularity Processing in the Auditory Domain

BACKGROUND: Music-syntactic irregularities often co-occur with the processing of physical irregularities. In this study we constructed chord-sequences such that perceived differences in the cognitive processing between regular and irregular chords could not be due to the sensory processing of acoustic factors like pitch repetition or pitch commonality (the major component of 'sensory dissonance'). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two groups of subjects (musicians and nonmusicians) were investigated with electroencephalography (EEG). Irregular chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN) in the event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The ERAN had a latency of around 180 ms after the onset of the music-syntactically irregular chords, and had maximum amplitude values over right anterior electrode sites. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Because irregular chords were hardly detectable based on acoustical factors (such as pitch repetition and sensory dissonance), this ERAN effect reflects for the most part cognitive (not sensory) components of regularity-based, music-syntactic processing. Our study represents a methodological advance compared to previous ERP-studies investigating the neural processing of music-syntactically irregular chords

Effects of Unexpected Chords and of Performer's Expression on Brain Responses and Electrodermal Activity

BACKGROUND: There is lack of neuroscientific studies investigating music processing with naturalistic stimuli, and brain responses to real music are, thus, largely unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study investigates event-related brain potentials (ERPs), skin conductance responses (SCRs) and heart rate (HR) elicited by unexpected chords of piano sonatas as they were originally arranged by composers, and as they were played by professional pianists. From the musical excerpts played by the pianists (with emotional expression), we also created versions without variations in tempo and loudness (without musical expression) to investigate effects of musical expression on ERPs and SCRs. Compared to expected chords, unexpected chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN, reflecting music-syntactic processing) and an N5 (reflecting processing of meaning information) in the ERPs, as well as clear changes in the SCRs (reflecting that unexpected chords also elicited emotional responses). The ERAN was not influenced by emotional expression, whereas N5 potentials elicited by chords in general (regardless of their chord function) differed between the expressive and the non-expressive condition. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results show that the neural mechanisms of music-syntactic processing operate independently of the emotional qualities of a stimulus, justifying the use of stimuli without emotional expression to investigate the cognitive processing of musical structure. Moreover, the data indicate that musical expression affects the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of musical meaning. Our data are the first to reveal influences of musical performance on ERPs and SCRs, and to show physiological responses to unexpected chords in naturalistic music

The Contribution of Sound Intensity in Vocal Emotion Perception: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence

Although its role is frequently stressed in acoustic profile for vocal emotion, sound intensity is frequently regarded as a control parameter in neurocognitive studies of vocal emotion, leaving its role and neural underpinnings unclear. To investigate these issues, we asked participants to rate the angry level of neutral and angry prosodies before and after sound intensity modification in Experiment 1, and recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) for mismatching emotional prosodies with and without sound intensity modification and for matching emotional prosodies while participants performed emotional feature or sound intensity congruity judgment in Experiment 2. It was found that sound intensity modification had significant effect on the rating of angry level for angry prosodies, but not for neutral ones. Moreover, mismatching emotional prosodies, relative to matching ones, induced enhanced N2/P3 complex and theta band synchronization irrespective of sound intensity modification and task demands. However, mismatching emotional prosodies with reduced sound intensity showed prolonged peak latency and decreased amplitude in N2/P3 complex and smaller theta band synchronization. These findings suggest that though it cannot categorically affect emotionality conveyed in emotional prosodies, sound intensity contributes to emotional significance quantitatively, implying that sound intensity should not simply be taken as a control parameter and its unique role needs to be specified in vocal emotion studies

Full mitochondrial genome sequences of two endemic Philippine hornbill species (Aves: Bucerotidae) provide evidence for pervasive mitochondrial DNA recombination

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although nowaday it is broadly accepted that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) may undergo recombination, the frequency of such recombination remains controversial. Its estimation is not straightforward, as recombination under homoplasmy (i.e., among identical mt genomes) is likely to be overlooked. In species with tandem duplications of large mtDNA fragments the detection of recombination can be facilitated, as it can lead to gene conversion among duplicates. Although the mechanisms for concerted evolution in mtDNA are not fully understood yet, recombination rates have been estimated from "one per speciation event" down to 850 years or even "during every replication cycle".</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we present the first complete mt genome of the avian family Bucerotidae, i.e., that of two Philippine hornbills, <it>Aceros waldeni </it>and <it>Penelopides panini</it>. The mt genomes are characterized by a tandemly duplicated region encompassing part of <it>cytochrome b</it>, 3 tRNAs, <it>NADH6</it>, and the control region. The duplicated fragments are identical to each other except for a short section in domain I and for the length of repeat motifs in domain III of the control region. Due to the heteroplasmy with regard to the number of these repeat motifs, there is some size variation in both genomes; with around 21,657 bp (<it>A. waldeni</it>) and 22,737 bp (<it>P. panini</it>), they significantly exceed the hitherto longest known avian mt genomes, that of the albatrosses. We discovered concerted evolution between the duplicated fragments within individuals. The existence of differences between individuals in coding genes as well as in the control region, which are maintained between duplicates, indicates that recombination apparently occurs frequently, i.e., in every generation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The homogenised duplicates are interspersed by a short fragment which shows no sign of recombination. We hypothesize that this region corresponds to the so-called Replication Fork Barrier (RFB), which has been described from the chicken mitochondrial genome. As this RFB is supposed to halt replication, it offers a potential mechanistic explanation for frequent recombination in mitochondrial genomes.</p

The effect of improvisational music therapy on the treatment of depression: protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background. Music therapy is frequently offered to individuals suffering from depression. Despite the lack of research into the effects of music therapy on this population, anecdotal evidence suggests that the results are rather promising. The aim of this study is to examine whether improvisational, psychodynamically orientated music therapy in an individual setting helps reduce symptoms of depression and improve other health-related outcomes. In particular, attention will be given to mediator agents, such as musical expression and interaction in the sessions, as well as to the explanatory potential of EEG recordings in investigating emotion related music perception of individuals with depression. Methods. 85 adults (18&#8211;50 years of age) with depression (ICD-10: F 32 or F33) will be randomly assigned to an experimental or a control condition. All participants will receive standard care, but the experimental group will be offered biweekly sessions of improvisational music therapy over a period of 3 months. A blind assessor will measure outcomes before testing, after 3 months, and after 6 months. Discussion. This study aims to fill a gap in knowledge as to whether active (improvisational) music therapy applied to people with depression improves their condition. For the first time in this context, the mediating processes, such as changes in musical expression and interaction during the course of therapy, will be objectively investigated, and it is expected that the results will provide new insights into these processes. Furthermore, the findings are expected to reveal whether music related emotional experiences, as measured by EEG, can be utilized in assessing a depressive client's improvement in the therapy. The size and the comprehensiveness of the study are sufficient for generalizing its findings to clinical practice as well as to further music therapy research. Trial registration. ISRCTN84185937peerReviewe

Locus of emotion influences psychophysiological reactions to music

It is now widely accepted that the perception of emotional expression in music can be vastly different from the feelings evoked by it. However, less understood is how the locus of emotion affects the experience of music, that is how the act of perceiving the emotion in music compares with the act of assessing the emotion induced in the listener by the music. In the current study, we compared these two emotion loci based on the psychophysiological response of 40 participants listening to 32 musical excerpts taken from movie soundtracks. Facial electromyography, skin conductance, respiration and heart rate were continuously measured while participants were required to assess either the emotion expressed by, or the emotion they felt in response to the music. Using linear mixed effects models, we found a higher mean response in psychophysiological measures for the “perceived” than the “felt” task. This result suggested that the focus on one’s self distracts from the music, leading to weaker bodily reactions during the “felt” task. In contrast, paying attention to the expression of the music and consequently to changes in timbre, loudness and harmonic progression enhances bodily reactions. This study has methodological implications for emotion induction research using psychophysiology and the conceptualization of emotion loci. Firstly, different tasks can elicit different psychophysiological responses to the same stimulus and secondly, both tasks elicit bodily responses to music. The latter finding questions the possibility of a listener taking on a purely cognitive mode when evaluating emotion expression

A neural oscillations perspective on phonological development and phonological processing in developmental dyslexia

Children’s ability to reflect upon and manipulate the sounds in words (’phonological awareness’) develops as part of natural language acquisition, supports reading acquisition, and develops further as reading and spelling are learned. Children with developmental dyslexia typically have impairments in phonological awareness. Many developmental factors contribute to individual differences in phonological development. One important source of individual differences may be the child’s sensory/neural processing of the speech signal from an amplitude modulation (~ energy or intensity variation) perspective, which may affect the quality of the sensory/neural representations (’phonological representations’) that support phonological awareness. During speech encoding, brain electrical rhythms (oscillations, rhythmic variations in neural excitability) re-calibrate their temporal activity to be in time with rhythmic energy variations in the speech signal. The accuracy of this neural alignment or ’entrainment’ process is related to speech intelligibility. Recent neural studies demonstrate atypical oscillatory function at slower rates in children with developmental dyslexia. Potential relations with the development of phonological awareness by children with dyslexia are discussed.Medical Research Council, G0400574 and G090237

Embracing Monogenic Parkinson's Disease: The MJFF Global Genetic PD Cohort

Background: As gene-targeted therapies are increasingly being developed for Parkinson's disease (PD), identifying and characterizing carriers of specific genetic pathogenic variants is imperative. Only a small fraction of the estimated number of subjects with monogenic PD worldwide are currently represented in the literature and availability of clinical data and clinical trial-ready cohorts is limited. Objective: The objectives are to (1) establish an international cohort of affected and unaffected individuals with PD-linked variants; (2) provide harmonized and quality-controlled clinical characterization data for each included individual; and (3) further promote collaboration of researchers in the field of monogenic PD. Methods: We conducted a worldwide, systematic online survey to collect individual-level data on individuals with PD-linked variants in SNCA, LRRK2, VPS35, PRKN, PINK1, DJ-1, as well as selected pathogenic and risk variants in GBA and corresponding demographic, clinical, and genetic data. All registered cases underwent thorough quality checks, and pathogenicity scoring of the variants and genotype–phenotype relationships were analyzed. Results: We collected 3888 variant carriers for our analyses, reported by 92 centers (42 countries) worldwide. Of the included individuals, 3185 had a diagnosis of PD (ie, 1306 LRRK2, 115 SNCA, 23 VPS35, 429 PRKN, 75 PINK1, 13 DJ-1, and 1224 GBA) and 703 were unaffected (ie, 328 LRRK2, 32 SNCA, 3 VPS35, 1 PRKN, 1 PINK1, and 338 GBA). In total, we identified 269 different pathogenic variants; 1322 individuals in our cohort (34%) were indicated as not previously published. Conclusions: Within the MJFF Global Genetic PD Study Group, we (1) established the largest international cohort of affected and unaffected individuals carrying PD-linked variants; (2) provide harmonized and quality-controlled clinical and genetic data for each included individual; (3) promote collaboration in the field of genetic PD with a view toward clinical and genetic stratification of patients for gene-targeted clinical trials. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Using global team science to identify genetic parkinson's disease worldwide.

No abstract available