The upstream Variable Number Tandem Repeat polymorphism of the monoamine oxidase type A gene influences trigeminal pain-related evoked responses

Monoamines have an important role in neural plasticity, a key factor in cortical pain processing that promotes changes in neuronal network connectivity. Monoamine oxidase type A (MAOA) is an enzyme that, due to its modulating role in monoaminergic activity, could play a role in cortical pain processing. The X-linked MAOA gene is characterized by an allelic variant of length, the MAOA upstream Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MAOA-uVNTR) region polymorphism. Two allelic variants of this gene are known, the high-activity MAOA (HAM) and low-activity MAOA (LAM). We investigated the role of MAOA-uVNTR in cortical pain processing in a group of healthy individuals measured by the trigeminal electric pain-related evoked potential (tPREP) elicited by repeated painful stimulation. A group of healthy volunteers was genotyped to detect MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism. Electrical tPREPs were recorded by stimulating the right supraorbital nerve with a concentric electrode. The N2 and P2 component amplitude and latency as well as the N2-P2 inter-peak amplitude were measured. The recording was divided into three blocks, each containing 10 consecutive stimuli and the N2-P2 amplitude was compared between blocks. Of the 67 volunteers, 37 were HAM and 30 were LAM. HAM subjects differed from LAM subjects in terms of amplitude of the grand-averaged and first-block N2-P2 responses (HAM>LAM). The N2-P2 amplitude decreased between the first and third block in HAM subjects but not LAM subjects. The MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism seemed to influence the brain response in a repeated tPREP paradigm and suggested a role of the MAOA as a modulator of neural plasticity related to cortical pain processing

Dreaming activity in bariatric surgery candidates

The objective of this article was to contribute to the comprehension of thepsychological aspects of severe obesity by analyzing the dream characteristics ofbariatric surgery candidates. Given the lack of previous studies comparing controlsubjects and obese patients, we did not formulate specific hypotheses on possibledifferences between the 2 groups. We conducted a pilot study, generating hypothesesfor future research. The study observed 41 severely obese individuals in presurgicalpsychiatric evaluation for bariatric surgery and 41 healthy volunteers of similar age.The last recalled dream of each participant was recorded and transcribed (dreamreport). According to the Jungian approach to dreams as texts, the dream reportswere evaluated according to the canons of textual analysis. Structural differencesbetween bariatric surgery candidates and the control group emerged: The bariatricsurgery candidates tend not to alternate between tenses, their narration inferior indrive and dynamism. They tend to characterize the dream setting in a descriptivemanner and they express less their emotional state in respect to the control group. Themean score of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale was significantly higher in thebariatric surgery candidates group. Our results suggest that severe obesity-acomplex condition pertaining to both mind and body-correlates with psychologicaltraits

Enhancement of right hemisphere eeg functional connectivity after emdr therapy

Introduction Brain connectivity changes have been recently demonstrated in victims of psychological traumas treated with the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Objectives Forty victims of psychological traumas were investigated at the first \{EMDR\} session (t0) and at the last one performed after processing the index trauma (t1). Aims To investigate differences in \{EEG\} functional source connectivity during bilateral ocular stimulation (BS) during \{EMDR\} therapy at t0 and t1. Methods Brain electrical activity during whole \{EMDR\} sessions was record with a 37-channel EEG. \{EEG\} functional connectivity analysis was based on the lagged phase synchronization (LPS), derived by a two-step eLoreta procedure: dimensionality reduction of inverse matrix from 6239 voxels to 28 regions of interest (ROIs); \{LPS\} index computation, for each spectrum band, in all possible \{ROI\} pairs. Results Significant differences were detected between t0 and t1 in alpha band \{LPS\} indexes. A prevalent enhancement in right intrahemispheric functional connectivity was found in t1 respect to t0, particularly among \{ROI\} pairs of (a) frontal regions (anterior frontal, orbital frontal, lateral frontal cortices) and limbic structures (anterior cingulate cortex, ACC), (b) frontal regions and associative areas (insula cortex, parietal lobe), (c) \{ACC\} and primary visual cortex and (d) \{ACC\} and associative areas. Conclusions These findings suggest that \{EMDR\} efficacy is associated to electrical brain connectivity changes during BS. An enhancement in the right hemisphere alpha band functional connectivity of areas involved in cognitive control, emotional processing and visual associative functions may play a key role in the elaboration of psychological traumas

The Oklahoma Farmer and Laborer

Weekly agricultural newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes agricultural and union news and editorials along with advertising

The Val66Met polymorphism of the BDNF gene influences trigeminal Pain-Related evoked responses

Cortical pain processing is associated with large-scale changes in neuronal connectivity, resulting from neural plasticity phenomena of which brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a central driver. The common single nucleotide polymorphism Val66Met is associated with reduced BDNF activity. Using the trigeminal pain-related evoked potential (tPREP) to repeated electrical painful stimuli, we investigated whether the methionine substitution at codon 66 of the BDNF gene was associated with changes in cortical processing of noxious stimuli. Fifty healthy volunteers were genotyped: 30 were Val/Val and 20 were Met-carriers. tPREPs to 30 stimuli of the right supraorbital nerve using a concentric electrode were recorded. The N2 and P2 component latencies and the N2-P2 amplitude were measured over the 30 stimuli and separately, by dividing the measurements in 3 consecutive blocks of 10 stimuli. The average response to the 30 stimuli did not differ in latency or amplitude between the 2 genotypes. There was a decrease in the N2-P2 amplitude between first and third block in the Val/Val group but not in Met-carriers. BDNF Val66Met is associated with reduced decremental response to repeated electrical stimuli, possibly as a result of ineffective mechanisms of synaptic memory and brain plasticity associated with the polymorphism. PERSPECTIVE: BDNF Val66Met polymorphism affects the tPREP N2-P2 amplitude decrement and influences cortical pain processing through neurotrophin-induced neural plasticity, or through a direct BDNF neurotransmitter-like effect. Our findings suggest that upcoming BDNF central agonists might in the future play a role in pain management

Emotional processing in Parkinson's disease and anxiety: an EEG study of visual affective word processing

A general problem in the design of an EEG-BCI system is the poor quality and low robustness of the extracted features, affecting overall performance. However, BCI systems that are applicable in real-time and outside clinical settings require high performance. Therefore, we have to improve the current methods for feature extraction. In this work, we investigated EEG source reconstruction techniques to enhance the extracted features based on a linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) beamformer. Beamformers allow for easy incorporation of anatomical data and are applicable in real-time. A 32-channel EEG-BCI system was designed for a two-class motor imagery (MI) paradigm. We optimized a synchronous system for two untrained subjects and investigated two aspects. First, we investigated the effect of using beamformers calculated on the basis of three different head models: a template 3-layered boundary element method (BEM) head model, a 3-layered personalized BEM head model and a personalized 5-layered finite difference method (FDM) head model including white and gray matter, CSF, scalp and skull tissue. Second, we investigated the influence of how the regions of interest, areas of expected MI activity, were constructed. On the one hand, they were chosen around electrodes C3 and C4, as hand MI activity theoretically is expected here. On the other hand, they were constructed based on the actual activated regions identified by an fMRI scan. Subsequently, an asynchronous system was derived for one of the subjects and an optimal balance between speed and accuracy was found. Lastly, a real-time application was made. These systems were evaluated by their accuracy, defined as the percentage of correct left and right classifications. From the real-time application, the information transfer rate (ITR) was also determined. An accuracy of 86.60 ± 4.40% was achieved for subject 1 and 78.71 ± 0.73% for subject 2. This gives an average accuracy of 82.66 ± 2.57%. We found that the use of a personalized FDM model improved the accuracy of the system, on average 24.22% with respect to the template BEM model and on average 5.15% with respect to the personalized BEM model. Including fMRI spatial priors did not improve accuracy. Personal fine- tuning largely resolved the robustness problems arising due to the differences in head geometry and neurophysiology between subjects. A real-time average accuracy of 64.26% was reached and the maximum ITR was 6.71 bits/min. We conclude that beamformers calculated with a personalized FDM model have great potential to ameliorate feature extraction and, as a consequence, to improve the performance of real-time BCI systems