1,721,079 research outputs found
Effects of an 8-week meditation program on the implicit and explicit attitudes toward religious/spiritual self-representations
No full textExplicit self-representations often conflict with implicit and intuitive self-representations, with such discrepancies being seen as a source of psychological tension. Most of previous research on the psychological effects of mindfulness-meditation has assessed people’s self- attitudes at an explicit level, leaving unknown whether mindfulness-meditation promotes changes on implicit self-representations. Here, we assessed the changes in implicit and explicit self-related religious/spiritual (RS) representations in healthy participants follow- ing an 8-week mindfulness-oriented meditation (MOM) program. Before and after medita- tion, participants were administered implicit (implicit association test) and explicit (self- reported questionnaires) RS measures. Relative to control condition, MOM led to increases of implicit RS in individuals whit low pre-existing implicit RS and to more widespread increases in explicit RS. On the assumption that MOM practice may enhance the clarity of one’s transcendental thoughts and feelings, we argued that MOM allows people to trans- form their intuitive feelings of implicit RS as well as their explicit RS attitudes
Botulinum Neurotoxins: Biology, Pharmacology, and Toxicology
Full text linkThe study of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) is rapidly progressing in many aspects. Novel BoNTs are being discovered owing to next generation sequencing, but their biologic and pharmacological properties remain largely unknown. The molecular structure of the large protein complexes that the toxin forms with accessory proteins, which are included in some BoNT type A1 and B1 pharmacological preparations, have been determined. By far the largest effort has been dedicated to the testing and validation of BoNTs as therapeutic agents in an ever increasing number of applications, including pain therapy. BoNT type A1 has been also exploited in a variety of cosmetic treatments, alone or in combination with other agents, and this specific market has reached the size of the one dedicated to the treatment of medical syndromes. The pharmacological properties and mode of action of BoNTs have shed light on general principles of neuronal transport and protein-protein interactions and are stimulating basic science studies. Moreover, the wide array of BoNTs discovered and to be discovered and the production of recombinant BoNTs endowed with specific properties suggest novel uses in therapeutics with increasing disease/symptom specifity. These recent developments are reviewed here to provide an updated picture of the biologic mechanism of action of BoNTs, of their increasing use in pharmacology and in cosmetics, and of their toxicology
Botulinum toxin in clinical practice: state of the art of administration provisions in Italy
No full textBotulinum neurotoxin type A is a remarkable therapeutic approach for muscle hyperactivity syndromes, pain, and related disorders. Despite its wide application in neurology, there is a poor knowledge on delivery protocols and dispatch from the healthcare providers. In this study, we reported the result of a 2020 survey about the administration provisions of botulinum neurotoxin type A in Italy. Seven questions including information on characteristics of botulinum neurotoxin facilities, prescription, reimbursement, and execution modalities were adopted. Sixty participants answered the survey. Despite the wide availability of dedicated centers all over the national territory, there was a surprising lack of standardized and shared administration provisions. Most of the Italian medical structures delivered botulinum neurotoxin through outpatient clinics located in public hospital facilities, through the "F file" reimbursement modality. However, there was no agreement on the reimbursement request modality, creating differences in public costs relative to the botulinum toxin consumption across Italy
Neurophysiological evaluation of the muscular hypotrophy after immobilization
No full textMuscular hypotrophy due to arm or leg immobilization (MH) in absence of neuromuscular pathologies was tested by EMG spectral analysis, in order to identify a possible neurophysiological method able to analyze this kind of particular clinical picture. Two different groups of patients were tested. In group 1 the patients were suffering from vastus medialis muscle MH due to meniscus surgery, in group 2 the patients were suffering from biceps brachii muscle MH after humerus fracture. A significant difference between normal and pathological muscles was found and the methods may be useful in the neurophysiological evaluation of MH
Post-anoxic Status epilepticus: Which variable could modify prognosis? A single-center experience
No full textRecovery cycle of the masseter inhibitory reflex after magnetic stimulation in normal subjects
No full textOBJECTIVE: To evaluate the differences in the recovery cycle of the masseter inhibitory reflex (MIR) obtained with electrical and magnetic stimulation. METHODS: In 31 healthy subjects we studied the MIR evoked by electrical or magnetic stimulation of the mental territory and the recovery cycle of this reflex with the paired stimuli technique at different interstimulus intervals (ISI), between 100 and 600 ms. RESULTS: Latency and area of the early and late silent periods (SPs) of the MIR were similar after electrical and magnetic stimulation. The recovery cycle of the test late SP was similar with the two kinds of stimulation, except for short ISIs. The main difference between the two kinds of stimulation was in the painful quality of the stimulus: the magnetic stimuli were always below pain threshold. CONCLUSIONS: As with electrical stimulation, it is possible to obtain a MIR with magnetic peripheral stimulation. The magnetic paired stimuli are equally effective in the evaluation of the recovery cycle of the MIR. The results demonstrate that magnetic stimulation is a useful tool in the evaluation of excitability of the trigeminal motoneuronal system, with little discomfort for the patient. They also confirm the unlikelihood of nociceptive afferences involvement
Impact of Microelectrode Recording Artefacts on Subthalamic Nucleus Functional Identification via Features-Based Machine Learning Classifiers
No full textMicroelectrode recording (MER) signals validate planned trajectories during deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, ensuring accurate positioning of electrodes within the brain structure of interest. MERs can be classified through automatic algorithms that support the surgical procedure enhancing its efficiency. As a matter of fact, extracting relevant features from the signal is fundamental for the correct MER classification. However, MERs are affected by several artefacts that reduce the signal-to-noise ratio potentially compromising the accuracy of automatic techniques. The present study evaluates the influence of MER artefacts on the ability of intra-operative features-based machine learning (ML) models to identify signals from sub-thalamic nucleus (STN). Specifically, we applied two automatic artefact detection techniques on MER signals of 21 patients with Parkinson's disease receiving bilateral DBS. We compared the performance of ML classifiers trained a) with unprocessed data and b) with data processed using artefact detection. Overall, our model's performance is consistent with the one reported in the literature, achieving an average F1 score of 0.812 across models. We observed that models trained on data processed with artefact detection techniques demonstrated superior performance compared to those trained on the unprocessed dataset
Spatio-temporal structure of single neuron subthalamic activity identifies DBS target for anesthetized Tourette Syndrome patients
No full textObjective. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of basal ganglia effectively tackles motor symptoms of movement disorders such as Tourette syndrome (TS). The precise location of target stimulation site determines the range of clinical outcome in DBS patients, and the occurrence of side-effects of DBS. DBS implant procedures currently localize stimulation target relying on a combination of pre-surgical imaging, standardized brain atlases and on-the-spot clinical tests. Here we show that temporal structure of single unit activity in subthalamic nucleus (STN) of patients affected by pure TS can contribute to identify the optimal target location of DBS. Approach. Neural activity was recorded at different depths within STN with microelectrodes during DBS implant surgery. Depth specific neural features were extracted and correlated with the optimal depth for tic control. Main results. We describe for the first time temporal spike patterns of single neurons from sensorimotor STN of anesthetized TS patients. A large fraction of units (31.2%) displayed intense bursting in the delta band (<4 Hz). The highest firing irregularity and hence the higher density of bursting units (42%) were found at the optimal spot for tic control. Discharge patterns irregularity and dominant oscillations frequency (but not firing rate) carried significant information on optimal target. Significance. We found single unit activity features in the STN of TS patients reliably associated to optimal DBS target site for tic control. In future works measures of firing irregularity could be integrated with current target localization methods leading to a more effective and safer DBS for TS patients.TN
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