scholarly journals Cognitive Profile of Patients with Thalamic Hemorrhage according to Lesion Localization

Author(s):  
Musa Temel ◽  
Busra S.A. Polat ◽  
Nuriye Kayali ◽  
Omer Karadas

<b><i>Background:</i></b> The thalamus is known as the central sensory and motor relay station of the brain generally. However, cognitive decline due to thalamic lesions has been previously reported in different studies. Also, it has been observed that different cognitive subdomains are affected according to the localization of the lesion in the thalamus. <b><i>Objectives and Methods:</i></b> Detailed neurophysiological tests were performed on 28 patients with thalamic hemorrhage and the control group. Patients were grouped according to lesion localization. The results were compared with both the control group and the hemorrhage groups themselves. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The performance of patients in all neuropsychological tests was significantly worse than that of the control group. Of the 28 patients, 15 had anterolateral, 5 had posterolateral, 5 had dorsal, and 3 had an anteromedial thalamic hemorrhage. The anteromedial group had the worst scores of almost all tests. Also, 2 situations came to notice in these tests. First, the posterolateral group achieved a remarkably low mean in the recall subgroup of the MMSE tests and verbal memory process tests. Second, the anterolateral group was found to have a low mean in both the language subgroup of the MMSE tests and the phonemic subgroup of the verbal fluency tests. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> It was concluded in this study that thalamic hemorrhages affect cognition entirely regardless of the lesion localization. It was also observed that the lateral part of the thalamus was associated with language, the posterior part with memory, and the anteromedial part with the rest of the cognitive subdomains.

Author(s):  
Sonia López-Lorenzo ◽  
Natalia Jimeno-Bulnes ◽  
Martín L. Vargas-Aragón

Cognitive deficit is one of the main prognostic predictors in schizophrenia, mainly the deficit in verbal memory. The causal relationship between substances use, substance use disorders and psychotic syndrome is probably multidirectional and still is under the possible effect of confusion factors. The Addictiveness in the Psychotic Syndrome Assessment Scale (APSAS) evaluates in a global mode the dimension of adictivity taking in account all these factors: beginning, frequency, length, and intensity. The objective of the study is to know if the dimension of adictivity is associated to memory disorders. A group of psychotic subjects with memory deficits (n = 47) and a control group of psychotic subjects without memory deficits (n = 58) are compared obtaining a major adictivity in the first group. According to our results, the score of APSAS > 55 indicates possible memory deficits. This measuring can provide relevant information on the actual state, evolution and prognose of patients with comorbidity of psychosis and addiction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-180
Author(s):  
Fabiana do Nascimento Prazeres Martins ◽  
Leidyane Balieiro Guimarães Cunha ◽  
Eliza Maria da Costa Brito Lacerda

Researchs about the causes of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has led several scientists to relate many others systems to the patient's brain, linking changes in the gastrointestinal microbiota (GIM) to typical behaviors of people with ASD, suggesting that the brain-intestine axis is an important piece in this 'puzzle'. This work aimed to investigate the microbiota gastrointestinal in children with ASD. Such research was carried out on scientific work platforms, resulting in 293 works, which, after the selection, totaled 28 works analyzed. Almost all of them showed changes in the intestinal microbiota of children with ASD, the reduction of their diversity being the main alteration of these individuals in relation to the control group. The bacterial family Lachnospiraceae, the bacterial gender Lactobacillus, Clostridium, Feacalibacterium, and Bacteroides stood out in these studies; and the fungal genus Candida. Among the symptoms, constipation was quite frequent in children with ASD and some groups of microorganisms were positively or negatively associated with changes in sleep, speech development and behavioral aspects. We conclude that there are several alterations of GIM in children with autism when compared to children with typical neurodevelopment, being also affected by anatomical and metabolic issues as causes or consequences of ASD. There is a need for further studies, especially in the Brazilian population, and more specifically in the states, in view of the great heterogeneity of our people and their culture, the great dietary variations of the last decades, as well as the increase in gene flow among world populations.


Author(s):  
Ci Han ◽  
Zhaodi Zhang ◽  
Nana Guo ◽  
Xueting Li ◽  
Mengyuan Yang ◽  
...  

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to intestinal microbiome. Almost all operations will go through the anesthesia process, but it is not clear whether the intervention of anesthesia alone will affect the change in the intestinal microbiome. The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of sevoflurane inhalation anesthesia on the intestinal microbiome. The animal in the experimental group was used to provide sevoflurane inhalation anesthesia for 4 hours. The control group was not intervened. The feces of the experimental group and the control group were collected on the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 14th days after anesthesia. Sevoflurane inhalation anesthesia will cause changes in the intestinal microbiome of mice. It appears on the 1st day after anesthesia and is most obvious on the 7th day. The specific manifestation is that the abundance of microbiome and the diversity of the microbiome is reduced. At the same time, Untargeted metabonomics showed that compared with the control group, the experimental group had more increased metabolites related to the different microbiome, among which 5-methylthioadenosine was related to the central nervous system. Subsequently, the intestinal microbiome diversity of mice showed a trend of recovery on the 14th day. At the genus level, the fecal samples obtained on the 14th day after anesthesia exhibited significantly increased abundances of Bacteroides, Alloprevotella, and Akkermansia and significantly decreased abundances of Lactobacillus compared with the samples obtained on the 1st day after anesthesia. However, the abundance of differential bacteria did not recover with the changing trend of diversity. Therefore, we believe that sevoflurane inhalation anesthesia is associated with changes in the internal microbiome and metabolites, and this change may be completed through the brain-gut axis, while sevoflurane inhalation anesthesia may change the intestinal microbiome for as long as 14 days or longer.


Author(s):  
I. B. Ushakov ◽  
V. P. Fedorov ◽  
N. V. Sgibneva

Relevance. Liquidators of consequences of the radiation accidents demonstrate increased rates of psychoneurological diseases after radiation exposure. However, the functional reorganization of brain neurons versus radiation exposure is insufficiently studied, thus precluding assessment of the pathogenesis of these diseases.Intention. To study neuromorphological correlates of low-dose radiation effects on brain neurons in radiobiological experiments.Methodology. In this GLP study, white outbred male rats (150 animals) at the age of 4 months were exposed to 0,5 Gy 60Co γ-rays at 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 6.6 Gy/h. Age control group included animals with false exposure. Brain samples were taken 1 day, 6, 12, 18, 24 months after exposure. After conventional histologic processing, tinctorial properties, morphometric parameters, total protein and nucleic acids were assessed in neurons with subsequent mathematical modeling.Results and analysis. Normochromic neurons decreased linearly and their destructive forms increased over the observation period with increase in the irradiation dose. Among reversible changes, neurons in a state of inhibition and decreased functional activity predominated. The nerve cell index decreased over time, therefore some neurons died. Neuronal morphometry fluctuated, as well as their main structures, protein, cytoplasm and nucleolus RNA, nucleus DNA. With increasing dose rate, the changes became more expressed, and differed from the control group. These changes could be a basis for pathological processes in the brain.Conclusion. The ionizing radiation of studied range doesn’t cause significant organic changes of the brain neurons. However, under increasing radiation exposure the number of dysfunctional neurons linearly increases, as well as altered neurons. Almost all the neuromorphological parameters change, thus resulting in instability of structural – functional organization of neurons, with potential CNS disorders.


2020 ◽  
pp. 22-27

Introduction: Vanadium and its compounds have been documented to exert toxic effects on almost all systems in living organisms including cardiovascular, reproductive and nervous systems. In the nervous system however, toxicity assays have been on the brain and its structures with little information on its effects on peripheral nerves. This study was therefore conducted to examine the toxicity of vanadium in the peripheral nervous system. Methods: Vanadium as sodium metavanadate was used in the study. Fifteen toads (Bufo regularis) were randomly distributed into 3 groups (A-C); A served as control and was administered distilled water during the experiment, B were intraperitoneally (i.p.) administered with sodium metavanadate at 3 mg/kg while C were administered with sodium metavanadate at 5 mg/kg i.p. for 7 consecutive days. Nerve conduction was studied in isolated toad sciatic nerve-gastrocnemius muscle preparation following electrical stimulation. The recordings were obtained on a kymograph for each group. Results: The results showed significant (p<0.05) reduction in the peak amplitude of the action potential and an increase in the latency of the onset of the action potential at 5 mg/kg sodium metavanadate. Furthermore, an increased threshold stimulus voltage was also observed in group administered with 5 mg/kg sodium metavanadate. The values of these parameters in the 3 mg/kg sodium metavanadate group were not statistically different from the control group. Significance: The findings of this preliminary study suggest that vanadium at 5 mg/kg may result in decrease speed of impulse conduction which may be as a result of demyelination in the sciatic nerve.


Author(s):  
Zafer Sahin ◽  
Alpaslan Ozkurkculer ◽  
Omer Faruk Kalkan ◽  
Ahmet Ozkaya ◽  
Aynur Koc ◽  
...  

Abstract. Alterations of essential elements in the brain are associated with the pathophysiology of many neuropsychiatric disorders. It is known that chronic/overwhelming stress may cause some anxiety and/or depression. We aimed to investigate the effects of two different chronic immobilization stress protocols on anxiety-related behaviors and brain minerals. Adult male Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups as follows ( n = 10/group): control, immobilization stress-1 (45 minutes daily for 7-day) and immobilization stress-2 (45 minutes twice a day for 7-day). Stress-related behaviors were evaluated by open field test and forced swimming test. In the immobilization stress-1 and immobilization stress-2 groups, percentage of time spent in the central area (6.38 ± 0.41% and 6.28 ± 1.03% respectively, p < 0.05) and rearing frequency (2.75 ± 0.41 and 3.85 ± 0.46, p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively) were lower, latency to center area (49.11 ± 5.87 s and 44.92 ± 8.04 s, p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively), were higher than the control group (8.65 ± 0.49%, 5.37 ± 0.44 and 15.3 ± 3.32 s, respectively). In the immobilization stress-1 group, zinc (12.65 ± 0.1 ppm, p < 0.001), magnesium (170.4 ± 1.7 ppm, p < 0.005) and phosphate (2.76 ± 0.1 ppm, p < 0.05) levels were lower than the control group (13.87 ± 0.16 ppm, 179.31 ± 1.87 ppm and 3.11 ± 0.06 ppm, respectively). In the immobilization stress-2 group, magnesium (171.56 ± 1.87 ppm, p < 0.05), phosphate (2.44 ± 0.07 ppm, p < 0.001) levels were lower, and manganese (373.68 ± 5.76 ppb, p < 0.001) and copper (2.79 ± 0.15 ppm, p < 0.05) levels were higher than the control group (179.31 ± 1.87 ppm, 3.11 ± 0.06 ppm, 327.25 ± 8.35 ppb and 2.45 ± 0.05 ppm, respectively). Our results indicated that 7-day chronic immobilization stress increased anxiety-related behaviors in both stress groups. Zinc, magnesium, phosphate, copper and manganese levels were affected in the brain.


Author(s):  
Olga Lemzyakova

Refraction of the eye means its ability to bend (refract) light in its own optical system. In a normal state, which is called emmetropia, light rays passing through the optical system of the eye focus on the retina, from where the impulse is transmitted to the visual cortex of the brain and is analyzed there. A person sees equally well both in the distance and near in this situation. However, very often, refractive errors develop as a result of various types of influences. Myopia, or short-sightedness, occurs when the light rays are focused in front of the retina as a result of passing through the optical system of the eye. In this case, a person will clearly distinguish close objects and have difficulties in seeing distant objects. On the opposite side is development of farsightedness (hypermetropia), in which the focusing of light rays occurs behind the retina — such a person sees distant objects clearly, but outlines of closer objects are out of focus. Near vision impairment in old age is a natural process called presbyopia, it develops due to the lens thickening. Both myopia and hypermetropia can have different degrees of severity. The variant, when different refractive errors are observed in different eyes, is called anisometropia. In the same case, if different types of refraction are observed in the same eye, it is astigmatism, and most often it is a congenital pathology. Almost all of the above mentioned refractive errors require correction with spectacles or use of contact lenses. Recently, people are increasingly resorting to the methods of surgical vision correction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 402-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin-Zi Li ◽  
Shan-Shan Lei ◽  
Bo Li ◽  
Fu-Chen Zhou ◽  
Ye-Hui Chen ◽  
...  

Aim and Objective: The Dendrobium officinalis flower (DOF) is popular in China due to common belief in its anti-aging properties and positive effects on “nourish yin”. However, there have been relatively few confirmatory pharmacological experiments conducted to date. The aim of this work was to evaluate whether DOF has beneficial effects on learning and memory in senescent rats, and, if so, to determine its potential mechanism of effect. Materials and Methods: SD rats were administrated orally DOF at a dose of 1.38, or 0.46 g/kg once a day for 8 weeks. Two other groups included a healthy untreated control group and a senescent control group. During the 7th week, a Morris water maze test was performed to assess learning and memory. At the end of the experiment, serum and brain samples were collected to measure concentrations of antioxidant enzymes, including malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione reductase (GSH-Px) in serum, and the neurotransmitters, including γ-aminobutyric acid (γ-GABA), Glutamic (Glu), and monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) in the brain. Histopathology of the hippocampus was assessed using hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining. Results: The results suggested that treatment with DOF improved learning as measured by escape latency, total distance, and target quadrant time, and also increased levels of γ-GABA in the brain. In addition, DOF decreased the levels of MDA, Glu, and MAO-B, and improved SOD and GSHPx. Histopathological analysis showed that DOF also significantly reduced structural lesions and neurodegeneration in the hippocampus relative to untreated senescent rats. Conclusion: DOF alleviated brain aging and improved the spatial learning abilities in senescent rats, potentially by attenuating oxidative stress and thus reducing hippocampal damage and balancing the release of neurotransmitters.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Ganchimeg Davaa ◽  
Jin Young Hong ◽  
Tae Uk Kim ◽  
Seong Jae Lee ◽  
Seo Young Kim ◽  
...  

Exercise training is a traditional method to maximize remaining function in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), but the exact mechanism by which exercise promotes recovery after SCI has not been identified; whether exercise truly has a beneficial effect on SCI also remains unclear. Previously, we showed that epigenetic changes in the brain motor cortex occur after SCI and that a treatment leading to epigenetic modulation effectively promotes functional recovery after SCI. We aimed to determine how exercise induces functional improvement in rats subjected to SCI and whether epigenetic changes are engaged in the effects of exercise. A spinal cord contusion model was established in rats, which were then subjected to treadmill exercise for 12 weeks. We found that the size of the lesion cavity and the number of macrophages were decreased more in the exercise group than in the control group after 12 weeks of injury. Immunofluorescence and DNA dot blot analysis revealed that levels of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) in the brain motor cortex were increased after exercise. Accordingly, the expression of ten-eleven translocation (Tet) family members (Tet1, Tet2, and Tet3) in the brain motor cortex also elevated. However, no macrophage polarization was induced by exercise. Locomotor function, including Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) and ladder scores, also improved in the exercise group compared to the control group. We concluded that treadmill exercise facilitates functional recovery in rats with SCI, and mechanistically epigenetic changes in the brain motor cortex may contribute to exercise-induced improvements.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isela Álvarez-González ◽  
Scarlett Camacho-Cantera ◽  
Patricia Gómez-González ◽  
Michael J. Rendón Barrón ◽  
José A. Morales-González ◽  
...  

AbstractWe evaluated the duloxetine DNA damaging capacity utilizing the comet assay applied to mouse brain and liver cells, as well as its DNA, lipid, protein, and nitric oxide oxidative potential in the same cells. A kinetic time/dose strategy showed the effect of 2, 20, and 200 mg/kg of the drug administered intraperitoneally once in comparison with a control and a methyl methanesulfonate group. Each parameter was evaluated at 3, 9, 15, and 21 h postadministration in five mice per group, except for the DNA oxidation that was examined only at 9 h postadministration. Results showed a significant DNA damage mainly at 9 h postexposure in both organs. In the brain, with 20 and 200 mg/kg we found 50 and 80% increase over the control group (p ≤ 0.05), in the liver, the increase of 2, 20, and 200 mg/kg of duloxetine was 50, 80, and 135% in comparison with the control level (p ≤ 0.05). DNA, lipid, protein and nitric oxide oxidation increase was also observed in both organs. Our data established the DNA damaging capacity of duloxetine even with a dose from the therapeutic range (2 mg/kg), and suggest that this effect can be related with its oxidative potential.


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