scholarly journals Diagnostic Task Specific Activations in Functional MRI and Aberrant Connectivity of Insula with Middle Frontal Gyrus Can Inform the Differential Diagnosis of Psychosis

Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Drozdstoy Stoyanov ◽  
Katrin Aryutova ◽  
Sevdalina Kandilarova ◽  
Rositsa Paunova ◽  
Zlatoslav Arabadzhiev ◽  
...  

We constructed a novel design integrating the administration of a clinical self-assessment scale with simultaneous acquisition of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), aiming at cross-validation between psychopathology evaluation and neuroimaging techniques. We hypothesized that areas demonstrating differential activation in two groups of patients (the first group exhibiting paranoid delusions in the context of paranoid schizophrenia—SCH—and second group with a depressive episode in the context of major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder—DEP) will have distinct connectivity patterns and structural differences. Fifty-one patients with SCH (n = 25) or DEP (n = 26) were scanned with three different MRI sequences: a structural and two functional sequences—resting-state and task-related fMRI (the stimuli represent items from a paranoid-depressive self-evaluation scale). While no significant differences were found in gray matter volumes, we were able to discriminate between the two clinical entities by identifying two significant clusters of activations in the SCH group—the left Precuneus (PreCu) extending to the left Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC) and the right Angular Gyrus (AG). Additionally, the effective connectivity of the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), a part of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) to the Anterior Insula (AI), demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups with inhibitory connection demonstrated only in SCH. The observed activations of PreCu, PCC, and AG (involved in the Default Mode Network DMN) might be indirect evidence of the inhibitory connection from the DLPFC to AI, interfering with the balancing function of the insula as the dynamic switch in the DMN. The findings of our current study might suggest that the connectivity from DLPFC to the anterior insula can be interpreted as evidence for the presence of an aberrant network that leads to behavioral abnormalities, the manifestation of which depends on the direction of influence. The reduced effective connectivity from the AI to the DLPFC is manifested as depressive symptoms, and the inhibitory effect from the DLPFC to the AI is reflected in the paranoid symptoms of schizophrenia.

Author(s):  
Sevdalina Kandilarova ◽  
Drozdstoy Stoyanov ◽  
Katrin Aryutova ◽  
Rossitsa Paunova ◽  
Mladen Mantarkov ◽  
...  

Background & Objective: We have previously identified aberrant connectivity of the left precuneus, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and anterior insula in patients with either a paranoid (schizophrenia), or a depressive syndrome (both unipolar and bipolar). In the current study, we attempted to replicate and expand these findings by including a healthy control sample and separating the patients in a depressive episode into two groups: unipolar and bipolar depression. We hypothesized that the connections between those major nodes of the resting state networks would demonstrate different patterns in the three patient groups compared to the healthy subjects. Method: Resting-state functional MRI was performed on a sample of 101 participants, of which 26 patients with schizophrenia (current psychotic episodes), 24 subjects with bipolar disorder (BD), 33 with major depressive disorder (MDD) (both BD and MDD patients were in a current depressive episode), and 21 healthy controls. Spectral Dynamic Causal Modeling was used to calculate the coupling values between eight regions of interest, including the anterior precuneus (PRC), anterior hippocampus, anterior insula, angular gyrus, lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), middle frontal gyrus, planum temporale, and anterior thalamus. Results & Conclusion: We identified disturbed effective connectivity from the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex to the left anterior precuneus that differed significantly between unipolar depression, where the influence was inhibitory, and bipolar depression, where the effect was excitatory. A logistic regression analysis correctly classified 75% of patients with unipolar and bipolar depression based solely on the coupling values of this connection. In addition, patients with schizophrenia demonstrated negative effective connectivity from the anterior PRC to the lateral OFC, which distinguished them from healthy controls and patients with major depression. Future studies with unmedicated patients will be needed to establish the replicability of our findings.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norberto Eiji Nawa ◽  
Hiroshi Ando

AbstractAutobiographical memory (AM) retrieval is known to recruit a widely distributed network of brain regions but much less is known regarding how these regions interact during the various phases that presumably take place during episodic memory retrieval in general and AM retrieval in particular. Here, we used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to examine effective connectivity during cued AM search in a sub-network consisting of six major regions within this large network. Functional MRI data was acquired while participants were visually presented verbal cues describing common life events and requested to search for a personal memory that could be associated with each cue. We examined directed couplings between the ventromedial (vmPFC), dorsomedial (dmPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (dlPFC), hippocampus, angular gyrus and a region in the posterior midline cortex (RSC/PCC/Prec), all located in the left hemisphere. Results indicated that during AM search, the vmPFC, dlPFC and RSC/PCC/Prec acted as primary drivers of activity in the rest of the network. Moreover, when AM search was completed successfully (Hits), an up-modulation of the effective connectivity of the hippocampus in the vmPFC and angular gyrus was observed. In the same way, there was an increase in the influence of the RSC/PCC/Prec in the activity of the dlPFC and dmPFC. Furthermore, during Hits the angular gyrus showed to have an inhibitory effect in all other nodes of the network. These results are consistent with the notion that midline cortical regions are crucial in supporting the retrieval of AMs, and highlight the interplay between the vmPFC and the RSC/PCC/Prec and the dlPFC during AM search.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 1063-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzague Foucault ◽  
Guillaume T Duval ◽  
Romain Simon ◽  
Olivier Beauchet ◽  
Mickael Dinomais ◽  
...  

Background: Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with brain changes, and cognitive and mobility declines in older adults. Method: Two hundred and fifteen Caucasian older community-dwellers (mean±SD, 72.1±5.5years; 40% female) received a blood test and brain MRI. The thickness of perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, midcingulate cortex and posterior cingulate cortex was measured using FreeSurfer from T1-weighted MR images. Age, gender, education, BMI, mean arterial pressure, comorbidities, use of vitamin D supplements or anti-vascular drugs, MMSE, GDS, IADL, serum calcium and vitamin B9 concentrations, creatinine clearance were used as covariables. Results: Participants with vitamin D insufficiency (n=80) had thinner total cingulate thickness than the others (24.6±1.9mm versus 25.3±1.4mm, P=0.001); a significant difference found for all 3 regions. Vitamin D insufficiency was cross-sectionally associated with a decreased total cingulate thickness (β=- 0.49, P=0.028). Serum 25OHD concentration correlated positively with the thickness of perigenual anterior (P=0.011), midcingulate (P=0.013) and posterior cingulate cortex (P=0.021). Conclusion: Vitamin D insufficiency was associated with thinner cingulate cortex in the studied sample of older adults. These findings provide insight into the pathophysiology of cognitive and mobility declines in older adults with vitamin D insufficiency.


1996 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun W. Wong ◽  
Geoffrey O. Regester ◽  
Geoffrey L. Francis ◽  
Dennis L. Watson

SummaryStudies on the immunomodulatory activities of ruminant milk and colostral whey fractions were undertaken. By comparing with boiled colostral whey in a preliminary experiment, a putative heat-labile immunostimulatory factor for antibody responses was found to be present in ovine colostral whey. Studies were then undertaken in sheep in which the efferent prefemoral lymphatic ducts were cannulated bilaterally, and immune responses in the node were measured following subcutaneous injection in the flank fold of whey protein preparations of various purities. A significant sustained decline of efferent lymphocyte output was observed following injection with autologous crude milk whey or colostral whey preparations, but no changes were observed in interferon-gamma levels in lymph plasma. Two bovine milk whey fractions (lactoperoxidase and lactoferrin) of high purity were compared in bilaterally cannulated sheep. A transient decline over the first 6 h was seen in the efferent lymphocyte output and lymph flow rate after injection of both fractions. A significant difference was seen between the two fractions in interferongamma levels in lymph at 6 h after injection. However, no significant changes in the proportion of the various efferent lymphocyte phenotypes were seen following either treatment. Whereas both fractions showed a significant inhibitory effect in a dose-dependent manner on the proliferative response of T lymphocytes, but not B lymphocytes, to mitogenic stimulation in vitro, no similar changes were seen following in vivo stimulation with these two fractions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luoyu Wang ◽  
Qi Feng ◽  
Mei Wang ◽  
Tingting Zhu ◽  
Enyan Yu ◽  
...  

Background: As a potential brain imaging biomarker, amplitude of low frequency fluc-tuation (ALFF) has been used as a feature to distinguish patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) from normal controls (NC). However, it remains unclear whether the frequency-dependent pattern of ALFF alterations can effectively distinguish the different phases of the disease. Methods: In the present study, 52 AD and 50 aMCI patients were enrolled together with 43 NC in total. The ALFF values were calculated in the following three frequency bands: classical (0.01-0.08 Hz), slow-4 (0.027-0.073 Hz) and slow-5 (0.01-0.027 Hz) for the three different groups. Subsequently, the local functional abnormalities were employed as features to examine the effect of classification among AD, aMCI and NC using a support vector machine (SVM). Results: We found that the among-group differences of ALFF in the different frequency bands were mainly located in the left hippocampus (HP), right HP, bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and bilateral precuneus (PCu), left angular gyrus (AG) and left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). When the local functional abnormalities were employed as features, we identified that the ALFF in the slow-5 frequency band showed the highest accuracy to distinguish among the three groups. Conclusion: These findings may deepen our understanding of the pathogenesis of AD and suggest that slow-5 frequency band may be helpful to explore the pathogenesis and distinguish the phases of this disease.


1981 ◽  
Vol 194 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
E H Mürer ◽  
K Davenport ◽  
E Siojo ◽  
H J Day

The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of human blood platelets to fluoride at different pH. The results were as follows. (1) Fluoride induced secretion faster and at a lower concentration when pH was lowered. (2) Platelets exposed to 2 mM-fluoride at 0 degrees C at pH 5.3 underwent secretion when first pH and then temperature was raised, although no secretion was seen at 2 mM-fluoride concentration in the absence of the preincubation at low pH. (3) The concentration of [14C]ATP in platelets decreased steeply in response to fluoride before induction of secretion. Addition of antimycin blocked or partly inhibited secretion. Fluoride thus exerts an inhibitory effect on platelet glycolysis before induction of secretion. (4) Fluoride accumulated in the platelet pellet by a time course that preceded secretion. The accumulation was faster and greater at pH 6 than at 7.4. These four points are taken as indirect evidence that fluoride has to penetrate to the interior of the platelet to induce secretion. The activation takes place over a wide range of acid pH in contrast with induction of platelet function via the outside of the plasma membrane. In addition evidence is presented that the salvage pathway may under special circumstances play an important role in the re-synthesis of platelet adenine nucleotides.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingfeng Lin ◽  
Qiang Gao ◽  
Kang Xiao ◽  
Danfeng Tian ◽  
Wenyue Hu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is an acute, paralyzing, inflammatory peripheral nerve disease. For treatments of the Guillain-Barre Syndrome, there are many kinds of therapies for this diseases. For comparing all of the therapies, such as immunoglobulin, plasma exchanging, etc. in the treatment of Guillain-Barre Syndrome(GBS) to better inform clinical practice, we use Network meta analysis to get the outcome of the Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The protocol has been submitted to PROSPERO:CRD: 42019119178. Methods Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane library were searched for related articles. We identified citations of these and included 26 trials comprising 2434 patients and control group human beings. Network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed with two kinds of outcomes. We carried on R software with gemtc package and JAGS software to calculate results for different therapies. The consistency of direct and indirect evidence was also assessed by R software. Results Concerning for two outcomes, there were no improvement observed in MTP and Pred compared with placebo. PE and IVIg were illustrated to be effective over Placebo. There was no significant difference between different doses and times of PE and IVIg. On consistency examination between direct and indirect evidences, there were no obvious heterogeneity between all of therapies. Funnel plots indicates the possibility of publication bias in this study are small. Conclusion PE or IVIg had a significant efficency for GBS patients. The effects of some combination treatments should be further explored. Corticosteroids had no significant effects on GBS.


Polymers ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanpong Chaiwarit ◽  
Warintorn Ruksiriwanich ◽  
Kittisak Jantanasakulwong ◽  
Pensak Jantrawut

This study aims to develop orange oil loaded in thin mango peel pectin films and evaluate their antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. The mango peel pectin was obtained from the extraction of ripe Nam Dokmai mango peel by the microwave-assisted method. The thin films were formulated using commercial low methoxy pectin (P) and mango pectin (M) at a ratio of 1:2 with and without glycerol as a plasticizer. Orange oil was loaded into the films at 3% w/w. The orange oil film containing P and M at ratio of 1:2 with 40% w/w of glycerol (P1M2GO) showed the highest percent elongation (12.93 ± 0.89%) and the lowest Young’s modulus values (35.24 ± 3.43 MPa). For limonene loading content, it was found that the amount of limonene after the film drying step was directly related to the final physical structure of the film. Among the various tested films, P1M2GO film had the lowest limonene loading content (59.25 ± 2.09%), which may be because of the presence of numerous micropores in the P1M2GO film’s matrix. The inhibitory effect against the growth of S. aureus was compared in normalized value of clear zone diameter using the normalization value of limonene content in each film. The P1M2GO film showed the highest inhibitory effect against S. aureus with the normalized clear zone of 11.75 mm but no statistically significant difference. This study indicated that the orange oil loaded in mango peel pectin film can be a valuable candidate as antibacterial material for food packaging.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Masataka Wada ◽  
Shinichiro Nakajima ◽  
Ryosuke Tarumi ◽  
Fumi Masuda ◽  
Takahiro Miyazaki ◽  
...  

Background: The neural basis of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) remains unclear. Previous neuroimaging studies suggest that aberrant connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and default mode network (DMN) may play a key role in the pathophysiology of TRS. Thus, we aimed to examine the connectivity between the ACC and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a hub of the DMN, computing isolated effective coherence (iCoh), which represents causal effective connectivity. Methods: Resting-state electroencephalogram with 19 channels was acquired from seventeen patients with TRS and thirty patients with non-TRS (nTRS). The iCoh values between the PCC and ACC were calculated using sLORETA software. We conducted four-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) for iCoh values with group as a between-subject factor and frequency, directionality, and laterality as within-subject factors and post-hoc independent t-tests. Results: The ANOVA and post-hoc t-tests for the iCoh ratio of directionality from PCC to ACC showed significant findings in delta (t45 = 7.659, p = 0.008) and theta (t45 = 8.066, p = 0.007) bands in the left side (TRS < nTRS). Conclusion: Left delta and theta PCC and ACC iCoh ratio may represent a neurophysiological basis of TRS. Given the preliminary nature of this study, these results warrant further study to confirm the importance of iCoh as a clinical indicator for treatment-resistance.


Author(s):  
Marianne Marianne ◽  
Urip Harahap ◽  
Emil Salim ◽  
Dadang Irfan Husori ◽  
Fahrumsyah Jali Rambe ◽  
...  

 Objectives: The objectives of the study were to examine the inhibitory effect of ethanol extract of Eriobotrya japonica leaves (EEEJL) pre-incubated with theophylline and aspirin on isolated guinea pig tracheal chains against acetylcholine (ACh)-induced contraction.Methods: The effect of EEEJL (1-8 mg/Ml) on the isolated tracheal strips was tested in vitro. Furthermore, the mechanism of relaxant effects of EEEJL was evaluated in the presence of theophylline and aspirin.Results: The contractile response evoked by Ach (1.25 × 10−3 M) was decreased by EEEJL (effective concentration50 = 1.36 mg/mL) and has no significant difference of relaxant effect to that of EEEJL pre-incubated with theophylline and aspirin (p>0.05).Conclusion: The EEEJL decreased the ACh-induced contraction through the inhibition of PDE and the protective effect on prostaglandin E2.


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