The effect of mindfulness-based interventions on biomarkers in cancer patients and survivors: A systematic review.

Various reviews and meta-analyses have shown the positive effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on the mental health of cancer patients and survivors. Some studies have also investigated the impact of MBIs on physiological markers of health in oncology, but a systematic review has not been conducted in this field. The current paper aims to fill this gap in the literature. Following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses 2020 guidelines, data were obtained from the databases of Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science in May 2022. Twenty-five studies were included. Globally, 35 biomarkers were employed in these studies and were categorized 8 groups (cortisol; blood pressure (BP), heart rate, and respiratory rate; C-reactive protein; telomere length and telomerase activity (TA); genetic signature; cytokines and hormones; leucocyte activation; leucocyte count and cell subpopulation analysis). In seven of these categories of biomarkers, positive effects of MBIs were observed. The most promising results were obtained for cortisol, BP, TA and pro-inflammatory gene expression. However, the generally low number of studies per single biomarker limits the possibility to draw reliable conclusions. The present review presents a comprehensive state-of-the-art for MBIs in oncology on biomarkers, confirming MBIs' potential for improving physiological health in cancer patients and survivors besides those already shown in literature on psychological well-being.

Neuropsychological Functioning in Bilateral versus Unilateral Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

Although relatively specific anatomo-electro-clinical features of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with bilateral ictal involvement (bitemporal epilepsy-BTLE) have been described, differentiating between BTLE and unilateral TLE (UTLE) remains challenging. Surgery is often the treatment of choice for drug-resistant UTLE, whereas its use is more controversial in BTLE. It is currently unclear whether neuropsychological assessment can contribute to the differential diagnosis. We retrospectively reviewed the neuropsychological evaluation of 46 consecutive patients with refractory TLE. Eighteen patients were diagnosed with BTLE on the basis of ictal electro-clinical data, in particular a video EEG recording of at least one seizure simultaneously involving the two temporal lobes without the possibility of lateralizing its onset or at least two different seizures independently arising from the two temporal lobes. Twenty-eight patients were classified as UTLE. Presurgery evaluation data were used in this study. Compared with UTLE, BTLE was associated with a lower intelligence quotient (IQ) and more severe impairment in long-term memory, the latter remaining significant even after controlling for IQ. No significant differences were found between right and left UTLE. In conclusion, BTLE and UTLE are associated with relatively distinct neuropsychological profiles, further supporting their classification as different disorders within the TLE spectrum.

Cognitive reserve protects language functions in patients with brain tumours.

Cognitive reserve (CR) theory suggests that individual differences in general intelligence (IQ), occupational attainment or participation in leisure/recreational activities protect against cognitive decline. However the relationship between CR and cognitive functioning in patients with brain tumours has been very rarely investigated in past research. The present study systematically assesses whether CR concept can also be applied to cognitive functions of neurosurgical patients affected by brain tumours. We investigated the role of different CR proxies (education level, premorbid IQ, current IQ, working and leisure activity) in protecting language against brain tumours and surgery effects, considering interactions with demographic (sex/age), anatomical (hemisphere/lobe location of lesion) and clinical/biological variables (tumour type: High/Low Grade Glioma or Meningioma; lesion volume; lesion aggressiveness). One-hundred patients undergoing neuropsychological assessment before and immediately after surgery participated. A "Language Score" summarizing performance on all language tests was derived with Principal Component Analysis. Data were then analyzed with Multiple Regression and Classification and Regression Tree analyses to investigate possible relationships between predictors (CR proxies and clinical variables) and Language Score. We found that premorbid IQ was the best predictor of pre-operatory language integrity, above and beyond all clinical variables considered, also moderating lesion volume effects. Moreover, patients with lower pre-operatory language integrity and low-to-moderately aggressive tumours showed a mitigating effect of current IQ over surgery consequences. Results thus suggest that different CR proxies play a role in moderating cognitive decline following brain tumours and surgery.

Toward a characterization of language development in children with congenital heart disease: A pilot study.

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) represent one of the most common types of congenital abnormalities. More than 90% of children with critical heart defects achieve adulthood due to improvements in medical and surgical treatments. Nonetheless, survivors are at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders that may lead also to language impairments. The current study analyzed the linguistic profiles of a group of school-aged children treated surgically for CHD.Fifteen Children with CHDs (7 girls and 8 boys; mean age = 9.31 with SD = 2.10), without intellectual disability (i.e., IQ>70), who underwent cardiac surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), were administered a selection of tests from the language assessment tool BVL 4-12. Their performance was compared with that of 15 healthy children matched for age and gender. As a result, children with CHDs scored significantly lower than healthy peers on tasks tapping lexical and grammatical processing as well as the episodic buffer component of working memory. Interestingly, the two groups did not differ on tasks assessing their lexical repertoire and phonological discrimination abilities. These findings are discussed in light of current theories of cognitive development and functioning.

Neuropsychological Impairment in Children With Class 1 Congenital Heart Disease.

Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at increased risk of neuropsychological impairments, but few studies are available on the nonlinguistic neuropsychological abilities of children with CHD. We conducted neuropsychological evaluations using the NEPSY II on a cohort of 17 school-age Italian children with diagnoses of Class 1 CHD, no genetic or chromosomal abnormalities, and normal intelligence scores, and we compared them with 34 matched controls. Children with CHD in this study had undergone at least one cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass support. We found that children with CHD scored significantly lower than their matched controls on memory and learning domain tasks, and they displayed subtle attention/executive dysfunctions and deficits in sensorimotor skills.

Listening to the Shepard-Risset Glissando: the Relationship between Emotional Response, Disruption of Equilibrium, and Personality.

The endless scale illusion, obtained by cyclically repeating a chromatic scale made up of Shepard tones, has been used in a variety of musical works. Music psychology and neuroscience has been interested in this particular psychoacoustic phenomenon mainly for studying the cognitive processes of pitch perception involved. In the present study, we investigated the emotional states induced by the Shepard-Risset glissando, a variant of the Shepard scale. For this purpose we chose three musical stimuli: a Matlab-generated Shepard Risset glissando, Jean-Claude Risset's Computer Suite from Little Boy, which presents a Shepard-Risset glissando integrated in the aesthetic context of a composition, and an ordinary orchestral glissando taken from the opening of Iannis Xenakis's Metastasis. Seventy-three volunteers completed a listening experiment during which they rated their emotional response to these stimuli on a seven-point Likert scale and indicated whether they had experienced a disruption of equilibrium. Personality was also measured with the Five-Factor Model of personality traits. The results show that negative emotions were most strongly evoked during listening to each of the stimuli. We also found that the Shepard-Risset glissando illusion, both within the aesthetic context of a musical composition and on its own, was capable of evoking disruption of equilibrium, frequently leading to the associated feeling of falling. Moreover, generally for the Shepard-Risset glissando illusion, higher negative emotional ratings were given by individuals who had experienced a feeling of disturbance of equilibrium relative to those who had not had this experience. Finally, we found a complex pattern of relationships between personality and the subjective experience of the glissando. Openness to experience correlated positively with positive emotion ratings for the Computer Suite, while agreeableness correlated negatively with positive emotion ratings for the Matlab stimulus. Moreover, results indicated higher (Bonferroni-uncorrected) neuroticism for those who experienced an equilibrium disturbance relative to subjects who did not have this experience during listening to the Computer Suite. These findings suggest that musical paradoxes may be of interest not only for the insights they provide on our perceptual system, but also for the richness of the emotional experience elicited during listening.

Refractory semantic access dysphasia resulting from resection of a left frontal glioma.

The existence of semantic access disorders is now well established, however the precise cognitive and anatomical underpinnings are still debated. Here we describe the case of a patient that became aphasic after the resection of a left frontal glioma. Detailed lesion reconstruction indicates that the lesion was mostly restricted to the left dorsal and ventral prefrontal cortices and the underlying white matter, but sparing temporal lobes. Critically, the patient showed all the signs of refractory semantic access dysphasia, supporting the association between this syndrome and damage to left prefrontal areas likely to subserve retrieval and selection mechanisms for verbal material.