New horizons for the study of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) and its active ingredients in the management of neurological and psychiatric disorders: A systematic review of clinical evidence and mechanisms.

Saffron (Crocus sativus), as an herbal medicine, has been extensively investigated for treating neurological and psychiatric disorders. This systematic review aimed to assess the overall effects of saffron on cognition, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified by searching PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, and Clinical Trials databases up to June 2023 according to search terms and inclusion criteria. The participants were either healthy or suffering from some diseases, including neurological and psychiatric disorders, and consumed saffron or its extracts as an intervention. The risk of bias was assessed according to the Cochrane guidelines, and the PRISMA statement was followed. The meta-analysis was performed using RevMan and STATA software. A random-effects or fixed-effects model was used to calculate the pooled effect sizes. Forty-six RCTs were enrolled, and the duration of these trials ranged from 4 to 48 weeks with saffron or its extracts, both alone or in combination with conventional drugs. Saffron was more effective than placebo in improving cognition, depression with an overall effect size of -4.26 (95% CI: -5.76, -2.77), anxiety of -3.75 (95% CI: -5.83, -1.67), and sleep disorders of -1.91 (95% CI: -2.88, -0.93). Saffron was non-inferior to conventional drugs for treating cognitive disorders, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and OCD, and it exhibited good tolerance with few side effects. Saffron may exert protective roles for neurological and psychiatric disorders and represents a relatively favorable and safe treatment.

The neural representations underlying asymmetric cross-modal prediction of words.

Cross-modal prediction serves a crucial adaptive role in the multisensory world, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this prediction are poorly understood. The present study addressed this important question by combining a novel audiovisual sequence memory task, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and multivariate neural representational analyses. Our behavioral results revealed a reliable asymmetric cross-modal predictive effect, with a stronger prediction from visual to auditory (VA) modality than auditory to visual (AV) modality. Mirroring the behavioral pattern, we found the superior parietal lobe (SPL) showed higher pattern similarity for VA than AV pairs, and the strength of the predictive coding in the SPL was positively correlated with the behavioral predictive effect in the VA condition. Representational connectivity analyses further revealed that the SPL mediated the neural pathway from the visual to the auditory cortex in the VA condition but was not involved in the auditory to visual cortex pathway in the AV condition. Direct neural pathways within the unimodal regions were found for the visual-to-visual and auditory-to-auditory predictions. Together, these results provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying cross-modal sequence prediction.

Observation on the clinical effect of thunder-fire moxibustion combined with acupressure on ocular muscle spasm: A clinical randomized controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: With the rapid development of social economy, peoples dependence on computers and mobile phones is increasing day by day. This causes people to often overuse. Therefore, the incidence of Ocular muscle spasm has been increasing year by year in recent years. The disease usually starts and hides, which seriously affects the patients social image, daily life, and work. METHODS/DESIGN: We will compare the clinical efficacy of thunder-fire moxibustion combined with acupressure with pure thunder-fire moxibustion on Ocular muscle spasm using random control method. DISCUSSION: We aim to find a simple, safe, simple and effective Chinese medicine nursing technology that relieves Ocular muscle spasm. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov,ChiCTR2000034187, Registered on 27 June 2020.