High definition transcranial direct current stimulation of the Cz improves social dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorder: A randomized, sham, controlled study.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the Cz of high-definition 5-channel tDCS (HD-tDCS) on social function in 4-12 years-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study was a randomized, double-blind, pseudo-controlled trial in which 45 ASD children were recruited and divided into three groups with sex, age, and rehabilitation treatment as control variables. Each group of 15 children with ASD was randomly administered active HD-tDCS with the Cz as the central anode, active HD-tDCS with the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (F3) as the central anode, and sham HD-tDCS with the Cz as the central anode with 14 daily sessions in 3 weeks. The Social Responsiveness Scale Chinese Version (SRS-Chinese Version) was compared 1 week after stimulation with values recorded 1 week prior to stimulation. At the end of treatment, both the anodal Cz and anodal left DLFPC tDCS decreased the measures of SRS-Chinese Version. The total score of SRS-Chinese Version decreased by 13.08%, social cognition decreased by 18.33%, and social communication decreased by 10.79%, which were significantly improved over the Cz central anode active stimulation group, especially in children with young age, and middle and low function. There was no significant change in the total score and subscale score of SRS-Chinese Version over the Cz central anode sham stimulation group. In the F3 central anode active stimulation group, the total score of SRS-Chinese Version decreased by 13%, autistic behavior decreased by 19.39%, and social communication decreased by 14.39%, which were all significantly improved. However, there was no significant difference in effect between the Cz and left DLPFC stimulation conditions. HD-tDCS of the Cz central anode may be an effective treatment for social dysfunction in children with ASD.

Social Brain Network of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Characterization of Functional Connectivity and Potential Association with Stereotyped Behavior.

Objective: To identify patterns of social dysfunction in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), study the potential linkage between social brain networks and stereotyped behavior, and further explore potential targets of non-invasive nerve stimulation to improve social disorders. Methods: Voxel-wise and ROI-wise analysis methods were adopted to explore abnormalities in the functional activity of social-related regions of the brain. Then, we analyzed the relationships between clinical variables and the statistical indicators of social-related brain regions. Results: Compared with the typically developing group, the functional connectivity strength of social-related brain regions with the precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, supplementary motor area, paracentral lobule, median cingulum, and paracingulum gyri was significantly weakened in the ASD group (all p < 0. 01). The functional connectivity was negatively correlated with communication, social interaction, communication + social interaction, and the total score of the ADOS scale (r = -0.38, -0.39, -0.40, and -0.3, respectively; all p < 0.01), with social awareness, social cognition, social communication, social motivation, autistic mannerisms, and the total score of the SRS scale (r = -0.32, -0.32, -0.40, -0.30, -0.28, and -0.27, respectively; all p < 0.01), and with the total score of SCQ (r = -0.27, p < 0.01). In addition, significant intergroup differences in clustering coefficients and betweenness centrality were seen across multiple brain regions in the ASD group. Conclusions: The functional connectivity between social-related brain regions and many other brain regions was significantly weakened compared to the typically developing group, and it was negatively correlated with social disorders. Social network dysfunction seems to be related to stereotyped behavior. Therefore, these social-related brain regions may be taken as potential stimulation targets of non-invasive nerve stimulation to improve social dysfunction in children with ASD in the future.

Illumination Variation-Resistant Video-Based Heart Rate Measurement Using Joint Blind Source Separation and Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition.

Recent studies have demonstrated that heart rate (HR) could be estimated using video data [e.g., exploring human facial regions of interest (ROIs)] under well-controlled conditions. However, in practice, the pulse signals may be contaminated by motions and illumination variations. In this paper, tackling the illumination variation challenge, we propose an illumination-robust framework using joint blind source separation (JBSS) and ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) to effectively evaluate HR from webcam videos. The framework takes the hypotheses that both facial ROI and background ROI have similar illumination variations. The background ROI is then considered as a noise reference sensor to denoise the facial signals by using the JBSS technique to extract the underlying illumination variation sources. Further, the reconstructed illumination-resisted green channel of the facial ROI is detrended and decomposed into a number of intrinsic mode functions using EEMD to estimate the HR. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed framework could estimate HR more accurately than the state-of-the-art methods. The Bland-Altman plots showed that it led to better agreement with HR ground truth with the mean bias 1.15 beats/min (bpm), with 95% limits from -15.43 to 17.73 bpm, and the correlation coefficient 0.53. This study provides a promising solution for realistic noncontact and robust HR measurement applications.

Involvement of glutathione in ß-cyclodextrin-hemin complex-induced lateral root formation in tomato seedlings.

ß-cyclodextrin-hemin complex (ß-CDH) was shown to induce lateral root (LR) formation in tomato. However, the molecular mechanism is still elusive. In this report, the role of reduced glutathione (GSH) in the induction of lateral root triggered by ß-CDH was investigated. Similar to the responses of ß-CDH, exogenously applied with 0.1 mΜ GSH not only increased endogenous GSH content determined by spectrophotography and the monochlorobimane (MCB)-dependent fluorescent analysis, but also induced, thereafter, LR formation. Meanwhile, both ß-CDH- and GSH-induced lateral root primordia (LRP) exhibited a similar accelerated anatomic structure. Above inducible responses were blocked significantly when the L-buthionine-(S,R)-sulfoximine (BSO), a potent and specific inhibitor of the enzyme catalyzing the first step of GSH biosynthesis, was separately applied. Upon ß-CDH treatment, the changes of endogenous GSH content determined by spectrophotography and fluorescent analysis were consistent with the transcripts of two GSH synthetic genes, GSH1 and GSH2 encoding γ-glutamyl cysteine synthetase and glutathione synthetase, respectively. Exogenously applied with ß-CDH could rescue N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA; IAA depletion)-triggered inhibition of LR formation. Further molecular evidence revealed that both ß-CDH and GSH modulated gene expression of cell cycle regulatory genes (CYCA2;1, CYCA3;1, CYCD3;1, and CDKA1) and auxin signaling genes (ARF7 and RSI-1), six marker genes responsible for LR formation. By contrast, above changes were sensitive to the co-treatment with BSO. All together, these results suggest a role for GSH in the regulation of tomato LR development triggered by ß-CDH.