The Cuban Human Brain Mapping Project, a young and middle age population-based EEG, MRI, and cognition dataset.

The Cuban Human Brain Mapping Project (CHBMP) repository is an open multimodal neuroimaging and cognitive dataset from 282 young and middle age healthy participants (31.9 ± 9.3 years, age range 18-68 years). This dataset was acquired from 2004 to 2008 as a subset of a larger stratified random sample of 2,019 participants from La Lisa municipality in La Habana, Cuba. The exclusion criteria included the presence of disease or brain dysfunctions. Participant data that is being shared comprises i) high-density (64-120 channels) resting-state electroencephalograms (EEG), ii) magnetic resonance images (MRI), iii) psychological tests (MMSE, WAIS-III, computerized go-no go reaction time), as well as iv,) demographic information (age, gender, education, ethnicity, handedness, and weight). The EEG data contains recordings with at least 30 minutes in duration including the following conditions: eyes closed, eyes open, hyperventilation, and subsequent recovery. The MRI consists of anatomical T1 as well as diffusion-weighted (DWI) images acquired on a 1.5 Tesla system. The dataset presented here is hosted by Synapse.org and available at https://chbmp-open.loris.ca .

Seeking Biomarkers of Early Childhood Malnutrition's Long-term Effects.

Protein-energy malnutrition affects one in nine people worldwide and is most prevalent among children aged less than five years in low-income countries. Early childhood malnutrition can have damaging neurodevelopmental effects, with significant increases in cognitive, neurological and mental health problems over the lifespan, outcomes which can also extend to the next generation. This article describes a research collaboration involving scientists from five centers in Barbados, China, Cuba and the USA. It builds on longer-term joint work between the Barbados Nutrition Study (which, over a 45-year span, has extensively documented nutritional, health, behavioral, social and economic outcomes of individuals who experienced protein-energy malnutrition in the first year of life and healthy controls from the same classrooms and neighborhoods) and the Cuban Neuroscience Center (which has developed low-cost brain imaging methods that can be readily used in low income settings to identify biomarkers for early detection and treatment of adverse consequences of childhood malnutrition). This collaboration, which involved Barbadian, Cuban and US scientists began in the 1970s, when quantitative EEG techniques were applied to EEG data collected in 1977-78, at which time study participants were aged 5-11 years. These EEG records were never fully analyzed but were stored in New York and made available to this project in 2016. These data have now been processed and analyzed, comparing EEG findings in previously malnourished and control children, and have led to the identification of early biomarkers of long-term effects of early childhood protein-energy malnutrition. The next stage of the project will involve extending earlier work by collecting EEG recordings in the same individuals at ages 45-51 years, 40 years later, and comparing findings to earlier data and to these individuals' behavioral and cognitive outcomes. Quantitative EEG biomarkers of the effects of protein-energy malnutrition may help identify children at greatest risk for early malnutrition's adverse neurodevelopmental effects and inform development of targeted interventions to mitigate the long-term adverse effects of protein-energy malnutrition in developing countries. KEYWORDS Protein-energy malnutrition, electroencephalography, EEG, biomarkers, neurosciences, Barbados, Cuba, USA.

Stable Sparse Classifiers Identify qEEG Signatures that Predict Learning Disabilities (NOS) Severity.

In this paper, we present a novel methodology to solve the classification problem, based on sparse (data-driven) regressions, combined with techniques for ensuring stability, especially useful for high-dimensional datasets and small samples number. The sensitivity and specificity of the classifiers are assessed by a stable ROC procedure, which uses a non-parametric algorithm for estimating the area under the ROC curve. This method allows assessing the performance of the classification by the ROC technique, when more than two groups are involved in the classification problem, i.e., when the gold standard is not binary. We apply this methodology to the EEG spectral signatures to find biomarkers that allow discriminating between (and predicting pertinence to) different subgroups of children diagnosed as Not Otherwise Specified Learning Disabilities (LD-NOS) disorder. Children with LD-NOS have notable learning difficulties, which affect education but are not able to be put into some specific category as reading (Dyslexia), Mathematics (Dyscalculia), or Writing (Dysgraphia). By using the EEG spectra, we aim to identify EEG patterns that may be related to specific learning disabilities in an individual case. This could be useful to develop subject-based methods of therapy, based on information provided by the EEG. Here we study 85 LD-NOS children, divided in three subgroups previously selected by a clustering technique over the scores of cognitive tests. The classification equation produced stable marginal areas under the ROC of 0.71 for discrimination between Group 1 vs. Group 2; 0.91 for Group 1 vs. Group 3; and 0.75 for Group 2 vs. Group1. A discussion of the EEG characteristics of each group related to the cognitive scores is also presented.

Multimodal quantitative neuroimaging databases and methods: the Cuban Human Brain Mapping Project.

This article reviews the contributions of the Cuban Neuroscience Center to the evolution of the statistical parametric mapping (SPM) of quantitative Multimodal Neuroimages (qMN), from its inception to more recent work. Attention is limited to methods that compare individual qMN to normative databases (n/qMN). This evolution is described in three successive stages: (a) the development of one variant of normative topographical quantitative EEG (n/qEEG-top) which carries out statistical comparison of individual EEG spectral topographies with regard to a normative database--as part of the now popular SPM of brain descriptive parameters; (b) the development of n/qEEG tomography (n/qEEG-TOM), which employs brain electrical tomography (BET) to calculate voxelwise SPM maps of source spectral features with respect to a norm; (c) the development of a more general n/qMN by substituting EEG parameters with other neuroimaging descriptive parameters to obtain SPM maps. The study also describes the creation of Cuban normative databases, starting with the Cuban EEG database obtained in the early 90s, and more recently, the Cuban Human Brain Mapping Project (CHBMP). This project has created a 240 subject database of the normal Cuban population, obtained from a population-based random sample, comprising clinical, neuropsychological, EEG, MRI and SPECT data for the same subjects. Examples of clinical studies using qMN are given and, more importantly, receiver operator characteristics (ROC) analyses of the different developments document a sustained effort to assess the clinical usefulness of the techniques.

Autologous bone marrow stem cell neurotransplantation in stroke patients. An open study.

PURPOSE: Bone marrow stem cells (BMSC) were transplanted into the perilesional area in five patients bearing sequels of stroke, to evaluate the safety of the procedure and tolerance to the transplanted cells. METHODS: Cells were obtained from bone marrow samples taken from the same patient and stereotactically implanted into the targets, determined using a combination of images, and trans-operative recording of multiunit activity. The cells were implanted in several points along tracts in the perilesional region. RESULTS: No important adverse events derived from surgery or transplant were observed during the one year follow-up period, or detected using a combination of tests and functional measurements applied pre- and post-surgically. In contrast, some improvements were observed regarding the neurological condition of the patients, but the small number of patients in the study does not allow any conclusive statement. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that BMSC can be safely transplanted into the brain of patients, with excellent tolerance and without complications, using the methods described here.

Valoración diagnóstica del trastorno Obsesivo-compulsivo / Diagnostic assessment in compulsive obsesive disorder

El Trastorno Obsesivo Complusico constituye un trastorno de ansiedad crònico que generalmente comineza en la adolescencia y tiene un curso oscilante a lo largo de la vida del paciente. Quienes lo padecen se ven atrapados en un esquema de conductas y pensamientos repetitivos que carecen de sentido, y le son angustiantes y muy difìciles de dominar. El trastorno obsesivo-complusivo provoca una alteración en la vida de las personas, en su conportamiento social y laboral. Los especialistas investigan para encontrar mejores vías de tratamiento(AU)

Valoración diagnóstica del trastorno Obsesivo-compulsivo / Diagnostic assessment in compulsive obsesive disorder

El Trastorno Obsesivo Complusico constituye un trastorno de ansiedad crònico que generalmente comineza en la adolescencia y tiene un curso oscilante a lo largo de la vida del paciente. Quienes lo padecen se ven atrapados en un esquema de conductas y pensamientos repetitivos que carecen de sentido, y le son angustiantes y muy difìciles de dominar. El trastorno obsesivo-complusivo provoca una alteración en la vida de las personas, en su conportamiento social y laboral. Los especialistas investigan para encontrar mejores vías de tratamiento

Particularidades de la evaluación neuropsicológica y de diagnóstico de las demencias / Peculiarities of the neuropsychological assessment and of the dignosis of dementia

Los métodos diagnósticos existentes fueron diseñados para pesquisaje epidemiológicos y adolecen del defecto de no considerar el nivel cultural, los mecanismos por los que se establece el defecto y otros factores relacionados con la dinámica cerebral y la individualidad del paciente. Para trales propósitos organizamos una batería neuropsicológica para el diagnóstico de las demencias, que se aproxima más al objetivo por el que había sido creada, apoyándonos en grupos de expertos y adaptándolos a nuestras necesidades y realidades(AU)

Evaluación de las demencia: experiencias del CIREN / Assessment of dementias: experiences from CIREN

Los métodos diagnósticos existentes fueron diseñados para pesquisaje epidemiológico y adolecen del defecto de no considerar el nivel cultural, los mecanismos por los que se establece el defecto y otros factores relacionados con la dinámica cerebral y la individualidad del paciente. Para tales propósitos organizamos una batería Neuropsicológica para el diagnóstico de las Demencias, que se aproximara más al objetivo por el que había sido creada, apoyándonos en grupos de expertos y adaptándolas a nuestras necesidades y realidad(AU)